Flood (Halo)

infobox VG character
name = Flood


caption = "Halo"'s Master Chief (left) encounters the Flood on Installation 04.
series = "Halo" Series
firstgame = "" (2001)
creator = Robert McLees
artist =

The Flood are fictional parasitic alien life forms in Bungie's "Halo" video game series. They are introduced in "" as a second enemy faction alongside the Covenant, and return in "Halo 2" and "Halo 3" to fill the same role. The Flood are driven by a desire to infect any sentient life they encounter, and are depicted as such a threat that the ancient Forerunners are forced to kill themselves and all other sentient life nearly 100,000 years before the beginning of "Halo" in an effort to starve the Flood to death.

The Flood's design and fiction was spearheaded by Bungie artist Robert McLees, who utilized unused concepts from the earlier Bungie game "Marathon 2". The ringworld Halo was stripped of many of its large creatures to make the Flood's appearance more startling. Bungie environment artist Vic DeLeon spent six months of pre-production time refining the Flood's fleshy aesthetic and designing the organic interiors of Flood-based space ships for "Halo 3".

The player's discovery of the Flood in "Halo: Combat Evolved" is a major plot twist, and was one of the surprises reviewers noted positively upon release. The Flood's return in "Halo 2" and "Halo 3" was less enthusiastically praised. Reaction to the Flood has varied over the years; while publications such as "The Dallas Morning News" found the Flood too derivative and a cliché element of science fiction, "Wizard Magazine" and "PC World Magazine" rated them among the greatest villains of all time.

Game development

The Flood were added early in the development of "Halo: Combat Evolved", before the game had made its jump from the Macintosh platform to the Microsoft Xbox. A design for one Flood form appeared as early as 1997. [cite book |last= Trautmann|first=Eric|title=The Art of Halo|year= 2004|publisher= Del Ray Publishing|location=New York |isbn=0-345-47586-0 |pages=p. 67] The early design for the Flood was done by Bungie artist and writer Robert McLees, who considers himself "the architect" of the Flood; [cite web |author=Smith, Luke|url= http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=12753|title= Halo Universe: Covenant Weapons|accessdate=2007-11-09 |publisher= Bungie.net|date=2007-09-06] the Flood's roots are reflected in concept art of a "fungal zombie" that McLees did for the earlier Bungie game "". [cite web |author=McLees, Robert|url= http://www.bungie.net/projects/marathon/asset_popup_viewer.aspx?at=51&cc=33&item=2|title= Marathon Series Concept Art|accessdate=2007-11-09 |format= HTML, JPEG|publisher=Bungie.net] McLees also did all the early concept art for the Flood. [cite web|url=http://www.bungie.net/perlbin/blam.pl?file=/site/0/news/stories/robt_mclees_interviewed_by_you.html|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20030608213532/http://www.bungie.net/perlbin/blam.pl?file=/site/0/news/stories/robt_mclees_interviewed_by_you.html|archivedate=2003-06-08|accessdate=2008-04-10|title=Robert McLees Interviewed By You! |publisher=Bungie.net|date=2002-02-13|author=Bungie] Based on the behavior of viruses and certain bacteria, the Flood were intended to be "disgusting and nasty".

At one point, the ringworld Halo featured dinosaur-like terrestrial creatures, but due to gameplay constraints, these were dropped. An additional consideration was that Bungie felt the presence of other native species would dilute the impact and surprise of the Flood. [cite web |url=http://www.bungie.net/News/TopStory.aspx?story=prexboxhistory040904 |title=One Million Years B.X. |author=Bungie|date=2006-02-10 |publisher=Bungie.net|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20060210224125/http://www.bungie.net/News/TopStory.aspx?story=prexboxhistory040904 |archivedate=2006-02-10 ] Commenting upon the inception of the Flood, Bungie staff member Chris Butcher noted that "the idea behind the Flood as the forgotten peril that ended a galaxy-spanning empire is a pretty fundamental tenet of good sci-fi. Yeah, and bad sci-fi too." [cite web|date=2002-01-09|author=Butch, Chris; interviewers|url=http://halo.bungie.org/misc/interviews/getinthegame.butcher.010902/|title=Halo Chat with Developer Chris Butcher|publisher=Halo.Bungie.Org|accessdate=2007-09-03]

