343 Guilty Spark is my favourite mission in Bungie's Halo Combat Evolved and quite possibly in the entire Halo franchise, mainly because of the brilliant way it tells the horror story of Master Chief and the Covenant discovering the Flood.
Not only is 343 Guilty Spark scary, it is also wonderfully designed and packed with clever details from start to finish, which make it the Halo Combat Evolved mission few Halo fans will forget in a hurry.
In this video, I take a look at everything from 343 Guilty Spark's level design and gameplay to its story, scary setting and horror atmosphere, to try and explain why it's so brilliant, while also drawing comparisons to The Silent Cartographer, Assault on the Control Room and other Halo Combat Evolved missions.
If you enjoy the video, do consider subscribing, and thanks for watching!
#Halo #HaloCombatEvolved #MasterChief
Contents:
00:00 - Intro
00:24 - Previously On Halo Combat Evolved
01:28 - Details In The Swamp
06:53 - Discoveries In The Facility
10:52 - Flood Everywhere
15:05 - Allies At The Exit
16:29 - Anniversary Issues
17:22 - Halo Combat Evolved's Best Mission
Somehow I just found this video and your channel. I have a lot to say about this mission (also my favorite) but maybe I should start up my discord again and talk there. One thing I love is that the title of this level makes absolutely no sense at all until you’ve actually completed the entire nightmare.
Wow glad to see you back. And your score set the tone for this mission as much as the atmosphere
Hello Marty mate - cheers for dropping by and checking out the video, means a huge amount. I'm actually travelling about the US at the moment and as it happens was listening to Combat Evolved's soundtrack on my flight to Austin. Been listening to it regularly since 2001, with only Silent Hill 2's OST coming anywhere close (but not that close) to getting as much playtime. If you do start up the Discord, let me know, as I'm sure a lot of my subscribers would be interested.
@@BenPlaysGames I will. Keep up the good work.
Hold up. WAIT A MINUTE!
No way it's the man himself! Like every Halo fan, I want to tell you how important your music is to me. I still get shivers listening to One Final Effort. Your music is one of the key features of Halo that separated it from any other first person shooter or sci-fi game. Halo and Mass Effect are my two best examples of how music makes a game a classic.
I just realized that in the 2 missions where Cortana isn’t with you, you don’t get any waypoints because she’s the one who places them.
Yup it's just you on your onesomes!
😱
Holy shit
My mind was just blown....
Are you a Nazi or
Jackal: Never thought i'd die side by side with a human Human: How about side by side with a friend? Jackal: Aye, i could do that
LMAO. Gimli could definitely relate with this scene.
Yeah I usually run past the Jackals and Grunts at the entrance to the facility, the fleeing ones.
r/im14andthisisdeep
@@haakonandal4602 L
more like - jackal: never thought I'd die side by si-AHHH ECHH
I’ve always found it hilarious we just left Cortana alone lol, like the story would’ve been soooo different had a random elite just walked by that room, gone “wort wort wort” and stolen her 😂
I've never thought about that, but you're completely right - massive potential for a sudden early end to the story haha!
Wortwortwort
🤦 omg very good point!!
Nooooo
She was inside the Halo ring's computer system. She doesn't always live in that little chip.
Fun fact, you can kill the flood you see early on in the swamp, with your pistol. On splitscreen back in what, 2005, with my dad, we played so often we knew where to look to find and kill them. Man those your good times. He was still around for halo 5 but that was the first time they took splitscreen off and we couldn’t play together. Halo 4 was the last game I beat with him. Halo was always, and even now is always here for me. I miss him.
Someone asked whether you could kill them a while back in the comments and I always meant to go try it but never remembered. So, thanks for confirming that you can, I would have likely never ended up doing it! Also, Halo playing dad? Awesome.
You are going to make all of KZhead cry my friend.
I feel you. I used to play Halo with my dad almost everyday when I was a kid. We played all the way up to Halo 4 and I learned a lot about him and about life while playing video games together. We had a lot of great talks. Keep your head up fam 🙏🏾he’s still around thankfully but losing a parent is no easy thing to go through. My mom was the one who got us all hooked on video games. The original gamer of the family 🕊️
I’m sorry bro, keep those memories close.
My younger brother is sadly not around anymore. Halo 1 - halo 4 and reach, we played them all together through campaign. We loved this game franchise. I miss my bro too.
I remember getting lost in this level and seeing the marine's and jackal's bodies together. That genuinely spooked me
Poor blighters didn't stand a chance!
@@BenPlaysGames rip
Always made me think 'Marines are dead, covies are dead, so who walked away?' Always made me scared. Especially when the noises started
@@rignatetris4435 That's a genuinely scary way to look at it
As if they were fending off together
Never knew about the dead marines when you go back up the elevator, guess this game still has some surprises all these years later
I'd definitely say there's more out there to be found too!
Right? I first played this level almost 20 years and never knew about that
20+ years of life and playing this game I never knew that you could go back up the elevator. Let alone the extra corpses. ??????????
@@WeaponsComplex same, but more like 6 becuase i was a bit late on halo, got 2, 3, odst,reach,4, theeen, i got ce
I was like WHAT!!!
Hello All. Tim Dadabo, the voice of 343 Guilty Spark. Thanks for this video. Of all the games, this one was the 'deepest' I had to go to dig out his emotions for the storyline, so I'm glad you both loved AND HATED it so much! Until we meet again, Tim Dadabo. Oh...want a Cameo? Look me up. I'm there!
No way, this is amazing - thanks so much for taking the time to stop by Tim! I'm a huge Combat Evolved fan and part of that is without doubt due to Guilty Spark, he's by far one of my favourite characters in the series. Keep doing what you do mate, huge fan.
No way
The man! The myth! The legend! The light bulb!
I haven't fallen in love as much as the others with Halo it's a great game, Just unsure why I didn't continue as much.. probably more just i'm not a fan of FPS on consoles. But I must admit writing, voice acting everything of Guilty spark was on point. I just wish there was a choice as by the time we got to pressing the button I had slowly lost the right amount of faith that following guilty spark was the right choice. It was just brilliant ahead of its time.
It would be so cool just to say I got a direct response from guilty spark himself as a huuuge halo fan ❤.
After playing this mission, I was never more relieved to fight Covenant forces instead of the Flood.. Also, it never occurred to me about the lack of Elites in the beginning of the mission, but it makes total sense that they were transformed into the combat form of the Flood; thanks for pointing that out!
