The TV adaptation of Halo has received mixed reviews. Viewers going into the show without knowing anything about the game seem to enjoy it more. There are fans of the series that also enjoy it to some degree. Then others think it might have been a waste of time.
As is always the case with video game adaptations into movies and shows, the fanbase is split. The overall review narrative is not important. The Halo TV series finally did something that companies have been trying for years. It’s a miracle it even came out at all. There are more things to like about season one as well and not even the haters would disagree. There will be some spoilers.
6 The Covenant
The CG in the show varied in quality. When the Covenant were on their own, they looked great. CG next to CG rarely looks bad unless the budget is critically low. Halo received ten million dollars an episode so it’s easy to tell where a lot of that cash went. The best-looking Covenant members were the Prophets. The show nailed their design, way of speaking, and even their floating chairs.
Getting the Covenant right was the first step to success. Fans need to see a good villain to root against. While the plotlines involving the Covenant and Makee were a bit confusing, at least they mostly looked good. Again, when shown next to non-CG things, their quality took a dip. The designs are still overall positive.
5 The Spartan Armor
The production designers could have taken the easy route and made Master Chief and the other Spartans CG models along with the Covenant. Most action sequences involving a lot of intricate melee fights involved CG without a doubt. That still doesn’t detract from the fact that the Spartan costumes looked authentic.
Master Chief and the others weren’t as tall as they seem in the game series. They are practically giants in them. The scale shown next to normal humans is decent enough though. Making the armor any taller or heavier might have made it more impossible for the actors to walk around. It’s easy to forget that these actors aren't really super-soldiers who have trained their bodies to haul around literal tons of armor.
4 The Technology
The Spartan armor looks great but that is only the tip of the iceberg as far as the design goes. The weapons also deserve some praise from the Needler to the UNSC sniper rifle. The overall technology in Halo looks great. There are a couple of new gadgets that the show adds to the lore as well. For example, one of the coolest and most coveted weapons in the series is the Energy Swords.
Makee has a blade similar to them embedded into her fingernail. She can use it as an assassin any time she wants to. There is also the trolly system on Soren’s homeworld of Rubble. When the trolly changes tracks, it produces robot arms to grab hold of a new wire. Halo has always been a good sci-fi video game and it’s great that the show continues the high science vibes with its own set of flourishes.
3 The Violence
The first episode of the show is the bloodiest in the pack. It sets the tone for the violence level viewers are going to see. Sometimes video games get their ratings changed when being adapted to other media. Halo has always been a Mature-rated video game series. It’s not for nudity or swearing. It’s for the violence. It’s great that the show doesn’t have to hold back in this adaptation.
Kwan Ha’s friends get obliterated by the Covenant when they discover their mine in episode one. One person gets their leg blown off while another literally gets cut in two. It was shocking, to say the least, but it was a good shock. It would have been great if the rest of the series got as bloody but it still deserves praise overall.
2 The Cities
With the questionable amount of CG at work with the Covenant in the Halo TV series, it’s a miracle the cities look so good. One of the coolest locations that doesn’t get shown enough is Rubble. This is the asteroid that Soren lives on. Whether he’s the one that created the city or not doesn’t matter.
It’s a wonderland of ingenuity. Most of the up-close frames show off smaller locations like inside homes or in alleyways. Still, as an overall location, the design work is literally out of this world. The various UNSC bases and cities also deserve some praise. If the locations are this impressive in season one then hopefully the Halo Array will look just as impressive in season two.
1 First-Person Mode
There are quite a few callbacks to the video games in the TV show. For example, in most fights involving Master Chief, the camera will go into a first-person perspective. This Halo TV adaptation is not the only first-person shooter to do this. The DOOM film also had some first-person bits toward the end.
How they are implemented in this TV show is far better than the DOOM movie though. The camera angles don’t linger in this mode for too long. Each shot is a few seconds at best. It’s just a taste for fans to get excited in the heat of battle. They would be just as excited if they were playing the games. So, while not original, these camera techniques do make the show more fun.