Halo: Legends 'The Babysitter' Review.

Spoiler:

Our Story begins as we saw in the previews, a UNSC cruiser flies into view and we jump to the mess hall of the ship, where we see UNSC personnel getting a meal, and one marine tries to sit at a table of 4 ODST’s which his friend tells him they’re in a whole different league to him, and is told to back off.

We are then introduced to the main protagonist, O’Brian. He’s a cocky little bastard, with some generic anime hair. He’s not happy he’s acting as support for another sniper, a Spartan. His Commander, Cortez, tells him to suck it up. In the conversation, you get a nice feel of the hatred between ODST’s and Spartans, which had always been present in the books, it worked well and I had no problems with it.

We then transition to a briefing of the ODST’s where a senior officer explains the mission. A High ranking prophet is scheduled to pay a visit to a nearby planet at 12 PM the following day. Their mission is to traverse through the jungle and set up at a position two miles away to allow the Spartan, Cal-141 to take the shot and eliminate the Prophet. With his death, supply roots would grind to a halt and give the UNSC months more time with very little risk. They plan to land on the planet by using HEV’s through an asteroid belt that is heading to the planet. They saddle up and prepare to drop. Again, it all worked very well, and the little ONI insignia in the background really made it credible.

They then shoot out and follow the asteroids all the way to the planet. One of the ODST’s collide with one of the asteroids and is lost to the vacuum of space. The rest make it into orbit and land. Two ODST’s: Dutch and Cortez (Yes, Dutch is the same one from Halo 3: ODST) land perfectly, as does the Spartan. O’ Brian land in a lake and begins to sink. The ODST’s try to get their comrade out, but the Spartan moves up and flings the pod out of the lake, and then opens it with ease. O’Brian is less then thrilled to be flung around and being saved by a Spartan, but Cortez brings him back to earth by telling him about the ODST they lost. They plan their journey to the sniping position and work their way there. Again, not bad, even if some of the artwork for the Spartan made it look ridiculous, as in some parts Cal was a large as the HEV itself.

They traverse for a while and then they reach a large set of buildings, which all look like bigottas from feudal Japan, which I really didn’t understand. Cal surveys the area with a small scope, and sees several Grunts on patrol. They move in and take them out covertly. O’Brian prepares to take out his Grunt, but breaks a twig, alerting it, so he jumps out and fires. Then a Brute Chieftain lungs out but is blocked by Cal. You’ve all seen what happens next. O’Brian nearly falls to his death, while the Chieftain and Cal duke it out. Cal is athletic and agile, dodging and ducking the Chieftain’s hammer strikes and landing some crippling blows, and eventually pushes off the waterfall to it doom. Cal then helps out O’Brian and carries him to safety. O’Brian is furious at being carried like a cripple, but again Cortez reminds him that Cal just saved his life for the second time that day. Again not to bad, though I did think the Spartan Fight was a little over the top.

They then climb up to a temple, which seem to be similar to an Aztec temple. They work their way into the building and set up at the sniping position. O’Brian is still angry that Cal is going to take the shot, as Cortez warns that the Prophet’s shuttle is going to land in two minutes. Cal sets up and links up the sniper to Cal’s HUD. As the Shuttle lands (It’s a Phantom) where a large amount of Elites and Brutes wait. The Elites are in some strange armour, resembling samurai armour. Again, I’m not sure why the hell they have this, as well as the feudal Japan architecture, but I think it was a cultural thing.

We then change to a first person perspective as something creeps up on the ODST’s. It draws closer revealing itself as the Brute Chieftain from earlier, and lunges at O’Brian, which Cal sees, and at the last second, turns round and moves him out of the way and takes a hammer blow to the forehead, knocking Cal down. The ODST’s quickly react and swarm the chieftain, spraying SMG fire into it, killing it quickly.

They turn back to the sniper and Cal’s in bad shape, and they move to assist the Spartan, removing the damaged helmet to reveal Cal’s face. It is then revealed that Cal was a woman, with long flowing hair. She then orders O’Brian to take the shot, as he’s the only one who can do it. He moves to the sniper and takes the shot. The bullet hits the Prophet directly in the head and he falls, as the Elites look for the gunman and roar in anger. As for this, it was a good piece of tension, but Cal’s appearance really irked me, as I really doubt any Spartan or ODST would have that kind of hair. I really doubt their hairstyles are UNSC standard.

They all surround Cal, who gives O’Brian a chip, which she orders him to give to Dr Halsey. He tells her that she should do it, and she simply replies that they both know she can’t, as they both know she’s dying. She says her final words and then dies, and the ODST’s leave in silence. It was an okay scene, though I doubt a Spartan would die because of a single Gravity hammer strike, as some in the books survived much more severe physical injuries. Also this is most likely before the events of Reach, so it’s another wrench in the number of Spartans who were there, which had already been screwed by Halo Wars. I will however give them the benefit of the doubt as they were two unknown MIA Spartans not at Reach, so you could say Cal was one.

For the final scene, we return to Mess hall, where the marine sits down with the surviving ODST’s and congratulates them for their success. He also bad mouths Cal saying she went down faster than a rookie on their first training mission (Which I slightly agree with ) The ODST’s scold him for this and tell him to piss off. O’ Brian looks out of the window and thinks about Cal, and one can assume he has more appreciation for Spartans, and the story comes to a close.

PiEman wrote:HARO REGENDS MUST DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

KrAzY wrote:"canon didn't take too bad a notch"


well... except the whole premise of their mission.... "kill a prophet"


the spartans mission was to capture a prophet... if they KNEW where one was... INSIDE UNSC space... there would never have been a mission to kill the damned thing...

NVM prophets had not been seen before reach... and were a theoretical ideal that the spartans were going to stake all of their lives on.



also.. .the main characters hair would get him kicked out of any military if he had that while in uniform...

KrAzY wrote:

Vigil wrote:

KrAzY wrote:"canon didn't take too bad a notch"


well... except the whole premise of their mission.... "kill a prophet"


the spartans mission was to capture a prophet... if they KNEW where one was... INSIDE UNSC space... there would never have been a mission to kill the damned thing...

NVM prophets had not been seen before reach... and were a theoretical ideal that the spartans were going to stake all of their lives on.



also.. .the main characters hair would get him kicked out of any military if he had that while in uniform...

I understand where you were coming from, but that's from Fall of Reach, which also said that the Spartans didn't run into Elites until 2552. It's another Retcon. As for Capturing him, that plan most likely was created later, as if I recall the plan correctly they were going to use a Covenant ship to locate their homeworld and capture a Hierarch.

That Prophet was definately not Truth, Mercy or Regret, and was probably only a minister. They wouldn't have achieved much by capturing him.

The Hair was fucking stupid though.

well how about a SPARTAN being sent to work with ODST's?

spartans were trained to work alongside other spartans... and as far as I can tell from any of the GOOD books... they didn't work alone, or with rank and file troops unless absolutely nessacary....


or how about the fact that Cal's hair would take up more volume than the inside of the Mjolnir's helmet...


OR the random planet covered in ancient Japanese ruins?





theres so much wrong with this....that when I finally get my time machine working the creators of this peice of crap are going to be the first to die... followed shortly by Grame Devine