No worries dude! It's one of those subtle but really cool details the mission is packed full of, level wouldn't be the same without them/
Never even thought about that till this video tbh
Or the covenant first response is to send In fodder to investigate and set up defenses. And not spare more Elite’s, till they have a better idea the new enemy they face.
In the novelization of the game, Master Chief felt the same way. Almost happy to fight an enemy he was used to and understood. Back on the surface after taking the last elevator and not having the constant dread of feeling like the eyes of "something" was burning in the back of his head...
I think the other reason you don't fight any Elites in the woods up top is because Elites would never run away. The Jackals and Grunts up top fled the facility but the Elites stayed behind to fight.
Ah yes this mission. Everyone here is talking about how scary it is and the little details in the level, and sure they are right. Yet the other thing I can think about when playing it is my memory of my 7 year old dumb self (who didn’t even knew English) getting lost for 5 hours trying to get back to the surface.
Mate I had the exact same problem when I played it last year for the first time in a while! Got myself in a right muddle after the flood reveal haha.
It's okay, my 17 year old dumb self was just as lost 😄.
Lol same. Halo taught me a lot of english now that I think about it... 😂
Yeah, I hate that light bridge.
@@bethashford358 You know that light bridge that is damaged so it pops in and out? When I was little I spent a good couple hours memorizing the pattern to be able to perfectly time the jumps and get to the other side. I was lost and I thought it was the only way to progress 🤣
I would like to also note that every Covenant patrol encountered within the facility has their weapons trained on doors that lead deeper inside before you engage them.
Few people have mentioned this, did not spot it at all 🙈
Honestly they should have had them jump and return to watching
@@phantomaviator1318 they should have been scared and pleaded for him to help them, like a grunt yelling "HELP US!" just for you to kill them a second after not knowing what they're on about
One of the most creepiest thing I also saw is green cortana.
They definitely improved her design over time 😂
From what I hear it’s a bug from the PC version that was never fixed on the anniversary remaster
Ya I’m mad they made her glow blue and green and not just og green in MCC
@@noneed4sleep64Nope.
Indeed
Your marines getting picked off one by one while you’re desperately trudging through that swamp was some next level nightmare as a kid
That ambush when you get to the narrow section, so good!
I remember I’d try to save everyone…I did a few times
What made the mission hit so hard was it was a really well kept secret. Nowhere in the game's advertisement, game booklet, box art, NOTHING hinted at the floods existence. 343 Guilty Spark is such a surprising and sharp shift in tone. The game has gone on long enough up until this mission that it seems you pretty much know what you're up against for the rest of the game. Bungie keeping the floods existence a tightly kept secret until you face them is what truly makes the atmosphere, tone, and reveal memorable.
I first played Halo CE years after it came out, I always thought Halo was just being a supersoldier wrecking aliens ina war. I was utterly stunned when the flood were revealed.
I actually played Halo CE with my brother on release when I was five and then occasionally alone years after but always quit on the cutscene that revealed the flood. As a kid that was one of the scariest things Ive seen aside of the first Resident Evil zombie.
That's actually not true, one of the trailers did in fact show the flood
Underrated point. This hasn't really been done again ever since.
@@MMCV963 which trailer showed them?
"I have got a bad feeling about this" *A line frequently used in Aliens* Star Wars: Am I a joke to you?
Ha I wondered if someone would mention Star Wars! I just figure because the mission seems to be so heavily inspired by Aliens in so many ways, it's more likely it's taken from there. I could, however, be completely incorrect!
@@BenPlaysGames i think you are correct cause Sargent Johnson is like the guy from aliens ( can’t remember his name ) and the part when captain Keyes is in the wall, and the pore things are the chestbursters and the flame thrower plus the drop ships are similarly etc
@@BenPlaysGames - So, while the line is used in "Aliens", once (although the actual line is, "I got a bad feeling about this drop"), from a general sci-fi perspective, it is far and away more famous for having been said by at least one character in every single one of the 11 theatrical release Star Wars movies. While the room/level itself was certainly a continued play on the "Alien/Aliens" theme, the homage given here is to Star Wars, the "granddaddy" of all modern sci-fi.
@@hearthstonepunchingbag9457 Actually, I'd argue it is a reference to Aliens rather than Star Wars based on the line which follows on both occasions. In Combat Evolved, Johnson follows it up with: "Boy, you always got a bad feelin' about something". And in Aliens, Crowe responds with: "You always say that, Frost. You always say, 'I got a bad feeling about this drop'."
@@BenPlaysGames - Yes, but the line wouldn't have been "iconic" in Aliens at that point had it not already been made famous from the first 3 Star Wars movies. Yes, the scene in its whole was an Aliens reference... that part, however, even when it was done in Aliens, was a reference to the already-then iconic line from Star Wars... but whatever.
Bungie: “this is a science fiction game where you kill aliens as a badass human” Also Bungie: “let’s left field scare these fuckers with zombies midway through the game with no warning”
It's more scary than zombies
@@alexjackyperson101zombies that can fix a starship to spread to other planets.
Zombies that can shoot guns
I love how the group of Marine and Jackal bodies together isn't something the game forces you to see annoyingly. It's just there as environmental storytelling that those Jackals and Marines knew the Flood was the bigger threat and fought against them together. And after the cutscene of Jenkins we see "Unexpected Halt WND/INCAP/KIA?" So his suit knew Jenkins was wounded and incapacitated but because of the Flood infection. It couldn't tell if he was alive or dead....
Especially since the infection form was old, it didn’t fully infect him, leaving him in a hellish position.
I always thought Jenkins offed himself bc he couldnt take the stress, especially when you take into account the whole time jenkins isnt shooting anyone and johnson says" Jenkins fire your weapon" jenkins then sais "there is too many of them sarge" (here isbwhere i imagine he puts the gun to his head) then johnson turns to you and says "dont even think about it marine" followed by the one and only gunshot fired from jenkins just before the feed cuts out. I always figured the helmet doesnt have a setting for self inflicted death so it displays the KIA? Promt
Holy crap, I've been playing this game since 04 and I never knew that marine bodies would spawn if you go back up the elevator into the swamp, crazy
Cool little detail, right? I'm honestly not sure if it's a story thing or if it's related to models used in cutscenes needing to be placed somewhere on the map (like the marine you can find out of bounds), but it's pretty cool nonetheless.
