Poll: Halo: Did anyone actually enjoy fighting the flood?

[TheSapphireKnight]

Fighting off the flood with the shotgun was great fun in CE. The lack of a good shotgun brought down next two games for me. The sword was a decent replacement in most flood levels in H2.

The sword and even the new hammer were downplayed by the normal melees can that could dismember the flood.

CE Flood>H2 Flood>H3 Flood

 

[The Big Eye]

Gonna be brutally, brutally honest with you, kid. I enjoyed it immensely.

 

[duchaked]

playing co-op with a friend it was pretty beast sometimes with some moments, but alone it was just a drag

I didn't mine it in CE and 3...but man in 2 it was a nightmare (but not like the scary kinda in CE, just bloody annoying)

 

[Hussmann54]

I agree with many others here that the flood in 2 and 3 were just awful attempts to build on what was a well thought out and well executed idea in Halo:CE

Yeah, in CE I liked it. First off, it just flowed well IMO.
second, it helped move the story along, and the presentation in the first level in which you encounter them is pretty darn good story telling in my opinion. Even though I have watched it a hundred times and the shock and awe has long passed, I still think "This was so intense the first time" and with a re-playable medium of story telling like video games, that about the most you can ask for.
third, it was a game changer, and a good challenge on a harder difficulty.
"Yeah, Im halfway through the game, I think I have this covenant killing thing down to a science. Kill the big guys, then mop up the little ones. dare I say I WIL PWNZ U ALLZ! haha, lol, yea I think I got this under con- HOLY ****!! WTF ARE THOSE! OH **** THEY ARE EVERYWHERE! OH ****! Oh ****! Oh ****! GET AWAY FROM M- WHAT THE ****?!?!?!?!?!? WHY DOES THAT ONE LOOK HUMAN?!!?!? IS THAT AN ELITE?!?! I CANT BELIEVE THIS ****! WHAT IS THIS? WHAT, NOW THEY FIGURED OUT GUNS?!?!?!?!?"
(for more humor, imagine the voice of the furious little cinnamon bun from Dr. Tran. (see youtube) saying all this)

 

[Thaius]

First off:

In Halo Wars, that was just an unforgivable betrayal of canon. It made no sense at all for the Flood to show up then. Humanity had no idea the Flood existed until the events of Halo, so for any humans to discover their existence before then is just a horrible canonical failure. That's what happens when Bungie completely withdraws from a project; it made sense to have it designed by Ensemble, but they should have had their own creative team do the story and music.

The Spirit of Fire was labeled as "lost with all hands" after the events of Wars, so the UNSC couldn't know what they encountered. Also, there was NOTHING that stated the Flood outbreak of Installation 04 was the only outbreak. The Flood may have been biding their time on that shield world for the past 100,000 years.

The ONLY thing that Wars messes up on canon-wise is the fact that three Spartan II's went missing when only 3 (I think) were MIA/KIA by the events of the Fall of Reach.

But, in Halsey's journal, she mentions lying about some of the Spartans, so hell, she may have lied about them too.

/nerd

I feel like a failure for not knowing that. You're right, that makes sense. I wasn't assuming the outbreak on Installation 04 was the only one since the creation of the rings, but I didn't remember that the Spirit of Fire was lost with all hands. My bad.

But you know I was right about Martin O'Donnell. I enjoyed Halo Wars quite a bit, but Martin O'Donnell would have made it a lot better. That man is one of my heroes.

 

[crudus]

Quite honestly, I liked the flood. They were creepy as shit. When the flood were introduced the game was survival horror done right. None of your weapons did any good against them! All you could do is flee :O

It was great fun.

Until they gave you a shotgun. Then the flood were annoying.

I certainly didn't, and neither did anyone I knew who played the Halo games. The covenant AI was good for its day, but the flood were braindead. Like zombies.

They were.

 

[Valkaris]

they fun

 

[Shock and Awe]

Sometimes, in the right mood blowing through the horde is fun. Though other times its a pain in the ass.

 

[Prof. Monkeypox]

They were just... ugh... to me.

The first time they showed up, I was genuinely terrified. Shortly, however, I recovered my senses and they just became an annoyance. An annoyance that kept getting cheap shots at me when I just wanted to move on!

Yup, definitely the worst Halo enemy to me. Of course, I haven't much Halo...

 

[spartan231490]

I agree whole-heartedly OP. although I know one friend who prefers flood, guess it's just preference.

 

[Caligulove]

Honestly, this is why I like ODST and Reach the most in the series.

I mean, they had more human, and frankly more focused stories that didn't get hung up on the stuff in the series besides people in a situation and dealing with it. The Covenant, while comical to the point of hardly taking them seriously in the case of Grunts, etc- at least they were an enemy that was fairly interesting and intriguing. The flood was just... annoying and not very well fleshed out. I never replayed the later levels of campaign in Halo 2 or 3 (for leasure, at least) because the flood were just so damn annoying to deal with, boring enemies and repetitious tactics to deal with them.

