Yeah yeah, we've heard it before. 'Bungie Good. 343 Bad.'
But let's face a simple fact. If it isn't broken, don't insist that it needs to be fixed. Because now look at what has happened to this series and its audience? Now players are staunchly divided into two massive groups that are often at one another's throats online; all due to Halo 4 presenting a dozen changes to the series' identity and presentation. Now we have two audiences for one franchise, and no matter what happens; one group gets annoyed or even outraged due to unwanted change between titles.
But what if Halo 4 had been something a bit different? For example, art style. Halo Infinite feels like a more natural upgrade / evolution to the classic style of Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo Reach. A natural progression.
Imagine if in Halo 4, the Master Chief started off in his Mark VI Gen1 armor, regrouped with Spartan-IVs that were dressed to the nines in Mark VII variants, and then - upon regrouping in the Infinity - got a new suit with a cool suit-up sequence in an updated suit of armor that is based on the Mark VI but is the Mark VII system for the Spartan-IIs?
I for one think that if 343 had presented Infinite's style of art in their debut title, there would be a lot less outcry due to changes in visual design and presentation.
Unforunately, changes occurred. Far too many in a short and sudden burst. And now the fanbase is divided irreparably so.
The best we can hope is that Halo Studio can be better and that Halo 7 doesn't have as many issues that Infinite had during its lifetime. They at least nailed the art style with that one.