@@BenPlaysGames I prefer to think that you got there first but they went a different way hence the bodies showing up when you go back
@@BenPlaysGames maybe both, incase someone does go up there its killing 2 birds with one stone, story telling and Cutscene model placement.
@@BenPlaysGames I am pretty sure it is because of the cutscene
@@BenPlaysGames it's the latter. Because bungie said they didn't expect anyone to go back up the lift
Something you missed, is that once you do take the elevator down, into the facility, that first batch of Covenant you find are all facing the wrong way. They're all looking TOWARDS the door, with their backs to the elevator, not as if they're guarding a weapons cache, as you were sent here for, but as if there was something deeper inside, something they don't want to get out.
Great spot dude, didn't notice that at all! Creepy...
@@BenPlaysGames Well, admittedly it's a mix of a spot, and I remember it from the novel. It's amazing the details the novel goes into. Like how Master Chief is tempted to scrub the mission. And that's just for THIS level.
@@SheosMan117 I remember reading that too. Even the Chief felt something was very wrong and like there were eyes constantly burning holes in the back of his head ever since he landed in that forsaken swamp.
Your explanation of this level is spot on. We thought Halo was going to be just mowing through Alien bastards yet, bungie did one of the greatest game twists ever by making it a masterful horror piece as well. I'll never forget my first time encountering the flood. They just wouldn't stop after a whole magazine of 60 rounds into the center mass!
Thanks Niloc mate! And agreed, one of my favourite videogame twists of all time.
Or emptying all 60 rounds and bringing it down... and then it stands back up! After that, I started shooting their melay arm off even if I knew they were dead
@@alexanderren1097 I just Double Tap(tm) the bastards, or more accurately 10-tap them. They usually don't get up when I do that. I'm pretty sure they've never gotten back up yet.
Indeed, and then they showed us where the flood came from, and boom, mental explosion🤪🤩🤩
I remember begging my dad to let me play this as a kid, seeing as how it had an M rating, and he finally let me play it, but he had to sit in to make sure it wasn't too inappropriate. And right before this mission started he fell asleep on the couch, and the whole time I was glancing over at him, worried he would wake up and see what was happening on screen. lol great memories
That is W parenting, he is a great dad
@retsaM innavoiG actually he was really abusive but I understand the sentiment ahahaha
@@lohnjanders 💀
@@lohnjanders damn
@@lohnjanders shit this degenerated quickly :(
Sorry to say I missed the Marines and the Jackal's last stand playing this as a kid. Very poignant. Everything else was unnerving especially the initial 'allied' blips. Bungie was brilliant in turning their own game on its head, demolishing the whole invincible power fantasy by putting you in an eldritch survival horror nightmare.
Exactly, Manuel - it's such a sharp turn from action to horror that shouldn't work as well as it does. But somehow, it works amazingly well.
@@BenPlaysGames and it's exactly how survival horror should be done: getting chased around by slow moving zombies while I myself can barely keep up a light jog is so annoying. I'd rather see a predator styled survival horror game where we start off as a badass gunning down bad guys but by the end barely manage to survive while being haunted by what we experienced.
@@BenPlaysGames It's why the original Predator movie was so good. Not only did all the advertising say it was an action movie, the first two thirds of the movie were a really solid action film before making the sharp turn into a creature feature horror film.
Wait, were the blips "allied" because the flood took their bodies? How did I never notice that lol
This level horrified me as a kid. I’ll never forget the sense of dread while watching the lost footage for the first time. Also, I’ve been playing the first Halo about every year or two for 20 years. HOW DID I NEVER SEE THE FLOOD HIDING IN THE SHADOWS IN THE BEGINNING. So much more creepy and unsettling now!
Yeh they're awesome aren't they - my favourite is the one in the swamp, as it's so creepy but also super easy to miss.
Funny thing when I first played through the level as a kid I accidentally skipped the helmet feed
It's not particularly scary but becomes unsettling when you realize later that they were dead and they were stalking you.
343 likes. Nice.
Don’t feel bad, I consider myself a halo guy and I had no idea either lmao
The jackals and marines working together was amazing
I like to imagine how they approached each other, too. The two marines coming into contact with the two jackals, all weapons pointed at each other. But the knowledge that both sides had of their brothers in arms actively dying left and right throughout the facility, would have all four of them trembling to their core. Perhaps one of the marines held his shotgun up in the air to signal "no shooting one another". After all the war, the humans and the covenant finally deciding to stand side by side, paralyzed by mortal fear for what is to come, they aim their weapons at the doors as they prepare for what morbid, ungodly fates await them...
@@nihilisticpuppy3799 Just bring the Imperial guard and it is over. No flood is stopping a baneblade!
@@nihilisticpuppy3799gaaaay
@nihilisticpuppy3799 that is so amazing, yet so sad
@@nihilisticpuppy3799I like to think the humans made it on the block first and extended an arm out to the very anxious jackals and pulled them up to help escape the flood. Back to back they fought until they all died…
Another detail about the second elevator that descends, it also introduces infected humans as well revealing what happened to the human bodies.
Good shout dude, didn't think about that being the first time you see human combat forms! The elevator descending instead of rising, the blood stains in the shaft and then the armed combat forms at the bottom is without doubt one of my favourite parts of the mission.
Oh yeah, I distinctly remember barely keeping it together at the bottom of that elevator when I noticed the zombies had expanded to humans. Then one of them started shooting me with a pistol and I was convinced it was the crazed marine from earlier that had been turned. I turned off the xbox then and there it broke me xD
What pfp is that
@@bruhman4293it's a girl
I'm glad that you use original graphics for these halo reviews. Not only are they superior atmospherically it also helps to appreciate how purposeful art design can create such memorable environments even if your resources are restricted. Bungie era halo's art has aged gracefully.
Honestly Vibhav mate, I hate the anniversary graphics! I included a short section at the end of this video about them, as I think 343 Guilty Spark is kind of ruined by them. Everything's way too bright and a lot of the effects don't work anywhere near as well.
Yeah when I first played the anniversary edition, I quickly found myself playing with the OG graphics instead on this level.
The new graphics don't really bother me personally
@@BenPlaysGames I think the swamp in the anniversary edition is better than the initial swamp. It is brighter but also buzzing with insects and there is a lot more foliage so when I went back into the level I was even more creeped out by the swamp as the foliage provided a lot of cover to whatever was lurking around there. So you cannot see as well and it heightens, for me at least the sense of tension and fear. The facility though is too bright and colourful. It needs to be austere, foreboding, barren.
