This is going to be more rant/discussion like than just plain discussion because it's the only thing of Halo 4 that I think they did wrong (although the knights are proper buggers). Each member of the Covenant have been with the series since Halo 2 (since that was when Brutes, Drones and Prophets were added). This is when all of them are present and they are very well represented in the game. Throughout the sequels following that the Covenant have had very minor changes to their physiology, the Drones being the most noticeable with change with their head. However, none of them had any significant change in their appearance to the point that they could be regarded as a different species. Take the Grunts for example, the Unngoy, they used to be quite cute with their high-pitched voices crying for help and waddling about the place. They were always quite ugly. Since Halo 3 their voices got deeper. This annoyed me at the time but I got used to it and since it wasn't a big change I didn't hang myself up on it. The voice was still fairly squeally. However, in Halo 4 the grunts seem to have taken on some kind of robot voice. A really deep and metallic gurgle that isn't even understandable. It would always make me laugh when the Grunts would run away screaming things in the Human tongue but with the advancement of the Covenant language they don't really do that much any more. The voice is the worst change that has been done to the Grunts but it's not the only. The physiology of the Grunt has changed enough that it looks like a different species. They seem to have gotten a lot chunkier than the previous games and more resemble frogmen than anything else. No longer are they cute ugly, they are just ugly. Second, and this is the biggest peeve of mine, are the Jackals. They go from being bird-like, very thin and relatively weak to being, as someone once described it, resembling a small dinosaur. This is a very drastic change and while possible, because people will of course point out the similarities of dinosaurs to birds, they can't have changed that much in a space of a few years, even a few decades. Their entire head structure has changed from a mouth designed for carrion meat to hunting out small animals. Their jaw looks designed for snapping bone with the large jaw bone. I mean, the change is just crazy. Look at this comparison. Original Jackal: http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090914050152/halo/images/a/af/JackalMajor.png Storm Jackal: http://images.wikia.com/halo/images/9/9c/Kig_Yar_Storm.png As you can see, the change is ridiculously drastic and there is no explanation or even notice by Master Chief. He's been fighting them for years and doesn't notice the change. The only explanation I can think of that sounds even remotely valid is that the Jackals used by the Didact came from a different planet where the Jackals colonised many years before the war and evolved enough to be seen as a different subspecies. However, why they haven't been seen in the Human-Covenant war is unexplained. Why? Because the developers are trying to pass them off as the originals. I get the whole "We need to bring in some new stuff to keep people interested in the series." Yes, I get that but you pulled it off with the new guns, the new enemies, the new locale, and the Spartan IV's but you don't go mess around with the designs for the covenant. They have had five games to establish themselves, five games in which they fought their way into the memories of many gamers and then they are changed for seemingly no reason at all. If you couldn't make the change work with the rest of the game then you shouldn't have done it at all. That's my advice to you. Unfortunately, now that you've started with these retarded looking covenant, you have to continue with the rest of the trilogy otherwise it would look even more retarded. However, you could salvage this with the addition of some explanation of WHY the covenant are so different. Even the excuse of that they were all put into a nuclear reactor is better than silence. Well, almost. I'll just finish up with the Elites, not much for these guys and I wouldn't have thought much about them if someone didn't point it out to me that the Elites themselves seem to have had their muscles made smaller and that their armour is the thing which gives them the bulk. This isn't much of a problem but if one noticed, others will have too and the Elites are supposed to be naturally at least as strong as a Spartan II. Anyway, I'm going to wrap that up now before I start repeating myself. Good day to you all.