2cool4u: 343i's UNSC and the Death of (Good) Lore

Ok, I'll admit it. I love Halo. Bungie's Halo: Combat Evolved was the first FPS I really ever sank my teeth into (yes, I know, "babby's first FPS," etc.; blame my parents and their rules on video game violence). To this day, I still claim that my life simple would not have been the same without Halo. The friends I've made, the rivals I've gained, and the experiences I had in my teenage years often could be traced back to me sitting slack-jawed in awe during the summer of 2002 as I fought my way through the game's titular ring world.

While the gameplay was nothing short of superb - Goldeneye 64 had created a working formula for console FPS games that Halo: CE perfected - my favorite part of the series was its thoroughly well-defined lore, especially in the novels such as Eric Nylund's superb Halo: The Fall of Reach (said novel was passed around so often in my circle of middle school friends that the binding was nearly destroyed). The Covenant seemed vast and truly alien, the Forerunners were shrouded in mystery, the Flood seemed unbeatable and terrifying, and the UNSC, the military arm of humanity, was written as a capable and strategically sound fighting force that was only being pushed back through attrition and due to a technological gap with the Covenant that was bordering on the extreme. Of the major players in the universe, the UNSC was always my favorite.

Oddly enough, it was never the SPARTANs that made me like the UNSC. Rather, it was their portrayal as a whole - the UNSC was structured like a modern military (Marines, Army, Navy), had plausible future technology at its disposal (helloooooo railguns!), and perhaps best of all, was imperfect but still highly competent. Internal conflicts would often pit parts of the UNSC against one another such as Dr. Catherine Halsey and Col. James Ackerson, and the UNSC would often find itself fighting human insurrectionists on their own colonies over political differences. Nonetheless, humanity was shown to be a tenacious and capable opponent. To me, this alone was worth nothing in comparison to what little sci-fi games I had played at the time, where humanity was often seen as hopelessly outclassed by alien invaders. Halo's UNSC represented a plausible, logical evolution for humanity's military in an age of space exploration. It was by no means perfect, but still effective and highly professional.

Look at these badasses. State of the badass art.

And now, in the age of Halo 4, 343 Industries has seen fit to throw that all out the window.



Personally, I blame a large part of this on Karen "Mandalorians" Traviss and Greg "ancient humans" Bear. Neither author's work fits well with the existing Halo canon, with Traviss distorting Dr. Halsey's character from a brilliant scientist willing to go to extremes to save humanity into a mustache twirling villain whose greatest success - the SPARTAN II project and by extension, the Master Chief - saved humanity by pure accident. She also champions the ODSTs as being superior fighters to the SPARTANs (which is flat-out wrong), but I'm not as angry about this because the ODSTs are total badasses and the Halo equivalent of SEALs/Delta/CIA SAD. Bear on the other hand has seen fit to rewrite humanity into an ancient spacefaring race that lost a war against the Forerunners and was "devolved" as punishment...but for some reason is still chosen to be the successor to the Forerunner empire. Not only is it exceptionally stupid, but it flat-out ignores pre-existing canon (i.e., 343 Guilty Spark explicitly explaining that humans are basically Forerunner descendants in Halo 3).

"I'm not saying it was the Forerunners, but..."

While utterly disgusting from a literary standpoint and insulting to Eric Nylund's work (which is more or less the reason "video game fiction" is such a large part of any modern bookstore's sci-fi section), I was ok with ignoring it for a while simply because Bungie had always stated that games overruled the extended universe canon. This sometimes resulted in stories losing a bit of their awe factor, such as the Covenant blitz on Reach, but it did help clear things up when certain questions would be raised as a result of an in-game revelation.

Of course, now that Bungie no longer has complete control of the franchise, 343 Industries can allow as much of the stupidity present in the novels to be present in-game as they like. The biggest casualty thus far, and the reason I'm worried I'll be disappointed on Tuesday, is the image of the UNSC.