Sucks that some of the issues with the port sticks around from gearbox
I remember being too scared to do this mission it took me a year to get over my fear HAHAHAH I was just 7 back then. Now it's one of my favorite levels in CE
I was a naughty little lad who managed to get his hands on Resident Evil and its sequels when I was way, way too young to play them, so 343 Guilty Spark wasn't too bad for me, but so many people have said similar - it's really cool a non-horror game managed to frighten people that much.
Don't worry my dude, same story, it took me like a year to finish any of the original 3 Halos when I got my hands on them as a kid. I was too afraid of the Flood levels in each of them. First one I pushed through was Halo 2, level seemed less creepy than 343 Guilty Spark or the fire and brimstone and screaming of The Flood.
Lmao dude same shit I was 9 years old when I got to the flood level. Shat my pants the whole time, then when I got to the Jenkins recording I shut off my xbox for 6 months before coming back to it
When the flood started breaking the doors open, i had to stop playing. I yearn for the fear i used to feel from this mission as a kid.
I never beat the Silent Cartographer because I couldn't figured out where to go but I did encounter the flood in the other Halo games and it wasn't really scary. No different from the Necromorph from Dead Space which aren't scary either.
There's only one mission in a game that came later that gave me the same feeling as "343 Guilty Spark", and that is "We don't go to Ravenholm" from Half-Life 2.
I feel like ravenholm is more scary as it’s very dark, you never get any Allies except for father Grigori who you never meet again, and your resources are scarce, all of these except the surroundings being dark isn’t the case for HALO, but that’s my opinion
It just occurred to me why the dead Marines are left there. It is meant to convey something about the Flood, implied only in this game - its intelligence. Most of the level is one big trap for Master Chief, a mind game. The Flood is not acting on instinct, it has a sharp, and sadistic intelligence behind it. So they want to increase the fear of Master Chief. The Flood does not just want to consume, it wants what it consumes to be afraid and die terrified. So it would even do something like if Master Chief decided to retreat put corpses that were not there before in front of him to increase his unease of going back into a dark, unlit swamp and force him back into a lit facility where an even bigger trap is laying in wait.
Excellent ideas! It's interesting too as I was always kind of under the impression that the flood needed to form a Gravemind (or indeed proto-Gravemind) before they became particularly tactically astute. Now, we may have to give some artistic license to Bungie as they were still figuring out the lore etc at this point, but if it was intentional, it's pretty cool that the flood were able to use tactics/lay a trap without having a central figure leading them.
@@BenPlaysGames Furthering a bit in that line of thought, if pay attention to some of the positions of corpses.. Almost looks like a few marines and covies teamed up but were slaughtered by the Flood. Its prevalent in the crazed human area where jackal and human corpses are on raised wreckage right next to each other as you pointed out. So Bungie definetly had that level of detail in mind
@@BenPlaysGames If they wanted to 'reconcile' the lore I am sure this would be more like the flood acting on instinct but - key word there - on instinct not mindlessly. I think an instinct would be to ensnare as many as possible but not necessarily yet develop the sophistication to get the flood off the ring just yet. But it is also probably no accident that the flood set the proto gravemind up on the Bridge of the Truth and Reconciliation. They wanted the 'brain' to figure out how to get them off the ring.
That just goes to show how great Bungie is at understated storytelling. Like with the Brutes on Halo Reach.
@@munfurai8083 What about the Brutes on Halo Reach?
i think the scariest part of this mission was finding out that the reason why there was blood splatters all over the walls of one of the elevators was because they were throwing bodies down the shaft
Then there's the fact the bodies are no longer at the bottom
Yeah, this game is an 11/10. The gameplay is amazing: moonbounce physics, satisfying energy shield+health pack combo system, high fall tolerance, fluid and intuitive controls, purpose fitting weapons, enjoyable vehicle usage, amazing story, and amazing overall world construction with bright, vibrant colors. Amazing enemy variety, and level variation. Extremely atmospheric, and the twist of the flood catapults the game to top-tier standing. And the shotgun I'd about the most satisfying weapon out there. Can't wait to play it again. There's so much
It's always been my favourite in the series, although I'm probably massively biased because it was also the first game in the series I played and the one I played most during my teenage years. Very fond memories, it's so, so good.
@@BenPlaysGames It was not the first I played, that would be 3/Reach. With that said, Halo: CE definitely is my favorite. It’s the most enjoyable to play, the most fun weapon+vehicles sandbox, the best glitches, the best speed run to watch (imo), and genuinely the most balanced difficulty. This would be followed by Halo 2, though I’m not sure if I prefer Halo 2 on Heroic or Legendary.
Definitely no High Fall Tolerance in Halo: CE, are you sure you're not thinking of Halo 2?
@@cosmictreason2242 I think CE does the fall damage the best way. You can die pretty easily but with skill you can fall from much higher.
Another great detail by Bungie in 343 Guilty Spark is before you see the flood, all the covenant have their backs tuned to where you enter. They are looking at where the flood might come from. They don't turn to fight you until you shoot at them or they see you. The environmental story telling is top tier.
Few people have pointed this out, can't believe I didn't spot it - such a cool detail!
I will say I gotta give credit to bungie for adding a zombie-esc enemy type that was unique and didn’t feel tiring or old. And this was before the zombie genre was starting to feel that way.
Completely unexpected too. I remember being incredibly surprised the first time I played the game back in 2001 as well, had no idea whatsoever they were coming!
Yeah, i mean in what other game zombies can sprint, jump, and carry rocket launchers and shotguns??? Shotguns, man! Shotguns are pretty much universal anti zombie guns, except here they're used BY zombies!
@@bruhSaintJohn Well in doom there are shotgun zombies and chaingun zombies 🤔
yeah they basically did dead space before dead space existed
@@bruhSaintJohn timesplitters
Typically in horror games, the player character has few or no ways to fight back. Bungie did a great job here. You have the best equipment available, and are a super solider, but still feel the sense of doom and desperation, even as you hold down your trigger.
