This is the second half in the two-part series on Halo.
The gaming community had hardly finished their fight against The Locust Horde when Bungie dropped two bombshells in the month of December.
The first was the HALO 3 commercial that was aired on ESPN in the midst of the passion that engulfs every third American on the planet on Monday night Gridiron (American football). The commercial was PURELY computer generated (ha Sony…landed in the ‘KILLZONE 2’ have we… pun intended) titled ‘Starry Night’ shows 2 children – a boy (fans believe this is Master Chief in his childhood days when he had been inducted into the ‘Spartan program’) and a girl (named Linda also a Spartan, Master Chief’s Buddy) laying on a field gazing up at the stars and having a conversation about meeting Extra Terrestrials. The boy looks at the girl waiting for a response and sees the helmet which he shall don in the future. The next frame sees the same field covered with dust and Master Chief stumbling back onto his feet and putting his helmet back on. He picks up his new assault rifle and straps it back on and gazes at a mushroom cloud in the sky.
The fans of the series believe that this AD picks up where The E3 trailer left off. It is said that the blast from the ark knocks out Master Chief which he witnessed at the edge of the cliff. But this is speculation again, no one except the people from Bungie know what the reality actually is; continuing on, Master Chief then throws a grenade onto the ground shielding himself from a ‘Wraith’ projectile. This new grenade is again rumored to be a part of the Chief’s arsenal, rumored being the key word once again, but there was proof that a new type of Grenade is in the works for this sequel in the ‘Et Tu brute’ Vidoc. He is seen running towards the edge and jumps off into another battle with a brute chieftain holding a mace similar to the ‘Fist of Rukt’, the brutes are seen to be evolved in this commercial fighting the Elites.
Just before all of us could say “Merry Christmas”, Bungie handed out a Christmas present in the form of a video documentary called ‘ET Tu brute’? (These were Julius Caesar’s last words; he mutters these when he sees Brutus as one of the key conspirators in his infamous murder). The video which was posted on the Xbox Live Market Place gobbled up fans and gave them a clearer insight to what they could expect to see in the final game. The Vidoc focuses on the Brutes, a new race that was introduced in Halo 2. According to Bungie, they did not have sufficient time to work on them and hence were merely ‘Damage Sponges,’ meaning they took hits and died, no shields, no armor, no clear demarcation between the classes, they were just a bunch of really ugly looking teddy bears who had been taught to wield a gun. All that is set to change in this game, one of their lead artists claim that Halo 3 is all they had been planning to implement in both the previous Halo games.
It must be noted that the video is a ‘Work In Progress,’ the stages or weapons shown in the game may or may not be present in the final game. The graphics that are shown are of ‘Pre Alpha build.’ In a nutshell – nothing is final, the video showcases the brute race in all their ‘Brute-al glory,’ they are bigger, better and represent a crushing force in the Covenant army. The video shows animators animating their various actions after slaying their opponents, which includes deadly growls, beating their chests signifying their victory over the puny human race. If you thought the Elites were bad enough wait till you witness the power of the Brutes. Several snippets are shown using Motion capture technology. The series is headed towards a more violent nature, from tearing out the arms of a UNSC marine, using the mace to smash down upon a hapless soul, tackling a marine headfirst into a structure, using his raw power to rain punches on the marine and then stomping his intestines into pulp. The Elites were a more respectable race than the Brutes, who believe in total carnage.
This is only the beginning; they show a one-on-one fight with an Elite who is using ‘dual Energy swords; which makes it a probability in the game. The Elite is shown slicing off the feet of the brute and then pouncing onto him. The brute in his last attempt offers a slight jab on the face of the Elite, while the latter finishes him off by plunging the sword into his chest, another clip shows a brute standing in a quarterback position and tackling a Warthog and turning it upside down. The brutes have now been divided into distinct classes. There are the low ranking “foot soldiers” who are under the command of the “Brute Captain,’ these foot soldiers are equipped with a Brute rifle with a Scythe attached to it to slash enemies in close proximity, the wear a blue colored armor. Next we see the Brute captain who is in a purple armor with a more elaborate helmet. He takes slightly more hits to go down than the foot soldier. The foot soldiers are directly under the command of the captain who issues them direct orders. The video shows off a lot of ‘the new spike grenades’ being used by the brutes. They attack in packs making it more difficult for the player to kill them all at one go. Then comes the Brute Chieftain covered in gold and uses the mace in battles. There are 2 types of Brutes who have gold on their armor, so there could be another class after the captain. The Brute Chieftain in the video generally uses the energy sword and the mace as his choice of weapon making him the toughest out of the lot, quite similar to the “Hunters. And then there are the grunts that remain bugging as ever and have been divided on the account of the civil war that took place. A little thing I noticed in the gameplay was the use of sport maneuvers in the game which. In addition to tackle included dodging like footballers especially strikers (Thierry Henry maybe…) when they are about to hit the goal, in the trailer they use this to dodge a lot of incoming fire.
The gameplay that was shown was quite similar to the previous games in the Halo universe, the sandbox areas where developers put in their models and simulate a gameplay sequence sees a lot of close quarter battles taking place between the player and the brutes, the graphics have also got a huge overhaul with everything looking brighter and the explosions have neat effects to them, shadows have become dynamic and the lens flare effect is just something “out of the planet” (literally). Master Chief’s shadow has become more detailed than ever. Players can even see the reflections of the weapons that they are carrying, but they are still not next gen in a huge way, and the actual game could look a whole different as we speak cause the documentary is quite old in itself.
The game is coming this March and the biggest news is that we are going to have a simultaneous launch along with the rest of the world; well I am keeping my fingers crossed for this one cause as they say, “Third time’s a charm.”