I really like those eyes, yes unsettling but also so alien. It is inventive character design, a little beyond ordinary. Those grunts are definitely growing on me.

They might be a bit too leathery skinned. Grunts are supposed to be arthropods, although the term is meaningless when talking about alien life forms but I think that the essence of arthropods is segmented exoskeleton and simple joints with one degree of freedom.

By one degree of freedom I mean: each pair of segments are joined as if a single straight pin went through both segments to pin them together so they are hinged together. Arthropods achieve greater range of motion by having multiple segments, two pins per segment with the pins oriented in different directions.

: As for the brutes... They look more alien, but I am reminded of the Joyride
: figures... https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SYnwzAwvhyc/hqdefault.jpg
: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/e7/27/1c/e7271c1567c877818f8607912f74863b.jpg

Yes his brutes do have some of that, especially when the fur and amour is added.

I think that people are reacting more to the hairless models that demonstrate that the limbs are more columnar, there is no distinction between the knees and the rest of the leg. Most iterations of brutes bulge out in thigh and calf and have smaller knees. Silhouette is very important in character design and the small knees are a major part in the brute silhouette.

The heads also look more mole rat shaped than primate shaped. So I think that's why people are saying that these aren't anything like brutes. But the good features could be kept and the silhouette tweaked.

Having said that: there has been a historical contradiction in brute descriptions. They are often described as being hairy apes but I have also seen references to rhino hides. Obviously the is a contradiction there. Maybe the contradiction could be resolved by having rhino hide in segments with fur tufts growing from between the segments.

I don't think that I have a strong opinion for what I prefer. I'm completely happy with all fur brutes.

Bungie fully clothed their brutes in Halo 3 (probably to avoid having to render fur). That let them side step making a decision on how to have half-rhino, half-ape brutes.

I think that Lexington either has taken an interest in animal anatomy or has studied that or zoology. His designs seem informed by knowledge of what happens in the natural world. It could be that Lexington is just a good observer as any artist should be but I think there is some academic knowledge informing the designs.

Anyway, getting back to the brute designs...

Have you noticed the feet, especially the toes? Them, combined with the absence of defined knees is probably a conscious design choice informed by elephant or sauropod anatomy. We know that he can do knees - just look at the Elites.

Elephans have a large fat pad in their feet and they stand almost tippy toe with the fat pad in the arch of the foot.

You can see some images here: https://globalelephants.org/rambas-feet/ search for tippy toe on the page to see the images that show this.

Some sauropods have columnar legs and also stand tippy toe with the toes arranged almost in a circular vertical column.

I thought that it would be easy to find images.

I found something here: https://svpow.com/2021/01/28/xinjiangtitan-has-the-longest-preserved-neck-of-any-lifeform-to-date/ search in the page for, "BYU 9024, with the mounted (cast, composite) skeleton of Brachiosaurus altithorax and one Mike Taylor for scale" click on the picture to embiggen and look at the front feet.

Now look at Lexington's brutes' feet and toes, especially in the hairless images.

I think that Lexigton is putting more emphasis on the rhino parts of brute descriptions. He is going for a columnar limb aesthetic.

That's fair enough but halo is a game and the knees are a large part of brute silhouette and most players will say, "these aren't brutes!" And they aren't wrong given that Halo is a game and they learnt that silhouette practically from infancy. ;-)

: I like Halo 2 brutes best... Especially behavior.

Yeh but they stole berserking from the Elites (Elites stopped doing it once it became a brute trait). So I can never forgive brutes for that! (h2 has left permanent scars on my psyche and I will never recover) :-)

-PS

Lexington's LinkedIn page mentions a Bachelor's of Science, Field Of Study, Computer Games and Programming.

Also a (first?) job "Make[ing] medical models and diagrams for researchers at the University of Utah."