It reminded me of a video, can’t remember the name, but it was how it can be more scary if you can fight back in horror games. Obviously, it’s not a end all method, but it still is a option to ponder on when making a game with horror
@@pian-0g445 yea its like playing a horror game like outlast compared to like a resident evil game i feel more terrified when i have all these guns but there’s a alot of zombies in a hallway and i barely have any ammo so even though i could fight back i might bite the dust whereas in games like outlast when you know you can’t fight back and all you can do is hide then it usually always plays the same way and loses its scare factor when Ik there’s some monster chasing me and I cant do nothing but hide in a locker or something
It’s scary being in control of your body but coming up against an unstoppable force
My favorite is Condemned when it comes to horror. Games like Outlast is my worst... who said i can't use a nearby object to beat up inmates if i was there ? All those games that make you run helpless are stressful and tedious (will only accept Alien Isolation)
12:55 - Yeah, that moment is such a good moment. You see the elevator. Hope swells inside of you. You press the button... and it goes down. Even deeper into the darkness. And your heart just sinks. Very effective.
It's even worse because it starts by going up slightly before going down.
One of the things I always found trippy was going through the level and realizing the lowest form of the flood were still as big as a Spartan’s head, let alone a human’s… and the fact that there are so many swarming. And, as priorly mentioned, there are way bigger forms. Gives you an idea of the scale. (Like with grunts being the… well, “grunts,” and they’re still as big as an unmodified human soldier. Loved the way they’d stalk you in a hallway and the jumping bean attacks were way worse as you couldn’t turn as good in those tight corridors. (The jackals and marines fighting together is something new to me, as far as the depth you mentioned… very wild) That theme of the flood always made me tense. Well done soundtrack after all of that needed silence as you steeped in the eeriness.
In actuality, they can range from 3-_5 ft tall_
There are so many details here that I've never even seen before... the lack of leadership within the covenant, the shadows dipping behind cover before you could tell what they were, all the things designed solely to toy with you and Chief. Thank you very much for giving this insight that I missed horribly.
No worries at all Nexus mate, appreciate you taking the time to check the video out. To be fair, most of them are real easy to miss too!
The interesting part of this is...you probably did notice them...just not consciously, or to the point where you stopped to ask yourself "what was that?". They did it in such a way as to increase your anxiety and uncertainty without being blatantly obvious and in your face about it.
I _sort of_ noticed that there weren't any Red Elites, but it didn't quite click until right this moment. For _twenty years_ I had a feeling like there was something missing with the Covenant force in the 343 level.
Time for an overview of one of the best gaming twists ever.
Still creeps me out 20 years later, one of the best FPS levels of all time...
@@BenPlaysGames 6 year old me didn't have any idea that this fun action sci-fi shooter would become a survival horror game halfway through.
@@spartanK42 Me neither mate, didn't have a scooby doo it was coming!
I remember when I first played this level and not being able to finish it because it scared me so much. The noises the Flood make especially with that music really make my skin crawl to this day.
Why is a grown man scared of popcorns?
Great video - the bit that always sticks with me is the gradual appearance of red circles on the motion tracker, that starts as a small trickle and ends as a 'flood'... My friend and I played it together at 3am and I remember him saying '...what the.. look at the map, they're all around us..' Definitely a moment straight out of JCs Aliens
I think it’s also important to note that the group of marines you escape the facility with tend to all get killed off during that flood ambush (unless you’re on easy). Suddenly you realise the marines aren’t going to help you much, and you might even leave some of them for dead as the flood just swarm around them. I know during my first play-through of this mission, I was constantly trying to help those marines, only to manage to save about 1 or two of them by the end.
I was playing co-op, and we had most of the Marines survive. Though they probably died after we left them behind.
I can usually keep a good bunch of them alive on normal/heroic, you just have to be super aggressive at the start and go after as many of the flood as you can yourself. How many are left by the time Guilty Spark shows up, well that's a different story!
Usaaly saved alot more, it was a mission to save a shit ton of marines for more firepower and bullet sponges
First time playing, co-op, my friend (who introduced me to halo) was DEAD set on saving the marines
I say just kill the marines on sight ;)
I love most when you notice the flood had been watching you since the level starts. And that they were holding back until you got deep enough, showing intelligence.
Crafty beggars!
The proto gravemind was plotting lol
Because the Flood wanted Chief and Cortana. They found out about Chief and Cortana after they took Keyes and tortured him in his mind and started forming the proto-gravemind. If they took control of Chief and then went and grabbed Cortana, the Flood would've been unstoppable and they would've had a straight shot to earth and the Ark. That's what makes this level even scarier when you go back and play it again. It's the Flood luring Chief deep into the facility into a trap.
14:40 I do like the fact that the jackals and humans decided to help each other against a more dangerous enemy
One of the greatest plot twists in gaming history
The trauma experience from playing this level for the first time is mind blowing. Its fear itself and made you turn the xbox off until your little brother came in to watch you play it with you.
I would have been the big brother in this case. Except he was only really interested in playing Pro Evolution Soccer with me, which I didn't want to do as he'd always thrash me. So he wasn't there 😂
@Me Am KZhead gameplays didn’t exist when this game first came out. Lol
I absolutely loved the horror elements in Combat Evolved, this was a great breakdown on how well this entire level was executed.
Why, hello there :)
Just go away you spammer.
Cheers my dude, appreciate the kind words!
I just finished CE for the first time. I started on Halo 3 when it came out then Reach then 5. Bought MCC and going through before Infinite. From the first level of CE of felt very different. I was thinking this is like survival horror almost.
You’re everywhere lol
Playing this with my big brother when I was 6 really frightened me, especially when I started to understand the flood was taking over their bodies and not a species of its own.
Yeh I reckon witnessing it at 6 would do that haha, big brother there to calm you down at least!
This level is so amazing and uncomfortable at the same time. To this day I feel my stomach churning when I go down that empty hallway before the Jenkins scene. Pure masterpiece!
Amazing and uncomfortable sums it up very nicely!
there's even more hidden dead marines than you mentioned, in that first room with the light bridge, there is a hidden marine body behind the crates, and after the flood attack, nearby is a new marine with a medkit. but overall the spookiest part to me is those empty shade turrets and how one has just a tiny bit of blood, as if the flood snuck up and killed the gunner with little effort.
Good spots! Sneaky bastards those flood...
when i entered that room the turrets were all flipped over which made it seem even more ominous
@@jaydenwilton5279 me too
The Jackal and Marine story telling is really cool considering the fact that most likely the 4 didn't understand a single word the others said but they were so terrified in that moment that they worked together to try to survive.
