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Can someone tell me, what the hell was the deal with Halo ODST?

M

Mineshaft_Gap

4077th
I've been pondering this games existence since I beat it about a year ago. I still don't get the point of this game. Everything about it seems inconsequential in the grand scheme of the Halo universe. Your team of weak ass regular douche bags slogs their way through the streets of some city where everywhere you go looks the same and back again. In the end, your team rescues an Alien that seems like it's going to have some decisive importance in the overarching Halo universe. Only to never be mentioned again.

I hated every second of this game. The only reason I finished it was because my friend was achievement hunting all the games in the Halo franchise and I wanted to be a pal. He can never say I don't do anything for him.
 
R

RealityPales

Member
I just bought an Xbox 360 at the end of the generation, just to catch up on all the exclusives I missed out on.

And ODST was easily the weakest of all the Halo titles, without a doubt. I knew from the moment I dropped out of that cockpit, that drab game wasn't for me.
 
F

FHIZ

Member
Putting out a product lots of people would pay money for regardless of anything you stated? Pretty sure that was the point.
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
It's widely regarded to be one of the best campaigns in the series, alongside Halo 1 and 3. It's my second fave, personally.

It was apparently planned to be DLC for Halo 3, but MS wanted to make it a stand alone release for maximum profits. Dunno if that's accurate, though.
 
M

Mechazawa

Member
The deal was people got all hot and bothered about the ODST, so a money making opportunity presented itself.

Don't know how why you hated it. Was the most focused and airtight campaign since the first Halo. And dat intro jump...
 
N

NeoGash

Member
I really liked it, I enjoyed wandering the streets at night and trying to avoid fights. Firefight was a bonus.
Obviously the story takes place between Halo 2 and the events leading up to Halo 3, and I think the purpose of the engineer/alien was to give you information on why the Covenant were excavating the whole city. Would have been cool if they followed up on this, but I don't think they have.

ODST was one of my favourite games, I dare say it had the best OST of any Halo and one of the best OSTs of last generation easily. The music and atmosphere sold me, and they also let you have some cool Halo 3-esque stages. I loved it.
 
Andodalf

Andodalf

Banned
Bungie needed another game before Reach to make it 5, as per their contract. They didn't have time to make a full new game, and didn't want to do a poor job of a mainline game, so they reused assets from 3, and made a spin off. The spin off had a different tone, and relied solely on atmosphere for its main attraction. The weaker PC added to this, as did a "desperate and noir like" story. It tuned out to be a pretty decent game, albeit distinctly different from the other Halo games.
 
B

Black-Box

Member
Halo ODST easily could of been great. It still is great but even though you said weak they are pretty much as strong as Chief minus the shield.

The game is nothing like the trailer I hoped it would be.
 
I

IdreamofHIME

Member
I loved it start to finish.
My only real problem with it was the janky ass animations in cutscenes, they all move with exaggerated motions like a puppet on strings. I'm glad they moved onto motion capture for all other Halo games.
 
R

Rickenslacker

Banned
To have some of the best atmosphere and music in the series as well as bringing the character abilities to something resembling CE. It was also the first in the series to not feature a complete slog of levels with Flood encounters which was pretty refreshing. The scale of the story wasn't grand, but it didn't need to be.

And yes, Firefight.
 
L

Lothars

Member
ODST is an amazing game, It's one of the best halo games ever released and has a great story to boot. So OP i disagree with you fully also The worst Halo game by far is Halo 2 now that's a crap game.
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
MaritalWheat said:
Cool noir feel with the last great Halo sandbox singleplayer experience? No reason to complain from me.
Click to expand...
Yeah, ODST's sandbox really was fantastic. The SMG and pistol were a really interesting combo, being useful but not perfect for nearly all situations. And then the Carbine was beastly.
 
B

blamite

Member
From a business perspective the point was that Bungie needed two more Halo games to finish out their Microsoft contract, and a Halo 3 expansion was a cool way to make a Halo game in a year.

The real point is that it's the second best Halo campaign and Firefight was fantastic.
 
B

Brianimaniac

Banned
A big part of why it happened was that the Peter Jackson thing fell through, and the Bungie folks that were working on that were left twiddling their thumbs, in need of a project to work on.
 
N

NeoGash

Member
Lothars said:
ODST is an amazing game, It's one of the best halo games ever released and has a great story to boot. So OP i disagree with you fully also The worst Halo game by far is Halo 2 now that's a crap game.
Click to expand...

Halo 2 is my least favourite also. Perhaps because I never got to play it online? I thought ODST was really special but people were probably expecting a full Halo sequel or something, so I can understand the disappointment.
 
