Subscribe: ruclips.net/user/BenPlaysGames Support the channel: www.patreon.com/ben_plays_games Pending a Combat Evolved remake/remaster, this will be my final piece covering 343 Guilty Spark specifically. It's been a pleasure.
my theory on the Crashed Pelican is its 2nd squads pelican and its just landed already as the cam from jenkins show it on the grounld be it doesnt look crashed from were the camacas angled. or it landed on an even terrain and its stuck in the swamp and didnt get unstuck before it got attacked. also as for why keys isnt in jenkins cam keys is most likely in the cockpit at the time they land.
It's possible that the grunts and jackals were hiding in rooms throughout the facility and the Flood were ok with leaving there as they were hoping to ambush the humans coming in. After the ambush is sprung, either the remaining Covenant see this as an opportunity to escape or are also attacked and forced to flee. Would explain that one container where we a couple of Marines and Jackals made a final stand together.
That could be true, and I don't think there's any right or wrong answer regarding this point in particular and we simply don't have enough information. We do know that Covenant were definitely trying to hide at some point before the facility really gets overrun, although not exactly when, thanks to the barricaded room adjacent to the hallway covered in blood.
I like the idea that the extra grunts and jackals are reinforcements. Though in my head I’ve always thought they were the remaining troopers retreating from the lower levels of the facility. If you’re fast enough the covenant before entering the second elevator can be seen running out of that door. And they are the last of the covenant you encounter who are alive. And so I’ve thought they were doing what everyone else was doing, trying to get back to the surface.
You missed one small but important detail, AFTER this point in the Books Zuka' Zamamee and a lesser prophet talked about how the previously alive (now Beheaded) Commander had actually released the flood prior to chief by breaking into the facility, this is backed by Guilty Spark during the library when he says "I summize this is the result of the `other species` attempting to gain Access to restricted areas on the ring". The best guess is that the covenant who were wide spread across the ring as humanity were trying to regroup in the early levels of the game's timeline had already broken into the facility.
This is why Lament for PvT Jenkins remains one of the most chilling soundtracks of all time. It induces fear, mystery. 343 guilty spark for me is one of the best campaign missions of all time. Everything just perfectly executed.
One thing worth mentioning is that there are areas of the facility which you don't have access to during your playthrough. It is presumable that these are other containment areas or places for the covenant/flood/humans to hide in while the events of the game transpire.
Crashed Pelican was maybe an oversight, meant to be deleted when the reveal cutscene started or out of frame during it. Johnson's clips through branches, so maybe that path was sloppily made and never corrected for the latter choice if the firmer wasn't the plan.
I agree. The original graphics were a lot more foggy so they probably thought it was hidden enough. They were rushed when making the game and had to cut a lot of corners resulting in a number of oversights like this
There's always the chance that's the case. However, it and other inconsistencies are all shown on screen, so it's fun trying to piece it all together given it is information provided directly to you. I'd guess there are a ton of things in 343 Guilty Spark especially that Bungie didn't fully think through, given the ridiculous amount of environmental storytelling packed into its 25 minutes.
I dont believe its an oversight, since removing it for the cutscene was not difficult to do, and they would not need to respawn it, since we dont get there after the cutscene. They already did this on silent cartographer, where when you finish the mission, before the cutscene starts, it removes all the AI from the map, so if they could do this, they could remove a single pelican easier. Except if they forgot to do it (thats a possibility)
Regarding the inconsistencies about Sgt Johnson, he wasn't officially a named character until Halo 2. In Halo CE, he was treated just like the other Marines and thus Bungie just put his model in the flood reveal cutscene to make it more interesting.
I think the Covenant being within the facility was nothing more than them being ordered to lock it down until a spec-ops team could be deployed. It's interesting that there are no Elites among them which means that either every single one of them were assimilated or a couple escaped and gave orders to the fodder while they called for reinforcements as seen by the downed Spirit. So what likely happened is that the Covenant found the Flood (as referenced in the end of AotCR), tried to contain it but just scattered through the facility, Johnson and his squad then fought through that set of enemies only to be ambushed by the Flood after Keyes and second squad arrived. The pelican could've been downed by say a rocket flood on the ground as well as the Spirit that dropped the remaining covenant reinforcements that went in after the first group and after the humans infiltrated in a poor attempt at some sort of quarantine while the Elites in the chain of command figure out what to do and Master Chief comes bumbling in unknowingly eliminating any leftover resistance the Flood had. Not that any resistance mattered anyway because the Flood was in control the entire time after they were released and were simply letting the survivors live so that higher value prey such as officers, commandos and possibly even a Spartan shows up.
One of the things Guilty Spark says as you wander through the Library is he speculates the Covenant were the ones that accidentally released the Flood, since they're all over Halo and playing with any and all controls they have the ability to interact with. The controls humans specifically can only access around any of these forerunner facilities, on Halo's, the ARK or other specific planets, seems to primarily only be in relation to accessing weapons and/or turning the Halo rings themselves on. So if for some reason controls that kept the Flood contained weren't considered weapon related, then sure, the Covenant could easily accidentally get it open with their over eagerness to get this Great Journey started.
Well also keep in mind the covenant are not only stupid advanced but worship the forerunners as gods. It would not surprise if their culture had massive grasp and rudimentary understanding of Fore tech. That being said they clealry would only think as far as "we found a new holy artifact!" Instead of "what the fuck could this thing do? Is a gun? A book? Hmmm...."
Likely just those particular few that got separated from their respective teams and chanced upon each other. Unfortunately got corned by a far more terrifying threat and we went out together in one final desperate effort to survive.
They did, but we don't know when or the circumstances surrounding it. It could have happened when The Flood attacked Keyes and the rest, it could have been much later. There were jackals around when Master Chief arrived, but the two squads who entered 12 hours earlier didn't seem to see any Covenant alive (as far as we can tell).
@@BenPlaysGames we don't know the full extent of the facility, there's many doors we can't get into, so it's entirely possible for the two groups to not encounter one another until the flood are loose. Either way, it's a point towards the latter option where the original covenant force survived somewhat.
A lore video. You’re a true Halo RUclipsr now. HiddenXperia, et. al. watch out! I think there’s a room for many in this space though, and you certainly bring your own unqiue perspective to it! Thanks for the video as always. As for me: I don’t have a single interpretation of it, I think it differs everytime I play it, and with CE in particular I tend to focus more on the vibe than the overall story anyway (kinda reminds me of Quake in that way).
No wozzas, Torb! I doubt lore stuff will become a regular as it's just not my bag, but did definitely enjoy making this one. Maybe, one day, I'll do a few more.
6:25 I don't think the pelican is really receiving comms from inside the structure, it sounds more like someone recorded the message for the pelican to play so that they can be found while they head to the structure as it's easier to defend than out in the open swamp. If they went in without setting a message explaining where they went it'd be more difficult for rescuers to find them
I'm pretty sure it's a message from inside the facility. Likely one of the marine survivors we find later on. It was probably made via short range radio which is why only that Pelican just barely picked it up. They were probably hoping that any nearby forces would eventually pick up on that message and come help. The Marines in the facility probably didn't even know that the Pelican was downed in the swamp in the first place.
I feel like the unexplained props/bullet holes in the cutscenes are a result of in-engine cutscenes. It's more efficient to reuse the same bsp/textures than swap them out. When you consider that Halo was originally released at a time where games were rendered at low resolutions and most people were playing on CRTs, it's likely that Bungie figured most people wouldn't notice and thus didnt spend the time/resources to create clean versions for some short cutscenes.
I also want to point out that in the terminals and game it’s implied that the flood were already released before the Pillar of Autumn even landed- the covenant managed to contain them briefly with the silent cartographer security room which is why it was so heavily defended. It wasn’t to prevent the marines from accessing the control room but rather to keep the flood as contained as possible. Also the covenant Ai in the 2nd or 3rd terminal talks with guilty spark about the covenant releasing the flood and even shows an elite being infected. It’s also stated that the covenant arrived way before the autumn. So it’s not hard to understand that they may have already released the flood. The covenant also lost 2 cruisers that went to the surface of the halo to recover artifacts before the autumn arrived. That’s likely why their fleet was not fully deployed to the surface of the ring.