It’s quite sad it looked like they lasted a while before being finally overrun
Another nice detail is the fact that they don't show any sign of infection. They were so good a team, they defeated all the Flood in their immediate area. They simply died of their wounds.
Even after 20 years of playing this level over and over since I was 7, you managed to point out awesome details I missed. Like marines and jackals standing together against the flood. Awesome details
Glad you enjoyed my dude!
This is extremely interesting! The first time I played through CE's campaign was on legendary, so I ended up missing most of this because I was more focused on not dying. I definitely have a more profound respect for this mission now
Ah that's great Ghetis, thanks! I actually made the video in the first place as Combat Evolved doesn't get spoken about too much in terms of level design/environmental storytelling (which is fair enough, the game has other, stronger suits), so wanted to shine a bit more of a light on the mission as it really is a standout affair and in my view one of the greatest FPS levels ever made.
14:55 I have never noticed that. That's pretty amazing.
Same here, pretty interesting detail that they added. 🤔
Sup Cody.
Its cool but its sad that they died. Bet they could become friends.
Did not expect to see you here 😂 Also yeah I had never noticed that either
I stumbled across it, but I didn't notice the jackals there, (I assumed they were marines) and even if I did, I didn't think about it that much. I do wish I did, as it is a great bit of storytelling.
That part where you go back out of the facility, in almost twenty years of playing Halo and I've never done it even once, what a nice little attention to detail to see those bodies show up, just makes me love CE even more
I'm certain there's other cool details in Combat Evolved that maybe haven't been discovered, it's just a question of finding them!
@@BenPlaysGames certainly, amazing how the game keeps on giving, despite all the limitations at the time
@@BenPlaysGames It's like the silent cartographer, you can basically bypass certain parts of it by just not going there in the first place - like the bit where Cortana says "don't let them lock the doors!"... If you just go to the place to unlock the doors first.
i think a game where you were a marine stranded on the first discovery of this facility would be pretty good, but very easy to mess up
I'd play that!
The one scene that will always give me chills is actually not even featured in this mission, not even in the original release of the game. It's a piece of optional video you can find in the same room as Proto-Gravemind Keyes, a few missions further in the Remaster, at one of the added lore terminals. "No...not Miranda... Don't make me forget her," as well as "Oh God... You don't just want Earth... You want EVERYTHING," are painfully striking. But the most harrowing lines will always be "You.... Won't... Take... Me!!!" 'We. Already. Have.'
The book Halo The Flood goes even further into it describing Keyes intense struggle against the flood, trying to force down all his important personal information desperately by masking it with as many innocuous memories as possible, such as the taste of his favourite meal and such. It's horrifying what he goes through
I wish I could replay this game again without any memories of it. The flood was a great change of pace (although the library directly after could have been a bit shorter.)
Me and my friend literally took nearly an hour and started ranting about Disney
Me too, Super! I'm also not a huge fan of The Library either. It should have really been simply a short final section at the end of 343 Guilty Spark rather than its own entire level, would have worked much better.
The twist is great, but the Flood are a shite enemy.
It should of been longer
@@DinoPimp shit enemy????? Why say That??????.coz you keeped getting killed??????
the marine's and jackals dead from their last stand, it kind of felt like a hint of what would happen later on in 2 and 3.
Best buddies haha.
An alliance of convenience. Enslavement by The Flood is far worse than anything they could do to each other.
"Enemy or not, no soldier deserves this fate"
Using the covenant to fight the flood for you was epic.
Flood in Combat Evolved: Scary "The Thing" aliens. But nothing a shotgun can't handle. Flood from Halo 2 till the reclaimer saga: Lovecraftian beings. The biggest threat in the universe. Mama i am scared!
I remember when I was a kid I stopped playing the game for weeks because of this one mission. It's also so cool that someone else thought about the marine/ jackal alliance! I used to have little explainations like that about all the corpses you find around the game.
Fortunately, I had very chill parents who didn't mind me playing Resident Evil from the age of 9 or so, so I was a little desensitised by the time Combat Evolved came around! It is still creepy as nobodies' business though and as you said, the marines/jackals is an awesome little touch. Fallout 4, despite not being that brilliant a game, was really good for that kind of thing too.
Yeah... i would always try and peice together what the hell happened in a room full of bodies. Exspample, you go into a room with 3 dead grunts to of which are thrown in random corners, another in the middle with its blood around it, you spot a crater, you then notice a brute, his piker at his side, you pick it up, most of the mag is spent, you face where the boddy fell, and you see 2 dead marines, you look around and see that the hallway that the covies came through has a line of spikes, and it seems theres a blood splater, you follow the trail to one of the marines, hes in a pool of his own blood, and unarmed up,against a table, you look around and see his rifle halfway through the hallway, after discovering this, you observe the second marine, hes up agianst the wall with another line of spikes, a smear trailing down, his rifle in his lap, you pick it up, and notice that its empty, you see the spent shell casings and notice he has all of his grenades, you take them, he wont need them, you go over to the first, all of his are gone, and from this information, you peice together whay happened. Two marines are shown being chased down a hallway, they reach a turn, one turns to cover the other, a spiker ringsout, the marine has three spikes peirce through his body, he stumbles, corrects himself, and starts to move down the turn, hes forced to drop his rifle, his fellow marine, noticing that his friend isn't there, runs back, spotting the wounded soldier, and they soon make themselves into a room. After setting his mate against a table, he takes up a firing position, just then tree grunts round the corner firing wildly, forcing him to duck, he then notices his friend has pulled out his only frag, and tosses it into the room, two screams are heard, the marine with the rifle starts to cheer, but notices his friend has stopped moving, as well as breathing, he knows hes alone, then a roar is heard, the marine, not caring anymore, pops up and starts putting rounds down range, the brute sheilds start to flare, then they fall, but as the rounds start to enter his chest, moving towards his skull, he lifts oup his spiker, and fires in a side way motion, hiting the marine, but not before sumbing to his wounds. The marine, knowing his time is over, sits as comfortable as possible, and after 45 seconds.... He closes his eyes one last time. I know i need to space but other thatn the ass kicking... how bad?
@@kriegertechpriest7011 nah man, this was good. I'd read a book if you wrote it.
@@baritonemonke4273 Thanks! Just gotta put effort into it... like with everything in the world, you put in the effort, and you will achieve your goal.
@@kriegertechpriest7011 totally agree with ya.
This level is one of the most memorable in the franchise. It could easily serve as inspiration for a stand alone sci fi horror movie.
