Flood (Halo)

Flood (Halo)

The Flood are fictional parasitic alien life forms in Bungie's/343 Industries Halo video game series. They are introduced in Halo: Combat Evolved as a second enemy faction alongside the Covenant, and return in sequels Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo Wars. 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 were forced to kill themselves and all other sentient life nearly 100,000 years ago 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-infested 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 some found the Flood too derivative and a cliché element of science fiction, some others ranked them among the greatest villains of all time.