Halo: Combat Evolved
Game Information and History (Introduction)
Halo: Combat Evolved is a first-person shooter that came out on November 15th, 2001. It was developed by Bungie Studios and was the first installment that spawned an entire franchise. The game was exclusively released on the Xbox console. It was a revolutionary game for its time because of its storytelling, gameplay, and innovations to the first-person shooter genre. The game’s genre is a Sci-fi first-person action shooter. The story focused on the character of Master Chief, a mechanically enhanced super soldier who has to defend the human race from an alien invasion that is getting closer to earth. All other planets that humans have inhabited have been destroyed because of the covenant.
You play as Master Chief who has to fight off the Alien Covenant on a giant ring world called the Halo ring. There Has been a war going on for years with these aliens and this game takes place as what seems like the penultimate point for humanity. Once on the Halo ring, Master chief discovers the truth about the original purpose of the ring and finds a deep seeded enemy. This enemy is known as the Flood, and they are a hivemind parasite that zombifies the soldiers who fight with Master chief and the enemy alien Covenant. The genre of game continues to be an action shooter when these enemies are introduced, however there are some drastic changes in gameplay and aesthetic style. The flood levels feel more like horror survival as opposed to the regular gameplay of fighting aliens in war. This is now survival against waves of mindless parasites trying to infect and destroy everything.
Flood levels and relevance to horror
What makes the foundational difference of fighting the flood vs the covenant is the change from war to survival. The master chief is this ultimate marine meant for war and stopping the alien covenant. You then get put in a situation where there is no war or battle. There is this overwhelming force of zombified creatures that you aren't just trying to stop but you are trying to run and survive from. You are no longer attacking and hunting enemies, you are being hunted by this intelligent, unemotional, and overwhelming force.
The Flood enemies come in around halfway through the game. As the player you have already cleared countless alien enemies and are this powerful soldier that feels like you can stop anyone in your path. Even before the first flood level starts the player knows there is something wrong. There is a marine that is outside of a structure you are suppose to go into saying “he does not want to turn into one of those things”. The lighting is also dimmer and the music shifts to a more tonally stagnant and horror esc motif. This is a classic example of horror movies and games where the main character feels there is something wrong before anything is shown to happen. There is an atmosphere shift that can be felt and seen.
Gameplay (change in flood levels)
The Gameplay before the flood levels center around getting from point a to point B on the Halo Ring. You move around various places, some being a tighter spaceship, which is how the game starts, to wide open spaces such as the hills and beaches of the Halo ring. While doing this, the player uses a variety of alien/military weapons and vehicles. The goal of each level is to clear various enemies while trying to progress to an end point. This is usually a specific location on the map or something the player has to interact with. This game was so innovative because it had elements that had never been done in this way before. Players could really immerse themselves in this world and gameplay for hours on end.
Gameplay shifts in these flood levels because the player's goal is contextually different. You are fighting a more existential and immediate threat. You must escape the flood and try to find a way to stop them. There are far more enemies than you normally would encounter. The map is tighter with smaller corridors, even when there are more open areas the gameplay still feels claustrophobic. The game uses fog and tight level design to restrict player movement and make them feel overwhelmed. These mechanical choices provide good reason for the name of these enemies. The “Flood”. The reason being is that the player feels flooded by enemies.
Academic Resources
Mutations and Metamorphoses: Body Horror is Biological Horror
In Ronald Cruz 2012 paper “Mutations and Metamorphoses: Body Horror Is Biological Horror.” the concepts of biological horror are explored. This idea was well encapsulated in the passage; “Biological horror throws all of that out the window, giving us the natural horrors of mutants, hybrids, transforming creatures, and walking corpses. Ultimately, it relishes the destruction of the organic form to the point of unnatural evolutionary insignificance.”
This is the foundation of the flood enemies in Halo. This grotesque hivemind of morphed aliens and humans coming at the player in waves is what makes them so terrifying. You are fighting zombified creatures that have remnants of familiar figures but have no emotion or goal other than to consume and propagate. (photo for gravemind, captain is seen). Another thing this paper talks about is the subdivisions of body-horror, such as hybrids and monstrous offspring. The Flood enemies have qualities of both of these. What makes the Flood such an interesting villain is that it shows examples of multiple kinds of body horror. It is a hybrid and monstrous offspring creature because the flood is a hive mind parasite that infects other beings creating offspring. It is also a hybrid because it joins to whatever the host body is. Which is why in the game you see the flood take over both Alien and human bodies. The idea of an aberrant mutation could also be seen as classifying the flood. This is because the flood physically mutates the bodies of whatever it finds. Which makes this enemy that much more terrifying that it can adapt and take over everything around you that once seemed familiar, but now turned into a horrific creature.
