As I was writing the body of the post, that’s pretty much the conclusion I came to.
There’s not much more I could say with my limited knowledge on philosophy and psychology without spreading misinformation or something.

You’re welcome, though keep up your post chain with the two remaining good ones first ;^;

I wouldn’t know, actually. Halo 4 is the last game whose campaign I played - since H4 is in the MCC, H5 is not on PC, and H:I costs too much for my opinion of it.

Halo 5 is infamously more book-dependent than Halo 4, and …

… , so IF you want to skip Halo 5, worst case, you may be missing how you ended up where H:I begins.
There may be a reference to a certain Spartan Locke here or there, idr.

I don’t want to spoil your fun, so I’d say you should run through H5 if you’re planning to play Infinite and if (unlike me) you wouldn’t have to buy an Xbox to do so.

To answer your first question: I can’t say too much about a game that I only vaguely remember from watching a playthrough on YT, but from what I do remember, H:I is somewhat more self-contained.

Would’ve bet my money on that exact outcome *^*

The fact that you didn’t really understand the plot is not your fault: 343I Halo games until H:I have an obsession on requiring you to read books to straighten up the story.

If you have questions such as:

1. Why are the covvies the baddies again?
2. What does the Halsey cutscene have to do with anything?
3. Who the hell is the Didact?
4. Why the hell is the Didact doing things?
5. Who the hell is the Librarian?
6. Spartans on the Infinity? Wasn’t 117 the last Spartan or something?
7. Was that ending a QTE?

… it’s because none of those questions are answered within the main plot of H4.
Some answers (3,4,5) you can find in books, some (1,2,6) in Spartan Ops (I never even played those), some (7) here on Lemmy - yes that was absolutely a QTE for a final boss in a Halo game.

If it’s any consolation for Cortana’s death being undone later offscreen, SPOILER AHEAD, her death’s undoing is also undone later offscreen.

…

… on second thought, I lied a bit. Halo 4’s main story does answer the first question in the list above, and the answer is “A lot can change in 4 years”.

I definitely want a follow-up with your opinion of the ending, since you aren’t there yet

I don’t recall, I’ve never really liked it so I’ve completed it twice in my life and only once on Legendary. I remember some youtuber saying ammo is particularly scarce, though I think it’s on par with Halo 3? Perhaps slightly more difficult, like Reach.

There are speedrunners that manage to finish H2 in a few hours, when I say it took a day for us I mean we woke up playing Halo, paused for lunch, and stopped playing after dinner.
What’s impressive is that last year our brains didn’t melt like they did the years prior *^*

Don’t you worry, after H2, H3 becomes a breeze, H:R may be more of a challenge but without H2’s bullshit. Mostly. I wonder if I’ll ever manage to try and LASO some game at some point…

I can’t say I’m too surprised. My country isn’t devoid of shitty politicians only interested in leeching wealth either, nor in dumbass voters, but as far as I can tell US policy is exclusively moved by bribes from rich people.

I can’t tell what the many groups of voters were thinking since I don’t live there and I only see what makes its way to the Internet, but is it really that surprising that a perfect puppet ends up in the perfect place for a puppet to be, with a puppet master behind him?

Hey, if it makes you feel better, it gets easier with time.

My cousin and I have the tradition of running the entire Bungie-era Halos every summer, after three years we somehow got to the point where we can beat H2 in a single day.

You’ve just got to learn the cheese strats, like the ones you mentioned or skipping the Sniper Alley™ by going OOB at the beginning of the mission.

Probably played Halo 2 on legendary and bringing back the traumatic memories upsets them, I can’t even blame them if that’s the case