Halo 3: ODST

Halo 3: ODST is a standalone expansion of Halo 3 developed by Bungie Studios. The game's single-player campaign contains around seven hours of gameplay (on Heroic) and supports four-player online co-op, both in the campaign and in a new survival mode called Firefight. Rather than having its own competitive multiplayer, ODST features a second disc which allows players to play Halo 3 multiplayer, loaded with the full array of maps and all DLC packages for Halo 3, along with three new maps that were exclusive to ODST's disc until they were released as an overpriced Halo 3 map pack on February 2nd, 2010.

Overview

The new protagonist, known as 'the Rookie'.

Halo 3: ODST does not feature the Master Chief as past Halo games have. It features a nameless Orbital Drop Shock Trooper referred to simply as " the Rookie", a silent protagonist. Chronologically, the game begins at the end of the Halo 2 campaign level "Metropolis", taking place concurrently with the second half of Halo 2, as ODSTs fight Covenant invaders in New Mombasa, which has been ravaged by the Prophet of Regret's carrier jumping into slipspace.

Unlike every other game in the franchise save the RTS Halo Wars, ODST is not a strictly linear progression through a storyline. The player wanders around an enormous hub world, the abandoned city of New Mombasa, searching for the Rookie's lost squadmates, and missions are presented as flashbacks explaining what happened to them, triggered by visiting certain points in New Mombasa. These flashbacks depict the squad's actions after the drop as they try to regroup. The game encourages players to employ slightly more stealth and discretion than in other Halo titles, although it is still "a Bungie Halo game," as Bungie's Community Manager Luke Smith puts it; but the one-man-army feel of the other Halo games is lessened due to the merely human ODSTs' weaker armor and abilities in comparison to the Master Chief's supersoldier status. In addition, the player is not directly accompanied by a helper AI like Cortana. However, the city's municipal AI, the Superintendent, looks to provide aid to the ODSTs in their fight in any way he can, via manipulation of electronic billboards and other methods.

Story

Mombasa destroyed

In the ending cut scene for "Metropolis," the Prophet of Regret performs an in-atmosphere slipspace jump inside the city of New Mombasa, with the resulting oxygen reaction almost destroying the entire city. In the opening of ODST, the Rookie and his squad drop from the UNSC Say My Name to the city below, taken by ONI captain Dare for a secret mission. explosion hits several orbital drop pods in their descent, including the one containing The Rookie. The Rookie's pod crashes into a dark alley, knocking him unconscious for six hours. Covenant forces arrive in the area, but the Rookie wakes up and avoids detection. He observes the Covenant presence, loads a silenced variant of the series' traditional submachine gun, and begins to leave the area. A nearby sign flashes a message from the Superintendent, New Mombasa's municipal AI, showing the Rookie which direction to take and advising him to proceed with caution.

Because of the tremendously hard landing of his pod (the Superintendent, watching through municipal surveillance cameras, estimates a 99.99% chance of fatality), The Rookie remains unconscious for six hours after the initial drop; while he is passed out in his drop pod, the rest of his squad is out fighting the alien invaders in the city. The Rookie wakes up at night, and sets out in search of his lost squad mates in New Mombasa. Whenever the Rookie discovers a "beacon", an object related to a specific squad member, a playable flashback occurs, which details the story that happened while the Rookie was out of action.

The Superintendent serves as your guide and AI companion through the campaign, but in a far more passive way than Cortana has appeared in past Halo games.

The Squad

The gang's all here.

The player is a member of a 6-man ODST squad, dropped on New Mombasa right before Regret's carrier jumps to slipspace. The player's character, the Rookie, attempts to discover what happened to his teammates after their drop went wrong. Throughout the game, the Rookie discovers objects that hint as to what has happened to his fellow squad-mates. Whenever one of these objects is encountered, a playable flashback occurs, with the player taking the role of another man in the squad for a thirty-minute or so scene detailing what happened to that particular squad-member.