Survival Terror CHAPTER 1
In Bernard Perron’s 2012 article “Survival Terror. In Silent Hill: The Terror Engine”, Perron writes, “Through its actions, this antagonistic force [of horror films] shows itself to be so thoroughly inhuman that no audience member would fault the hero for killing the evil as an act of self-defence.” (Pg 10)
This describes how players react to the enemy, the Flood. It is an even further evil than the aliens because it is killing them as well as humans. Its only purpose is to consume and grow. This makes the player dislike this enemy even more than the aliens at this point in the game. It makes the player feel more uneasy and out of control. There is an unknown to the sheer force and power of this enemy that makes the player feel isolated and under a greater threat than a war between other species. This paper also talks about horror movies and games having a formula. As there is are clear repetition of certain tropes within horror as a genre. The Flood levels play into some classic horror tropes. Even in the first cut scene they are introduced, or the mission before, there is this classic sense of something is wrong, but I don't know what. There's an atmosphere shift that is propelled by music or lack thereof. As well as zombies in general, the lone protagonist against a force of evil and jump scares by sudden appearances of enemies are all examples of Halo doing some of this classic horror repetition.
A FEAR OF THE FOLK: ON TOPOPHOBIA AND THE HORROR OF RURAL LANDSCAPES JAMES THURGILL, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO
In James Thurgill’s paper, “A Fear of the Folk: On Tropophobia and the Horror of Rural Landscapes,” Thurgill writes, “There is a tangible anxiety or discomfort with landscape present throughout folk horror…underneath the superficial solitude of the pastoral, malevolent forces are working to promote acts of unspeakable violence.” (page 49)
This quote is referencing folk landscapes and how they are notorious with solitude pastoral and rural places. Specifically how evil or uncertainty hides in places like this. There is a Flood level in Halo that is the perfect example of a folklore landscape that makes the flood enemies even more terrifying. The level is called 343 Guilty Spark. It takes place in a swamp that you have previously encountered. However there is heavy rain and fog, and the swarming flood enemies. As this level starts you get this sense of unknown dread much like Folk horror landscapes. The idea that something is out there, and something that once seemed rural and peaceful is now haunted and deeply unsettling. This is more apparent when playing the first level with the flood that takes place inside a fortress that seems like the others. So when the player lea
ves and sees this dark and dreadful landscape it seeps in the idea that there is something seriously wrong. Which is another horror trope that this game plays well into.
The playful undead and video games : critical analyses of zombies and gameplay
In Matthew Barr’s paper The Playful Undead and Video Games: Critical Analyses of Zombies and Gameplay, Barr states, “noting that zombies may “be a part of a very intimate emotional scene where someone loses a loved one and see them as a zom-bie and they recognise them, and they have to deal with that.(page 17)” This idea that zombies can be great storytelling devices, especially for video games, is prominent in this paper. This quote talks about how they can be used to make the viewer, or in this case player, feel emotionally invested in the characters by one of them being turned or eaten by a zombie of some sort. This is the case when the player discovers the captain from the start of the game. The captain has been turned into some sort of zombified hivemind. You see, this comrade you have had dialogue and battles alongside, now being used as some type of alien zombie creature thing. It’s sad to see one of the only personal relationships within the game be taken away from you. It gives the story a stronger sense of meaning because it shows how nothing and no one is safe from the threat of the flood.
Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection by Julia Kristeva
In Julia Kristeva’s paper Powers of Horror, she states “I Am Afraid of Being Bitten” or “I Am Afraid of Biting”? “Nevertheless, does not fear hide an aggression, a violence that returns to its source, its sign having been inverted” (page 39). This quote is talking about the psychology behind horror in the novel Powers of Horror, in this section Kristeva is talking about the originality of aggression and fear. Saying here they are linked and which one actually came first. I chose this quote because I like the idea of not knowing what is more fearful, to be bitten or to bite in this case. I think aggression and fear are linked in this way when it comes to various horror games. The flood specifically being the target and cause of this ideology. As a player you don’t even think, it is immediate violence because of this link to fear. You don’t know what these creatures are, but know they are coming to kill you so out of fear and survival instinct you have to kill and escape. That and because it feels justified because of them being alien zombies and the purpose of the game is to shoot things.
