The Big Picture: Combat Evolved?

[jVictor]

I think the original intent for the inclusion of multiple races was simply for enemy variety and little more. It's more fun to shoot at various enemies with different abilities and weaknesses than the same set of guys every single firefight. As the game's popularity exploded and Bungie got a chance to elaborate on Covenant society I drew the conclusion they were more like the Roman Empire (in SPACE!). They expanded through conquest and assimilation, using the culmination of their religion as a uniting goal.

The games give us a very limited view of the UNSC, because we only ever see it from the view of a soldier. The supplementary materials (the novels) give us a lot more to work with and in a way, yes, the UNSC does de-emphasize the importance of the individual in favor of a more streamlined, uniform society. This much I believe was intentional on Bungie's part because it tells us that the UNSC are not a universal force of "good" and that there are quite a few things wrong with this kind of society (it just happens to work when there's a war with an alien entity, which is all the games are able to show us). While the SPARTANs themselves are ethnically and culturally diverse (like the colonies) from the outside you can't really tell the difference between them. The SPARTANs seem to be the perfect analogy for what UNSC is, and also what it needs in this time of crisis.

 

[Blood Countess]

again highly disappointing yet again from Movie Bob.Not as bad as his temper Tantrum over Scott Pilgrim flopping like it needed to do but this was close to as bad

Seriously guys, Ben needs another show, not this joke

 

[wammnebu]

[

On a seperate note, don't assume that you know more about warfare then I do. If games were an authentic recreation of what battle was really like, they wouldn't be much fun would they?

Darn, and i was really looking forward to Call of Duty: Trench Warfare

 

[AssassinJoe]

Well, no one's gonna read this comment anyway so I might as well go all out.

First of all I want to say great show MovieBob, I really like the way you look at these sorts of things.

Now that I got that out of the way, I going to go and lay down my opinion.

In the video, you make a lot of comparisions between the Halo games and facism, to this I would like to say, "No shit Sherlocke!!" The entire Halo universe is riddled with symbolism for the "master race", government control, and hate against anything that's different. To really see it though you have to delve into Halo's backstory.

I'm one of the many people who pre-ordered Halo: Reach like any fanboy would. The thing is though, I'm not a Halo fan. This is the first Halo game I've ever played. I didn't know what I was getting into. Luckily the pre-ordered game came with what is supposed to be the diary of the scientist how created the "Spartan Project" so I figure that it might give me some insight into the story, if only a little bit. So I start reading. What I found confused the hell out of me.

Apparently that commercial you have in the video isn't the complete story on how a Spartan soldier is created.

According to the diary, the Spartans were created to fight against rebellious human colonies who were tired of being monitored by a government that doesn't really give two shits about them (government control). Each spartan candidate is selected through thorough DNA checks of children. If the child fits the standards of excellence (master race) they are then kiddnapped and replaced with clones so that no one finds out about it, and then put in boot-camp for the rest of their childhood (exactly like in that animated Halo movie). Then the Covenant attacks, conveniantly at the same time the Spartans are deemed "combat ready". And of course the rebel colonies are attacked first so they beg for help from

Now this part really bugs me. It seems the Covenant's only reason for attacking us is because we're different. What happened to trying to convert the other alien races? I might have missed something there but still c'mon. I know you said it's weird we are attacking them cause they're different but it works both ways.

Another thing that bothers me is that I identify more with the Covenant then I do with the humans. Think about it for a second...... a group that goes around believeing their religion is the one true religion and attacking anyone who says otherwise? Sounds a little familar don't you think? Plus the fact that it's a bunch of races from different bakgrounds and planets all working together to achieve the same goal (I know that sounds like a little kid's tv show but it's still true). It's hard to really identify with the humans in these games because most of the human main characters aren't even given faces.

That's what I think any way. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't read it all.

 

[Internet Kraken]

This was painful to watch. Seriously, I can't believe the Escapist is paying somebody to go on the equivalent of a fanboy rant, while dressing it up as some deep intellectual look into the psychology of our society.

Bungie making the decision to have the Covenant consist of a variety of different races has nothing to do with racism, a master race conquering diversity, or anything like that. It was clearly a game design decision. By having a variety of enemies in different shapes and sizes adds diversity to gameplay. You won't just be fighting the same identical mooks over and over again. It also allows the player to quickly pick out priority targets. If every Covenant soldier was an Elite, it would be a lot harder to identify the biggest threat. Instead, the Grunts and Jackals comprise the majority of foot soldiers, allowing the player to clearly pick out the Elites as the leaders. Subsequently, when they see a group that consists almost entirely of Elites, they know they are in for a hard fight. It's something that was done for the sake of gameplay, obviously.

