Bungie explains Halo character in DOA4

15 December 2005

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Posted by:Ferry

Initially, game developer Team Ninja wanted, and asked very politely, for Master Chief in Dead Or Alive 4. Well, we (Bungie) balked at that. Master Chief is busy, fictionally speaking. We left him at the end of Halo 2, involved in a very large scale galactic conflict with world-ending repercussions. Fictionally speaking, he just wasn’t available for fisticuffs.

But we loved the idea of seeing a Spartan fight, unarmed. You have to figure they’d be pretty serious pugilistic contenders right? Half ton of bio-mechanically enhanced armor-clad uber-trained soldiering nightmare? Has to have at least a decent right hook.

So we created Spartan 458 – Nicole. And she’s quite a lady. If you define “lady” as ferociously violent killing machine. Nicole was born in the year 2531 in the city of New Legaspi on Mars. At six years of age she was abducted by agents of the Office of Naval Intelligence and conscripted into the Spartan II program. The Spartan II program was the UNSC’s highly successful military project to augment and hone perfect soldiers.

SPARTAN-458′s unit was preparing for a classified mission on Nassau Station when the ONI stealth ship Apocalypso tumbled into real-space – being carried along in the wake of a freak slipspace anomaly. The anomaly intersected Nassau Station; creating a semi-stable “bubble” in the space/time continuum on its way back to the 21st Century.

For the time being Nicole-458 is trapped in the 21st century; guarding Nassau Station’s secrets with all but lethal force (she realizes killing someone in the past could have dire consequences), waiting for the “bubble” to collapse and hopefully returning her to the year 2552.

Profile: Petty Officer 2nd Class – “Nicole” SPARTAN-458
Nationality: Martian
Gender: Female
Birthday/Age: December 19/21
Blood Type: O
Height/Weight: 6′ 8″ /370 lbs (in Mjolnir Mark VI armor: 7′ 2″ /980 lbs)
Body Size: B49″ W30″ H41″
Fighting Style: CQB (Close Quarters Battle)
Occupation: Commando
Likes: Halo-halo (Filipino dessert)
Hobbies: Watching Anime, Competition Shooting

Here’s a list of things Nicole, Spartan 458 is NOT.
She’s not a character who’s ever been described in other Halo fiction.
She’s not a character from our next project.
She’s not one of the Spartans from Fall of Reach.
She’s not a character from the Halo movie.
She’s not returning my calls. I blame time bubbles.

Although the reworked geometry and many of the textures we supplied were plenty sharp enough for HD, some of our stuff, including the planetscape in the background of Nassau Station, was simply too low resolution for the 360′s increased definition. Luckily, we had made a very high resolution future Earth for one of our ad campaigns. Funny how stuff like that suddenly becomes hard to find when you really need it. That sharper Earth was a last minute addition that really made the Nassau level pop.

When you’re fighting on Nassau, try knocking your opponent into the Warthog parked in the hangar bay, it has full suspension and glass that will spider if you hit it. That commitment to detail and excellence is exactly why Bungie – normally shy about this kind of stuff, was so excited and confident about working with Team Ninja.

The big money move for Nicole however, is the plasma stick. Learn it, love it. My personal favorite is a powerful uppercut with a low ceilinged level. Thanks to DOA4′s sweet use of onscreen obstacles, THAT results in a very nasty impact.

One “move” is actually a taunt. You can turn on active camo, turning your Spartan into a translucent killing machine. Mr. Itagaki worried that this might affect online gameplay negatively, but the “invisible” Spartan is actually perfectly visible in almost all circumstances and simply looks cool. You can even see the slight reflection of your opponent in the glassy surface.

DOA4 is in a lot of ways, a logical evolution of DOA3, but there’s so much new stuff, it’s hard to know where to begin. The fact that there are moving objects on screen that can actually injure you is awesome, without being intrusive. The fact that you can not only hop over barriers, but turn that into a powerful attack, is genius. Making the backdrops truly interactive makes DOA4 seem deeper, without sacrificing the fluid simplicity you need from a fighting game. You’ll have to play it yourself to find out just how fun, addictive and compelling it is. Of course, we might just be saying that because there’s a Spartan in it.