The interiors of the forerunner and covenant architecture are more of an industrial and machine-based design (the doors and gates used in Halo), and for me personally (), they look much like the design of the rescue/evacuation Arc ship (submarine) from the movie 2012 (use of steel, industrial mechanisms).
Then they went on to say that while people may have thought they wanted another HALO, what they really wanted was something new, and that's the methodology they applied to HALO 4, removing the ambiguity of the forerunners and telling a completely new story. To do this, they had to settle on a specific forerunner design that they felt worked with their new plot, and that's exactly what they did. Forerunner technology is no longer worn, ancient, and derelict; it's alive, and futuristic objects big and small now defy gravity. Where forerunner structures once had a sense of endurance, they now feel more organic, morphing so they can be used for different purposes. We see this in the weapons, morphing seemingly to fit the user, in this case, humans. This differs from what we've come to expect with, for instance, the Sentinel beams, which appeared as though you'd just ripped them from their eyes.
Forerunner weapons can adapt themselves depending on their use; however, these changes created a discrepancy between the forerunners. We knew the Halo rings and the forerunners on Requiem looked and felt different, so the question is, are the forerunner designs from the original games no longer canon? In other words, in future HALO games, will the designs of the HALO rings resemble what we've seen before? Well, the anniversary editions of Halo Combat Evolved and Halo 2 are good examples of what we could expect, as they effectively retcon the forerunner designs. I feel HALO 2's anniversary, as it was developed after HALO 4, is the closest we've seen to a foreign design by Canon, and so it's useful to compare the designs from the original HALO 2 and its anniversary edition, and they built this exact function. In my opinion, it seems as though HALO 2's anniversary marries the aged, derelict architecture from HALO 2 and 3 with HALO 4's clean, futuristic setting
We can see this in the textures; for instance, along the exterior of Delta HALO’s control room as well as near the library's entrance, they appear worn yet futuristic, and compared to HALO 4, the glowing lights have been toned down. So, while changes have been made to bring Halo 2 closer to Halo 4, there remains a discrepancy in styling. As we've seen, the anniversary edition, which can be considered a Canon, is still more toned down than Halo 4.
Continuity is important for immersion into a franchise's universe!
We already know that 343 industries have decided to move the forerunners away from brutalism, yet HALO 2's anniversary remains different from HALO 4 and 5. Hospice's blog developed a great lore theory as to why there are differences, and it all comes down to the forerunners' rates, in other words, their castes. Requiem was built by the warrior servant rate, and at a time of relative prosperity, this is reflected in their architecture. On the other hand, the final HALO array was constructed by the builders near the end of the forerunner's existence as such. Their designs reflect this. The architecture of the Halos ring derives from brutalism simply because they are the last resort, and the super weapons were built in a hurry. In this case, it makes sense for the architecture to differ because the installations were both built at different times by different forerunners. It would be like comparing the castle in Edinburgh to the Empire State Building in New York; both were built by humans but by different humans at different times and for different purposes. The forerunners of the ruins we see on Installation 0/5 were preserved in the anniversary edition of the game.
These structures were considered prehistoric even for the forerunners, so this means that we've already seen different eras of forerunner architecture in Halo 2. We also see some resemblance in the design of the Sentinel beam. The HALO 5 Sentinel beam looks closer to the new forerunner design, but 343 Industries have given it a new name: the safeguard Sentinel beam, so rather than retconning the design of the original Sentinel beam, they've allowed it to remain in Canon. So, this is a fantastic theory, but it only holds up so long as 343 Industries believes the same and applies it to their games. In Halo 5, the seed world Genesis was constructed by the builders, and yet it looked very different from the HALO arrays; additionally, the lesser arc and Halo Wars 2 looked vastly different from how they were depicted in Halo 3, despite being in the same location.
From this, it is kind of murky which one is canon, but maybe this will all change in Halo Infinite. In the announcement trailer, we sold the beam emitters. At first glance, they do look like what we've seen before in Halo 4, but if you compare them directly, you'll notice the shape and the lack of glowing lights are probably closer to what we saw in Halo 2. But the most striking revelations are near the end of the latest Halo Infinite trailer. We now have a glimpse of what can be assumed to be Halos' control room. If you look closely, it starts to look fairly familiar. It's certainly not similar to the original HALO, but interestingly, it's also not that similar to the HALO CE anniversary, which seemed to go in a completely different direction. I would say Halo Infinite's control room mostly resembles a mix of what we saw in Halo 3 and Halo 2 Anniversary. Don't forget what I said earlier: Halo 3 is an evolution of what we saw in Halo CE and Halo 2, while Halo 2 Anniversary blends this with what we saw in Halo 4. I also especially like how they've made it all look clean. It made sense for the ring in Halo 2 to look worn and dirty because of how old it was, but I always thought it was odd that the ring in Halo 3 looked old yet was in the process of being built in Halo Infinite. We see that traditional design language, but this time it looks new. Perhaps this is 343 Industries hinting that the original HALO designs were baked into the lore, or at the very least, 343 has refined what they believe to be the best design language for foreigners.
Of course, in the forerunner designs, Bungie gave us Halo and forever baked their vision of the forerunners into nostalgia. 343 carried the torch, and without them, we would never have seen another Halo game. They both had different visions of the forerunners, but it seems as though 343 is beginning to merge their ideas; perhaps the two interpretations will coexist. I think this would be the most diplomatic solution.
However, on Earth, we see different generations of designs, both good and bad. Either way, I hope that whatever changes are made, the HALO fan bases are brought closer together; after all, we're all in this for the love of the HALO franchise.
If you're a fan of the Microsoft Halo game and know any stories about it, let me know by commenting down below.
To know more about the Ark Ship from the movie https://2012movie.fandom.com/wiki/Ark
Recap ( Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 )
Courtesy for Photos and Story References:
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