The Flood.
A parasitic life form [Pictured in a trio above in the Elite Combat Form], feared even more than the Covenant, which consumes everything in it's path, turning once lush planets into rocky shells.
Bungie first introduced the Flood in the game Halo: Combat Evolved, and ever since it has horrified and intrigued gamers. But! There is something about them that I have noticed.
In Halo: Combat Evolved or H:CE, a Flood enemy was quite horrific to look at and some could take several a massive amount of damage, and even then it only lost a little blood and it's appendages. Bungie made the Flood something to be afraid of, they made it hard to kill and fast moving. But! This soon changed.
In Halo 2, the Flood enemies were updated, given more detail and some even had shields and new weapons. They were nearly identical to the H:CE Flood except for one thing, Bungie had traded difficulty for numbers. The Flood were easier to kill, but you came across nearly twice as many in a battle. This made it so that if the player just put a little distance between them, they weren't even tough opponents unless set on a higher difficulty.
In Halo 3, the Flood enemies were updated again. They had more detail, more parts to be blown off, there were even Pure Forms and a new "Soft spot" added to the Flood Combat Form's chest. The pure forms were incredibly tough to fight, as they could "Morph" in between the three forms of "Ranged, Tank and Stalker" at will. But the "Pure" part of Pure Forms made them less formidable. The Flood was originally a disgusting parasitic mass that consumed the bodies of the living, but now it is "Pure"? Not even scary anymore. And the "Soft spot" added to the new Combat Forms was just a bad idea. It made it so that any single shot weapon could kill the small Infection Form inside their chests in one shot, which in turn would instantly kill the Combat Form. This made kill hoards of the Flood an easy task. Not to mention the Combat Forms no longer lost parts and pieces, but instead when destroyed they just exploded in to a green goo cloud with no mess. But! There was a small upside to the new Flood. Because of the new Infection Form in their chests, if they were killed and their bodies left intact, another Infection Form could take over their body and reanimate them. This added a bit of a fear factor back to the Flood.
So, that's my insight on how the Flood "Evolved" throughout the Halo Trilogy from a fearsome enemy into a easy-to-kill goobag.
Questions or comments are welcome.
