When Halo 4 was first officially revealed at E3 2011, the epic announcement trailer teased an entirely new storyline for Master Chief – allowing the team at 343 Industries to drastically change-up existing plot and gameplay elements. The developer has been very careful about honoring Bungie’s creation, as well as the larger canon mythology, but (as with any long-running series) 343 also needed freedom to move the franchise in a fresh direction.
While 343 is very clear about where they intend to take Halo in the coming years, possibly through Halo 7, 8, and 9, they’re also not afraid to revisit some of Bungie’s best inventions. New screenshots reveal that as 343 introduces fresh elements, such as a mech vehicle (the Mantis), they’re also reaching back into the Halo canon, reintroducing The Flood parasites for multiplayer, in order to provide as many engaging gameplay possibilities as possible.
The first three Halo titles relied heavily on the zombie-like gameplay and narrative elements provided by The Flood, parasitic organisms that could infect, and subsequently control, humans and other sentient life forms. Back in 2001, when Halo: Combat Evolved was first introduced, the creatures served a specific gameplay function – to provide stronger, more resilient, and diversified variations of established enemy types. However, after three Master Chief-centric game appearances by the creatures (not to mention as a Halo Wars faction), The Flood began to look more like a franchise hold-over – without any significant evolution or story function.
While some players enjoyed the parasites’ final campaign appearance in Halo 3, many gamers were ready to see the franchise move on – or, at the very least, significantly mix-up The Flood format. 343 Industries listened and promised that, while Halo 4 follows the events of the prior trilogy, the new installment wouldn’t actually include The Flood as campaign enemy types. However, when a new image of revamped Flood infectees appeared online, gamers began to wonder if the enemies might actually make a return after all.
However, CVG reports that, as promised, The Flood will not appear in the campaign but will be included as part of a multiplayer mode, “Flood,” which is a variation of Halo‘s long-running “Infection” game type. In Halo 4, the Flood variant is a 10 player mode where two gamers start out as Flood troops and attempt to spread the infection to the remaining competitors.
Details are still scarce on the “Flood” game variant but, whether or not the inclusion of the characters is just a fun (cosmetic) fan-service nod, or a core design element that hints at a deeper “Infection” game type, the updated models are definitely cool looking. In-campaign interest in The Flood may have worn thin over the years but, if “Flood” is purely cosmetic, the parasitic enemy type could still lend itself to an enjoyable change of pace in Halo 4‘s Spartan Ops – fingers crossed.
Check out the Halo 4 Flood below (along with images of new vehicles, the Mammoth armored transport and Mantis mech, as well as sneak peeks at improved character designs, multiplayer armor customizations, etc):
Fans who appreciated The Flood “twist” in the original Halo game might be worried that 343 Industries intends to turn Master Chief and Company into just another military shooter clone. In some cases, established franchises have significantly switched up their format in an attempt to appeal to the enormous Call of Duty customer base – Capcom has previously stated that the survival horror market was too small for Resident Evil.
That said, in a recent with CVG, Halo franchise development director, Frank O’Connor, reassured fans that even though the studio is making changes to the series, “We haven’t tried to chase that tail. Those games are good for specific reasons, and Halo is good for a different set of specific reasons [...] I think the closest we’ve come to that conversation about Call of Duty, is that we wanted to have an amazing player progression experience that wasn’t just aesthetics.”
Given the look of that mech in the screenshots, it’d be a lot easier to draw comparisons between Halo and the Metal Gear (or possibly Mass Effect) series. Kidding aside, Halo 4 is shaping up to be a worthy followup – and, assuming they pull it off, the 343 team will have walked a very fine line between what came before and planning for Halo‘s future. The studio’s focus on delivering the best Halo game experience possible is definitely encouraging and, despite a lot of trepidation during the Bungie-343 handoff, it’s hard to imagine that fans will ultimately be disappointed by the final result.
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Follow me on Twitter @benkendrick for further updates on Halo 4 as well as other movie, TV, and gaming news.
Halo 4 launches on November 6th, exclusively for Xbox 360.
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First off, I frickin hate the flood. I’m annoyed that they are back in the 4th one. Second off, saying that 343 is trying to make MP sort of like CoD makes my skepticism and furosity sky rocket. I want Halo to be and most importantly feel like Halo.
Are you seriously that retarded? Their bringing back the flood to multiplayer. So, instead of playing as a spartan with a sword, you play as a flood. If you seriously think that’s retarded, then your an idiot…
Hey reject,he said specifically in the article that the flood are not making a return to the campaign and that they are NOT trying to clone CoD.