For "Halo 3", it was decided a new visual language for the Flood was needed. The task of developing the new Flood forms, organic Flood terrain, and other miscellaneous changes fell to Vic DeLeon, Bungie's Senior Environment Artist.cite web|author=DeLeon, Vic|date=2008-05-28|url=http://www.bungie.net/Inside/publications.aspx|title=Bungie Publications: Halo 3 Flood Alien Level Autopsy|publisher=Bungie|accessdate=2008-07-12] Flood-infested structures were designed as angular to counterbalance Flood biomass, as well as provide surfaces for the game's artificial intelligence to exploit and move on. New additions were designed to be multi-purpose; exploding "growth pods" that spew Flood forms were added to the game to adjust pacing, provide instant action, and add to the visuals. Endoscopic pictures provided further inspiration. Bungie used "Halo 3"'s improved capacity for graphics to make a host's sudden transformation into Flood form more dramatic; two different character models and skeletons were fused and swapped in real-time. [cite journal|author=McEachern, Martin|year=2007|month=December|title=Making Halo 3 Shine|journal=Computer Graphics World|volume=30|issue=12|pages=pp. 18–25]

Appearances

"Halo: Combat Evolved"

The Flood make their surprise appearance more than halfway through "Halo: Combat Evolved"'s campaign, during the mission "343 Guilty Spark". The Master Chief is sent on an extraction mission by the artificial intelligence Cortana to find Captain Jacob Keyes, who disappears in a swamp while looking for a weapons cache with which to fight the alien Covenant. The Master Chief discovers that the Covenant have released the Flood accidentally, and the sheer numbers of the parasite overwhelm Keyes and his squad. Keyes' squad are turned into soldiers for the parasite, while Keyes is interrogated by the Flood in an attempt to learn the location of Earth. Keyes successfully resists, [cite book |last= Dietz|first= William|title=|year= 2003|publisher= Ballantine Books|location=New York |isbn=0-345-45921-0 |pages=p. 199] but is assimilated by the Flood before the Master Chief can rescue him. The emergence of the Flood on the ringworld Halo prompts Halo's resident artificial intelligence 343 Guilty Spark to enlist the help of the Master Chief in activating Halo's defenses and preventing a Flood outbreak. [343 Guilty Spark: Greetings. I am the Monitor of installation 04. I am 343 Guilty Spark. Someone has released the Flood. My function is to prevent it from leaving this installation. But I require your assistance. Come. This way. - cite video game| title = | developer = Bungie Studios| publisher = Microsoft| year = 2001| platform =Xbox| version = | level = 343 Guilty Spark] When Master Chief learns of the devastation that Halo would cause to humanity and all other sentient life if activated, he detonates the human ship "Pillar of Autumn"'s engines, destroying the ring and preventing the Flood from escaping.

The Flood are depicted as having a complicated lifecycle. The largest self-contained form that the Flood can produce itself, without using other biomasses, [cite book |last= Trautmann|first=Eric|title=The Art of Halo|year= 2004|publisher= Del Ray Publishing|location=New York |isbn=0-345-47586-0 |pages=p. 64] is an "infection form". The infection form homes in on hosts (living or dead), attempting to drive sharp spines into the host and tap into the nervous system. The host is incapacitated while the infection form burrows into the host's body and begins the mutation process, bringing the host under Flood control. [Dietz (2003), p. 140.] Depending on the size or condition of the body, the Infection form mutates the hapless host into various specialized forms in the continual drive for more food. Larger hosts are seen turned into forms for combat, growing long whiplike tentacles,cite book|title=Prima's Official Strategy Guide: Halo 2|pages=pp. 120–123|publisher=Random House|location=New York|year=2004|author=Piggyback Interactive|isbn=0-7615-4473-9] while mangled and disused hosts are turned into incubators for more infection forms. The Flood also create forms not suited to combat, which interrogate and strip information from the minds of its victims [Dietz (2003), p. 225.] or serve as a central intelligence to drive the infestation.