The Rookie

The Rookie is the silent protagonist of Halo 3: ODST. Everything about his personal identity is unknown, except that his initials are "J.D.". Other than that, he is the newest addition to the squad, called the Rookie even though Mickey is both younger and lower-ranking. He is knocked unconscious for six hours after his orbital drop and seems to to be the only human left in the city. After waking up, the Rookie explores the city looking for clues as to the whereabouts of his team, and learns of their fate through the eyes of the Superintendent.

Edward Buck

Buck is the squad leader. His rank in the UNSC is Gunnery Sergeant (E-7) or GySgt or Gunny. Buck is a career Marine that has seen more than his fair share of this war. He has had the dubious honor of participating in many of the wars’ most vicious battles, including both the liberation of Harvest and the fall of Reach. That he has survived at all speaks volumes. Truly, if he was any better he’d be a Spartan. He is voiced by Nathan Fillion.

Veronica Dare

Captain Dare is the only female member of the mission, and wears Recon armor as opposed to standard ODST gear. It is implied throughout the game that Dare had a romantic relationship with Buck at some point. She isn't actually an ODST--instead she's coming along as part of the secretive Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). She is voiced by Tricia Helfer, of Battlestar Galactica fame.

Taylor "Dutch" Miles

Dutch is a large character who carries heavy weapons to take on vehicles and stronger enemies. Rockets and Spartan Lasers are the sorts of equipment Dutch loves wielding. Dutch’s former life as a road-train driver on Mars did well to prepare him for the arduous tasks of a heavy weapons specialist and driver in the ODSTs. Behind the death’s head rictus, jolly roger, and layer upon layer of black and gray armor is a man of deep spiritual convictions and respect for those he serves alongside. He is voiced by Adam Baldwin.

Michael "Mickey" Crespo

Mickey loves being an ODST. More than he did being a pilot. More than he did being a crew chief on a Pelican dropship. He is no stranger to battle and has a fair number of notches in his belt, but he is unique amongst his squadmates in that he has never seen a world glassed - absolute ruination visited upon a human colony-world by Covenant plasma weapons. He is voiced by Alan Tudyk.

Koju "Romeo" Agu

Romeo is the squad sniper, whose attitude is said to get on the squad's nerves at times. Bungie's Josef Staten describes Romeo as "kind of a dick". Romeo believes his true vocation is to be a ladies’ man. But just because he’s a lover doesn’t mean he can’t be a fighter—and a damned fine one at that. He keeps his gear clean, his suit looking sharp, and his body lean and strong. He may not be a shining example of the UNSC off the battlefield, but on it he is a consummate professional. He, like so many other characters in 2009, is voiced by Nolan North.

Gameplay

VISR mode in action

Halo 3: ODST's single-player campaign plays somewhat differently than the other games in the Halo franchise. The game sets the players in a partially open city with the goal of finding and investigating the last known locations of your four ODST squad-mates while fighting off the Covenant forces in the area. Once you reach one of the last-known waypoints of a teammate, you discover an object related to the events they've been through--such as a ruined sniper rifle hanging from a street light--and enter a flashback to earlier that day, where you control the squad member for an entire level. Through these 30-minute or so flashbacks (which play more like traditional, linear, Halo levels) you discover the fate of your teammate and unravel the mystery of the events that occurred in New Mombasa. The New Mombasa " open world" is comparable in function to the hub world from a platformer. Although the city in Halo 3: ODST is fairly large, its design and structure is not to be compared with that of Liberty City from Grand Theft Auto or other traditional sandbox-style open world games, given that there is no purpose to the hub world other than the story missions. The impact the city's look has and the time difference between flashback sequences and the Rookie's seemingly hopeless current situation are big parts of the game. Because the Rookie is shorter than the Master Chief's towering 7' height, all enemies and vehicles seem slightly larger. The heads-up display is different from previous games since the player views the world from inside a standard-issue ODST helmet instead of a suit of Mjolnir armor or a Sangheili war harness.