I think Bungie succeeded a little too well when they made an enemy that would make someone want to frantically get to the end of a mission. Not out of fear, but because they slowed down the game, taking a lot of fun with them.

 

[Dwarf_Ninjas]

I see your point. The reason I liked it so much is because we already knew of the severe flood threat and their motives, but at the time, you think the only way they can infect something is an infectious form on an already infected host or the "lengthy" process of turning someone into a combat form. I think it heightened the severity of the flood. [I remember going through the door way and seeing the Marine get all those infectious forms on him, you think "Well, he is dead." Last thing I expected was for him to transform right in front of your eyes.]

I didn't notice all the model problems and all, I may pop in 3 just to see. But I see what you are getting at.

One thing I am going to say, I really wished Halo's 2 and 3 had more Flood vs Covenant vs Humans vs Sentinels at the same time. Thats what I really loved about CE. Seeing 2-3 different types of teams fighting at the same time. While that existed somewhat 2, 3 felt like that it didn't have the multi team mentality. Everything was either for you or against you at one point. (The hallway upto Truth when the Flood was on your side is a prime example)

Also, people think Halo 2's flood was overpowered? Aside from the few times they were in vehicles, I felt they were nerfed...

 

[Goro]

I though the combat against the flood in Halo:CE was great, it was atmospheric, you were actually endangered for the first time, and as far as story went, yeah, they fit in OK. But 2 and 3, they tried to develop a 'Flood' storyline, and it just didn't gel with me. That being said, it's been a looooong time since I've played 3, so Like the above, I might give 3 another whirl, see if my opinions changed.

 

[DalekJaas]

The flood were interesting the first time you saw them,but after that they got boring and the missions were always long and dull. Since I haven't played Reach I have no idea if they are there but they certainly shouldn't be. And I agree about wars, flood should not have been in that game.

 

[WonderWillard]

343 Guilty Spark is still to this day one of the scariest parts of any game, simply for being stuck in that tiny room with dozens of the little parasites, then being bum-rushed by the combat forms. I think I was like, 10 or 11 when I first played it, and it terrified me. The Flood had a great intro in Halo 1, BUT I didn't like how you pretty much always needed the shotgun from that point on. I loved fighting them in Halo 3, because the Flood became deadlier and tougher, but you had a wider variety of ways to kill them. Halo 2's Flood was just, eh.

 

[kommando367]

It was a nice change to fight them for a little bit instead of Covenant. But overall, I didn't really like fighting them.

 

[jak1011]

i h8ted killing them then when i turn around it came back 2 life and killed me with that whip thing O.O then i found out u can shoot of the whip arm and they cant even atk u =D

 

[Tupolev]

I see your point. The reason I liked it so much is because we already knew of the severe flood threat and their motives, but at the time, you think the only way they can infect something is an infectious form on an already infected host or the "lengthy" process of turning someone into a combat form. I think it heightened the severity of the flood. [I remember going through the door way and seeing the Marine get all those infectious forms on him, you think "Well, he is dead." Last thing I expected was for him to transform right in front of your eyes.]

We're going to have to agree to disagree here, then; the way it suddenly changed from established convention for no apparant reason felt too inconsistant to me to feel like it was heightening the severity. Rather, I immediately thought thoughts along the lines of, "hey look, Bungie tried to heighten the severity." Not exactly immersive.

I didn't notice all the model problems and all, I may pop in 3 just to see. But I see what you are getting at.

The biggest problem I have with it, in and of itself, is how samey and dramatic it always is, though I suppose I exaggerated the technical issues. There is a slightly visible jerk before the flood arm pops [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxxnlYLnlkU], though, and it's not just my composite cable input behaving badly.

One thing I am going to say, I really wished Halo's 2 and 3 had more Flood vs Covenant vs Humans vs Sentinels at the same time.

Oh yes, very much so. Quite a bit of missed opportunity there, I think.

Also, people think Halo 2's flood was overpowered? Aside from the few times they were in vehicles, I felt they were nerfed...

Unit-per-unit, they're pretty powerful, and in general the most resiliant of the series, especially since the closest things you have to an effective shotgun require you to completely get in the floods' faces.
I will admit, though, their placement and numbers makes them oft circumventable, and there are some places where a certain weapon or vehicle completely crushes them.

edit: Of course, let's also remember that a lot of people out there think The Library is a difficult level; play it intelligently and aggressively and it's probably one of the easier ones in Halo CE.

 

[Roamin11]

>.>

<.<

I disliked it... Reminded me of my lil babie zerglings, every time I shot on I felt like I put down Ziggy my Favoritest zergling of all time!! It was like that scene from Old Yeller, over, and over, and over, and over agian!