Additional Sources
Examining Halo's Scariest Mission
This video essay explains in detail the first flood mission in Halo Combat Evolved. A main point that I took away from this source is how Halo uses classic survival horror elements to create a new atmosphere that changes the gameplay and feel. There are many classic survival horror tropes that are talked about. The main one being that you are completely alone at the beginning. There is no help coming, it is just you against these creatures. This video essay describes how this level is different then the others and how it uses horror elements to change the genre of this game.
Ben Plays Games- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-a65K8iJsk
The Flood’s introduction is absolutely terrifying in Halo: CE.
This source is a reddit thread where dedicated fans to the franchise all give their opinions on the flood missions. Specifically the first mission where the flood are introduced. People praise it for its genre bending style and genuine horror elements that still terrify players today. Something I take away from this thread is how this game was a first of its kind to do this. People didn't know what was happening when this level began and it completely changed how a first person shooter was experienced. This was a strong pivot point in the game that showed how innovative this franchise was.
https://www.reddit.com/r/halo/comments/1d7t3lq/the_floods_introduction_is_absolutely_terrifying/
Similarities to other horror (Predator)
Halo Combat Evolved parallels the action/horror movie predator in several ways. In both, the stage is set with a badass protagonist who can cut down any enemy in their path. In the case of Halo, Master Chief takes this role. Like in Predator there is a flip in the narrative and the once badass main character has to run in terror from a greater horrific threat. There is also a connection to the art design. There have been many references to the predator franchise throughout Halo's installments. As documented in the Xenopedia (https://avp.fandom.com/), there have been many homages, so it's not a stretch to assume that the developers of Halo Combat Evolved drew inspiration from the Predator (1987) movie.
A point of inspiration can be seen in the art design of the Elite, an alien species that Master Chief continuously faces throughout the campaign. Another is how the Predator‘s first step was to build the viewer’s confidence… The heroes cut a path of destruction through a camp of faceless enemies who don’t know how to shoot straight, taking down trucks, helicopters, and snipers in the treetops. Then the predator comes in like the Flood and does to the hero what they were doing to other mindless enemies. The player and hero become the hunted.
Personal connection
I have very fond memories of playing the Halo series with my brothers while I was growing up. So being able to take a nostalgic experience and re-live it with an academic lens has been quite fulfilling. Although the flood is not as scary as I once thought, analyzing it to understand what made its initial impression on me so impactful has been a very insightful process into how horror can be explored in the video game format.
Bibliography
Barr, M. (2019). Zombies, Again? A Qualitative Analysis of the Zombie Antagonist's Appeal in Game Design. The Playful Undead and Video Games: Critical Analyses of Zombies and Gameplay (pp. 15-29). Routledge.
Ben Plays Games. 2021. “Examining Halo’s Scariest Mission.”YouTube. August 20, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-a65K8iJsk.
Cruz, Ronald Allan Lopez. 2012. “Mutations and Metamorphoses: Body Horror Is Biological Horror.” Journal of Popular Film and Television 40 (4): 160–68. doi:10.1080/01956051.2012.654521.
Differences between individuals and legal entities. Domiciliación de Sociedades - ¡Contrata 100% Online! (n.d.). https://www.domiciliacion-fiscal.es/en/blog/diferencias-entre-persona-fisica-y-juridica#:~:text=Table%20of%20Contents&text=In%20the%20legal%20and%20economic,recognized%20by%20law%2C%20a%20company.
Kristeva, Julia. "2. Something to Be Scared of" In Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, 33-56. New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, 2024
Perron, Bernard. “Survival Terror.” In Silent Hill: The Terror Engine, 10–32. University of Michigan Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv65swb6.5.
“Reddit - the Heart of the Internet.” 2024. Reddit.com. 2024. https://www.reddit.com/r/halo/comments/1d7t3lq/the_floods_introduction_is_absolutely_terrifying/.
“Xenopedia.” 2023. Fandom.com. 2023. https://avp.fandom.com/.
AI Disclosure & Appendix
No AI was used in the making of this paper.