- Jordan117
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- Exalted Legendary Member
Posted by: Toxic Lag
Actually, there are people who think the modernization is better looking than nature, myself included.
Point taken. Not everyone's tastes are the same. But the majority of people prefer at least a few attractive, bucolic structures in their large cities. Every city in the world has them.
But you are right, the Halo 2 version looked more like a place where people might live, BUT, the Halo 2 version, you will notice is nearly devoid of any roads. There is only ONE path for vehicles.
Not really. There are more roads, but most of them are closed off behind those big blast doors. If you look at the map of New Mombasa found in Terminal, you'll see that most of the city is served by an extensive road and rail network.
I believe that area you fight in in Halo 2 is more of a "suburb" of Mombasa, if you notice in the preview video, it didn't look like a residential area, it looked like a thouroughfare to the various industrial complexes, and industrial areas are historically devoid of pretty.
Although I'm fairly certain that the Earth City environment doesn't exist in the final game (why doesn't that enormous sky city ever appear on the horizon?) it's safe to say that an environment similar to it in style exists, especially in the more industrial areas. However, the areas of New Mombasa seen in the game are at least partly industrial as well (remember those huge pipes and industrial canals?), suggesting that other industrial areas would look similar.
It is very much like New York City in that respect, Central Park is a pretty, friendly place, much like Halo 2's Mombasa, but in the downtown area there is little prettiness to be seen, it is all cold steel and cement, much like the trailer was.
I've been to New York, and that's not completely true. There are plenty of smaller parks (Washington Square, Battery Park, Riverside), in addition to things like sidewalk trees and landscaped boulevards. Even the downtown sector has beauty and style in terms of architecture and public art. You can even see this in the map of New Mombasa I mentioned; the island is dotted with orange patches representing public parks.
The area in the trailer is obviously the industrial heart of the city, obvious due to the towering skyscrapers, industrial buildings, and maze of roads leading to them.
Actually, the industrial heart of the city can be seen in the game, at the end of the Metropolis level. Since New Mombasa's strategic and economic importance is based on the space elevator, then logically most of the industrial installations would be crowded around it, no? And that's exactly the view you get at the end of the canal: the space elevator, surrounded by skyscrapers and warehouses built in much the same style as the city you just fought through.
And yes, the Old Mombasa was portrayed well as a slum area, as was the New Mombasa portrayed as a residential area. BUT, the Covenant would not strike homes first. They would attack the industrial center, to cut off supplies and products, and cause greater panic to the rest of Earth.
Once again, the Covenant weren't there to destroy. They were occupying the town until they found what they wanted. They do the same thing in the books sometimes.
And in the future, most of the aesthetics would probably be lost to practicality, and the trailer showed that very well.
As long as people have to live, work, shop, and raise families, the need to build cities of beauty as well as practicality will never be abandoned. I think this excerpt from the Art of Halo book says it well:
The economic and strategic importance of New Mombasa is reflected in the scale and scope of the city as envisioned by Bungie. Clearly industrial and practival, the city is still strewn with parks, gardens, and other more bucolic and attractive structures. Far from the dystopian visions seen in movies like Blade Runner and The Fifth Element, New Mombasa incorporates attractive, practical architecture with a clean, expressive aesthetic.
Also, yes, a residential area would be clean, and not gritty, NORMALLY. But you must remember, in Halo 2, the Covenant had touched down on Earth and started a war. War brings grit, through blood, bone, and explosive residue.
And the city: so clean. Even where the Covenant would logically hit hardest, the small bit of industry we see in Halo 2, just outside the marine CP, is untouched. Clean, devoid of the damage that war brings, the streets are clean, the windows and walls of everything are very clean.
Again, the Covenant were busy occupying and searching, not destroying, the city. If they wanted to destroy New Mombasa they could have done so much more easily from orbit. They don't care about our infrastructure or our industry, they just wanted to complete their mission with as little human interference as possible.
It wouldn't have been that clean even before the Covies hit. Anyone who lives in a downtown area knows that the industrial heart of a city is anything but pretty, it is covered in grime from factories, crap on the road, litter, and homeless people.
Perhaps 26th-century industry is a bit more efficient than today. Our factories pollute less than the coal-belching mills of the Industrial Revolution, so it's likely that, given 500 years, we could make even more improvements. Also, if you look around, you'll see that trash and litter has collected in some corners of the area, despite the omnipresent "NMWM" (New Mombasa Waste Management) bins. And the homeless? They're all in Old Mombasa.
While the Halo 2 version was more livable, it was less practical, less realistic, and far too untouched by war. It should've taken place in the cold, industrial heart, not in the residential area.
I think Bungie set most of the game in familiar-looking areas (dusty markets, beaches, city plazas, industrial parks, etc.) so that the player could relate to it more. Seeing the Covenant invade a multileveled concrete structure incites no emotions. But mowing down Elites in the earthy back alleys of Old Mombasa, or in the palm tree-lined boulevards of the city center? It hits much closer to home.