Halo 4's UNSC is not the UNSC we know and love from the original games. Their entire design philosophy has appeared to shift from "efficiency-focused, purpose-built" to "rule of cool." Even their new logo reflects this - what was previously a relatively simple silhouette reminiscent of modern military logos is now this:

LOOK AT ALL THOSE STARS, STRIPES, AND EAGLES, MAN. GOD I LOVE AMERICA EARTH.

The rest of the UNSC's design hasn't fared much better. Halo: Reach had a stable of very impressive, canon-friendly armor designs for use in multiplayer. Halo 4...well, see for yourself: For comparison, you'll also find Halo: Reach's armor variants shown below as well.

Halo: Reach armor permutations. Note the clean lines and logical visor placement.

Halo 4 armor permutations. Note the elaborate,  almost-decorative designs.

Halo 3 (not shown) and Halo: Reach had armor designs that always had an explicit purpose such as the EOD "chin fins," which would supposedly redirect blast pressure from explosives to prevent decapitation, or the Operator helmet, which has integrated cameras that likely provide improved thermal/night vision capabilities in the extended universe canon. Halo 4's armor designs seem to almost entirely be designed around aesthetic appeal rather than any in-universe purpose. The uniform design philosophy of its predecessors has been tossed right out the window in the hopes of having a better "cool" factor. This is an art direction decision that appears to have seeped into every part of Halo 4 - from the UNSC Infinity's ridiculous size (numerous small ships would have served its in-universe purpose much better, more reliably, and at a lower cost) to the stripped-down armor of the redesigned Covenant Elites. The result is a setting where everything but the brand-new Promethean race has been made to look like a mockery of their old selves.

Now, before I get crucified for being a nitpicky jerk (I am), let me go on the record as saying that the shifting of the art direction from a focus on logical design to a lens flare-and-dubstep montage-friendly design is something I've seen happen before, and it utterly broke my view of that game's universe as a coherent setting. That game was Mass Effect 3.

While my disgust over Mass Effect 3's ending was enough to make me call it quits on the series right then and there (yes, the extended ending was terrible too and you know it), I did keep an eye on Bioware's work with the game's multiplayer aspect out of morbid curiosity. For those not in the know, Mass Effect 3's multiplayer is considered to be canon and in-universe - the multiplayer battles are fought by players in an attempt to hold key locations previously secured by Commander Shepard. While Mass Effect's armor and weapon designs have gotten progressively worse as the series goes on (why can't I get my old space opera armor back instead of this carbon fiber monstrosity?), nothing could prepare me for this:

SHAMEFUR DISPRAY, BIOWARU

This is the N7 Shadow Infiltrator (such an edgy name!). While Kai Leng and his Phantom buddies were bad enough in the main questline, I always just imagined that the Illusive Man had a hidden weeaboo streak. As it turns out, no, weeaboo fightan sticks samurai swords katanas are, as of Mass Effect 3, somehow an ideal weapon on the battlefield. In a universe where guns shoot particles at a fraction of the speed of light and people can throw you around Vader-style. Riiiiight. The fact is, these weapons had no place in a setting that had originally set out to present itself as a "talky sci-fi," where there were well-thought out, well-explained explanations for pretty much everything short of space magic biotics. The inclusion of space katanas - and, by extension, all the OTHER stupid stuff that didn't make sense in Mass Effect 3 like Volus combatants - utterly destroyed any sort of consistency that the setting may have had, and thus my interest in it.

Of course, this isn't to say that I have no faith in Halo 4. Pre-release reviews have been nothing but glowing (though we all know how reliable reviewers are after Mass Effect 3), and 343i knows exactly how much is riding on this title. It's not a case of "well, if we screw up, it was the last game anyway" like Mass Effect 3 was. However, I am exceptionally concerned - Bioware already ruined one of my favorite franchises for me this year, and seeing 343i fall prey to many of the same mistakes they did is worrisome. Ultimately, though, I can't bring myself to make a statement on the quality of a game like this without playing it, and luckily dedicated fans like myself are starting to speak out about their complaints over Halo's new lore direction. Here's hoping that I'm pleasantly surprised on Tuesday, and these issues all ultimately turn out to be nothing more than temporary missteps.