"Halo Graphic Novel"

The 2006 comic "The Halo Graphic Novel" expands upon the Flood's release from Halo in two stories. The first, "Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor", takes place at the same time as the Master Chief hunts for Keyes during "Halo: Combat Evolved". The Flood manage to pilot a Covenant dropship off Halo, and crash-land the vessel in the hangar of a Covenant agricultural ship, "Infinite Succor". Successfully assimilating most of the Covenant and wildlife aboard the ship, the Flood are stopped by a Covenant strike team led by Rtas 'Vadumee, who sets the ship on a course into the nearby sun. [cite book |last= Hammock|first= Lee|title=The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor|year= 2006|publisher= Marvel Comics|isbn=0785123725 |pages=] The second story, "Breaking Quarantine", details the escape of Sergeant Avery Johnson from the clutches of the Flood, immediately after Keyes' squad is overrun during "Halo". Due to a pre-existing medical condition, the Flood parasites cannot infect Johnson and attempt to kill him instead. [cite book |last=Nihei |first= Tsutomu|title=Breaking Quarantine|year= 2006|publisher= Marvel Comics|isbn=0785123725 |pages=] Whereas the Flood are only hinted at being intelligent in "Halo: Combat Evolved", the "Halo Graphic Novel" shows the Flood have a hive mind, assimilating the knowledge of their hosts rapidly. [Legate: ...In addition, they have set up patrols throughout the "Infinite Succor". Thus it seems they also absorb the knowledge of those they infect. - "The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor"]

"Halo 2" and "Ghosts of Onyx"

The Flood make a return appearance in "Halo 2", first after being released on a Forerunner facility near Halo, and again on Installation 05 or "Delta Halo". [Truth: We are, all of us, gravely concerned. The release of the parasite was unexpected, unfortunate, but there is no need to panic. - cite video game| title = Halo 2| developer = Bungie Studios| publisher = Microsoft| year = 2004| platform =Xbox| level = Gravemind ] The Flood on Delta Halo are led by the Gravemind, a massive creature that dwells in the bowels of the ring. Gravemind brings together the Master Chief and the Arbiter and tasks them with stopping the Covenant leadership from activating the ring. [Gravemind: If you will not hear the truth, then I will show it to you. There is still time to stop the key from turning, but first it must be found. You will search one likely spot... / ...and you will search another. Fate had us meet as foes, but this ring will make us brothers. - cite video game| title = Halo 2| developer = Bungie Studios| publisher = Microsoft| year = 2004| platform =Xbox| version = | level = Gravemind ] In the meantime, Gravemind infests the human ship "In Amber Clad" and crashes it into the Covenant space station of "High Charity". [Cortana: Flood-controlled dropships are touching down all over the city. That creature beneath the Library, that "Gravemind", used us. We were just a diversion; In Amber Clad was always its intended vector. - cite video game| title = Halo 2| developer = Bungie Studios| publisher = Microsoft| year = 2004| platform =Xbox| level = High Charity] Once there, the Flood sweep through the city, before Gravemind appears and questions Cortana. [Gravemind: Silence fills the empty grave, now that I have gone. But my mind is not at rest, for questions linger on. Now "I" will ask, and "you" will answer. - cite video game| title = Halo 2| developer = Bungie Studios| publisher = Microsoft| year = 2004| platform =Xbox| level = The Great Journey] As the Flood spread across Halo and infect "High Charity" in "", the Covenant form a blockade in an effort to prevent the parasite from leaving its prison. [cite book |last= Nylund|first= Eric|authorlink=Eric Nylund|title=|year= 2003|publisher= Ballantine Books|location=New York |isbn=0-345-46781-7|pages=21]

"Halo 3"

