I don't think it was a step in the wrong direction by leaving Master Chief's story behind for a few years, in fact I think it was the best one in that we were able to explore other facets of the halo universe and other characters whilst giving us a break from the chief. This only builds up anticipation and excitement for his return, I'm far more interested in were his story goes now then I would have been had it continued last year with Halo 4 instead of Halo Reach. Nonetheless I appreciate where he is coming from, Master chief is the iconic symbol of halo: the mascot, and whilst gameplay wise it might not make much of a difference he is his own character in a way mute 'Rookie' from ODST and boring 'Noble 6' from Reach really aren't. There more like shells for the player to inhibit, and not all that interesting ones like Gordon Freeman, whose character is created via not only his actions but other characters reactions to him. The Chief straddles that line (at the moment anyway) and creates a personality for himself without revealing too much 'character' letting the player feel like they are master chief as it were.
Reach certainly has the most solid campaign gameplay wise, with no dud levels or stale moments that I can think of. But as I care less about the characters the dramatic effect of the events is diminished basically meaning the story, whilst solid and straight-forward, isn't nearly as interesting as the story of the halo's with characters like the Chief, Cortana and the Arbiter who have a few layers and aren't just three-dimensional cliches (Noble Team, I'm looking at you, Sargent Johnson, you are excused because you're the damned awesome comic relief). ODST was actually fairly good with Buck and Dare but the others less so. In fact the Arbiter is the most complex and interesting character in Halo and it's a shame they didn't really continue his story with Halo 3, the whole mantra that arose after Halo 2 that "people wanna play the chief" was only a result of the Arbiter's levels being slightly less good than Master chiefs in Halo 2, not because his character and his story wasn't as good. In fact I'd love to see a Halo game at some point in the future that deals directly with the covenant's side of the war, mix things up a little. For now though I am content with the mysteries presented in this new trilogy and it seems the Chief's tale is likely to go on for three more games at least. How ballsy would it be if they killed off at the end, or even mid-way through? Of course, they wouldn't do the latter, who could fill his shoes for the last game?