The Covenant has encountered the Flood before the UNSC, all the way back in Halo Wars and possibly even further, and they actually made it back to report on the parasite unlike the Spirit of Fire That footage pulled up by the Covenant AI could just as likely be archive of an Elite getting infected at another Forerunner installation
@@konahrikb1578 that I didn’t consider but if that was the case they would have been more prepared or cautious about where they went. Since it’s never truly confirmed that the chief is responsible for taking the security systems offline we really don’t know when the flood attacked. I want to believe they were released before the autumn arrived. Also that Ai made it very clear that it did not care about the covenant either.
@@slicer940 Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if some idiot opened the door to the cells containing the Flood on the off chance that it held the Index or something that would start the Great Journey. The Covenant are religious Zealots, and their zeal would blind some to make very poor choices. Meanwhile, the ones that aren't blinded by faith have to deal with the consequences.
With the amount of human flood you come across in 343 GS and The Library, and with how important the "cache" was, there were probably more human units operating in the area than just Keyes and Johnson's squads, probably at least a platoon or two.
Hold on a minute. Downed pelican in the swamp that is neither Johnson’s nor Keyes’. And bullet holes in the flood quarantine room? Could there be another marine squad that fell prey to the Flood before Johnson’s arrival?
My knowledge of lore outside the games is nowhere near as good as some people's, so it may be that another squad was sent there before even Keyes and the rest. I have seen nothing that suggests that was the case, though.
These are almost certainly just a result of the game using in-engine cutscenes. The same level the player walks through is used for the cutscene taking place 12 hours earlier. So that's why the same things are there. The Pelican is almost impossible to see on the original graphics, and the bullet holes being shown is probably just an oversight by Bungie.
Or maybe a pelican loaded with marines leaving the Autumn crashed in the swamp and lost contact with the other survivors, got captured or killed by the Covenant who unwittingly released the Flood the first time, and then raised by the Flood along with the Elites.
Some of Lovik's squad escaped to the surface - those you meet towards the end - so it's not inconceivable others got trapped along the way, as they're close to the elevator that takes you outside.
From my understanding the jackals and grunts you find before the section with Jenkins's recording were just the survivors that escaped while their Elite commanders were infected (hence why they're so disorganized and lack a coherent strategy behind just finding a corner and hiding - they lost their commanding officers). It's likely that the squads just didn't come into contact because it's a large facility. There are multiple doors that we can't access in game that may have been unlocked earlier on and that's where those Covenant were while Keyes and Johnson were progressing through the facility. Also we know that the Marines and Covenant did come in contact not long after things went south because we find the bodies of the Marines and Jackals who made a hasty alliance farther down in the facility. We do also find a few surviving Marines later on in the level that are just as disorganized as their Covenant counterparts.
It’s in the book or some other media that says chief is the 3rd time they’ve sent rescue ops to the captain so I think the guys waiting out in the swamp are from one of the two rescue squads they sent after losing contact with the captain.
From the intro questions the only one I found no answer to prior to this video is why the flood didn't attack chief, in my honest deep lore and logic I say the reason is memories, the former covenants memories the flood have taken thymey all know who this man is and therefore the flood were scared at the beginning so they observed first and then attacked
2:15 Games trump the books, Games are THE canon (yep including the Fall of Reach, GAME is the canon). The books can be considered canon until a game says otherwise. I did enjoy this one, keep up the good content!
Mentioning the flood novel, I found they made a lot of arbitrary and unneeded changes to the story within those pages. One of the most glaring issues is how Chief comes across a dead marine in the Library (0 chance he could have ever made it there on his own) and Chief post-humously calls him a "Badass motherfucker" or something along those lines. I cringed out of my skin and struggled to keep reading after that lol.
I think it was “badass son of a bitch” and yeah i cringed too 🤣 i loved the concept of Mobuto, the fallen soldier, but hated the dialogue. The Library’s storytelling was frustrating and rushed in the book, IMO
@@faefiercevulpine6990 Glad I'm not alone lol. They did add some nice insight into Chief's mind though, how the flood genuinely terrified him. Gave us a rare bit of vulnerability under all that Mjolnir.
YES there were many things i did like about the book, and things i didn’t. I had hoped there’d be a little more interaction with Spark, such as him maybe offering some condolence for Chief’s grim discovery of Mobuto. Since in game 3 he shows compassion to Chief for losing Cortana at the time. Or even just Spark asking if Chief needed medical attention (a great not to his side dialogue in the engine room on the Autumn). Idk, it just lacked. But Chief experiencing fear? ✨chef’s kiss✨
I think the devs just wanted a lot of different creepy elements for this level and didn’t really think about how it would tell a disjointed story with all the different pieces (random gunshots in the beginning, downed pelican, covenant running away, dead covenant and marines, long time between Keye’s last radio transmission)
At 5:50 when you state that master chief inadvertantly causes the floods released reminded me of how Samus does the same with the X parasites and the SA-X. It would make a lot of sense and that's the most terrifying part
Could you imagine, if they remade the 1st halo like the rumors suggest, you’re driving through a landing zone of one of the lost cruisers so there’s just a covenant cruiser sitting above you as close as logically possible as you drive or walk and fight underneath it.
I assume the inconsistencies with the Jenkins footage are mostly due to Bungie being on a time crunch and not removing the assets from the map when making the Jenkins cutscene.
My theory is that the flood facility functions similar to a Faraday cage to prevent electromagnetic signals from leaving it. This is why communication was impossible, considering the level of physics research the Forerunners were probably capable of. Furthermore, the covenant probably maintained an extensive garrison there, since it was a very important part of the installation. I am genuinely unsure if the swamp outside has Flood biology, but the facility is rather concealed from the air by the swamp. I’m not sure to whose benefit, but I’m also sure that everything was revealed at the cartographer, which is very confusing as to why they did not know about this. I do believe that the covenant had to send a lot of reinforcements to contain this area me if I’m not mistaken to to as well as his military staff would realize the extreme importance of containing the flood and an attempt to wipe them out (hence “bad ass elite unit”). However, they were not exactly sure that they were engaging with humans, and I’m sure that the flood found a way out of the multiple entrances. Since the flood was already out of the facility when Chief arrived, i’m also sure that the flood was quickly expanding its territory on the ring and acquiring heavy equipment all the time.
In the room with the dead marines and jackals side by side there is another dead marine and a health kit on top of a much higher platform hidden in a dark corner of the room.
I always enjoy watching your halo content, makes me want to replay the games again even if it has only been two months. There's so much potential when it comes to halo spin off games, a ton of lore and locations we've never experienced. I wish that one day we would get massive expansions for all 3 games, a ''halo re-imagined'' expansion for halo ce, halo 2 and halo 3 with the inclusion of cut levels and content that we never got to experience.
3rd comment 10:05- I want to believe that that covenant that the chief encounters were either hiding in the structure or were indeed reinforcements dropped off by the downed spirit drop ship. Because it’s there when the chief is walking through but not when the marines first arrived. That could explain why some covenant were outside. Those were the rear guard of the drop ship which is why all of their weapons are pointed inwards towards the doorways rather than outwards towards the elevators. It may also explain why no elites were present with those reinforcements. They likely needed all the muscle they could spare and guarding an entrance is something a few grunts and jackals should be able to do.
At 5:06 and want to start a thread that you probably won’t read. But this mission still makes me ask so many questions and honestly I don’t like playing it alone. I’m 27 now. The pelican in the swamp being there when the marines land is just an asset Bungie probably couldn’t delete for the cutscene seeing as it’s rendered in game. You can move objects and they’ll show up in the cutscenes (it’s fun with cursed halo). I’ve been saying it for years but the flood did a beautiful job luring in the marines and later chief. I also think 2nd squad advanced into the structure too. They didn’t guard the entrance. There’s not enough evidence to show that. There’s plenty more evidence to show that they entered with Keyes but likely held down a doorway a few rooms before the one the ambush takes place In. I say this because the flood likely know if they attack outside, the marines can call for help and try to evacuate. The crew of the 2nd squad pelican likely ran into the structure after being taken down by the flood. They say this much over the radio. So by the time Keyes and both squads took the elevator down, their coms are immediately cut upon entering the facility. What I always asked myself is how big was 2nd squad because it seems to be a usually large unit. I also doubt you’d just send 2 squads with the commander of all of the human forces. That’s like taking a president into the Middle East with 10 security guards. I don’t think Bungie used properly military unit terms. Because you find plenty of marines alive and dead. It’s safe to say that at least 2 platoons -30 to 60 marines were present during this attack and likely 3 drop ships involved with the last one being taken down by the flood.
