Reading that description again and thinking about Halo 4, I feel very much like the 343 era of Halo is definitely embracing a lot more of the space opera inspired elements that the Bungie era planted the seeds for. The Bungie games (and Wars) definitely had a sense of mysticism at the core of the games, but on the surface the first ten years of Halo were very much a war story. The only real exception to that, I'd say, was Combat Evolved, where the war was essentially just a reason to get you on Installation 04. Halo 4, and now Halo 5, seem to be fully embracing and developing those more science-fantasy and mythological elements of the series (the Forerunners, primarily, and hopefully some more Precursor and Flood stuff down the line). And it all feels like a very natural progression as the universe continues to grow and expand.
Damn it, now I want to play all of these games again.
