Video games do not, it is fair to say, have a great track record of being made into TV/streaming series or movies.
Whatever the reason for their failure to cross media successfully, you only have to hear the words “video game adaptation” and your heart sinks, wondering how bereft of any real humanity or resonant emotion this particular version of that particular game will prove to be.
Thankfully, any sense of dread or anticipation around the adaptation of the stupendously successful Halo game, set in the 26th century, is blown to smithereens, much like humans being vapourised by alien weapons, within about twenty minutes of the first episode when a skylarking trip by a group of drug-seeking young people into the wilds surrounding a deuterium-mining facility on the independence-seeking planet Madrigal precipitates a full-scale attack on the miners by heavily-armoured non-human combatants from a race known as the Covenant.
Their weapons are fiendishly powerful and no match for the Insurrectionists who are fighting for freedom from the militarily authoritarian United Nations Space Command which enforces the wishes of the United Earth Government which, whether by the necessities of war with ferocious alien aggressors or natural inclination is not inclined to grant independence to the 800 or so worlds under its control.
Suddenly the Insurrectionists, one of a number of groups on the outer reaches of what is effectively an empire under siege, are fighting for survival, all their hopes and dreams suddenly under threat by aliens who kill with ruthless efficiency and impunity, much as they have done for some time against humanity.
We are never told at any point during the six episodes – there are nine in total with the latter three to be reviewed at a later date (they are dropping weekly with the final episode due 19 May on Paramount+) – why the aliens are so hellbent on ripping people to shreds but the writing in Halo is sophisticated enough that it is hinted more than once than in our ruthless expansion across the galaxy, we may have possibly brought this upon ourselves.
Whatever the cause of their enmity, the Covenant troops, composed of a number of armoured races and anchored by a mystical religion that centres, in part, on artifacts created by an ancient people known as the Forerunners, are intent on leaving no one alive, even slaughtering a building full of children (thankfully this is suggested rather than actively shown) in their quest for, well, what exactly?
Why an artifact, of course, but their mission is thwarted by a small, four-person team of super soldiers known as Spartans, led by soon-to-be show protagonist John 117 (Paolo Schreiber) who come in, save the say and the artifact, which comes weirdly alive when John, and John alone touches it, and rescue the lone survivor of the massacre, Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha) who is understandably traumatised, in shock and grappling with nascent thoughts of revenge.
Torn between her fury at the merciless monstrousness of the Covenant and her ingrained hatred on human tyranny, even if it is justified as the only way to save humanity as a species (where have we heard that before, hmm?), Kwan is realised as the beating heart of the first episode, and as the conscious of much of the series, as she reacts much as anyone would in such an horrific situation.
What surprises you, and it shouldn’t since video games carry with them some deeply affecting storytelling that is the equal of any TV series or movie, is how, amongst all the very visual action and war play, we are exposed to so much, raw, achingly vulnerable humanity.
Sporting some of the futuristic thoughtful sensibilities of Foundation (Apple TV+), Halo is very much more gritty and roughly alive, its narrative driven by the urgency of survival and the need to keep one step ahead of the Covenant who are also shown as real people who truly believe their cause is just and their means righteous.
And honestly, they may well be; when you have people as ethically-challenged as Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey (Natascha McElhone), the lead UNSC scientist headquartered on the city planet Reach, who is prepared to do whatever it takes, including trashing people’s humanity to achieve her ends – she is in charge of the Spartan project which isn’t quite Robocop in its ambitions to subsume individuality for the greater military good but isn’t far off, frankly – and those around her, who speak a big game of honourable behaviour but in the end back the realpolitik and moral vacuousness of her activities, perhaps the Covenant do have a right to be aggrieved?
Not necessarily to blown everyone to kingdom come, because that’s never really fixed any disputes in a lasting manner, but still, clearly humanity has behaved very, very badly and been found sorely wanting by an alliance of people who really, REALLY do not like us.
AT ALL.
Powered by a quiet but insistent religious fanaticism, which has a very interesting figure at its centre when you consider the relationship between the aliens and humanity, the Covenant is presented as a fully-formed, non-cardboard cutout race of people by Halo which for all its emphasis on war and battle, couches its narrative in a great deal of insight and sophistication.
Wrapped in stunningly evocative visuals and world-building that is owes a great deal to many years of video game development, the show has a fearsomely human heart beating at its very centre, willing to countenance discussion of ethics and morality against the backdrop of war and to nod its head to the fact that democracy and self-determination are often the first casualties of any war.
It’s this balance of action and nuanced storytelling that makes Halo surprisingly compulsive viewing, and while some of its characters and relationships might feel a little trope-heavy at times – the fraught tension between Dr. Halsey and her equally brilliant daughter Commander Miranda Keyes (Olive Gray), who heads another competing UNSC department and is far more willing to embrace humanity and ethical concerns than her estranged mother, is but one example – the series largely manages to surmount them, delivering up storytelling which has an impressively affecting core.
Halo takes the time to introduce us to characters, and to let them live and breathe such that even in episode 1, where we meet the inhabitants of the Insurrectionist outpost briefly but warmly and efficiently, we feel something for what later happens to them.
Sure this is space operatic sci-fi with guns locked and loaded and war fully engaged and ongoing, but Halo also remembers that for that to matter at all, and for people to keep watching – unlike the video game, the only goal here is what passively happens next to us as viewers – we must feel like the characters have some worth and importance.
That they do, and that the show manages to move beyond a host of well-used tropes and cliches, is testament to how well the makers of Halo have taken the central conceit of the game, and given it a whole new spin – the show exists in a separate but allied timeline to the video game, according to executive producer Kiki Wolfkill, but isn’t considered canon – one that offers action aplenty in which to lose yourself, much of it cinematically video game-esque, but also a great deal of poignant humanity too, ensuring we never feel as if it’s all bang and no feeling, and making you eager to hit the “next episode” button to see where this impressively nuance, visually and emotionally rich story, takes us next.