M

MaritalWheat

Member
Rickenslacker said:
To have some of the best atmosphere and music in the series as well as bringing the character abilities to something resembling CE. It was also the first in the series to not feature a complete slog of levels with Flood encounters which was pretty refreshing. The scale of the story wasn't grand, but it didn't need to be.

And yes, Firefight.
Click to expand...
Oh and this right here! Classic Halo gameplay without Flood levels. 10/10.

kittens said:
Yeah, ODST's sandbox really was fantastic. The SMG and pistol were a really interesting combo, being useful but not perfect for nearly all situations. And then the Carbine was beastly.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, that Carbine was a godsend for Legendary.
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
Focused campaign
Interesting open-world concept
Nathan Fillion
Different take on multiplayer

What else do you want?

I got rid of my 360 years ago, but if Microsoft ever brings the Halo Trilogy to Steam, I would love for this one to come along. Its exponentially more likely for them to bring Halo 1 and Halo 2 (sans GFWL), but I can dream.
 
G

GuitarAtomik

Member
My understanding was that it was a bit of an experimental side game that they (or Microsoft) decided to expand in to a full game (remember, it was originally going to be like a $40 game). I'm sure the contractual fulfillment had something to with it being made in the first place as well.

I personally liked the game. I thought it was an interesting take on the franchise in a number of ways. I would have beat it had I not rage quit after losing a fuckton of progress due to the infamous way Halo handles saves. It put me back right before a firefight I had particular trouble beating the first time and I was not about to put myself through it again.
 
R

RealDeadOne

Member
If I remember correctly the Engineer was meant to explain some of the information the UNSC had on the Covenant, Forerunners and specifically the teleporter to the Ark all of the sudden in Halo 3. The reason it was never mentioned again was because it was essentially a retcon to a previous game.

Aside from that, what are you smoking OP? The game has such a unique feel that's not only not present in any other Halo game, it's not present in any modern shooter I can think of. One of the few shooters to take influence from Metroid Prime in its atmosphere and storytelling techniques, has one of the most balanced and fun sandboxes in Halo, has a fun story about more human characters (one of whom is Nathan Fillion!!!) and isn't about SAVING TEH WORLD for once, has an amazing jazz inspired soundtrack by Marty O'Donnel, and of course has Firefight, the best addition to the Halo franchise ever.
 
L

luxarific

Nork unification denier
Great soundtrack and bonus Nathan Fillion. It's right up there with Halo Wars as my favorite of the series.
 
H

HTupolev

Member
Tasty, streamlined mechanics
Seriously takes advantage of Halo 3's lighting model
Jackal snipers least annoying they'd ever been up to that point
Much Nathan Fillion
Zebra art
Sax Marty
Non-sax Marty
Joe Staten being Joe Staten
Covenant carrier floating out of the clouds
Firefight
Excellent FOV (By Halo standards anyway, the only title that competes is CE)

Mineshaft_Gap said:
Everything about it seems inconsequential in the grand scheme of the Halo universe.
Click to expand...
Because clearly, the problem with Halo is that you aren't saving the world often enough.

I will never, ever come to terms with this complaint.
 
D

Dash Kappei

Not actually that important
GuitarAtomik said:
My understanding was that it was a bit of an experimental side game that they (or Microsoft) decided to expand in to a full game (remember, it was originally going to be like a $40 game). I'm sure the contractual fulfillment had something to with it being made in the first place as well.

I personally liked the game. I thought it was an interesting take on the franchise in a number of ways. I would have beat it had I not rage quit after losing a fuckton of progress due to the infamous way Halo handles saves. It put me back right before a firefight I had particular trouble beating the first time and I was not about to put myself through it again.
Click to expand...

lol the dreaded Halo saving system... I feel you buddy, we've all been there at least once :p
 
P

Professor Renegade

Banned
ODST is probably one of the better Halo games for me, it was a nice change of pace and provided a different outlet of looking into the expanded universe of Halo.
Firefight was alright, but then they perfected it in Reach.
 
D

delta25

Banned
Mineshaft_Gap said:
In the end, your team rescues an Alien that seems like it's going to have some decisive importance in the overarching Halo universe. Only to never be mentioned again.
Click to expand...

There was really no reason for an explanation other than the UNSC and ONI had a chance to capture a covenant high valued target that wanted to defect. Engineer' are Covenant biological supercomputers that in the grand scheme of things would be amazingly useful to the UNSC and ONI in regards R&D. If I'm not mistaken 117' up until ODST was the only human to have ever seen an Engineer in real life, thus making its capture even more important.
 