In addition to the new progression method, players have some new tools at their fingertips:

• A silenced M7 SMG and a silenced magnum pistol, allowing them to move about the city surreptitiously. Both of these weapon variants have distance scopes.
• VISr Mode, a kind of night vision that outlines friendlies, hostiles, and points-of-interest in glowing neon. It is unclear why grunts like ODSTs would be given such technology when Spartans like the Master Chief are given simple flashlights.
• A PDA, which can provide them a 3D map of the city at all times, and allows them to set personal waypoints.

However, with the switch to a non-Spartan protagonist, some of the player's abilities are lessened:

• ODSTs do not have a motion tracker.
• ODSTs use "stamina" rather than shields and must use medkits to heal their injuries, a la Halo: Combat Evolved.
• ODSTs are slower, shorter, and less agile than the Master Chief.
• ODSTs cannot dual-wield weapons.
• ODSTs can't throw grenades as far as Spartans or Elites.

Firefight

Firefight is a survival mode that resembles the Horde mode in Gears of War 2.

There are a total of 10 maps in which a maximum of four players can defend against waves of enemies. Each wave gets progressively harder, players killed will respawn at the end of each wave provided at least one player remains alive. The game continues until all players are dead and the game is over.

The Maps

• Crater
• Lost Platoon
• Rally Point
• Security Zone
• Alpha Site
• Windward
• Chasm Ten
• Last Exit
• Crater (Night)
• Rally (Night)

Firefight mode utilizes the unlockable skulls found in Halo 3, so they do not need to be unlocked in ODST. As you move through the waves of a Firefight match, more skulls will automatically turn on.

Firefight mode does not feature a matchmaking option for online play, meaning players can only play via system link or online via friend lists.

Multiplayer

Recon Armor

Halo 3: ODST does not have its own competitive multiplayer suite. Instead, the game comes with a second disc that contains the multiplayer component of Halo 3, called the "Complete Multiplayer Experience." All of the multiplayer maps from the Halo 3 disc and all three DLC packs are included on this extra disc, as well as three new maps: Heretic, Longshore, and Citadel, which were later released as DLC for Halo 3-only owners on February 2nd, 2010. Players that complete all 7 Vidmaster achievements unlock the famous Recon armor, which was previously only available to Bungie employees or those deemed worthy by Bungie to earn it. The multiplayer disc does not include the single player Halo 3, only the multiplayer.

Access to the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta was also included on the ODST disc. The beta began on May 3rd, 2010. Select "loyal" Halo 2 players received beta invites via e-mail as consolation for original Xbox Live support being dropped.

Mythic 2

Alongside all of the previously-released Halo 3 DLC maps, ODST features three new maps (collectively known as "Mythic 2") that were exclusive to the game until February 2nd, 2010, when they were released as Mythic Map Pack II for Halo 3.

Citadel

Citadel

Set in the same Forerunner structure as another Halo 3 map, Epitaph, this mid-sized arena features a handful of tight peripheral corridors that converge in a large with an exposed central platform. A symmetrical map with a focus on close-quarters combat, Citadel is best suited to games with smaller team sizes of 2v2 or 4v4.

Longshore

Longshore

An abandoned Fish Processing Plant in the heart of Old Mombasa is the staging ground for the large-scale asymmetrical map, Longshore. The map features large buildings and an extendable bridge that provides some variety to the combat when activated. With similarities to past maps such as Hang 'Em High, Last Resort, High Ground, and Headlong, Longshore provides a familiar style of Big Team carnage. Due to the asymmetrical geometry of the map, one-sided gametypes such as 1-Flag or 1-Bomb Assault are ideal.

Heretic

Heretic

A remake of the classic Halo 2 map Midship, set within the bowels of the Covenant ship Pious Inquisitor. Heretic is a nearly perfect re-creation of Midship in terms of actual geometry and design, but the aesthetic appearance of the map has been given a large upgrade to take advantage of the new Halo 3 engine. Dedicated Midship fans from Halo 2 will be happy to find some classic elements from the map have been faithfully carried over to Heretic, including the ability to reach "P3" at the top of Pink Tower. Also, players spawn with Plasma Grenades by default (instead of Frag Grenades) just like in Halo 2. Heretic, being a re-make, is suited for all of the same gametypes as Midship -- small team games of 2v2 or 4v4 work well, as do Free-For-All gametypes, although of course any game can be played on any map.