The Flood consume all and Ben Plays Games reads all. I enjoyed reading this and your other couple of comments mate. I must confess, I completely forgot to look at the terminals as part of this (I forget they exist sometimes) so anything I say that contradicts them is entirely creator error! We can be 100% sure too that the Covenant already knew of The Flood prior to the events of Combat Evolved too. Agree with you regarding how bonkers letting Keyes go to the swamp was too. I simply cannot see any way that ends well, or concludes with a result different from one the UNSC would have achieved by simply sending in a load of marines.
@@BenPlaysGames I know it’s probably for gameplay’s sake but in Halo 1 and 2 I’ve always questioned how the flood had so many human and elite combat forms. Like I’m sure you can kill more human combat forms than there are humans deployed on both Halo’s. I always hope that one day it gets addressed properly but even the books don’t address it. I like to think in Halo 2 that meant to have infected forerunners but just didn’t have the time to put them in.
Your explanation is really well thought through and is the best I've heard at "reconciling the truth" (sorry... too easy a pun to make) with regards to what actually happened. I'm just not sure why the flood would lure a single solider into the installation. If they knew the Chief was a super solider that was a threat who needed to be eliminated, then I guess that makes sense (perhaps something learned from assimilating Keys or indeed any of the marines, beforehand). But if they didn't know who the Chief was, it seems like a waste of effort. For me, the very name "Flood" nearly implies a lack of intelligence (nearly the opposite to Star Trek's Borg). It's not about planning, or a well thought out goal. It's about being overwhelmed by a macro virus that doesn't think or plan or plot. It just consumes. Although I guess the gravemind kinda pokes a whole in that theory (#downwiththeborgqueen). Anyways, just my 2 cents - brilliant video as always :D
Nice one Steven, appreciate it! While the Flood are dumb to begin with, they do gain intelligence as they grow in numbers. They had a plan originally, which worked, and after consuming marines they would have known of Master Chief and planned accordingly with an even better trap. The fact they leave so many more breadcrumbs the second time which still ultimately lead to the same outcome (an attack in that big room) speaks to that.
It's likely the Flood were still in the Feral stage, unless they could communicate with the Gravemind on Delta Halo, so they were using the facility as a trap for the time being. This new perspective makes me think of the trapdoor spider, letting its prey get close before jumping out and snatching it up.
I have to respectfully disagree. The Flood are never dumb. Even in the Feral Stage they are AT LEAST, as intelligent as their hosts, and still have a goal of coalescing into a Proto-Gravemind. From there on, they are extremely coordinated and will immediately seek to spread to other worlds after completely overrunning whatever space they’re in first, or course, from the smallest germination, to the greatest harvest. At the height of their power, they could drown entire worlds with spores in moments, shatter megastructures and worlds with no over-exertion on their part, and began to infect the very fabric of space and living-time, bending reality to it’s will. One of the Forerunners last message was “The Flood is no idiot parasite. NO SIMPLE INFECTION TO BE CURED AND CAUTERIZED It has a center, a Mind AND THAT DISCOVERY GAVE US A WAY TO FIGHT IT BUT WHEN THE MIND REALIZED WE HAD ITS MEASURE it spoke to us MOCKINGLY, DISMISSIVELY It has done this before ELSEWHERE.”
@@stevenm588 I hadn't considered that. I'm starting to think the name "Feral stage" is misleading, because it implies that the Flood are little more than animals at the time. Luring victims into a trap like this with bait and breadcrumbs requires a higher level of intelligence.
@@konahrikb1578i dont know i think of it as "Feral" because the main objective of the flood i as an animal pack to seek for food. That said many animals (specially those who work in packs) tend to actually put a lot of strategy to hunt big preys, like lions trying to sneak their prey as they sorround it and separate its objective from the rest of its herd. In summary i think the "Feral" comes because the plans of the flood are limited to obtain resources as efectibly as posibble, instead of the grand long term planning we see protograveminds and graveminds do that sometimes are done with hundreds of years of anticipation.
idk why but after all these years when keyes radios that he's still in route to the objective, it never occurred to me that he was talking about the 343 guilty spark level
Another question. How did the flood infection forms manage to break down the doors in those adjacent rooms? One thing I also noticed was that there was no biomass spreading inside. Unless theoretically within those containments, they could‘ve had quantum translocators inside where from there Flood Combat Forms would assist in breaking down the doors and shortly after teleported elsewhere within the facility to then prepare for the next attack against Master Chief after dealing with the remaining infection forms breaking the door we’ve just used to enter where Johnson, Keyes, and the rest of the Marines were last present as the Flood broke free.
I like this video it answers questions before putting them all together. I think you should a video like this on how the truth and reconciliation ship crashed leading into the events of the level Keyes plus adding to what happened afterwords. I'll be posting my next comment at a later date answering how all this played out leading to the flood outbreak on installation 04
At some point, I want to do an analysis of environmental storytelling in Combat Evolved as there's a surprising amount. Things like how where some of the marines end up during Assault on the Control Room matches where human combat forms can later be found during Two Betrayals etc.
@@BenPlaysGames Talking about the room you encounter after taking the down the elevator with the infection forms on it huh? Yes, i would love an investigation on this aswell!!!
As usual quality content Ben, I enjoy this type of videos! I think your interpretation of it its fair and most likely what happened. I saw Halo CE is getting a remake! Let's hope they nail this mission and make it way scarier and with more detail!
man i'm so glad you continue making halo videos I am getting worried by you diversifying (which you should continue of course halo is unstable career) but I only watch your halo videos haha their just so good
My theory has always been that this isn’t the containment facility. This is an ingress point to The Library, which is the containment facility. This place looks mostly like a barracks for soldiers rather than a prison or even containment facility. The elevators hang over insanely deep shafts where we never see a “bottom”. To me, this indicates that they might go all the way to The Library. If you even look at the elevator rooms… one ingress point. Single line only. Makes these locations easy to fight the flood at, unless it’s the surface level. I think the Covenant made it into the library, opened one of the shielded tanks and got infected. From that point onward, they were trying to escape back out of the Facility they entered from. Even the “ambush room” might have been a last stand situation. The covenant might have locked it down from inside to keep the Flood out. But, it did not work. I also assume the guns firing at the front of the facility were marines, not flood. We never see Flood ever throw or use grenades, yet the Covenant running away clearly have grenades thrown at them and detonated. The downed Pelican at the beginning may have been an initial recon squad trying to find the facility and it was shot down by covenant. It is also worth noting that the Downed covenant dropship wasn’t present when Keyes arrived, either. The covenant likely downed that to prevent spread of the Flood. The covenant currently on site are likely left for dead and the last of the group that went into the library. As for why the Flood doesn’t attack us on sight? We’re wearing a combat skin. Guilty Spark says so in The Library. He recommends we upgrade to at least a Class 12. He also mistakes us for Forerunner while we wear it. It’s possible the Flood thought we were Forerunner, too, and were being cautious around us because The Forerunner were dangerous to a new outbreak. They were likely following in behind us the whole way just to ambush us and destroy us. After all, there’s no reason to expend so many units on a single soldier unless it thinks us a great threat. Flood in levels with lots of covenant to fight, prioritize fights with them over us. Unless we start killing Flood. That’s what I’ve always thought was going on.
Great insight, Ben. Would be cool to see more videos with your insight on things like this and or theories. One thing, the body that Chief catches at the door. Why wasnt it infected? Probably just for dramatic effect I imagine. 😂
Cheers as always mate! I think that dead marine is just part of the trail The Flood left leading Master Chief to the same place they ambushed Keyes and company. There are other uninfected bodies scattered all along the path there and there's the marine they left alive too, who they definitely would have notice given how loud he is.
My head cannon was The first crashed pelican i figured was from the intal landing and scattering of marines from the pillar of autumn Thats how the flood ended up with human weapons and explained the bullet holes around the dead elites
I almost didn't make this video because I'd never want to be accused of milking a topic, but I'd had this script half written for probably a year or so and desperately wanted to finish it. I am 100% 343 Guilty Sparked out now!
just a heads up but foehammer doesn't rescue the marines, the book had an inconsistency wherein all the marines are stated to have died, then foehammer rescues them; the most recent release keeps in the segment of the marines dying, but omits any mention of them being rescued.
