Soviet Heavy said:
How would people feel if something like this was made? While the Covenant are going to be present in Halo 4 and supposedly its sequels, they are the Storm Faction, not the Loyalists or the Sangheili Separatists.
There is still a war going on between the Elites and the Prophets close to six years after Halo 3. Wouldn't it be interesting to play from the perspective of the Elites as they search for their place in the universe, free of the oppression of the Covenant and the Prophets?
I think I'm in love with you.
Seriously I've been wishing for something like this since Halo 3, I'd love to actually be on Sangheilios, siding with (or god willing playing as) Thel Vadam allying with the humans against the Brutes and exploring the deeper themes of what the Elites do with themselves in a post Covenant era.
However I gotta be honest I reckon the real story would be playing as the Elites
during the Covenant era. As in when it was first formed in the Elite/Prophet war and the conquoring of each race and finally the human Covenant war all the way to the Great Schism and human/Sangheili alliance. Just imagine it, playing from all those different perspectives, taking the ODST 'many perspectives' model and having it be at key points in the Covenant history. Explore themes like religious zealotry and racism and give us a glimpse into how the Covenant society functions and how among other things it justifies seemingly pointless genocide.
I mean think of the possiblities, there must have been a time when the Covenant was a driving force for good. Reading things like 'the path is broad and we shall walk it side by side' and of course the Writ of Union certainly suggests there was a time when the Covenant preached peace and tolerance. So maybe we get to see how a once good religion can become corrupted by lies and deceit and personal gain and fanatical zealotry as ultimatley a critique on modern religion.
Also it would be kind of cool to play as a Covenant fighting against humans if only because we would get to see how humans look from an outsider perspective looking in. What did the Covenant see when they saw humans, how did humans appear to them? Perhaps a way to make the humans seem de-humanized is to cover their faces completely and have the player only ever see the soldiers who display the worst kind of obnoxious macho attitude to make us the audience think:
"Damn, is that what humans act like? Now I get why they want to kill us."
Because in the books it is made clear that prior to and even during the war the humans did some bad stuff to themselves and to each other, playing from the perspective of noble honour bound people if could be very possible to make the military bravado look a lot darker. Also Spartans need to be a 'boss fight' and it would be really cool to actually see a few die to shatter that whole bravado that comes with it and hammer home the severity of the war.
All this done deliberately not showing any civilians so that the Covenant soldiers can believe that the military arm of humanity is just what the human race is like, then of course later on in the game we have the player characters stumble across civilians being protected for the first time and cities of men, women and children being massacred leading to the first time when characters ask 'am I doing the right thing?'
Man imagine playing as an Elite during the Covenant civil war on High Charity, that would be awesome! Then of course playing as an Elite now allied with the humans and the awkward tensions that rise from that could easily make for some great moments as you slowly but surely do gain their respect somewhat.
I'm just saying, the Covenant is where you can find things like criticism of racism and religious fundamentalism and given that this is a game series called
Halo you'd think the latter in particular would be something 343 would want to explore a bit. Bungie gave me a taste with the Arbiter in Halo 2 and the Elite human alliance in Halo 3 and like a well known crocodile,
I want more!