There's an approximation to that There is a halo short animated novel called something something Monalisa, and it includes just marines and the flood, no Spartan in sight
@@svidentkyrponos7530 Hello. Yes, i know. It is one of my favourite animated shorts. That and the 'Return'. I wish they had made more of those shorts they were really good. Halo truly is one of the great sci fi franchises, there are so many stories that have and could be told in so many different media. Not a bad legacy for an FPS game.
@@MagnanimousEntropy I've been thinking about a survival horror like dead space or RE 1-3 but based on Halo and flood-themed That'd be so metal...
@@svidentkyrponos7530 Exactly, something dark and creepy. There is no horror like Sci-fi horror and the Flood are truly horrifying. Although i must admit Dead Space does give them a run for their money.
Great video Ben. I look forward to seeing you with many more subs in the near future.
Cheers Joe mate! Honestly, even 20k boggles my mind, think I'd have a full on meltdown if I ever hit your level haha.
I've got to admit that I was to young when I first played this to appreciate all this detail and even in my later years with The Master Chief Collection I did not pay this much attention to any of these details. Thank you for going through and showing us this.
This level scared me so bad as a kid. As soon as the Flood showed up I flung myself to the end of my bed and flailed my finger at the power button of my Xbox, ridding my screen of the repulsive freaks. After calming down I went back in, yelping every time any kind of Flood showed up from around a corner or something. Horror is one of my favorite genres now and nothing scares me anymore. Weird.
I was fortunate enough to have been quite into the Resident Evil franchise prior to Combat Evolved, so didn't find 343 Guilty Spark too bad, but so many people have said similar to you. A sign, I think, that Bungie did an amazing job!
Same
This level, and the Flood in general, still terrifies me so utterly that I cannot play Halo 1-3 by myself. Its Co-op or nothing. Which is weird, because you'd think my adult self would be past this, but nope. Childhood me's fear still holds tight. Yet oddly enough I'm good with all the existentially terrifying crap that is the Warhammer 40k universe. Go figure.
Hmmm pretty sure Halo one two and three were rated 18🤔
In all the years I've played this game, I've never noticed that particular flood on the tree trunk at 04:05 or the one in the swamp at 04:16. This is a fantastic analysis video, even years later I'm still finding new things in this masterpiece.
Nice one X02 appreciate the kind words dude!
Well this has been thrown out by the Jega 'Rdomnai Boss fight in infinite, nothing scarier than an invisible elite, with a sword in a dark room who takes a million hits to kill.
I wasn't a huge fan of the boss fights in Infinite in general, but that one was by far the best of the bunch - it felt a little more curated than the others, which at times felt like they were tacked on to the end of missions just to pad things out a little more.
@@BenPlaysGames Some of them yeah, as actually boss fights they were the most fun fights I've had in the series.
@@RedditStorytime I just ground pounded the shit out of him so I didn’t get to experience the horror of it too much, but the fight itself was fantastic
Lol it’s really hard on legendary took me abt 20 tries
For me the best boss fight was against the two brutes. All other after that felt just lame to me because I just had to do the same stuff over and over again until they drop dead. The escharum one was the worst boss fight ever. Grapple hook over him, shoot a few bullets and repeat for 10 minutes.
Amazing details! You pointed out some things I never noticed that make me appreciate the mission and Halo even more! Such as the marine's bodies appearing if you go back up to the swamp at the start, and the jackals and marines that seemed to put aside their differences in a last ditch effort to survive the Flood!
Can we just take a second to just appreciate the level of creativity that went into creating a game like this?!? Not only are you a marine on a different world fighting aliens, but also zombie aliens, and the world you're on is a massive weapon. The amount of world building in this game is so god damn amazing, especially when you consider this game was made 20 years ago with a massively limited memory space, unlike games today. I wish there were games with this level of creativity today.
Never knew you could go back up and see the dead marines and this game was my childhood I played it countless of times and never have I ever thought of going back out. This is what video games today is missing : developpers who cares about details and functionality
If it's details you like, 343 Guilty Spark is king! Still so impressed whenever I play it as to how much Bungie managed to pack in.
@@BenPlaysGames absolutely no doubt about it I just replayed 343 Guilty spark just to see those marines with my own eyes lol
You pointed out a lot of details I noticed before. I knew about a few of the combat forms wandering through the swamp, and I just recently found out about the destroyed elevator. However, I never thought to go outside a little afterward to find those marines, nor did I think about the marines and jackals together. Thanks for bringing these details to my attention.
13:06 - The best part of this elevator is how for just a moment when you press the button it goes up, giving you just the tiniest bit of hope, before going down. You just feel your heart sink the moment you realize you're going down, deeper into the facility instead.
The book makes this part of the game even better
I didn’t read the entire book, you mind telling me what happens in this part?
Whole thing is amazing! I think it might be the only videogame book I've read.
@@ThePilleroflightning its just the mission but we see it through the eyes of master chief, private jenkins and foehammer it also goes into alot of detail about flood infection (I haven't read it in a while so im sorry if my explanation is bad)
The book was phenomenal
@@quinncaie2593 The explanation of being turned through the eyes and thoughts of Jenkins was a complete mind fuck. I had to go back and re-read that part a couple times when I first read the book, lol.
Dude, I remember that one point where you find some live Marines on a platform. I tried so many times to rescue them... it was impossible. This is one of my favorite missions. And Halo CE has one of the best campaigns of all time. I respect the detail and analysis you put on this video! I'm glad KZhead recommended this video. Good job on this one!
Cheers dude! Someone also actually mentioned in another comment that if you keep those marines alive they start making dispirited comments, which is an awesome detail I completely missed.
I remember my cousin and I were playing (we had a weird hybrid setup where I was in charge of secondary fire and jumping and my cousin was on movement and gunfire rofl) and when we came to 343 Guilty Spark, it was a complete shocker. We were kids, but it was such an intense and sudden shift that it caught us completely off-guard. Needless to say, we loved it! The moment The Flood is revealed is by far the greatest reveal in anything I've ever experienced.
Great video! I want to add something to this. Another thing that this level (and the library as well) did wonderfully was turn the weapon mechanics on it's head. Weapons like the needler, plasma pistol, and the much coveted sniper suddenly became useless while the AR becomes amazing
Cheers dude! And that's a really good point. The weapon balancing in CE really is my favourite thing about it, everything has a use no matter how rubbish a few of the guns may seem at first.