The Flood reappear in the "Halo 3" mission "Floodgate", on board a damaged ship that escapes the quarantine around Delta Halo. While the infestation of Earth is prevented by vitrification of half the African continent, [Lord Hood: And you, Ship Master, just glassed half a continent! - cite video game| title = Halo 3| developer = Bungie Studios| publisher = Microsoft| year = 2007| platform =Xbox 360| level = Floodgate] Gravemind follows the Master Chief and his allies to the Ark aboard the infested "High Charity". Though the Master Chief and Arbiter form a tenuous alliance with the Flood to stop the activation of all the Halo rings, as soon as the firing sequence is stopped Gravemind turns on the humans and allied Covenant again. The Master Chief fights his way to the center of "High Charity", freeing Cortana and destroying the city, but Gravemind attempts to rebuild himself on the ring under construction by the Ark. [Gravemind: Do I give life or take it? Who is victim? And who is foe? / Cortana: It's trying to... rebuild itself on this ring! - cite video game| title = Halo 3| developer = Bungie Studios|publisher = Microsoft| year = 2007| platform =Xbox 360| level = Halo] Realizing that lighting the ring will destroy only the local Flood infestation and spare the galaxy, the Master Chief, Arbiter, Cortana and Sergeant Johnson proceed to Halo's control room, activate the ring, and escape. Gravemind leaves the Master Chief and the Arbiter with a final warning that his defeat will only delay the Flood's goal of consuming all sentient life. [Gravemind: Resignation is my virtue. Like water I ebb; defeat is simply an addition of time to a sentence I never deserved... but you imposed. - cite video game| title = Halo 3| developer = Bungie Studios|publisher = Microsoft| year = 2007| platform =Xbox 360| level = Halo] "Halo 3" added new capabilities to the Flood, including the ability for the parasite to infect enemies in real time. The Flood are also seen to produce a mutable "pure form" which can mutate into several other Flood types.

Cultural impact

Merchandise

The Flood have been featured in four series of "Halo" action figures, produced by Joyride Studios. For "Halo: Combat Evolved", Joyride produced a Carrier Form and Infection form bundle. [cite web|author=Thorson, Thor|date=2004-02-17|url=http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/halo/news.html?sid=6089512|title=First Halo 2 action figures appear|publisher=Gamespot|accessdate=2008-07-12] "Halo 2"'s series contains both a human Combat Form and Infection form (bundled with the Master Chief), which were released after the video game.Cite web|author=Simmer, Aaron|date=2006-04-09|url=http://www.armchairempire.com/action-figures/flood-human-form.htm|title=Flood Human Form (Halo 2)|publisher=The Armchair Empire|accessdate=2008-07-12] Reviewer Aaron Simmer of Armchair Empire.com expressed the sentiment that Joyride's models could not totally capture the ghoulishness texture and detail of the Flood. The action figures for "Halo 3" were produced by McFarlane Toys and although the first series did not feature the Flood, the third series featured a human Combat Form. [cite web|author=Burg, Justin|date=2008-03-26|url=http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2008/03/26/halo-3-series-three-mcfarlane-figures-preview/|title=Halo 3 series three McFarlane figures preview|publisher=XBox360Fanboy|accessdate=2008-04-03]

Critical reception

The surprise appearance of the Flood during "Halo: Combat Evolved" was seen as an important plot twistcite web|author=Fielder, Joe|date=2001-11-09|url=http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/halo/review.html?page=4|title=Halo: Combat Evolved" for Xbox Review|publisher=Gamespot|accessdate=2007-09-04] and a scary moment even after repeat playing of the game. [cite web|author=SCI FI|url=http://gameroom.mlgpro.com/view/zyiJ5z9YWvg.html|title=Sci vs. Fi - "Halo 3" Documentary|publisher=Major League Gaming|accessdate=2007-10-05|date=2007-10-02] Gamasutra, writing about video game plots, gives the example of the Flood not only as an important reversal to the story of "Halo", but a textbook example of how games and their stories are made more interesting by twists in the plot. [cite web|url=http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050727/sutherland_02.shtml|title=What Every Game Developer Needs to Know about Story|publisher=Gamasutra|author=Sutherland, John|date=2005-07-25|accessdate=2007-12-23] Mark Binelli of "Rolling Stone" credited the appearance of the Flood as an excellent way to keep players on their toes by forcing them to adjust their strategies, as well as being a twist as radical "as if, several levels into a game of Pac-Man, the dots suddenly began to attack you".cite journal|author=Binelli, Mark|date=2007-10-04|title=Inside Halo's Secret Lab|journal=Rolling Stone|issue=1036|pages=28]

