Title: Red vs Blue Revelation – Season 8
Created by: Rooster Teeth
Published by: Siren Visual (Australia)
Based On: The Halo Series by Bungie for the XBox, XBox360 and PC
Audio: English
Subtitles: No subtitles from what I could tell
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (16:9?)
Runtime: 90 minutes not including extras
Cost: $29.95 (From Siren Visual Store)
Trailer: Click Here
Classification: This title is rated M for violence and coarse language.
Special Thanks: A copy of this title was kindly provided by Siren Visual for the purpose of this review.
I have spent the last week trying to determine the best way to review this title. After all, whilst I have heard of Rooster Teeth before, the only Machinima series of theirs that I watched was The Strangerhood, therefore starting me in series 8 having watched…. 0 episodes in total. My options were to watch the other 7 seasons, spend hours on wikipedia reading up or starting series 8 cold turkey….. and I chose the turkey.
Personally I have never been a big fan of the Halo series (Points to the door for those who now want to leave because I said that), and despite owning Halo 3 ODST and Halo Wars, I have only achieved one or two achievements between the two games. However, I have played the online mode at a few LAN parties, therefore I was fortunate enough to see some of the levels used in this series to compare them. However, this series has been going on for a long time, so there must be something good about it right? Read on for my review of Red vs Blue: Revelation.
As former alliances are betrayed and friends become enemies, the Reds and Blues find themselves in an impossible predicament; in order to save the universe this time, they can’t be totally incompetent. While on the run, the two teams must find a way to put aside their past differences and figure out the mystery behind Project Freelancer once and for all. Then they can get back to their past differences.
The entire cast of RED vs. BLUE returns for the most hilarious and eye-popping season to date. With a unique combination of machinima from the blockbuster video game Halo, and stunning new animated sequences, this is RED VS. BLUE unlike anything you’ve seen before. Prepare for a REVELATION.
As I stated in the pre-review blurb, I had never watched a single episode of this series before reviewing and therefore was hesitant that this would be a series I would have to drop since, I had no intention of pretending to understand what they were going on about. Thankfully, the “hillarious and eye-popping season” was actually true, and from start to finish it was filled with sarcasm and comedic scenes which kept me captivated throughout the entire movie. From what I can tell, the storyline was well paced however the ending battles and storyline could have been a bit longer, since the whole series leads up to the ending, but then sorts of ends spontaneously. That being said, fan or not of the series, I doubt you would be bored with the storyline and comedy either way, especially considering they don’t rely on the same joke every chapter.
To basically describe the characters, every single one of the main characters have a screw or two loose, generally have some quirky character trait that is exploited throughout the season for laughs and generally, none of them would be much use in a real battlefield. They are however, the reason why the storyline works so well, because they fall under the “Bumbling Idiots” category and the few characters who actually know what they are doing make them know about it. I would have liked to see more about the war between Red and Blue’s before commenting anymore, however from what I can tell, they are well thought out characters.
It has always astounded me how Machinima artists manage to get such good quality from even the most simple of games, however this series outdoes any other Machinima I have played before. Whilst they use levels that from what I can tell, are available in Halo 3 multiplayer, they are very well detailed and much more complex then what is ingame. They use a lot of special effects and animated sequences that are not possible in the game, yet make them seem so realistic, with very few if any complications with the actual animating. The only disappointing thing is that generally, all the characters in the series are just recoloured versions of the actual warriors from Halo, which whilst it is understandable considering that this is based on the game in a military situation, but with the detail they put in animation they didnt seem to do much with the character designs. However, as with the environment, the character animations were brilliant.
Besides a few scenes, the actual presence of music was non-existent to weak. So much potential I felt was lost with a number of scenes not having music when they would have been better off with some. On the plus side however, they utilized the sound effects well to both comedic and environmental effect. Voice acting was very good and in order to simulate the characters speaking through intercoms in the helmets, the voices of the characters do not pull off as much a high quality sound and instead it sounds like what you would hear through a phone line for example. The voice actors evidently enjoyed doing the dubbing, and played out their characters accents very well.
Fortunately, there is a huge pile of extras on the DVD, this may be to encourage people to purchase the DVD’s despite its availability online for a period of time (I believe they are only timed releases however). Extras include:
- Directors Commentary – This covers the entire movie and is actually more interesting to hear what the directors have to say then watching the movie. Definitely some of the better commentary I have heard in any series.
- A pile of “Special” videos and PSA’s which were also enjoyable to watch. These use in-game renders as well.
- Outtakes and Deleted Scenes – Standard and surprisingly good!
- Cast Interviews – Standard interviews
- Behind the Scenes – Breaks down the visual effects and details how the series was made. Something that is definitely a must watch!
- The RvB Holiday Miniseries – Another bit of good bonus content!
- Trailers – Normal trailers for RvB, Rooster Teeth and Halo products.
In terms of content, if I could offer more then a 10/10 score, I most probably would give it higher. There is so much bonus content on this disc that I am sure it would amount to at least 2 – 3 times the actual length of the season. It is all interesting and no bonus content seems thrown in for the sake of throwing it in.
Personally, I now wish I had the time to watch the other seven seasons since this was a rather enjoyable series despite starting out much much later in the storyline. I will definately be adding it to my next holiday watch list, alongside possibly actually getting somewhere in Halo.
Final Score
Storyline: A- (8)
Characters: B+ (8)
Visuals: A (10)
Music: D (2)
Voice Acting: B (8)
Extras: A+ (10)
Personal Opinion: A- (8)
Overall Score: A-