I think I heard somewhere that the covenant were the one to free the Floods, but that they did manage to lock them up again, And thats why the door was locked when the marines arrived
The cannon: 2 squads were sent in. Gameplay: 13 surviving humans (9 on the surface, 4 in the facility including the crazy marine) and HUNDREDS of infected humans… thousands by The Maw 😂
This has always been my favourite level of CE purely because of the story. Gameplay wise it isn't anything spectacular but the story is just so good. I've only ever had one question and that was when entering the structure. You see the assault rifles fire, and you step inside and the elevator comes up, like the Flood went down and sent it back up. However, if that were the case, why was the Covenant guarding the entrance instead of being in combat with the just escaped Flood? You mention that they probably hid somewhere, but those rooms don't really contain anything to where you can hide with ease. Either way, it's an epic level and you've explained it in good detail. Here's to hope 343 makes a new Halo that introduces the Flood in a similar fascinating way.
I would wager the lack of combat is just pure unbridled Covenant terror. If the Flood went down the elevator and sent it up, they could’ve hidden in vents or tunnels, which they do frequently otherwise. If Covvies heard or saw them, given they were huddled by the doors, they might have been trying to strategize, not draw attention to themselves, or were otherwise too traumatized to fire.
Can someone please explain to me why sgt Johnson is here with keys yet was just leading fire team Zulu during the previous mission, assault on the control room??
I always assumed he was dragged there by Flood. They were building a proto-Gravemind and working to repair Truth and Rec, along with the Autumn to get off the ring and get into outer space. Taking the Gravemind with them would make sense then.
I honestly think that the majority of the level is done for reasons of suspense and trying to tell a closed story. From everything that I've heard, Bungie , similar to the first Star Wars movie, told an entire story start to finish because they weren't sure how successful the game/movie was going to be, or if they were going to do a second game/movie. So, they told an entire story from start to finish that essentially tied up any loose ends and gave relatively conclusive and satisfying endings. For Halo CE, this is abundantly clear because Captain Keyes is in command of all the operations on the Halo ring, and is even in charge of Major Silva and his ODST's. I say this because there's no way someone that's number one in command is going to lead a mission like he did to a swamp with little to no intel on the mission, when instead he would've sent Silva, Lt. Melissa McKay or someone else to do the mission for him. But, it had to happen so that he could die at the hands of the Flood, become the start of a Proto-Gravemind and have the rest of the story or events occur. I can't give any insight on the reason for the downed Pelican that's shown before Sgt Johnson and the others even land in the swamp for the first time, other than to again make it more "atmospheric" or "suspenseful". Same with why the Flood doesn't attack the Master Chief before he even gets into the Forerunner structure, as that would make for either a very short level or make things extremely anticlimactic. I think that the reason for not having any live Elites in the game up until that point is for similar reasons with it being a "fear" type of thing as you're wondering where they are, or how come there aren't any Elites around. Also, you've played against Elites every level up until this one in the game, of which being almost exclusively an interior level only, I think it would've slowed the pacing down too much or made it too long or difficult of a level before the big Flood "reveal". Similar to The Library in that the player would've been exhausted and likely checked out by time the climactic part of the level finally hits. I think that Sgt Johnson was likely supposed to be killed off by the Flood, until likely Halo 2 came out and they made up a scenario as to how he escaped, so that the story could continue on. The Elites and the Covenant in general had already been to the Forerunner structure and released the Flood before, and it wasn't because of the Chief. The fact that Keyes hears about this from an Elite when he was locked up as well as the dialogue between the MC and 343 Guilty Spark of "I would conjecture that the other species currently on the installation is responsible for releasing the Flood. They seem most persistent in their attempts to access restricted areas." Which again, makes me think that everything that was done in the mission as well as spoken about in the video here are for thematic or suspenseful purposes. Case in point would be that as mentioned in the video, it had been at least 12 hours since Foehammer had been in contact with Captain Keyes, and if the Elites/Covenant did in fact release the Flood from the facility before then, it could've been hours and hours on top of that to where the Flood have been freed and roaming around the ring. Great level, fantastic game, just doesn't make a ton of sense in terms of rational decision making and strategies. Like in The Library for example... 343 GS can teleport the MC or anyone for that matter, anywhere on the ring that he wants to. So, why not just teleport him to the final part of the level and retrieve the Index as opposed to the very furthest point away from it? Because they needed to have a mission or level and starting at the end of the level would be very quick and boring.
You hurt me when you questioned why Keyes went on the 343GS mission with little Intel... He's a badass, kills hunters with a fucken Spirit. Never had a lesson, can't even use the cannon. Just fucken *doosss*. If your comment wasn't so ginormous I would argue against your other points but cbf. Bungie was legitimately passionate about Halo, RUclips the OG interviews, EZ to see. 343 are doing alright. If we still had Bungie we would no longer have Halo. Look at their conpany and products now.. Put Respek onnit ❤
@@Jedd98Arthur I have nothing but respect for Bungie and their games as they’re far superior to the garbage that 343i has put out over the last decade. That being said, there’s no reason whatsoever why they would send the number one person in command on some low level mission to find a weapons cache or whatever they thought they were going to find. Especially someone like Keyes who admittedly had very little hand to hand combat fighting experience and literally no body armor or even a helmet on. On top of which he had just been captured by the Covenant and literally just rescued by the MC. There’s literally no reason why Keyes should be on a mission like that and sadly walked everyone into an ambush. All signs pointed to the fact that the Covenant tried keeping the area locked down and Keyes just says “ok let’s get this door open” right before being attacked by the Flood. I think the only reason why they sent him on the mission is for the story to continue on and his death to happen on screen as opposed to happening offscreen like a lot of the other characters. He was a brilliant tactician and fantastic and being a captain when navigating ships through space. Hand to hand combat on the ground though is a completely different story.
3:42. Pretty sure the crashed Victor 933 was a mistake and isn’t meant to be there. Bungie probably just forgot to have it despawn during the cutscene. 5:16. One thing I’m surprised you skimmed over is how Johnson survived the ambush, as it’s explained in the Halo Graphic Novel short story “Breaking Quarantine”. 8:00. Well the Flood can use plasma weapons too. 9:15. Definitely an inconsistency. However, to give Bungie some credit here, the bullet holes are decals, and from what I’ve seen they can’t be scripted to spawn or despawn, so it’s impossible to have them in gameplay and not appear in the cutscenes. 9:43. My theory is that these Covenant were hiding, and when the marines got ambushed or some point after that, tried to make a break for the surface, but couldn’t quite make it for some reason, so they hid again. Either way they’re definitely not reinforcements that came afterwards.
I don’t consider the novel canon That’s Microsoft endorsed Nothing against the author, but it’s not in line with the beautiful storytelling of the game
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Pending a Combat Evolved remake/remaster, this will be my final piece covering 343 Guilty Spark specifically. It's been a pleasure.
my theory on the Crashed Pelican is its 2nd squads pelican and its just landed already as the cam from jenkins show it on the grounld be it doesnt look crashed from were the camacas angled. or it landed on an even terrain and its stuck in the swamp and didnt get unstuck before it got attacked. also as for why keys isnt in jenkins cam keys is most likely in the cockpit at the time they land.
It's possible that the grunts and jackals were hiding in rooms throughout the facility and the Flood were ok with leaving there as they were hoping to ambush the humans coming in. After the ambush is sprung, either the remaining Covenant see this as an opportunity to escape or are also attacked and forced to flee. Would explain that one container where we a couple of Marines and Jackals made a final stand together.
That could be true, and I don't think there's any right or wrong answer regarding this point in particular and we simply don't have enough information. We do know that Covenant were definitely trying to hide at some point before the facility really gets overrun, although not exactly when, thanks to the barricaded room adjacent to the hallway covered in blood.
I like the idea that the extra grunts and jackals are reinforcements.
Though in my head I’ve always thought they were the remaining troopers retreating from the lower levels of the facility. If you’re fast enough the covenant before entering the second elevator can be seen running out of that door. And they are the last of the covenant you encounter who are alive. And so I’ve thought they were doing what everyone else was doing, trying to get back to the surface.