14:35 I have never noticed that before, that's amazing! And fantastic video overall! Like many here I also didn't ever notice the marines would spawn if you went back up either.
Cheers Brick! Cool little addition isn't it, must have been a pretty awful past few moments 😕
As a 7 year old, Halo was all fun and exiting until reaching this point Lmao I would re-start the campaign and play everything up until this point over and over again until finally finishing the mission and eventually the game lol
Holy snap i can't believe someone else use to do this :'D.
Just beat it on legendary and I enjoyed every minute of it
Great video. Will never forget how scared I was hearing the flood smack down the doors before barging into the room when I first played the game. That sound effect was perfection, definitely fits the vibe of that particular moment in the map.
Literally a defining moment from my childhood. Up to this point, all I knew about the game was from what I played at a friends house and the first few levels. I thought I’d seen every enemy CE had to offer, and I was thinking “this is just a fun game where you’re a super soldier who kills brightly colored aliens”. My friend and I had just beat Assault on the Control Room and he had to head home, but I decided to continue. I was alone in my basement, and like most 8 year olds I was not a fan of being alone in a creepy basement to begin with. I was on edge the entire time. I watched the cutscene where the flood take out the marines, looked down and saw all the blood and no bodies, watched as a door on the far side of the room exploded and 50 little parasites came charging though, and I turned off my console and ran upstairs. I think it was another couple of weeks before I went back in with my older cousin.
I remember the first time playing this mission. It scared my brother and I so much that when we finally got allies at the last part of the mission, we killed them the first time because we thought they were flood forms at first. It’s such a beautiful moment that really reinforces how scary this mission actually was.
Like, you shot instinctively and realized they were human after, or thought they were pretending to be human and killed them 'just in case?'
The vibe change on this mission was so stark, I actually remember thinking I had bought a dodgy version of halo that someone had fucked around with.
Sounds like the start of a Creepypasta out of context.
This video is amazing! Thank you for taking so much time to produce such a cohesive video about your favorite mission :) you’re awesome!
Thanks so much TJ, that's super kind mate!
First off, this may very well be the most detailed and well thought out descriptions of this mission I’ve ever heard. And this is coming from an OG Halo fan. And second, I absolutely LOVE your voice and articulation! You just earned yourself a sub. I deeply apologize that I’ve just recently heard of your content and channel. I can’t believe this somehow slipped under my radar. Can’t wait for more! 😊❤️
That's super nice of you mate, thanks for the kind words!
8:25 something you didn’t mention is that right here if you look you can see that the jackals are holding up their shields to the door as if they are waiting for something. I didn’t notice if until years after playing. Also fun fact, the crazy marine was originally supposed to shoot himself if you walked pasted him without killing him.
Possibly the mandela effect, but i remember him shooting himself on og xbox version? After a minute or so of shooting you, hed turn the piece on himself?
@@TarantuLandoCalcuLingus same wtf
He did shoot himself
He does shoot himself I think. Edit: I remembered in the book he shoots himself also.
I do believe that halo: combat evolved is responsible for one of the greatest plot twists in all of history
Agreed toaster - Johnson and an elite hugging at the end? Never saw it coming.
I think bioshock has better plot twists. My favorite being bioshock 2: Minervas Den
@The Expat Dodo Love that scene!
23 years after the release of Halo CE and I just found out thanks to this video (8:50) that you can go back out from the facility and find marine corpses. Crazy, I always seem to find new Halo stuff overall (1,2 & 3) every now and then watching videos I stumble upon on youtube. Good content mate!
Cheers Rafa, appreciate the kind words!
Legit never noticed the flood behind the scenes in the distance, the one darting tree to tree just off in front of you is creepy. The yellow icons on the radar as well... always thought it was a glitch.
The tree Flood is my favourite, it's super, super easy to miss but is pretty bloody creepy if you do spot it.
wow, i thought i knew everything about this level, but that bit with the jackals and marines teaming up is something i never thought of. nice catch.
Cheers Devine, it's a really cool little details aye!
Imagine remaking this level and removing everything about it that was terrifying. Glad that never happened, right?…
No, never 😂
No game developer would be that dumb....... Right??
The tab button is my best friend in ce,2
Imagine messing up the remake of the level your studio was named after.
Very impressed with this channel, success is coming. Keep at it. Halo analysis like yours is very appreciated
So glad you mentioned that part about the extra marine corpses. I went out and discovered that trying to escape and was horrified lol. Never seen anyone else mention it on KZhead so thumbs up
I remember Playing that level as a kid, my disc was scratched or something so that scared Marine's lines were unintelligible, enemies were clipping through walls, the screen kept flashing, walls and doors would disappear and the noises from the flood were distorted. It was downright terrifying.
@Haghighi Yeah, I remember in some of the corridors the walls would clip out for a frame or so and flood would spawn on top of me.
@Haghighi Lmao 14 year old me fought through it.
*Bethesda : ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE Myself
Dude playing through this mission my first time as a young kid was terrifying, the mission felt so different
Such a jarring experience moving from Silent Cartographer and Assault on the Control Room to 343 Guilty Spark. But jarring in a good way! Completely catches you off guard.
9:30 if you listen to the complete dialogue of the crazed marine, he says they only like to take live ones, he played dead and so they didnt infect him. As we know the flood do in fact infect dead corpses, but other things may cause an infection form to reject a host.
Being 5 years old in 2001, this mission was terrifying as hell when I first played Halo 🤣 The Library afterwards…Terrifying still lmao 🤣
I’ve been playing CE for over 10 years, and this is the first time hearing that there were Flood actually watching us in game. Like it made sense lore wise, but I had no idea there were in game flood forms watching from afar. It really ups the fear factor now that I know for a fact I’m being watched.
Great analysis, I remember playing this mission on the og xbox the first time and trying to understand what was happening. I would say, however, the scariest mission for me was Halo 3 when you go to rescue cortana from the ship. The environment design and the gravemind constantly in your head was horrifying
Thanks Austin! Cortana I find hard to get through as I find it quite repetitive, but I do love the story around it and Master Chief essentially descending into hell to rescue Cortana.
2:58 seeing the air move as those invisible Elites came out gave me some kind of PTSD and I was there holding my Xbox controller for dear life again.
Wow all these years later and I never knew of the Flood in the mist at the beginning...learn something new everyday! Great video!