“We haven’t tried to chase that tail. Those games are good for specific reasons, and Halo is good for a different set of specific reasons [...] I think the closest we’ve come to that conversation about Call of Duty, is that we wanted to have an amazing player progression experience that wasn’t just aesthetics.”
You might want to read the article next time.
Lol I never said anything about campaign. All I said was I hate the flood. Maybe both of you should respect peoples opinions more. I mean really, I cannot believe you have a fit because I’ve shared my oppinion. I don’t usually say this but you’re a special case, grow the f*ck up.
“‘Halo 4′ images reveal vehicles and the return of series antagonist, The Flood (in a new multiplayer mode). Plus 343 Industries promises a ‘Call of Duty’ like progression experience.” If anything, its gamerants fault for making a misleading description in the post (no offence). My bad for misunderstanding.
Am I the only one that thinks it doesn’t look visually appealing?
I always thought the Halo universe was bland looking. Looks like generic scenery we’ve seen plenty of times before.
Blame studios like EA, after Mass Effect 1 was so pretty ME 2 was a gritty mess and it made the game (to me) much less epic. Good story don’t misunderstand, but less epic. Halo 3 was BEAUTIFUL!!!! Explosions were the best thing to pan around in the Theatre, and killing a Scarab was friggin awesome!! Such a beautiful moment. But when Reach came out…something went sideways. And then Anniversary. Seriously NOT quite right, the game industry seems to be making uglier graphics these days. I hope they stop it already, we are not playing Halo live! Its not supposed to make us think of 1000 years in the future this will be the story! Its a game, make it look pretty!
Im dissapointed that i still have no idea what happened to halsey, frank and kelly after onyx. Hopefully they add some plot elements relating to onyx in their future games.
People will hate Halo 4 for several reasons. Hardcore fans of the original will say it’s too streamlined with it’s progression system, but what O’Connor says makes sense: “We wanted to have an amazing player progression experience that wasn’t just aesthetics.” Call of Duty wasn’t the first game to provide game-changing unlocks with rank, and it’s definitely not the best.
People will also hate Halo 4 for the sole fact that it isn’t being made by Bungie. However, if you took the same game, handed it to one of these people, and just told them it was by Bungie, they would love it. Everyone that has played it, including many MLG players and Rooster Teeth (who makes their living off of the game), says the game still feels like Halo, so why does it matter who’s developing it?
Lastly, there are those that will hate Halo just for the sake of hating Halo. People, even today, hate Call of Duty, but many of these people just hate it to fit in with others. When broken down, Call of Duty isn’t a bad game. It’s not amazing, and it certainly shouldn’t be annualized, but it’s a solid game nonetheless. There are plenty of reasons for disliking the game, however. What I don’t understand is that 343 is taking a couple things from Call of Duty and people are reacting negatively, but none of the things they are taking are bad. They removed the annoying respawn timer, added a progression system that people will care about, and added custom loadouts. The only thing I can see complaining about is the custom loadouts, but if you think about it, it’s not that bad. None of the starting guns are better than another, but they are all used for different playstyles. At the beginning of a Halo 3 match, many people would race to get the Battle Rifle, Plasma Rifle, etc. just because that’s the gun they preferred to use. 343 is cutting that part of the battle out and just giving the guns to the players to start with. Why is that such a bad thing?
Yeah I never undrstood that either i really started disliking Call of Duty after MW2, because i thought the multiplayer was way too cartoony for the type of game COD traditionally was.
So I lost all enthusiam for the series after that, but everyone else still seemed to like it so whatever, then all of a sudden not liking COD becomes cool and people vehemiantly criticise it to the point of saying it’s terrible.
Now I don’t play these game much but I tried MW3 Multiplayer at my Borther in laws house the other week and it seemed decent.
And thats what I don’t get I stopped liking it and thought it was okay but not the greatest game ever like people were claiming it was, now it’s still ok an people are calling it s***?
Thats a mob mentality for you.
I always thought the living dead/infection game mode would make more sense if the infected were the flood. It would be awesome if they could get that to work.
um thats exactly what this is.. lol
There are MECHS in this game!!!!! I just noticed! I need to figure out if I love or hate that, because Mechwarrior will always be the premier Mech piloting game for me, but if this is done right….the possibilities are enticing!
I noticed that too, and like you im not sure whether thats good or bad.
Yeah, an element like that really changes a battlefield, if they make their way to multiplayer it would skew the entire thing. 343 must have a plan for them though, I just don’t want it to feel like Halo meets Mechassualt because those games were INSULTING to the Mech universe.