Halo Legends Verdict Is In – Legendary

Last week Lloyd Dew and myself had the wonderful opportunity to see the “unofficial” premiere of the long awaited Halo Legends.  Despite the long and incredibly boring train journey, getting lost in Soho and even a splash of rain you might be shocked to hear the whole event was simply fantastic.

After completing the essential tasks assigned by the Editor, such as grabbing a sub of the day, we arrived a little early at The Moving Picture Company in Soho for the screening of Halo Legends. Now, before I begin I must admit that the Halo series is in fact not my favourite collection of games, but regardless of this Lloyd and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The feature itself is split into several chapters and each follows through different stories separate from the games with beautiful visuals and most of all, wonderful combat.

Each chapter was created by an individual studio with its own visual style, which seemingly influenced the structure of each chapter.  From anime to CGI each of these styles felt as fresh and natural as the previous and whilst it only featured in one chapter, the CGI was absolutely superb.  These features, coupled with an incredible score, made the whole feature an aesthetic wonder and one which stands side by side with its Matrix counterpart ‘Animatrix’.

With this in mind lets have a quick breakdown of what was shown:

Origins was the first chapter shown and was a prologue to the creation of the first Halo.  Separated into two parts this summarized the creation of the Halos, the nature of The Flood amongst other Halo universe specifics.  The visual style was in 3D and boy was it impressive, reminding me of the aforementioned Matrix episode The Second Renaissance in terms of its narrative.

The Duel follows the demise of the Arbiter, exploring the honour and social classes of the Elites as well as the devious tactics the Prophets are willing to indulge in to achieve their goals.  This story arc features a rich compelling plot as well as thrilling combat situations and in terms of aesthetics the soft watercolour style really came off as beautiful and different for this episode.

Homecoming focuses strongly on the tragedies involving a Spartan, specifically her dealings with the “Spartan II” project.  It delves into the processes of transforming an ordinary human into a Spartan warrior, and the tragedies associated with it.

Prototype is a story based upon a Marine called Ghost, who was considered “not to feel as a human should”.  He must face his own shortcomings with his inability to feel and overcome this in order to save his platoon during his mission to destroy an object known only as ‘Prototype’.  This chapter used a more gruesome style of anime, fitting with the fast paced, more glorious combat, featured throughout.

Odd One Out follows the story of Spartan 1337 and this chapter is different from the others as it takes a more humorous, off-kilter approach to storytelling. The Prophets latest weapon is sent to challenge the might of the Spartan’s, which 1337 sees as his time to shine.  Ironically the planets inhabitants offer this headstrong warrior more help than he can initially provide them and to complement the non-canon approach this piece uses a more ‘cutesy’ style of anime, similar in style to that of Dragonball Z.

The Babysitter follows a squad of four Helljumpers, one of whom is Dutch – recently seen in Halo 3 ODST.  It follows them on their attempt to assassinate a prophet, however O’ Brian, the sniper of the squad,  had been benched by a Spartan Warrior.  O’Brian’s jealousy overtakes him largely due to his issues Spartans.  He falls into many near death experiences and is saved by the spartan which builds up his hatred even more. The emotional climax of this piece however changes his view on the noble warriors.

Finally, The Package. This begins on board a cloaked human ship with a group of Spartans whose mission is to recapture a valuable package, but like all good stories when a package is being captured things never go according to plan eh?  This chapter features some beautiful combat scenes, even points of view switching from a wonderful third person angle, to a first person view similar to that featured in-game.  This featured glorious CGI which awed and amazed everyone present, providing a fantastic end to the feature.

The plot and contents of each chapter served many useful purposes whilst being entertaining, amusing and filling in the blanks glaringly present in the Halo mythos.  The plots were rich and interesting following stories alongside the main series plot.  The chapters delve into the origins of the Spartan II’s, with each helping expand a large war centered universe into a much more ‘human’ tale.  Throughout this all we are treated with beautifully shifting visual styles, strong content and an extremely humorous Spartan ’1337′ warrior, as well as great combat.

In general I enjoyed this feature a lot more than I expected to with a beautiful musical score evocative of the Halo Trilogy.  Managing the impossible, this feature really fleshed out the Halo universe moving it further away from just a game, and into a world of its own a tad short of ‘Avatars’ Pandora.  That’s high enough praise for anyone.