Why Are Old Halo Games So Creepy? - Halo Retrospective

New video on Halo Reach: https://youtu.be/x7RqKAU0QQM

As a kid I always thought the reason there were no animals is because all the noise the fighting made scared them off

man i'll never forget how caught off guard i was as a kid when the alien game turned into a zombie horror game.

Any of the levels where Cortana wasn't in your head were really creepy to me, I looked forward to her commentary keeping me going. Without her it really drives home that you're all alone and surrounded by deadly creatures and vast alien spaces. While she was there, I never felt so lonely and enjoyed screwing around even empty places, because at least "someone else" was with me.

The bird and insect sounds on certain levels, combined with the fact that you don’t ever really see any birds or insects, almost makes you feel like the forerunners were piping the sound in through speakers

I always imagine purgatory to be similar to wandering an early 2000's multiplayer map alone.

I didn’t feel alone in Halo 2 when I was a kid compared to CE. To this day CE still has that lonely feeling to it that I can’t describe

17:45 I actually really liked the Library when I was a kid. I remember finding the marine corpse with a rocket launcher and thinking "damn, this marine was a bad ass to make it this deep". I remember reading the Halo book later and it gave that marine his own little section where he was the first human 343 ran into so 343 tried to get him to retrieve the index first. Master Chief in the book was flabbergasted that a marine made it that deep with no augmentations or armor because he himself was feeling pushed to the limit. Also I remember 343 saying something along the lines of "you only have a class 2 combat suit, it is recommended you upgrade to at least class 12 to fight the flood" and being like "wat" lol

Weirdly as a kid i never once wondered why there were no animals. I literally just accepted everything as it was and it felt right lol

The first encounter with The Flood will always stay with me. The build up to the horrifying reveal will never be outdone. It’s just that great and terrifying.

Blues and grays are the colors our eyes see when we switch to cones in low light situations and need to be alert for predators that are hard to see. It's the perfect choice of colors to set you on edge

Very recently I played Silent Cartographer together with my friend. With every Convenant soldier we dispatched, we felt that we were in a more dangerous place than at the beginning of the mission, precisely because of this unnerving feeling that on this already empty map, someone or rather something unnatural was watching us or maybe even hunt us. The fact that all the UNSC Marines who stayed on the beach mysteriously disappeared didn't help either. Even though it was the most visually pleasing location, we wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

8:37 - The way I would describe it is: The Forerunner structures feel like tombs. Giant, monolithic tombs you walk through.

as a little kid the marine that lost his mind in halo ce scared the crap out of me

One thing that I always found creepy about Halo CE compared to 2 and 3 was the noise the Flood makes. In 2 and 3, they growl and howl, but in CE they also make this unnatural wheezing/chirping sound.

Limited options and assets etc, bring out more creativity of people. Thats why old games are legendary. Creativity flows through every level

CE was and still is absolutely beautiful to me. The ring stretching across the sky box and the mysterious and ominous ruins left behind by the Forerunners...it's all so beautiful to me. Probably the first genuine art piece I ever experienced as a child. I love CE to death.

I was 9 years old when Halo CE came out. Something that has always stuck with me was the eerie, cosmic-horror feeling of the main menu. The haunting men's choir singing the main theme without any backing music, combined with the giganticism of the Halo ring just floating in the vastness of empty space always used to give me the creeps.

The interesting thing about halo 1 specifically is that it was the only one where you need to survive. In all the other ones, you have backup. In Halo 1, you ARE the backup. Literally the last hope. By the end you’re the only survivor so that should tell you something I think.

The environmental storytelling of 343 guilty spark was always so chilling to me. The build up with the downed pelican playing the repeat message of Keys being captured by some "new" covenant set the mood. Then seeing the covenant fleeing in fear from something and the brief fight at the entrance to the facility all just keep building up. The brief radar full of friendlies before suddenly vanishing and the crazed marine. Add in the music that sounds like scratching and it just keeps getting creepier. Then the crescendo with the video from the helmet and wella.