The developers of Halo 4 say that they are trying to bring back the sense of mystery in the universe that was first established with the first Halo.

When played went through the first game, there was a sense of mystery as to what the whole universe was about and how the Master Chief's role fit into everything else. It's a feeling, said 343's Scott Warner, that the team would like to bring back into the game. The developer shared his thoughts in a recent interview with The Independent.

When asked whether there were intentions for the developers to create a "darker, more mature" storyline in Halo 4, Scott Warner responded:

"There are certainly those threads," he said. "I would say that, I mean in addition to trying to make a, I wouldn’t say darker, but rather more mature story, and just kind of thought through story, we have definitely tried to develop character in a way that we felt like could be improved upon, and so we wanted to try and really emphasise the character of the Master Chief and the character of Cortana and really try and play upon those characters and make them people that the players cared about.

"But also what we really wanted to do was build a sense of mystery back into Halo, because there are really great creative decisions to try and make gritty realism in Halo, to explore some backstories, and one thing that we thought that was really fascinating to us, really interesting to us, is always the sense of mystery.

"The first time you showed up to the Halo ring you’re not quite sure what it is, why it’s been built, who’s there, what’s there, and we really wanted that back in the series, and so a large part of our creative emphasis has been trying to play upon that desire to want to have some sense of mystery in the game."

While the rest of the interview touches upon the very basics of Halo 4—intended for an audience unfamiliar to either videogames or even the Halo series—there is mention of Halo 5 and what it may have to offer. Asked whether the the team at 343 would have full independence over the project, Warner responded:

"I mean certainly as things develop, we have the advantage of working for a publisher and first party development, and if things happen we would certainly want to take advantage of those things. There’s always kind of a careful balancing act between what you decide to improve upon, what you have that you think is really good, what’s the great mixture of that to put you in the best position to be successful as a team. But certainly as things go on in development we have an advantage in the sense that we can cross those streams a bit."