Avatar Awards

Halo 3: ODST has several avatar awards you can obtain. Technically, none of the awards are from ODST, they are awarded by Halo Waypoint. After earning the appropriate achievement in ODST, Waypoint must be run to earn the achievement.

• ODST Black T-shirt - (Achievement: Tourist) Accessed and downloaded the city map to your VISR.
• ODST Hoodie - (Achievement: Dark Times) Killed 5 enemies while using the VISR mode.
• ODST Rookie Helmet - (Achievement: Campaign Complete: Normal) Completed the campaign on Normal difficulty or higher.
• ODST Full Body Armor - (Achievement: Good Samaritan) - Killed no Engineers in the city at night during the entire campaign.
• ODST Dare Helmet / ODST Recon Helmet - (Achievement: Vidmaster Challenge: Endure ) - In Firefight mode, on any mission, pass the 4th Set on 4-player Heroic LIVE co-op.

Similarities to

Firefly Several of the main characters in Halo 3: ODST are voiced by the cast members of Firefly, a television program that aired on Fox in 2002.

Nathan Fillion voices Edward Buck, Alan Tudyk voices Michael "Mickey" Crespo and Adam Baldwin voices Taylor "Dutch" Miles. All of these characters show various levels of similarity to the characters that the actors played on Firefly.

For example, in an interview, Nathan Fillion described his character, Edward Buck, as "a bit hardened and a bit cranky ," much like the character he played on Firefly.

The Score

The musical score was once again composed by Martin (Marty) O'Donnell, however it has a very unique sound. The game abandons the Halo theme almost completely and notably lacks a choir.

The music has a quieter, more jazz-influenced vibe created to more closely match the film noir feel of the game. The "smoky jazz," as it's been referred to, can be heard during the Rookie sequences of the game as he investigates New Mombasa at night, while more standard, triumphal Halo fare fills out the flashback sequences.

ODST's soundtrack was received with adoration from both gamers and reviewers, saying "The emotional response ODST elicits is in large part thanks to the powerful score. Few games have soundtracks that add to the excitement as well as the Halo series. There's a tradition of excellence in this franchise and ODST carries the torch with style. You should expect such quality by now and then prepare to have your expectations exceeded."

O'Donnell said that since the game tells "a human story, not a cyborg story," whatever that means, the score should be "more intimate and personal." Two of the game's three hours of music are packaged in a two disc soundtrack which was released September 22nd, 2009.

Most of the music was recorded in the late winter and spring of 2009. Orchestra sessions were led by Stan LePard and performed by the Northwest Sinfonia at studio X in Washington state.

Halo 3: ODST Soundtrack

Disc 1

01. Overture (5:39)

Halo 3 ODST OST

1. Yet Alone (1:53)
2. These Darkened Streets (0:51)
3. Time to Dance (0:33)
4. Key to the City (0:33)
5. Replacements (1:47)