You missed one small but important detail, AFTER this point in the Books Zuka' Zamamee and a lesser prophet talked about how the previously alive (now Beheaded) Commander had actually released the flood prior to chief by breaking into the facility, this is backed by Guilty Spark during the library when he says "I summize this is the result of the `other species` attempting to gain Access to restricted areas on the ring". The best guess is that the covenant who were wide spread across the ring as humanity were trying to regroup in the early levels of the game's timeline had already broken into the facility.
This is why Lament for PvT Jenkins remains one of the most chilling soundtracks of all time. It induces fear, mystery. 343 guilty spark for me is one of the best campaign missions of all time. Everything just perfectly executed.
One thing worth mentioning is that there are areas of the facility which you don't have access to during your playthrough. It is presumable that these are other containment areas or places for the covenant/flood/humans to hide in while the events of the game transpire.
Crashed Pelican was maybe an oversight, meant to be deleted when the reveal cutscene started or out of frame during it. Johnson's clips through branches, so maybe that path was sloppily made and never corrected for the latter choice if the firmer wasn't the plan.
I agree. The original graphics were a lot more foggy so they probably thought it was hidden enough. They were rushed when making the game and had to cut a lot of corners resulting in a number of oversights like this
There's always the chance that's the case. However, it and other inconsistencies are all shown on screen, so it's fun trying to piece it all together given it is information provided directly to you. I'd guess there are a ton of things in 343 Guilty Spark especially that Bungie didn't fully think through, given the ridiculous amount of environmental storytelling packed into its 25 minutes.
I dont believe its an oversight, since removing it for the cutscene was not difficult to do, and they would not need to respawn it, since we dont get there after the cutscene. They already did this on silent cartographer, where when you finish the mission, before the cutscene starts, it removes all the AI from the map, so if they could do this, they could remove a single pelican easier. Except if they forgot to do it (thats a possibility)
Regarding the inconsistencies about Sgt Johnson, he wasn't officially a named character until Halo 2. In Halo CE, he was treated just like the other Marines and thus Bungie just put his model in the flood reveal cutscene to make it more interesting.
I think the Covenant being within the facility was nothing more than them being ordered to lock it down until a spec-ops team could be deployed. It's interesting that there are no Elites among them which means that either every single one of them were assimilated or a couple escaped and gave orders to the fodder while they called for reinforcements as seen by the downed Spirit. So what likely happened is that the Covenant found the Flood (as referenced in the end of AotCR), tried to contain it but just scattered through the facility, Johnson and his squad then fought through that set of enemies only to be ambushed by the Flood after Keyes and second squad arrived. The pelican could've been downed by say a rocket flood on the ground as well as the Spirit that dropped the remaining covenant reinforcements that went in after the first group and after the humans infiltrated in a poor attempt at some sort of quarantine while the Elites in the chain of command figure out what to do and Master Chief comes bumbling in unknowingly eliminating any leftover resistance the Flood had. Not that any resistance mattered anyway because the Flood was in control the entire time after they were released and were simply letting the survivors live so that higher value prey such as officers, commandos and possibly even a Spartan shows up.
One of the things Guilty Spark says as you wander through the Library is he speculates the Covenant were the ones that accidentally released the Flood, since they're all over Halo and playing with any and all controls they have the ability to interact with.
The controls humans specifically can only access around any of these forerunner facilities, on Halo's, the ARK or other specific planets, seems to primarily only be in relation to accessing weapons and/or turning the Halo rings themselves on. So if for some reason controls that kept the Flood contained weren't considered weapon related, then sure, the Covenant could easily accidentally get it open with their over eagerness to get this Great Journey started.
Well also keep in mind the covenant are not only stupid advanced but worship the forerunners as gods. It would not surprise if their culture had massive grasp and rudimentary understanding of Fore tech. That being said they clealry would only think as far as "we found a new holy artifact!" Instead of "what the fuck could this thing do? Is a gun? A book? Hmmm...."
thought the Marines and jackals were fighting together?
Likely just those particular few that got separated from their respective teams and chanced upon each other. Unfortunately got corned by a far more terrifying threat and we went out together in one final desperate effort to survive.
They did, but we don't know when or the circumstances surrounding it. It could have happened when The Flood attacked Keyes and the rest, it could have been much later. There were jackals around when Master Chief arrived, but the two squads who entered 12 hours earlier didn't seem to see any Covenant alive (as far as we can tell).
@@gjtrue still stands as such a cool moment to me, was really interesting seeing how despite being enemies they worked together to try and survive
@@BenPlaysGames true, stands as one of the strangest parts of halo's lore, this mission
@@BenPlaysGames we don't know the full extent of the facility, there's many doors we can't get into, so it's entirely possible for the two groups to not encounter one another until the flood are loose. Either way, it's a point towards the latter option where the original covenant force survived somewhat.
A lore video. You’re a true Halo RUclipsr now. HiddenXperia, et. al. watch out!
I think there’s a room for many in this space though, and you certainly bring your own unqiue perspective to it!
Thanks for the video as always.
As for me: I don’t have a single interpretation of it, I think it differs everytime I play it, and with CE in particular I tend to focus more on the vibe than the overall story anyway (kinda reminds me of Quake in that way).
No wozzas, Torb!
I doubt lore stuff will become a regular as it's just not my bag, but did definitely enjoy making this one. Maybe, one
day, I'll do a few more.
6:25 I don't think the pelican is really receiving comms from inside the structure, it sounds more like someone recorded the message for the pelican to play so that they can be found while they head to the structure as it's easier to defend than out in the open swamp. If they went in without setting a message explaining where they went it'd be more difficult for rescuers to find them
I'm pretty sure it's a message from inside the facility. Likely one of the marine survivors we find later on. It was probably made via short range radio which is why only that Pelican just barely picked it up. They were probably hoping that any nearby forces would eventually pick up on that message and come help. The Marines in the facility probably didn't even know that the Pelican was downed in the swamp in the first place.
If you played the flood variant mod or watched the video you can see through the flood pov of them ambushing second squard tieing in to the game
What’s the mod called
@connorking6852 the flood virulence-release (halo custom edition))
Watching this video really reminds me how much the original look of this level was so spot on when compared with later iterations.
The anniversary graphics and sounds are so good, it's such a shame they ruined so much of the ambience and visual storytelling
I feel like the unexplained props/bullet holes in the cutscenes are a result of in-engine cutscenes. It's more efficient to reuse the same bsp/textures than swap them out. When you consider that Halo was originally released at a time where games were rendered at low resolutions and most people were playing on CRTs, it's likely that Bungie figured most people wouldn't notice and thus didnt spend the time/resources to create clean versions for some short cutscenes.
I also want to point out that in the terminals and game it’s implied that the flood were already released before the Pillar of Autumn even landed- the covenant managed to contain them briefly with the silent cartographer security room which is why it was so heavily defended. It wasn’t to prevent the marines from accessing the control room but rather to keep the flood as contained as possible.
Also the covenant Ai in the 2nd or 3rd terminal talks with guilty spark about the covenant releasing the flood and even shows an elite being infected. It’s also stated that the covenant arrived way before the autumn. So it’s not hard to understand that they may have already released the flood.
The covenant also lost 2 cruisers that went to the surface of the halo to recover artifacts before the autumn arrived. That’s likely why their fleet was not fully deployed to the surface of the ring.
The Covenant has encountered the Flood before the UNSC, all the way back in Halo Wars and possibly even further, and they actually made it back to report on the parasite unlike the Spirit of Fire
That footage pulled up by the Covenant AI could just as likely be archive of an Elite getting infected at another Forerunner installation
@@konahrikb1578 that I didn’t consider but if that was the case they would have been more prepared or cautious about where they went. Since it’s never truly confirmed that the chief is responsible for taking the security systems offline we really don’t know when the flood attacked. I want to believe they were released before the autumn arrived. Also that Ai made it very clear that it did not care about the covenant either.
@@slicer940 Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if some idiot opened the door to the cells containing the Flood on the off chance that it held the Index or something that would start the Great Journey.
The Covenant are religious Zealots, and their zeal would blind some to make very poor choices. Meanwhile, the ones that aren't blinded by faith have to deal with the consequences.
@@konahrikb1578that's largely why to me "hAlO wArS" is garbage non canon and made up by fans.
Us OG don’t pay attention to those trash terminals
It’s not Bungie storytelling
With the amount of human flood you come across in 343 GS and The Library, and with how important the "cache" was, there were probably more human units operating in the area than just Keyes and Johnson's squads, probably at least a platoon or two.
