Midnight in the Heart of the Midlothian Part 1

Midnight in the Heart of the Midlothian Part 1 Review.

Even as the Halo Legends Previews finally finish, I now have more wonderful Halo to watch on waypoint, this time Midnight in the Heart of the Midlothian, a four part animated slideshow based on Frank O’Connor’s short story in Halo Evolutions. In preparation for this review I read through the 20 page short story so I can judge how close it is to the source material and a hint at what I was in you and I are in for, so buckle your seatbelts for this.

We start of with a data image which basically gives the layout of the story. Covenant has attacked the planet Aligos, where there are weapon prototypes that ONI doesn’t want falling into the hands of the Covenant. They send the UNSC destroyer Heart of the Midlothian to determine if they have been destroyed and if not do so, then make a slow Cole protocol jump back home.

Our main character is ODST Sergeant Mike Baird, a Scottish solider with a Cro-Magnon brow. He is being treated in the med-bay for cancer, which in the 25th century is an archaic and forgotten disease. Baird asks what it is, and it is explained that while they are treating the tumour with drugs they need to perform brief surgery to remove it, which is a hour procedure which he will recover will wake from in 24 hours. He talks to a medical technician with red hair (they don’t give him a name, either in the book or this) and Mo Ye, the ship’s AI, who takes the form of an old Chinese woman who is a bit mean to the crew, as she makes a joke about Baird’s brow and cackles about it, causing her to cough. Baird brings up his nickname: Captain Caveman. He is then sedated as the ship jumps into slipspace.

He then has a brief dream about home in Scotland, and then is woken by Mo Ye, to red lights, and Mo Ye explains that the ship was attacked while he was unconscious. A Covenant cruiser escort by four unknown craft which were dark grey with no running lights or distinct features launched boarding craft which quickly surrounded and cut into the hull in 200 places before the AI could response, as they knew where the UNSC ship was going to arrive and ambushed then the minute they dropped out of slipspace. The entire crew is dead, and Baird is the only one left alive, as he gets dressed he asks why they haven’t destroyed the ship and what do they want, to which Mo Ye says, ‘Me and Earth.’ To which it ends.

Now what to say about it? It’s pretty short, running for only about 2-3 minutes. The images are pretty good, but to be honest I think Krazy could do the exact same thing as this, and be at similar if not better quality. All the dialogue is direct from the story, and all the characters look and sound correct, so there are no problems there. There was liberal use of the Halo Wars soundtrack, which to be honest, out of all the soundtracks you could use; you have the most bland and forgettable of the bunch? Whatever.

Where halfway through chapter 2 out of 7 chapters (HAHAHA VERY FUNNY FRANKIE.) so tune in next week for part 2. Hooray.

"But I don't even know what Cancer is!"
^Funniest Line in it

I think this one is best viewed as one big comedy.
The "animations" were basically just a moving comic book.

I read the story in under 10 min.

The movie was around 20.

Nough said.

It's a glorified Slideshow with two voice actors talking and the Halo Wars Soundtrack in the background.

Must of cost them a good £5 to make it.

The Halo Wars soundtrack was really good. Don't let the quality of the entire game change your opinion, the soundtrack was phenomonal.

I would leave the menu open just to listen to "Spirt of Fire", which is the most enjoyment i got out of the game.