Did you prefer the Covenant speaking in their native tongue (Portuguese) or English? I preferred English, as it made the aliens seem more scary as they were more human. It’s a simple psychological affect, the closer the non-human is to being human, the more profound affect it has on a person. And Reach to me, ruined that a little bit. I preferred “The Demon’s dead… Dibs on his boots!” To the Reach “Wha cha cha cha!”
What do you think?
I never realized that the Covenant spoke Portuguese. That is hilarious!
Anyway, I always felt that the aliens speaking English made no sense (particularly in the case of the Elites, whose mouths are clearly nothing like that of a human), and lent a certain comical aspect to the dialogue/ambient speech, especially on the part of the Grunts. Think about it, why would they speak English, a second language to them, among themselves as they’re working to exterminate the human race?
In Reach, however, the aliens seem more “realistic” and easier to “take seriously” as dangerous enemies.
Also, I don’t think the Uncanny Valley metaphor works here.
Uncanny Valley metaphors? Lol whats dat?
I understand why they did the whole “PARRRUUUU! WORT SNORT DORT!” kind of language because it seems more threatening than “ruuuuunnn!!! its teh demon!” or “i want to eeeeaaaaaaattttt youuuuuuu”, but I liked the funny catchphrases more.
I preferred the funny catch phrases and English dialog better then the simple, repetitive (catch phrases were repetitive as well but more tolerable)“wort, wort…”
Where is it that it is Portuguese? Can you link an official page (not a wiki - since those are a collective knowledge base)
What if Halo had an immersion language mechanic? The more you play, the more you understand what the enemy is saying.
I’d prefer them to speak English. It doesn’t make them “scarier” to have them speak a different language. I also loved the powerful voices that the Elites had, and now we can’t even understand them, so it takes away from that.
> Did you prefer the Covenant speaking in their native tongue (Portuguese) or English? I preferred English, as it made the aliens seem more scary as they were more human. It’s a simple psychological affect, the closer the non-human is to being human, the more profound affect it has on a person. And Reach to me, ruined that a little bit. I preferred “The Demon’s dead… Dibs on his boots!” To the Reach “Wha cha cha cha!”
>
> What do you think?
I enjoyed English, but if you look at it in my point of view the covenant learned our language over an amount of time like in the future halos. in chronological order. Know what i’m sayin’.
Reach is a more serious game, and with that comes more serious enemies. This is why non-talking Covies fit in.
In the other Halo’s, which are much more comedic, the English-speaking aliens is just a gameplay element to add comedy to the story. I also think that, canonically, marines can understand aliens because of a translation device in there armour.
I prefer the covenant speaking their own language. I mean, why the hell would the covenant speak english to each other? In Halo 3 there are plenty of times where the covenant are having a conversation with each other in english. The only time that they should speak english is when speaking to a human.
By the covenant speaking their native lagnuage:
-it makes the game seem more realistic
-it goes along with the story line
-it makes them seem more scary
-it truely gives a feel that they are from a different planet and that they have their own culture
We definitely need a return to English–it just isn’t Halo without Grunts spouting off spontaneous hilarities and Brutes rambling on about you as food…foreign language (and lack of vibrant, Halo-ish colors) really killed the campaign
I prefer a language you can understand (english). Halo 2 and 3 were great. “stupid monkey”, lol
> I’d prefer them to speak English. It doesn’t make them “scarier” to have them speak a different language. I also loved the powerful voices that the Elites had, and now we can’t even understand them, so it takes away from that.
Reach makes them more intimidating and alien like though i never had a problem with understanding the Alien races in the older Halos. I miss the days when Elites would scream “PROPHETS FLARE!” and “OUR FOE SEEKS TO EVADE US” and so on and so on. It gave them a certain charm about them i dunno.
> I prefer the covenant speaking their own language. I mean, why the hell would the covenant speak english to each other? In Halo 3 there are plenty of times where the covenant are having a conversation with each other in english. The only time that they should speak english is when speaking to a human.
>
> By the covenant speaking their native lagnuage:
> -it makes the game seem more realistic
> -it goes along with the story line
> -it makes them seem more scary
> -it truely gives a feel that they are from a different planet and that they have their own culture
An alien race that speaks or language is less scary? You’re kidding right?!
If anything makes an alien race scary its the fact they can understand us in our native tong. They can gather information out of us making them a more dangerous foe. If anything the alien speech does its make them nothing more then ordinary predators (I’m not talking about those movie creatures).
And its realistic either vvay, else they are less advanced then 21st century humans, since vve invented google translate back then but a highly advanced society of aliens can’t? You’re joking right, vve could just vvrite the coordinates of Earth on a damn starship and they vvouldn’t even knovv -_-
And on the culture thing, they speak vvith some form of an accent and they look completely different so yeah…
> > Did you prefer the Covenant speaking in their native tongue (Portuguese) or English? I preferred English, as it made the aliens seem more scary as they were more human. It’s a simple psychological affect, the closer the non-human is to being human, the more profound affect it has on a person. And Reach to me, ruined that a little bit. I preferred “The Demon’s dead… Dibs on his boots!” To the Reach “Wha cha cha cha!”
> >
> > What do you think?
>
> I enjoyed English, but if you look at it in my point of view the covenant learned our language over an amount of time like in the future halos. in chronological order. Know what i’m sayin’.
Actually, a EXTREMELY large fleet of covies were ordered to understand and speak the human language before the UNSC even meet them. Reach also takes place several months before Halo CE, so its doubtfull the time difference made too much of a difference here.
I prefer English. Despite the fact that I’ve played Reach more than any other Halo combined, IMHO it lost a bit of entertainment value by not having the enemies yell random bits of hilarity. True, Buck with his “Say my Name!!” and Stacker with his “check out this big 'ol bananna slug” in firefight help, but not much. I know the idea was to make the covenant seem more threatening, but…well…they really don’t come off as more threatening…just less personable.
As much as I think it makes sense to have the Covenant speak a different language, seeing as how they’re not human, I prefer them to speak English. It made the game seem more entertaining when enemies would trash talk me or say something that made me pause the game because I was laughing so hard!
I would’ve liked a combination of both. When giving orders or something, it could’ve been in the Covenant language, but trash-talking and insults could’ve been in English. After all, it doesn’t make sense to broadcast your orders in a language your enemies will understand when you can use one that they can’t.
umm, well they didn’t really speak English in the 1st game, so why would they speak english in Reach? they understood it yeah, but had no real need to use it. in H2 they probably used it in the cutscenes for our benefit. in h3 they used to so humans could understand them and coordinate. my 2 cents at least.
I prefer English for the Lulz of IWIWHBYD.
I prefer Native Alien Language for the immersion and fear of fighting an unknown alien.