Hold on a minute. Downed pelican in the swamp that is neither Johnson’s nor Keyes’. And bullet holes in the flood quarantine room? Could there be another marine squad that fell prey to the Flood before Johnson’s arrival?
I heard previous rescue squads were sent so maybe a lot of the marine deaths were from those
My knowledge of lore outside the games is nowhere near as good as some people's, so it may be that another squad was sent there before even Keyes and the rest. I have seen nothing that suggests that was the case, though.
As for it being in the beginning that might be an inconsistency or a random pelican that crashed in the swamp
These are almost certainly just a result of the game using in-engine cutscenes. The same level the player walks through is used for the cutscene taking place 12 hours earlier. So that's why the same things are there. The Pelican is almost impossible to see on the original graphics, and the bullet holes being shown is probably just an oversight by Bungie.
Or maybe a pelican loaded with marines leaving the Autumn crashed in the swamp and lost contact with the other survivors, got captured or killed by the Covenant who unwittingly released the Flood the first time, and then raised by the Flood along with the Elites.
We need to talk about where these surviving marines came from too because they say they've been there for hours don't they?
Some of Lovik's squad escaped to the surface - those you meet towards the end - so it's not inconceivable others got trapped along the way, as they're close to the elevator that takes you outside.
From my understanding the jackals and grunts you find before the section with Jenkins's recording were just the survivors that escaped while their Elite commanders were infected (hence why they're so disorganized and lack a coherent strategy behind just finding a corner and hiding - they lost their commanding officers). It's likely that the squads just didn't come into contact because it's a large facility. There are multiple doors that we can't access in game that may have been unlocked earlier on and that's where those Covenant were while Keyes and Johnson were progressing through the facility.
Also we know that the Marines and Covenant did come in contact not long after things went south because we find the bodies of the Marines and Jackals who made a hasty alliance farther down in the facility. We do also find a few surviving Marines later on in the level that are just as disorganized as their Covenant counterparts.
It’s in the book or some other media that says chief is the 3rd time they’ve sent rescue ops to the captain so I think the guys waiting out in the swamp are from one of the two rescue squads they sent after losing contact with the captain.
Ah cool, I missed that - have you got a reference? Would be good to have a looksie.
From the intro questions the only one I found no answer to prior to this video is why the flood didn't attack chief, in my honest deep lore and logic I say the reason is memories, the former covenants memories the flood have taken thymey all know who this man is and therefore the flood were scared at the beginning so they observed first and then attacked
2:15 Games trump the books, Games are THE canon (yep including the Fall of Reach, GAME is the canon). The books can be considered canon until a game says otherwise. I did enjoy this one, keep up the good content!
Mentioning the flood novel, I found they made a lot of arbitrary and unneeded changes to the story within those pages. One of the most glaring issues is how Chief comes across a dead marine in the Library (0 chance he could have ever made it there on his own) and Chief post-humously calls him a "Badass motherfucker" or something along those lines. I cringed out of my skin and struggled to keep reading after that lol.
I think it was “badass son of a bitch” and yeah i cringed too 🤣 i loved the concept of Mobuto, the fallen soldier, but hated the dialogue. The Library’s storytelling was frustrating and rushed in the book, IMO
@@faefiercevulpine6990 Glad I'm not alone lol. They did add some nice insight into Chief's mind though, how the flood genuinely terrified him. Gave us a rare bit of vulnerability under all that Mjolnir.
YES there were many things i did like about the book, and things i didn’t. I had hoped there’d be a little more interaction with Spark, such as him maybe offering some condolence for Chief’s grim discovery of Mobuto. Since in game 3 he shows compassion to Chief for losing Cortana at the time. Or even just Spark asking if Chief needed medical attention (a great not to his side dialogue in the engine room on the Autumn). Idk, it just lacked. But Chief experiencing fear? ✨chef’s kiss✨
I think the devs just wanted a lot of different creepy elements for this level and didn’t really think about how it would tell a disjointed story with all the different pieces (random gunshots in the beginning, downed pelican, covenant running away, dead covenant and marines, long time between Keye’s last radio transmission)
At 5:50 when you state that master chief inadvertantly causes the floods released reminded me of how Samus does the same with the X parasites and the SA-X. It would make a lot of sense and that's the most terrifying part
Could you imagine, if they remade the 1st halo like the rumors suggest, you’re driving through a landing zone of one of the lost cruisers so there’s just a covenant cruiser sitting above you as close as logically possible as you drive or walk and fight underneath it.
I assume the inconsistencies with the Jenkins footage are mostly due to Bungie being on a time crunch and not removing the assets from the map when making the Jenkins cutscene.
Imagine if the flood was unleashed by Chief disabling the security systems on the silent cartographer, except he shut it off for the whole ring
Bad place to put a master switch lol
My theory is that the flood facility functions similar to a Faraday cage to prevent electromagnetic signals from leaving it. This is why communication was impossible, considering the level of physics research the Forerunners were probably capable of.
Furthermore, the covenant probably maintained an extensive garrison there, since it was a very important part of the installation. I am genuinely unsure if the swamp outside has Flood biology, but the facility is rather concealed from the air by the swamp. I’m not sure to whose benefit, but I’m also sure that everything was revealed at the cartographer, which is very confusing as to why they did not know about this.
I do believe that the covenant had to send a lot of reinforcements to contain this area me if I’m not mistaken to to as well as his military staff would realize the extreme importance of containing the flood and an attempt to wipe them out (hence “bad ass elite unit”). However, they were not exactly sure that they were engaging with humans, and I’m sure that the flood found a way out of the multiple entrances.
Since the flood was already out of the facility when Chief arrived, i’m also sure that the flood was quickly expanding its territory on the ring and acquiring heavy equipment all the time.
In the room with the dead marines and jackals side by side there is another dead marine and a health kit on top of a much higher platform hidden in a dark corner of the room.
I always enjoy watching your halo content, makes me want to replay the games again even if it has only been two months. There's so much potential when it comes to halo spin off games, a ton of lore and locations we've never experienced. I wish that one day we would get massive expansions for all 3 games, a ''halo re-imagined'' expansion for halo ce, halo 2 and halo 3 with the inclusion of cut levels and content that we never got to experience.
3rd comment 10:05- I want to believe that that covenant that the chief encounters were either hiding in the structure or were indeed reinforcements dropped off by the downed spirit drop ship. Because it’s there when the chief is walking through but not when the marines first arrived. That could explain why some covenant were outside. Those were the rear guard of the drop ship which is why all of their weapons are pointed inwards towards the doorways rather than outwards towards the elevators. It may also explain why no elites were present with those reinforcements. They likely needed all the muscle they could spare and guarding an entrance is something a few grunts and jackals should be able to do.
At 5:06 and want to start a thread that you probably won’t read. But this mission still makes me ask so many questions and honestly I don’t like playing it alone. I’m 27 now.
The pelican in the swamp being there when the marines land is just an asset Bungie probably couldn’t delete for the cutscene seeing as it’s rendered in game. You can move objects and they’ll show up in the cutscenes (it’s fun with cursed halo).
I’ve been saying it for years but the flood did a beautiful job luring in the marines and later chief.
I also think 2nd squad advanced into the structure too. They didn’t guard the entrance. There’s not enough evidence to show that. There’s plenty more evidence to show that they entered with Keyes but likely held down a doorway a few rooms before the one the ambush takes place In. I say this because the flood likely know if they attack outside, the marines can call for help and try to evacuate.
The crew of the 2nd squad pelican likely ran into the structure after being taken down by the flood. They say this much over the radio. So by the time Keyes and both squads took the elevator down, their coms are immediately cut upon entering the facility.
What I always asked myself is how big was 2nd squad because it seems to be a usually large unit. I also doubt you’d just send 2 squads with the commander of all of the human forces. That’s like taking a president into the Middle East with 10 security guards. I don’t think Bungie used properly military unit terms. Because you find plenty of marines alive and dead. It’s safe to say that at least 2 platoons -30 to 60 marines were present during this attack and likely 3 drop ships involved with the last one being taken down by the flood.
The Flood consume all and Ben Plays Games reads all.
I enjoyed reading this and your other couple of comments mate. I must confess, I completely forgot to look at the terminals as part of this (I forget they exist sometimes) so anything I say that contradicts them is entirely creator error! We can be 100% sure too that the Covenant already knew of The Flood prior to the events of Combat Evolved too.
