January 15, 2011
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The Origins Of Halo
Most people won’t argue if you say that the Halo series has been hugely popular: perhaps that it even saved the Xbox from going the way of the Dreamcast. Master Chief, the protagonist of the series, has become an iconic character in video game culture. But where did the Chief come from? What influenced the character, the story, the world? I’m not talking about his backstory- I’m sure everyone knows that already. I’m more interested in how the developers went about creating him as we know him today.
If you do any research on Bungie’s flagship title, the first thing you’ll probably notice is the sheer volume of biblical references. The main villain is known as the Flood. The means of defeating (and in some cases, escaping) the Flood is located in a space station known as The Ark. Many of the Spartans have biblical names- and some people have argued that John 117 (Master Chief’s name and number, respectively) are linked to the bible in some way, themselves. There’s nothing particularly unusual or unique about this- a great many works of science fiction have posited speculations about religions being inspired by extraterrestrial creatures- I mean, just look at the Wikipedia entry on the matter. Pretty long list, no?
At this point, I’m sure you want to know just where the hell I’m going with this. Well, I’m getting to that. We can trace the basic idea behind Master Chief to mythology and religion itself. How? Well, it’s the idea of The Hero, and it’s something that we as a species (I’d argue that this more or less transcends culture) love. It’s a time of war and strife. An entire people are endangered.
They need a hero- one who is superhuman in some way; one who is somehow more than human- or perhaps even beyond superhuman. In mythology, they’re often in some way divine- Hercules, or Sigmund, or King Arthur. In fantasy, they might have some sort of divine destiny. In science fiction, maybe they’re a cyborg- like our dear friend John.
We’ve stripped down the inspiration behind Master Chief down to the most basic concept- the crux of what he is. Although he’s simply one superman of many, somehow he manages to rise up and become one of the key elements in ending a galaxy-wide war. That pretty much fits the previously described mould perfectly.
As for his ‘people’- the Spartans- it’s pretty clear where the inspiration stems there. They’re super soldiers- albeit genetically enhanced ones- which are pretty much born to fight. Sounds a bit like Leonidas and his lads, doesn’t it? Yeah, no surprises there.
Just the same, there’s got to be something more to this. There has to be something which defines Master Chief from all the other Heroes out there. Something which makes him different from John Shepard, or Gordon Freeman, or that guy from Doom(though the latter two may have more in common with him than you’d think).
There’s been a few people who’ve also said Chief shares a lot in common with Gordon Freeman of Half Life- an icon in and of himself. Thing is, Gordon’s really more of a quiet, scienc-y type than a military man. Honestly, if we’re drawing similarities, we should look no further than Doom’s marine.
Truth be told, modern sci-fi shooters owe a lot to Doom and Quake. A lot (and I mean a lot) of protagonists in this breed of game are near-carbon copies of Doom’s marine. Chief’s got a lot in common with the marine- if you look at the box art for the original doom, the helmet he’s wearing looks a lot like John’s. He’s got the same basic demeanor, too- albeit he’s a lot more talkative. Then again, all the marine’s really got to talk to are crazies and demons.
Of course, we can’t discount Bungie’s first title, Marathon, either. Actually, the entire series bears a huge degree of similarity to that trilogy. Matter of fact, Halo seems to be something of a spiritual successor. Plus, if John looks somewhat similar to Doom’s marine, he looks even more like Marathon’s main character.
Let’s take a look at said character. He’s an unnamed security officer, who pretty much curb stomps an entire army of hyper advanced aliens. Turns out, this otherwise unassuming military fellow is actually a Mjolnir military cyborg- one of the last of his kind(at least on the station). And in the end, he pretty much saves the human race from annihilation. My, this is starting to sound rather familiar, isn’t it?
Granted, Bungie’s not exactly trying to hide the fact that Halo’s got a lot in common with Marathon. They intentionally placed a number of references to their old series in Halo. Additionally, some of the races in the covenant even look a lot like the aliens from Marathon. The S’pht(yeah, awkward name, I know) fighters look a lot like Halo’s Elites. And the hunters…well, they look like the hunters. A lot of the weapons look the same too. Honestly, I’m just rambling at this point. I’m sure you get the idea.
If we’re going to go any further, it might be useful for us to assign a specific genre to it. It’s a work of science fiction; one which focuses chiefly on a military organization (the UNSC) and its war with the Covenant. As such, we could probably best define it as a work of military science fiction. It’s also an example of Invasion literature (the Flood and the Covenant are both hostile invading forces, and are completely foreign to the human race)- both of which can ultimately be traced back to George Chesney’s The Battle of Dorking(1871)- which tells of an alternate future in which Britain is invaded and conquered by the Germans. Granted, this isn’t the same science fiction we know today. H.G. Wells is largely held as the man who ultimately defined it and helped it to grow into what we know it as now.
While a lot of what makes Master Chief and the Halo universe what they are seem to trace itself back to Marathon; we can’t discount the many other elements. There’s Doom’s marine, H.G. Wells’ prolific works of science fiction, biblical allusions and allegories, and ultimately a class of story that’s been told and retold since the first time man could talk- a single hero, prevailing against impossible odds. Enjoy Halo Reach, folks. I know I will.
To contact the author of this post: nicholas.greene@wildgunmen.com
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