Resurrection: Halo

A Religious Experience

Resurrection: Halo

Resurrection is a regular feature in which we reminisce about a game from way back when. This week Peter Willington takes a deep, spiritual look at HALO:COMBAT EVOLVED.

HALO. THINK about what that word instantly brings to mind for you, just for a second… Halo. Halo…

If you immediately thought of the revolutionary – or should that be evolutionary – FPS Halo: Combat Evolved, first launched on the original Xbox back in 2002, then congratulations, you’re a gamer and proven my point that ‘Halo’ has become an idiom, a word that is now associated with ’sticking’ Covenant, online multiplayer, and tea bagging rather than its original meaning in terms of religious iconography.

Yet on many levels Halo truly is an entirely religious experience. From a sheerly critical perspective, the amount of praise from games reviewers and the levels of dedication from fans, borders on the zealous. It’s almost impossible to criticise the series without facing the wrath of the all seeing, all knowing, omnipotent being that is the internet and thousands upon thousands of people every day log into the Xbox 360 multiplayer servers to put time into – what has become for many – a way of life.

The Halo spirit

But let’s move away from that and focus on the narrative and themes present within this first entry in the Halo series. The eponymous world on which the vast majority of the title is set is worshipped by the Covenant – a term itself with significant religious meaning – who refer to them as Sacred Rings, entire planets essentially that have been in place for many years, installed by the Forerunners. Yet the human outsiders see these mega structures as a threat to their existence and, more importantly, as potential weapons. As they indeed are in some respects, with the power to wipe out all nearby inhabitants to stop the ever present threat of The Flood from corrupting whatever life forms may be in the vicinity. We could say then that these structures are present to enable a similar situation to the spate of ritualistic cult suicides committed by real world groups such as Heaven’s Gate or the People’s Temple; an object worshipped by a group that will literally give their lives to it in pursuit of a noble cause.

The central protagonist – Master Chief – is essentially resurrected at the beginning of the title, again with obvious spiritual ramifications for several of the world’s religions. As the main character flows through the corridors of the great, temple-like buildings that are found within Halo: Combat Evolved, the player is treated to many sights and sounds common place in the holy buildings of our past and indeed of our present. Complex symbols line the walls of this soon-to-be tomb, a not too far cry from the Pyramids of ancient Egypt, blood and bodies litter the battlefield and remind us subconsciously of a more brutal religious past, of blood-shed in the name of this – in the eyes of the Covenant at least – holy war.

Particularly resonant is one moment within the Silent Cartographer act, whereby a dead marine can be found lying within a pool of his own blood on what arguably looks to be a sacrificial altar. All of this of course is accompanied by a mix of rock /electronica or – more fittingly – classical pieces with a choral lilt and indeed the loading screens themselves are accompanied by angelic vocals as data is pulled from the disc into the Xbox.

Of course Halo: Combat Evolved is more than this too, it’s a great shooter that changed games design from the corridor focused blasting of genre predecessors to a more free form of gun fight, with battles pitched across massive distances, with multiple opponents and allies in a variety of vehicles. In addition, it owes as much to spirituality as it does schlocky science fiction movies from the early 90’s, as much to cults and sects and denominations as it does to the modern US army, the Larry Niven’s Ringworld novel and Akira. But the next time you fire up this near-decade old classic, keep an eye out for the presence of religion and you’ll be surprised at just how much faith Microsoft and Bungie put into Halo…