R

Rickenslacker

Banned
Professor Renegade said:
ODST is probably one of the better Halo games for me, it was a nice change of pace and provided a different outlet of looking into the expanded universe of Halo.
Firefight was alright, but then they perfected it in Reach.
Click to expand...
Well, they gave it proper customization which is nice, but they replaced the limited weapon racks with infinite ammo dispensers, which tarnished a great deal of the scavenging and ammo management. Only thing I really want out of ODST FF that isn't there is a single life mode, but even that's not difficult to self-impose.
 
B

biRdy

Member
delta25 said:
There was really no reason for an explanation other than the UNSC and ONI had a chance to capture a covenant high valued target that wanted to defect. Engineer' are in the end Covenant biological supercomputers that in the grand scheme of things would be amazingly useful to the UNSC and ONI in regards R&D. If I'm not mistaken 117' up until ODST was the only human to have ever seen an Engineer in real life, thus making its capture even more important.
Click to expand...

They were pretty much slaves they hoped to help and get on their side.
 
L

Lord of Castamere

Member
I loved ODST, but it didn't feel like a 60$ title.
If it had been a 20$ expansion/XBLA minus firefight it would have been golden.
Creeping around in the hub had some amazing atmosphere.
 
A

Admiral Woofington

Member
ODST was basically Bungie's first attempt at making grim-dark Halo. It didn't fail horribly but I could swear it's largely considered the worst Halo game (not sure if H4 is considered bad, didnt even bother with it)


Then Bungie made Halo Reach. MMM MM MMM. That was grim dark Halo done right.
 
T

TacticalFox88

Banned
ODST committed the WORST offense a video game can make. It wasn't bad. It just dreadfully boring.

Even Halo 4, despite its numerous flaws, didn't bore me to tears.
 
B

biRdy

Member
Lord of Castamere said:
I loved ODST, but it didn't feel like a 60$ title.
If it had been a 20$ expansion/XBLA minus firefight it would have been golden.
Creeping around in the hub had some amazing atmosphere.
Click to expand...

It was originally called Recon and was planned to be a $30/$40 game until it got renamed to ODST and was packaged in with Halo 3 multiplayer and a new map pack, including all the previous ones.
 
P

Professor Renegade

Banned
Rickenslacker said:
Well, they gave it proper customization which is nice, but they replaced the limited weapon racks with infinite ammo dispensers, which tarnished a great deal of the scavenging and ammo management. Only thing I really want out of ODST FF that isn't there is a single life mode, but even that's not difficult to self-impose.
Click to expand...

I guess what I meant to say was that in ODST Firefight the level choices seem pretty limited compared to Reach, and even before Reach came out I was always hopelessly wishing that there were more maps to play Firefight on.

I guess if you're up for the difficulty, ODST firefight is amazing in that respect, but those 200k point achievements were hard as balls to get.
 
NJDEN

NJDEN

Member
I think its a pretty good game & if your into Halo lore then every aspect of the story explains itself.
 
D

Daouzin

Member
I personally thought it was the most interesting campaign of all of the Halos. The soundtrack was great and atmosphere in a lot segments blows most of the franchise out of the water.

Plus it has the best version/original version of Fire Fight, as soon as I was able to customize settings I lost interest. The options should have remained: Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard.
 
A

AlexBasch

Member
I never liked Master Chief.

So that's why I think I liked ODST and Reach.

It was originally called Recon and was planned to be a $30/$40 game until it got renamed to ODST and was packaged in with Halo 3 multiplayer and a new map pack, including all the previous ones.
Click to expand...
A classmate traded his Halo 3 copy, put the half for ODST, I wanted the campaign and he ended up with the multiplayer disc. Everybody wins.
 
R

Randolph Freelander

Member
If ODST is the second best campaign of the Halo series, it says that there was really one one good campaign in the Halo series.

ODST was terrible, from start to finish. I'd rank 2 and 3 higher. Reach about even. 4 is, naturally, the worst of all of them. The one great campaign continues to be Combat Evolved.
 
S

Sean

Banned
I liked the game but thought it fell far short of Bungie's original description.

I seem to recall them claiming that the ODST's would feel a lot different than Master Chief and that you'd need to rely much more on stealth and that fighting a single brute would be a huge challenge. I don't feel that was really accurate... You could play the game just like Halo 3 and make it through completely fine.
 
T

Tunavi

Banned
Yo ODST is amazing

$60 wasn't right, though

It exists cause Microsoft needed two more halo games from bungie before they could leave
 
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