02. The Rookie (7:30)

1. Strong Silent Type (3:08)
2. PostPartum (1:51)
3. Proceed with Caution (2:28)

03. More Than His Share (5:49)

1. Into the Breach (3:14)
2. Becomes the Hunted (1:54)
3. Lost and Unfound (0:38)

04. Deference for Darkness (6:39)

1. Rain (3:07)
2. Trailhead (1:40)
3. Guiding Hand (1:48)

05. The Menagerie (6:10)

1. Ground War (1:02)
2. Oscar Mike (1:47)
3. Unleashed (1:11)
4. On the Prowl (2:10)

06. Asphalt and Ablution (6:03)

1. Still Grounded (1:44)
2. Island of War (1:02)
3. Hardboiled (1:38)
4. Sneaking Suspicion (1:40)

07. Traffic Jam (5:52)

1. Look Both Ways (0:48)
2. Street Sweeper (3:24)
3. Rally Point (1:38)

08. Neon Night (5:37)

1. Where One Road Ends (1:27)
2. Block by Block (0:48)
3. Perception is Reality (0:48)
4. Pounding the Pavement (2:32)

09. The Office of Naval Intelligence (8:50)

1. A Heavy Toll (1:04)
2. Strong Medicine (1:27)
3. Uphill, Both Ways (1:37)
4. Access Denied (2:08)
5. Infestation (1:02)
6. Clean the Air (1:31)

Disc 2

01. Bits and Pieces (7:05)

1. From the Ashes (2:32)
2. Dead or Gone (0:56)
3. Premonition (1:29)
4. Something Like Sorrow (2:04)

02. Skyline (7:02)

1. No Response (1:23)
2. Pick a Target, Any Target (1:33)
3. Love at Long Range (1:39)
4. Air Traffic Control (2:23)

03. No Stone Unturned (3:23)

1. Cast Aside (1:33)
2. Nox Aeterna (1:06)
3. Marching On (0:42)

04. One Way Ride (6:51)

1. Borrowed Time (1:49)
2. Anywhere but Here (1:29)
3. The Calm Before (1:18)
4. Let it Burn (2:12)

05. The Light at the End (7:52)

1. Another Rain (2:32)
2. Through the Divide (1:34)
3. All That Remains (1:50)
4. Heart and Mind (1:53)

06. Data Hive (6:04)

1. We All Got Secrets (1:33)
2. Only One Way In (1:39)
3. Core (1:34)
4. This Way Up (1:16)

07. Special Delivery (10:23)

1. From Bones (1:18)
2. Still Strong (1:10)
3. Extra Firepower (1:39)
4. Mercy Plea (3:11)
5. Hell of a Night (3:03)

08. Finale (8:12)

1. From the Ashes (reprise) (1:12)
2. Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (3:43)
3. Old Friend (1:07)
4. Reborn Relic (0:51)
5. Prepare to Drop (1:17)

Halo 3: ODST Special Edition

In addition to the standard $60 package, Halo 3: ODST was also available in a $100 Special Edition. The Special Edition contains no extra game content and has the same box, but instead comes with an exclusive Halo 3: ODST-styled XBox 360 controller. Along with the special edition, as a bonus, if you pre-ordered the game from selected retailers, you received an unlock code for Sgt. Johnson as a playable character in Firefight mode.

Development and Announcement

Halo 3: ODST began development and production only a few months before its official unveiling at, bizarrely, Tokyo Game Show 2008, where it was unveiled under the more pleasing, but less explanatory title Halo 3: Recon. ODST was finished in approximately a year and a half, as opposed to the three-year development cycle that characterized previous Halo titles. According to Brian Jarrard, Halo 3: ODST is slightly smaller in scale than Bungie's usual products, due to the fact that it wasn't intended to be a "full game". It started out mostly as an expansion but grew into a full-scale game as time went on. After Halo 3, Bungie had several concepts for expanding the Halo universe past the story of Master Chief, one of which was to play as an ordinary soldier in a slightly darker, grittier setting. Bungie self-admits that it is "a risk" to step away from the Chief, but they felt that they could do so in an expansion. This concept was eventually settled on and became Halo 3: ODST, which, while not a true sequel, Bungie compares to traditional expansion packs like Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne in terms of content and changes from the original. Because of the inclusion of the full Halo 3 multiplayer (including all map packs) and Forge, as well as the new Firefight mode, ODST was sold for the full title price of $60, one of the least popular decisions in the industry in 2009.

An image similar to the ones featured during the Superintendant promotional campaign.