Despite the positive acclaim in "Halo", the response to the presence of the Flood in "Halo 2" and "Halo 3" was mixed. A panel of online reviewers noted that the Flood appeared in "Halo 2" for no obvious reasons, and were simply described as "aggravating" to play against.cite web|author=Staff|year=2004|url=http://www.teamfremont.com/reviews/Halo2.shtml|title=Team Fremont: Halo 2 review|publisher=TeamFremont|accessdate=2007-09-05] Similarly, reviewers including Victor Godinez of "The Dallas Morning News" felt that the Flood were too derivative of other sci-fi stereotypes, and functioned as "space zombies". [cite web|author=Godinez, Victor|date=2006-07-16|url=http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/ptech/gamereviews2/071806ccdrPTECHhalobook.1d4d3a2.html|title=Review: The Halo Graphic Novel|work=The Dallas Morning News|accessdate=2007-09-06] Daniel Weissenberger of Gamecritics.com noted in his review of "Halo 3" that even though the Flood looked better than ever, their single strategy of rushing the player proved tedious over time.cite web|url=http://www.gamecritics.com/halo-3-review|title="Halo 3" Review|author=Weissenberger, Daniel|date=2007-10-01|accessdate=2007-10-02|publisher=GameCritics]

Lee Hammock, writer of the "Halo Graphic Novel" story "The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor", described the basis of the story as a way to showcase the true danger of the Flood as an intelligent menace, rather than something the player encounters and shoots. Hammock also stated that the story would prove the intelligent nature of the Flood, and "hopefully euthanize the idea that they are just space zombies"; [cite book |last= Hammock|first= Lee|title=The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor|year= 2006|publisher= Marvel Comics|isbn=0785123725 |pages=] this treatment was received positively by critics. In 2006, "Wizard Magazine" ranked the Flood as the 77th Greatest Villains of all time,cite journal |author=Staff |year=2006 |month= July|title=Top 100 Greatest Villains |journal=Wizard Magazine |volume=1 |issue= 177] Game Daily ranked them 5th of their "Top 25 Enemies of All Time" and "PC World" ranked the Flood the 31st "Most Diabolical Video-Game Villains of All Time", [cite web|url=http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/galleries/top-25-enemies-of-all-time/?icid=aimDBDL2_link1-b&page=21|publisher=Game Daily|accessdate=2008-08-19|title=Top 25 Enemies of All Time] cite web|url=http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;338891934;pp;1|title=The 47 Most Diabolical Video-Game Villains of All Time|author=Staff|work=PC World|date=2008-02-04|accessdate=2008-07-10] while "Electronic Gaming Monthly" ranked the Flood in their top ten list of "badass undead". [cite journal|author=Sharkey, Steve|year=2008|month=Octoboer|title=EGM’s Top Ten Badass Undead: Thriller Night|journal=Electronic Gaming Monthly|issue=233|pages=106] More recently, MTV ranked Flood possession in "Halo 3" as a "great gaming moment", stating that "with the power of the Xbox 360's graphics, this reanimation comes to vivid, distressing life, more memorably than it had in the earlier games. Here are the zombies of gaming doing what they do worst. [...] It's grisly and unforgettable."cite web|author=Totilo, Stephen|date=2007-12-18|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1576629/20071217/index.jhtml|title= 'Halo 3,' 'Pac-Man' And More Have Our 10 Great Gaming Moments Of 2007, In GameFile|publisher=MTV|accessdate=2008-04-02]

References

External links

* [http://halosm.bungie.org/story/flood.html Flood Archives] at Halo.Bungie.Org