There is a Flood Coming

                Marines are the angry guard dogs of the United States of America.  They are brutally trained and taught to carry out orders under the harshest conditions so that when we need them they can deliver with gusto.  To break a marine and have him cowering in fear should be a near impossible task.  In “Halo: Combat Evolved” you are introduced to a broken marine that brings about a surprisingly scary moment for the futuristic shooter.

One of the best shooters ever made.

                In the level 343 Guilty Spark, Master Chief is assigned the task of finding out what happened to Captain Keyes.  The Captain was investigating a covenant weapon cache he found out about earlier when he was captured, but his last transmission was over twelve hours ago.  Something gravely wrong has happened and it is up to the Chief to find Keyes and bring him home safely.

The missing captain getting his sneer on.

                As the mission opens you are greeted with a most unusual sight from the safety of a Pelican.  On the ground can be seen a large force of Covenant troops hurriedly running away from an unseen enemy.  For such a fearsome army to be running away, it leaves an ominous feeling over the mission that only continues to grow as your progress.  There are frequent times where outlines of enemies can be seen in the fog of the swamp and that red dots pop-up on your radar only to disappear a moment later.  It builds a constant sense of tension that sky rockets when you run into a marine who literally might have peed his pants.

A fly over of the eerie swamp in 343 Guilty Spark.

                When I turned a corner midway through the level I ran into an area blasted with gunfire and scorch marks.  There against a wall sat a lone marine pointing his pistol at the door. "Stay back! Stay back, you're not turning me into one of those things! I'll blow your brains out! Get away from me,” yelled the marine.  He proceeded to shoot warning shots at me while he yelled more nonsensical things my way, "Gaaaaahh! Aaaaaahh! Don't touch me, you freaks! I won't be like you, I'll die first! Find your own hiding place, the monsters are everywhere!"  This sends the ever building tension through the roof.  What the hell could this man have seen that was even more terrifying than the Covenant forces they have been fighting for years?  A few minutes later I found the answer, and it was not a good one.

The paranoid marine takes a shot at the Chief. Poor choice.

                A few hallways after the frightened marine I came upon a door that was recently opened by a UNSC spoofer ( kind of like a hacking device to open electronic doors in the game).  Just as I was about to open the door, a cutscene begins and an odd slithering kind of noise is heard behind the Chief and he turns around ready to shoot, but he sees nothing.  The Chief continues on and uses the spoofer to open the door.  When the door opens, the body of Manuel Mendoza falls into his arms.  After advancing a few paces, the Chief places Mendoza softly on the ground and scans the room.  He finds a helmet with the name “JENKINS” on it in bold letters, removes the helmet recording chip from it, and places it in his own to see what happened.

Every fiber of my being wishes Jenkins' first name was Leeroy.

A recording of Jenkins’s last mission plays.  It shows his team approaching the facility you are currently in and running across some similarly odd occurrences.  "Something...scrambled the insides,” says a marine as he examines the dead body of a Sangheili Elite.  It isn’t plasma burns or bullet holes, something else appears to have killed the Elite.  All hell breaks loose on the video after you watch them use the spoofer and enter the room the Chief currently occupies.

An oddly mutilated Elite body. "Alien" anybody?

"I've got a bad feeling about this.." says Mendoza.  “Boy, you always got a bad feelin' about something,” responds Sergeant Johnson.  A radio transmission full of static breaks up the conversation as the troops above ground report to Captain Keyes about being attacked by an unknown force.  They are being easily overrun.  At the same time as the frantic radio broadcast, the odd slithering noise that the Chief heard reappears and grows in intensity.  The marines are now on edge and the tension is hitting its peak.  Then a marine yells, "Everywhere... I don't - there! (Spanish) ¡Mira!" (Look!),” and a door explodes in front of the marines with a new alien force comes rushing in the room from all openings.  The force is called the Flood and easily overpowers all members of the team and the transmission dies.

Johnson and Keyes back to back as things get crazy.

As the Chief tosses the recording chip from his helmet, the Flood begin to poor in from all sides and the fight is on.  I regained control and began firing frantically at this new foe.  The Flood are terrifying, parasitic creatures that fight in large masses.  The main forces are comprised of tiny squid-like puff creatures that will attach on to a host and tear out their insides until they gain control of the dead body.  They take control the corpses of all fallen creatures and use them as a host.  The rest of the level is spent trying to escape from these monsters as hordes of them pour out of every crevice killing anything in their path.  It is obvious now why the marines and Covenant forces earlier were so terrified: the aptly named Flood are a force that cannot be stopped.

Jellyfish from hell.

This is how the Flood are introduced in the first Halo game and I was surprised that the game actually managed to be quite scary.  The way that the game builds the tension and intrigue around this new foe is extremely effective; when it gives you control after the cinematic it is a beautifully frantic experience that makes the Flood seem like a truly terrifying force.  I’m fairly convinced that Bungie could create a full blown horror game if they wanted to but that is beside the point.  The first appearance of the Flood is one of the greatest moments in the Halo series and I absolutely love it.
Love Halo?  Hate the Flood?  Let me know what you think in the comments section!  Also, be sure to check out the YouTube video of the paranoid marine and Jenkins cinematic below!