Brutish new concept art from Halo Wars

by Richard Mitchell { Sep 16th 2008 at 2:30PM }

Scavengers that we are, we are obligated to post everything, nay, anything related to Halo Wars, the upcoming real time strategy game from (soon to be defunct) Ensemble Studios. With this slavish devotion to duty in mind, we present you with concept art of the game's Brute units. Brutes, for the three of you unfamiliar with Halo, are huge, muscular, gorilla-like soldiers with the kind of grim determination usually reserved for freight trains. The Brute uniform in Halo Wars -- which takes place before the first Halo -- looks decidedly different than the uniforms in any of the Halo games. Our heads are filled with all of the nerdy reasons for -- and implications of -- the differences. We won't jump down that rabbit hole just now (though we hope Ensemble gives us a few hints).

Instead, we simply direct you to the images, which you can find in the gallery below. Our biggest question: At what point between Halo Wars and Halo 2 did Brute beards go out of style?

Gallery: Halo Wars Brute concept art

Gallery: Halo Wars

Tags: bungie, bungie-studios, ensemble, ensemble-studios, halo, halo-wars, mgs, microsoft-game-studios

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

SadisticHam @ Sep 16th 2008 2:36PM

Looks more like an Elite with that body, certainly doesn't look like any Brute I've seen.

ryan @ Sep 16th 2008 3:39PM

yes, i totally see 4 fingered hands, split jaws and digitigrade legs. no primate properties at all here. >_>

SadisticHam @ Sep 16th 2008 8:41PM

A brute is big and bulky, like an ape. That thing is slim and rather tall like an Elite.

I don't particularly care if it has his hands or not wtf

ryan @ Sep 16th 2008 9:45PM

then simply say it's a slim brute? it looks bigger than an Elite to me...

KrasnyTova @ Sep 16th 2008 2:51PM

They look awesome.

rich @ Sep 16th 2008 2:56PM

THAT'S how brutes should have looked in Halo 3, taller than elites, a fair bit bulkier...and all round nastier, kinda more evil-human-ish.

ryan @ Sep 16th 2008 3:50PM

i think the Elites were just fine for Halo 3. they were afterall trying to fill that Elite roll by emulating their armor.

thankfully these Brutes are before that takeover and given some pretty wicked looking armor. I'm all for this game. Let's hope they bring in the Flood as a playable race.

ryan @ Sep 16th 2008 3:51PM

*Brutes were just fine for Halo 3.

JLP @ Sep 16th 2008 2:57PM

Umm...what's up with the giant armor codpiece?

Josh @ Sep 17th 2008 10:43AM

...you don't wanna know.

a ham sandwich @ Sep 16th 2008 3:25PM

no dont like it. he looks like general grievous. he was gay.

ryan @ Sep 16th 2008 3:47PM

yeah, i see what you are saying.

that whole cyborg thing, the beady Grievous eyes, the multiple thin arms, affinity for light sabers and yes digitigrade legs are totally not Brute-like.

what were they thinking when they made this concept art?!

Fire Fawkes @ Sep 16th 2008 3:29PM

Huh, kind of hit and miss for me. I like that the Brutes look a little more tribal, which is what Bungie kept trying to do. But, they look kinda like beefy mountain-men....the beard can probably be attributed to that.

AnthonyGalindoX @ Sep 16th 2008 4:47PM

They should have looked like that in Halo 3. *nerd alert!* How are they going to fit this into the timeline, brutes weren't discovered by humanity until the third Halo book which took place between the first two games. They've also hinted at the flood, which also wouldn't make sense.