people complaining about halo 4 being too different must've been playing a different game from what i did
The problem with Halo 4 is that what the players were expecting was more of the same with minor, positive changes, but 343 want to try and bring in an even bigger audience and also make their own "style" so that people wouldn't remember them as a bad Bungie knock-off.
These changes actually came to the detriment of the game and the series as a whole. In my opinion, Reach is the last "true" Halo game as far as the story canon, the gameplay and art/design are concerned.