Halo Infinite believed it was taking a big swing with an open-world design on the Halo ring and, while that approach could still be fleshed out and made profound in a sequel, there are many directions the franchise could head in or reliable routes it could fall back on and inexplicably hasnt. Drifting further from why Halo was actually praised as an IP back when it was developed by Bungie, there hasnt been a unique stamp that 343 has put on it thats been received as well as the original games. The worry is that Halo as a franchise may be creatively bankrupt, but the validity of that can only be determined by what direction future games take.