Halo 1 flood full#
Halo 1 flood series#

IвЂ™m all for the power fantasy of being a Spartan, and judging by my time with it thus far, Halo Infinite wonвЂ™t be lacking in that regard.

Halo 1 flood series#

And while IвЂ™ve enjoyed much of my time with the studioвЂ™s sequels, theyвЂ™re lacking that sense of terror that drew me to the series in 2001, the first time Chief turned on JenkinsвЂ™ helmet cam in that sinister swamp in a remote corner of a mysterious world. It grants the rest of the franchise even greater narrative weight.Дeveloper 343 Industries has largely moved away from overt horror elements in the entries following Halo: Reach. ItвЂ™s yet another reminder of the unknown horrors that lie in wait for humanity and anyone fighting to preserve it. The music is mournful here, but the scene is nothing short of grim. In another sequence, from the side turret of a Falcon, youвЂ™re forced to watch as the city burns, UNSC forces get swallowed up, and civilian transports are shot out of the sky.

My favorite mission, вЂњExodus,вЂќ tasks you with evacuating civilians from the city of Alexandria, all while a battle group of Brutes combs through the alleyways and courtyards in search of survivors.

Halo 1 flood full#

Reach is full of haunting moments and tense challenges that take a while to shake off. To paraphrase how my co-worker Nicole Clark described it in a recent Zoom call, Halo: Reach is basically Rogue One, in that itвЂ™s about marching toward a foregone conclusion - in this case, the destruction of humanityвЂ™s greatest fortress - and clinging to hope regardless. Reach is a prequel to Combat Evolved, and entering its world means accepting that (almost) every Spartan soldier on planet Reach will die. That desperate tone remains throughout the campaign. A group of Elite Zealots ambushes you in a shadowy relay station, comes within inches of killing you, then drags a Marine corporal as a meat shield into a darkened room, where his helpless screams echo before fading completely. They leave mutilated interrogation witnesses lying in pools of blood. They speak in squawks and guttural barks. Its first mission, вЂњWinter Contingency,вЂќ paints the Covenant as a vicious, insidious force. Halo: Reach, on the other hand, is laced with horror story trappings. Halo 3: ODST is still unlike any other Halo ItвЂ™s his stoic demeanor that makes the surrounding anxiety palatable. The Halo series gets a lot of storytelling fuel out of the horrors of this whole situation, even though Master Chief is rarely fazed by it all. Also, that ring is actually a life-erasing weapon. WhatвЂ™s more, a world-eating network of starving parasites just joined the fray. The universe is being engulfed by a violent crusade that threatens to all but eliminate the human race. TheyвЂ™re an intergalactic conglomerate of religious zealots that either train for war from childhood, or enslave whole worlds to make them fight against their will. None of this is to say that the Covenant canвЂ™t be scary as well. It doesnвЂ™t matter that IвЂ™m 7 feet tall, 1,000 pounds, and enveloped in an energy shield - in those moments, Combat Evolved is absolutely terrifying. But then my motion sensor is awash with Flood signatures, and the soundtrack escalates into a frenzied orchestral shriek. Whittling down the hierarchy of a Covenant squad, for example, demands far more strategy and encourages the use of the full array of weapons in the game. HaloвЂ™s Flood-centric chapters are not necessarily the most fun ones. Thus, he meets the Flood: вЂњthe only enemy the Covenant fear.вЂќ He hears something slithering toward him. The footage ends, and Chief realizes heвЂ™s in the same room where the carnage unfolded. After passing through hallways littered with mangled bodies - human and Covenant alike - Chief watches footage from a discarded helmet cam in which a squad of Marines is torn apart by a wave of tentacled, parasitic creatures. вЂњ343 Guilty Spark,вЂќ the sixth mission, leads the Chief to a derelict facility in the bowels of a remote swamp. In Halo: Combat Evolved, Chief is a stranger in a strange land, not only looking for a way off the titular ring world, but also trying to figure out what exactly the ring world is. The Halo series is at its best when it veers into outright horror.Д¬onsider the game that started it all. The most memorable Halo moments are the ones that made me feel vulnerable. And if you think I wasnвЂ™t fist-pumping the first time I saw Master Chief boogie-boarding an antimatter bomb through space and into a Covenant cruiser, you would be incorrect. I love a good power fantasy as much as the next person.