Agree with you regarding how bonkers letting Keyes go to the swamp was too. I simply cannot see any way that ends well, or concludes with a result different from one the UNSC would have achieved by simply sending in a load of marines.
@@BenPlaysGames I know it’s probably for gameplay’s sake but in Halo 1 and 2 I’ve always questioned how the flood had so many human and elite combat forms. Like I’m sure you can kill more human combat forms than there are humans deployed on both Halo’s. I always hope that one day it gets addressed properly but even the books don’t address it. I like to think in Halo 2 that meant to have infected forerunners but just didn’t have the time to put them in.
Your explanation is really well thought through and is the best I've heard at "reconciling the truth" (sorry... too easy a pun to make) with regards to what actually happened.
I'm just not sure why the flood would lure a single solider into the installation. If they knew the Chief was a super solider that was a threat who needed to be eliminated, then I guess that makes sense (perhaps something learned from assimilating Keys or indeed any of the marines, beforehand). But if they didn't know who the Chief was, it seems like a waste of effort.
For me, the very name "Flood" nearly implies a lack of intelligence (nearly the opposite to Star Trek's Borg). It's not about planning, or a well thought out goal. It's about being overwhelmed by a macro virus that doesn't think or plan or plot. It just consumes. Although I guess the gravemind kinda pokes a whole in that theory (#downwiththeborgqueen).
Anyways, just my 2 cents - brilliant video as always :D
Nice one Steven, appreciate it!
While the Flood are dumb to begin with, they do gain intelligence as they grow in numbers. They had a plan originally, which worked, and after consuming marines they would have known of Master Chief and planned accordingly with an even better trap. The fact they leave so many more breadcrumbs the second time which still ultimately lead to the same outcome (an attack in that big room) speaks to that.
It's likely the Flood were still in the Feral stage, unless they could communicate with the Gravemind on Delta Halo, so they were using the facility as a trap for the time being. This new perspective makes me think of the trapdoor spider, letting its prey get close before jumping out and snatching it up.
I have to respectfully disagree. The Flood are never dumb. Even in the Feral Stage they are AT LEAST, as intelligent as their hosts, and still have a goal of coalescing into a Proto-Gravemind. From there on, they are extremely coordinated and will immediately seek to spread to other worlds after completely overrunning whatever space they’re in first, or course, from the smallest germination, to the greatest harvest. At the height of their power, they could drown entire worlds with spores in moments, shatter megastructures and worlds with no over-exertion on their part, and began to infect the very fabric of space and living-time, bending reality to it’s will. One of the Forerunners last message was “The Flood is no idiot parasite. NO SIMPLE INFECTION TO BE CURED AND CAUTERIZED
It has a center, a Mind
AND THAT DISCOVERY GAVE US A WAY TO FIGHT IT
BUT WHEN THE MIND REALIZED WE HAD ITS MEASURE
it spoke to us
MOCKINGLY, DISMISSIVELY
It has done this before
ELSEWHERE.”
@@stevenm588 I hadn't considered that. I'm starting to think the name "Feral stage" is misleading, because it implies that the Flood are little more than animals at the time. Luring victims into a trap like this with bait and breadcrumbs requires a higher level of intelligence.
@@konahrikb1578i dont know i think of it as "Feral" because the main objective of the flood i as an animal pack to seek for food. That said many animals (specially those who work in packs) tend to actually put a lot of strategy to hunt big preys, like lions trying to sneak their prey as they sorround it and separate its objective from the rest of its herd.
In summary i think the "Feral" comes because the plans of the flood are limited to obtain resources as efectibly as posibble, instead of the grand long term planning we see protograveminds and graveminds do that sometimes are done with hundreds of years of anticipation.
idk why but after all these years when keyes radios that he's still in route to the objective, it never occurred to me that he was talking about the 343 guilty spark level
I never caught that either, that’s even MORE terrifying
Another question.
How did the flood infection forms manage to break down the doors in those adjacent rooms? One thing I also noticed was that there was no biomass spreading inside. Unless theoretically within those containments, they could‘ve had quantum translocators inside where from there Flood Combat Forms would assist in breaking down the doors and shortly after teleported elsewhere within the facility to then prepare for the next attack against Master Chief after dealing with the remaining infection forms breaking the door we’ve just used to enter where Johnson, Keyes, and the rest of the Marines were last present as the Flood broke free.
The only Halo moment you see
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I like this video it answers questions before putting them all together. I think you should a video like this on how the truth and reconciliation ship crashed leading into the events of the level Keyes plus adding to what happened afterwords. I'll be posting my next comment at a later date answering how all this played out leading to the flood outbreak on installation 04
I've been hoping for a video like this. Would love more of this type of thing, still other mysteries out there.
At some point, I want to do an analysis of environmental storytelling in Combat Evolved as there's a surprising amount. Things like how where some of the marines end up during Assault on the Control Room matches where human combat forms can later be found during Two Betrayals etc.
@BenPlaysGames that would be an awesome video, I look forward to that in the future!
@@BenPlaysGames Talking about the room you encounter after taking the down the elevator with the infection forms on it huh? Yes, i would love an investigation on this aswell!!!
As usual quality content Ben, I enjoy this type of videos! I think your interpretation of it its fair and most likely what happened. I saw Halo CE is getting a remake! Let's hope they nail this mission and make it way scarier and with more detail!
9:28 That crashed Spirit.
man i'm so glad you continue making halo videos I am getting worried by you diversifying (which you should continue of course halo is unstable career) but I only watch your halo videos haha their just so good
My theory has always been that this isn’t the containment facility. This is an ingress point to The Library, which is the containment facility. This place looks mostly like a barracks for soldiers rather than a prison or even containment facility. The elevators hang over insanely deep shafts where we never see a “bottom”. To me, this indicates that they might go all the way to The Library. If you even look at the elevator rooms… one ingress point. Single line only. Makes these locations easy to fight the flood at, unless it’s the surface level.
I think the Covenant made it into the library, opened one of the shielded tanks and got infected. From that point onward, they were trying to escape back out of the Facility they entered from. Even the “ambush room” might have been a last stand situation. The covenant might have locked it down from inside to keep the Flood out. But, it did not work.
I also assume the guns firing at the front of the facility were marines, not flood. We never see Flood ever throw or use grenades, yet the Covenant running away clearly have grenades thrown at them and detonated.
The downed Pelican at the beginning may have been an initial recon squad trying to find the facility and it was shot down by covenant. It is also worth noting that the Downed covenant dropship wasn’t present when Keyes arrived, either. The covenant likely downed that to prevent spread of the Flood. The covenant currently on site are likely left for dead and the last of the group that went into the library.
As for why the Flood doesn’t attack us on sight? We’re wearing a combat skin. Guilty Spark says so in The Library. He recommends we upgrade to at least a Class 12. He also mistakes us for Forerunner while we wear it. It’s possible the Flood thought we were Forerunner, too, and were being cautious around us because The Forerunner were dangerous to a new outbreak. They were likely following in behind us the whole way just to ambush us and destroy us. After all, there’s no reason to expend so many units on a single soldier unless it thinks us a great threat. Flood in levels with lots of covenant to fight, prioritize fights with them over us. Unless we start killing Flood.
That’s what I’ve always thought was going on.
Great insight, Ben.
Would be cool to see more videos with your insight on things like this and or theories.
One thing, the body that Chief catches at the door. Why wasnt it infected? Probably just for dramatic effect I imagine. 😂
Cheers as always mate!
I think that dead marine is just part of the trail The Flood left leading Master Chief to the same place they ambushed Keyes and company. There are other uninfected bodies scattered all along the path there and there's the marine they left alive too, who they definitely would have notice given how loud he is.
@@BenPlaysGames That's very true. Didn't think of it like that!
i wish i could play 343 guilty spark for the first time again. elite story telling.
My head cannon was
The first crashed pelican i figured was from the intal landing and scattering of marines from the pillar of autumn
Thats how the flood ended up with human weapons and explained the bullet holes around the dead elites
Interesting. Now I have to play this level again !..
What happend with 343 Guilty Spark? You had one of your most successful videos ever!
I almost didn't make this video because I'd never want to be accused of milking a topic, but I'd had this script half written for probably a year or so and desperately wanted to finish it. I am 100% 343 Guilty Sparked out now!
