Hello folks. Sorry for the late post on this. I was quite busy today.

As you can see by the title, we’ll take a look at characters from Halo 4 that are either alien in nature of flood. Let’s start off with the Covenant.

In this graphic you can see the near in-game version greyed out at the upper left corner. The larger one reminds me more of the Reach Zealot with a mix of Ultra as well. I think I actually prefer the larger one. The large ornamental helmet is more reminiscent of Elite helmet of high rank. There is a slightly odd pairing of colors in this concept. It’s as if the artist (or someone directing them) were not sure of which color to go with, so they chose a hybridization of sorts.

Now here we have an Elite minor. This is very close to the in-game version. I definitely like the look of this elite. Thinking back to Halo CE, this looks like the natural progression for the armor of the minor. Kudos to 343 on this simple redesign!

What’s curious about the above pic is that we didn’t get Brutes in the game, with exception to one cutscene. Perhaps this concept was to be that Brute. He looks very imposing. That shield he’s holding looks a lot like a Hunter’s shield. In any event, I don’t think any of us would want to mess with him. I miss Brutes in Halo. I do hope they make they’re way back in to the next one in some iteration.

Lastly for the Covies is the redesigned Jackal (Kig Yar). The largest one is closer to what we’ve had in previous games. Though the taller and stunted beak is prominent. The near final designs on the left of this image show various Jackal ranks. I love everything about them, except for the head. I really don’t see why 343 felt the need to change that. Yes, they look more fierce, but they’ve also lost their “lithe-ness”. That head makes them look more bulky. Since Halo 4’s launch, we’ve now had an in-universe explanation that this is yet another sub-species of Jackals. GRRRR….stick with continuity folks. See, this is why you do not just change designs to change them… As I said, everything else is great, but that head redesign just kills it for me. I don’t expect 343 to go back to a previous version in the next game, sigh. So, we’re stuck with this stunted beak version. Strangely enough, we DO see the classic long thin versions in the Halo Escalation comic books by Darkhorse. So if you are craving to see them in a new format, I suggest getting those comics.

Moving on to the Flood.

We did not expect to see any kind of flood in this game as they had been effectively eradicated once again. Or at least that we know of. Above shows various forms. They might be infection forms or carrier forms or even a means to disperse the flood through space? There’s a lot of variety there. Perhaps when (and I do expect them to return), the flood are back in Halo, we’ll see some of these designs crop up again.

In the above pic the anatomy of the flood’s claw arm is shown in various forms. All look dangerous with pincers and jagged edges. The choice to with up that arm from left to right is a little perplexing. Of course in matchmaking it makes sense as you use that arm to strike at Spartans.

In the rendering above the claw arm is still on the left. It still looks like the typical flood we know, except that the head isn’t snapped back in some strange pose.

Now this concept I like. It shows a great variance between designs. The one marked #2 looks more like a Promethean Knight’s head. Perhaps that is where it was developed from? Number 3 is the one we got in game. Number 1 is very odd. Who knows, perhaps these might become Flood forms in future games and are from previously unknown alien species.

Now I think it’s safe to say we know were the exploding head idea for the Knights came from.

The large head here looks more like something out of Star Wars. Jedi master Saesee Tiin to be exact. I’m glad it wasn’t picked.

Undoubtedly and early sketch, with not much defined detail.

Looking at the flood concepts, it seems like minimal effort was put into fleshing them out, in lieu of just getting more designs out for someone to choose from. It was likely known early on that the flood would not have a large presence in Halo 4. Thus, no reason to take a ton of time to develop a lot of assets for them.

Finally we do get some color in the concepts. The middle shooing the infected parts of a spartan. Now here’s one thing to note. Spartan’s that I recall, were not supposed to be able to be infected. Either that or they tried to with Master Chief and just couldn’t crack his armor. Meh…

Another take on the form, this time with more depth to it.

For the last of the Flood concepts, we have the official orthogonal view rendering. I hope you can see by the addition of color really helps to engage the viewer. This rendering has a lot more detail as well. While I’m still a bit confused as to the total redesign, I’m okay with it.

Now, Forerunners!

Ancient Prometheans looks quite different from what we got in-game. These of course are the Forerunner Prometheans, not the composed Knights that were put into the game. That slight bot of orange helps to define an other wise bland color palette. The designs themselves are pretty cool. I would have liked to have seen them in full color though, rather than mostly greys.

In the concept above, we have the Knight as it might have been. Able to change form and had a full sized human inside, rather than nothing and something slightly more than ornamental small arms in the front of it. I know I would have preferred this design over what we got. I just think the Knights in Halo 4 look too clunky.

And finally for this article, we have a drawing of sentinels. Thankfully these all look similarly to ones from previous games. I’m glad 343 didn’t venture too far away from that classic design.

Once again, apologies for the late post on this.

Tomorrow, we will look at UNSC personnel, including Master Chief, Cortana, Scientists and Marines.

Let me know what you think of this article or any of the other Concept articles. Post below by hitting that reply button!

-Sal