ODST has proven to be a contested subject among Microsoft and Bungie before. In the days leading up to E3 2008, Bungie promised a "big reveal" to their fans by running a small-scale alternate reality game on the Bungie.net website and forums featuring "the Superintendant", a small, cartoonish figure holding a plunger, who was later revealed to be the municipal A.I. of New Mombasa, who figures prominently into the story of ODST. In addition to cryptic news and forum posts, roughly a week before E3 2008, a countdown timer appeared on Bungie.net's homepage, superimposed over an image of the Superintendant. The countdown clock was supposed to end during the Microsoft press conference, but a day before E3 a message appeared from studio head Harold Ryan apologizing to fans, saying that their announcement was cancelled due to their publisher pulling the plug on them. This is highly speculated to be because Microsoft had secured Final Fantasy XIII for the Xbox 360, and they did not want two big announcements in the same press conference, presumably because they don't understand how such things work. Bungie was quite incensed about the cancellation of their announcement, and no further information was had until September 25th, 2008, the one-year anniversary of Halo 3's release.

A teaser trailer was released on Bungie's website, hinting at the involvement of orbital drop shock troopers and a setting in a large city. A date was found in this trailer of January 20th, 2009, which many speculated to be the release date of the new project. This has been since proven false, and the date was either a deliberate red herring or something yet unknown. Speculation ran rampant until Microsoft's press conference at Tokyo Game Show 2008, where an extended version of the teaser trailer was unveiled, and the project was officially announced as Halo 3: Recon, with details provided.

Name Change

After the unveiling at TGS 08, Bungie released only a small amount of information on Recon. The December issue of Game Informer ran a cover story on Halo 3: Recon, further detailing the game. However, on November 25th, 2008, Bungie suddenly put a release up on their website saying that Halo 3: Recon had been renamed " Halo 3: ODST", along with assets for the game being updated. According to Bungie,

"This new title is a more straightforward account of the experience that awaits and the role you will assume as you explore the streets of New Mombasa."

Bungie stated at one point that the Halo 3: ODST expansion will be the last element in the Halo "trilogy" that they are developing. This was later proven to be false with the announcement of Halo: Reach . The exact statement from the October 10, 2008 Weekly Update is:

"We're not ready to discuss the other projects underway within the studio right now but Halo 3 : Recon does represent the final basket of goodness that we will be delivering for the Halo trilogy. There are no more offshoots or side stories in the works."

Apologists have suggested that Bungie meant ODST would be the last game in the time frame of Halo: Combat Evolved through Halo 3 they would be developing, with Reach being a prequel to the original Halo, although Reach would most definitely qualify as an "offshoot or side story".

Advertising Campaign

Prior to the release of ODST, Bungie created a short film featuring the story of one particular trooper. The film was split up into smaller pieces that were then used as short commercials for the game online or on television. The clip begins at a funeral, which is followed by a flashback detailing the exploits of the trooper, named Tarkov. The video moves on to boot camp, where Tarkov gets his hair cut and is forced to crawl through mud while being screamed at in what seems to be Hungarian.

The clip then moves forward to Tarkov dropping in from above, and landing in a war zone. After running through a realistic representation of a battle in the Halo universe, Tarkov fights a Brute and receives several gashes to his face. The movie then flashes forward to an older Tarkov, performing a funeral service for a fallen trooper, and proceeding to move out in formation with the rest of the squad.

Controversy

ODST caused a ripple in the community upon its release. Bungie had marketed the game as an expansion pack, stating, upon the initial announcement of the game, they were making it with a $30-40 price range. However, Microsoft chose to retail the game as a full-priced Xbox 360 game, supposedly due to the amount of content included in the game, mostly from the multiplayer front. Most reviewers and gamers felt that, for a full priced game, the campaign was lacking in length and overall replayability was disappointing. Had the game been priced according to the intentions it was made with, $30-40, it is believed the game's reception would have been warmer.

Xbox 360 Install Size

Installing Halo 3: ODST on your hard drive takes up about 3.5 GB of space. Installing ODST will not adversely affect performance like installing Halo 3 did. The multiplayer disc, being the exact same engine as Halo 3, will still suffer from performance issues when installed.