@@BenPlaysGames Your good bro.
just a heads up but foehammer doesn't rescue the marines, the book had an inconsistency wherein all the marines are stated to have died, then foehammer rescues them; the most recent release keeps in the segment of the marines dying, but omits any mention of them being rescued.
I think I heard somewhere that the covenant were the one to free the Floods, but that they did manage to lock them up again, And thats why the door was locked when the marines arrived
The cannon: 2 squads were sent in.
Gameplay: 13 surviving humans (9 on the surface, 4 in the facility including the crazy marine) and HUNDREDS of infected humans… thousands by The Maw 😂
6:55 Except when you listen to the message it says its the pilot of dropship Victor 933, th tail number on the wreck.
Floody good video Ben
This has always been my favourite level of CE purely because of the story. Gameplay wise it isn't anything spectacular but the story is just so good. I've only ever had one question and that was when entering the structure. You see the assault rifles fire, and you step inside and the elevator comes up, like the Flood went down and sent it back up. However, if that were the case, why was the Covenant guarding the entrance instead of being in combat with the just escaped Flood? You mention that they probably hid somewhere, but those rooms don't really contain anything to where you can hide with ease. Either way, it's an epic level and you've explained it in good detail. Here's to hope 343 makes a new Halo that introduces the Flood in a similar fascinating way.
I would wager the lack of combat is just pure unbridled Covenant terror. If the Flood went down the elevator and sent it up, they could’ve hidden in vents or tunnels, which they do frequently otherwise. If Covvies heard or saw them, given they were huddled by the doors, they might have been trying to strategize, not draw attention to themselves, or were otherwise too traumatized to fire.
Thanks, this helps makes the experience more rich!
Pleasure's all mine, Anna!
When it comes to discrepancies between the books and games, the games have priority over the books.
Can someone please explain to me why sgt Johnson is here with keys yet was just leading fire team Zulu during the previous mission, assault on the control room??
5:48 Wasn't that just for that specific door? Maybe I'm wrong.
I really want a halo flood based horror game
How did Keys go from the facility to truth and reconciliation?
On teeny tiny Flood legs.
I always assumed he was dragged there by Flood. They were building a proto-Gravemind and working to repair Truth and Rec, along with the Autumn to get off the ring and get into outer space. Taking the Gravemind with them would make sense then.
Oh Ben really? A interesting Video i cant say no to at 1pm? I want to sleep... ugh ok lets go. 😊
Exactly my response 😅
Ha. Same. I just finished some Halo 3 MP and was going to sleep...but 😅
Another of the many videos that came out way longer than expected - I'd hope to finish by 6pm but it ended up being midnight. Cheers for watching!
I honestly think that the majority of the level is done for reasons of suspense and trying to tell a closed story. From everything that I've heard, Bungie , similar to the first Star Wars movie, told an entire story start to finish because they weren't sure how successful the game/movie was going to be, or if they were going to do a second game/movie. So, they told an entire story from start to finish that essentially tied up any loose ends and gave relatively conclusive and satisfying endings. For Halo CE, this is abundantly clear because Captain Keyes is in command of all the operations on the Halo ring, and is even in charge of Major Silva and his ODST's. I say this because there's no way someone that's number one in command is going to lead a mission like he did to a swamp with little to no intel on the mission, when instead he would've sent Silva, Lt. Melissa McKay or someone else to do the mission for him. But, it had to happen so that he could die at the hands of the Flood, become the start of a Proto-Gravemind and have the rest of the story or events occur. I can't give any insight on the reason for the downed Pelican that's shown before Sgt Johnson and the others even land in the swamp for the first time, other than to again make it more "atmospheric" or "suspenseful". Same with why the Flood doesn't attack the Master Chief before he even gets into the Forerunner structure, as that would make for either a very short level or make things extremely anticlimactic. I think that the reason for not having any live Elites in the game up until that point is for similar reasons with it being a "fear" type of thing as you're wondering where they are, or how come there aren't any Elites around. Also, you've played against Elites every level up until this one in the game, of which being almost exclusively an interior level only, I think it would've slowed the pacing down too much or made it too long or difficult of a level before the big Flood "reveal". Similar to The Library in that the player would've been exhausted and likely checked out by time the climactic part of the level finally hits.
I think that Sgt Johnson was likely supposed to be killed off by the Flood, until likely Halo 2 came out and they made up a scenario as to how he escaped, so that the story could continue on. The Elites and the Covenant in general had already been to the Forerunner structure and released the Flood before, and it wasn't because of the Chief. The fact that Keyes hears about this from an Elite when he was locked up as well as the dialogue between the MC and 343 Guilty Spark of "I would conjecture that the other species currently on the installation is responsible for releasing the Flood. They seem most persistent in their attempts to access restricted areas." Which again, makes me think that everything that was done in the mission as well as spoken about in the video here are for thematic or suspenseful purposes. Case in point would be that as mentioned in the video, it had been at least 12 hours since Foehammer had been in contact with Captain Keyes, and if the Elites/Covenant did in fact release the Flood from the facility before then, it could've been hours and hours on top of that to where the Flood have been freed and roaming around the ring. Great level, fantastic game, just doesn't make a ton of sense in terms of rational decision making and strategies. Like in The Library for example... 343 GS can teleport the MC or anyone for that matter, anywhere on the ring that he wants to. So, why not just teleport him to the final part of the level and retrieve the Index as opposed to the very furthest point away from it? Because they needed to have a mission or level and starting at the end of the level would be very quick and boring.
You hurt me when you questioned why Keyes went on the 343GS mission with little Intel...
He's a badass, kills hunters with a fucken Spirit. Never had a lesson, can't even use the cannon. Just fucken *doosss*.
If your comment wasn't so ginormous I would argue against your other points but cbf. Bungie was legitimately passionate about Halo, RUclips the OG interviews, EZ to see.
343 are doing alright. If we still had Bungie we would no longer have Halo. Look at their conpany and products now..
Put Respek onnit ❤
@@Jedd98Arthur I have nothing but respect for Bungie and their games as they’re far superior to the garbage that 343i has put out over the last decade. That being said, there’s no reason whatsoever why they would send the number one person in command on some low level mission to find a weapons cache or whatever they thought they were going to find. Especially someone like Keyes who admittedly had very little hand to hand combat fighting experience and literally no body armor or even a helmet on. On top of which he had just been captured by the Covenant and literally just rescued by the MC. There’s literally no reason why Keyes should be on a mission like that and sadly walked everyone into an ambush. All signs pointed to the fact that the Covenant tried keeping the area locked down and Keyes just says “ok let’s get this door open” right before being attacked by the Flood. I think the only reason why they sent him on the mission is for the story to continue on and his death to happen on screen as opposed to happening offscreen like a lot of the other characters. He was a brilliant tactician and fantastic and being a captain when navigating ships through space. Hand to hand combat on the ground though is a completely different story.
Ha Marty o donnel either you love his music or you just never heard of his music
3:42. Pretty sure the crashed Victor 933 was a mistake and isn’t meant to be there. Bungie probably just forgot to have it despawn during the cutscene.
5:16. One thing I’m surprised you skimmed over is how Johnson survived the ambush, as it’s explained in the Halo Graphic Novel short story “Breaking Quarantine”.
8:00. Well the Flood can use plasma weapons too.
9:15. Definitely an inconsistency. However, to give Bungie some credit here, the bullet holes are decals, and from what I’ve seen they can’t be scripted to spawn or despawn, so it’s impossible to have them in gameplay and not appear in the cutscenes.
9:43. My theory is that these Covenant were hiding, and when the marines got ambushed or some point after that, tried to make a break for the surface, but couldn’t quite make it for some reason, so they hid again. Either way they’re definitely not reinforcements that came afterwards.
Let’s not forget Avery Johnson is only one who survive that situation
❤ halo ce vid.
Ben plays halo ce only❤
Ben more halo ce.
Much thanks.
Greatest console FPS of all time. And you're welcome mate.
This is awesome
Thanks dude!
Just a useless information here, the flood becomes your hostile when you hit the loading zone when descending the first elevator
1:08
I don’t consider the novel canon
That’s Microsoft endorsed
Nothing against the author, but it’s not in line with the beautiful storytelling of the game
Noy mi hoy mi noy
my comment as usual
Always appreciate it edux!
A whole buncha shit