Secondly, you conveniently ignore the fact that Halo 2 and Halo 3 have you team up with the Elites. How can you claim that Bungie may be subtly sending a message of racial superiority when you are teaming up with aliens? This alone is enough to completley tear down your argument. It's also worth pointing out that the Covenant had next to no characterization in the first game. In the second game, we actually looked into their culture and saw how their leadership was comprised. Hell you play as one of them, and lead the entire Elite species (forget what their real name is) into rebellion. So while your argument might have had some weight if you were only talking about the first game, the second game wrecks it.

I know you're not an idiot though. There's no way you could have ignored all of this. So this just seems like you looking for another reason to beat on Halo needlessly.

 

[DevilSShadoW]

great show, great subject
keep it up

 

[Weaver]

This series is going to be awesome, I can feel it!

 

[Clay More]

New favourite show!

 

[dtfyvugbhjnk]

LOL! xD I noticed this the first time I played Halo: Combat Evolved. This looks like a fun show, If ya keep em coming I´ll be sure to watch them.

 

[Ampersand]

If games were an authentic recreation of what battle was really like, they wouldn't be much fun would they?

well certainly not if you got all of the traumas and emotional issues from coming home and everything that happened while you were there.

For lack of a better term. Well Duuuh!

 

[gigastrike]

That was just really terrible.

Lack of racial and cultural diversity? Are you kidding me?

The Noble team is made up of many people of many different cultural backgrounds.

This is really a matter of you looking too deeply into an issue when it really is just "Humans vs Aliens".

Try to look at the big picture. Yes, Noble team is "culturally diverse", but look at the Covenant. They're made up of mulitple species (not just races) that are just about as different from each other as humans are from slugs; maybe even more so because at least Humans and slugs have a common ancestor (I'd also like to point out that Grunts can't breath the same air as Elites). Yet you insist on lumping all aliens together as if totally original DNA is equivalent to just having a different skin color.

Compared to the Covenent, Humans have no diversity whatsoever.

 

[dark-amon]

I never really thought Halo was supposed to be that complex, I always just thought that the extent of its complexity was shooty shooty bang. Oh, and teabaging -.-

That's probably what Bungie also supposed people wanted from Halo. Problem is that when then someone who desperatly try to find something complex, intelligent or otherwise sophisticated about the game can end up finding stuff like what Movie-Bob found.
And what where Bungie thinking when naming the heroes after the biggest facist douches in european ancient history?

 

[cthulhumythos]

why am i going to watch this, i know i won't like it because i am a halo fan and movie bob is the opposite; CURSE YOU INSTINCT THAT FORCES ME TO LOOK EVEN THOUGH I DON'T WANT TO!



AFTER WATCHING IT:

huh. you...you compared it to fascism?


now, i know if i try to defend halo i'll become a "blind loud mouthed halo fanboy", a particularly notorious breed of fanboy in the eyes of others; but come on!

we're not revolting against the covenant, they cast the first stone and would not absorb us into their group because our existence threatened their religious views (i forget why), which was the foundation of their empire.

before i go off anymore, we aren't killing them 'cause their different, we're killing them 'cause they're killing us harder






also reach had the weakest plot of the series, even as a halo fan i can recognize RIDICULOUSLY OBVIOUS STEREOTYPES and BORING PLOT.


the books add on more to the plot than the games do, so i think i understand why some people just see it as a another boring mediocre homogenized first person shooter.



hope i wasn't obnoxious(i hate feeding stereotypes)

 

[StraightToHeck]

Moviebob seems to specialize in reading waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much into things that really shouldn't/can't be analyzed on such a close level.

It's an FPS, not a freakin' fascism simulator.

 

[Zolt]

I like looking deeply into things but You are reading the inside of a Spartan helmet. It's a game. Covenant is colorful not because of their racial diversity but because shooting the same thing over and over would become boring really fast (see Fear 1). In a game like this plot is entirely for the designers pleasure.

 

[LaughingAtlas]

Another fine addition to the Escapist. I'd say "welcome, Bob," but he's kinda been here a while...

 

[standokan]

Thank you bob, you just made tuesday bareable, keep up the good work.