LTTP - Halo 3: ODST

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MisterAnderson

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I just beat it last night. It's hard for me to describe my feelings towards it, as I really didn't care too much about the story at all although it was interesting seeing the invasion from another point of view. But despite that, I still enjoyed the campaign MUCH more than I expected.

I really give kudos to Bungie for doing something different with the Halo franchise in its structure. The "hub world" Mombasa was, for some reason, one of my favorite things I've experienced in the Halo series. Which was a surprise because I was going into it knowing (and hating the idea) that the whole game was going to be set on earth, much of which would be in a city-scape which has always been a turn off for me in the previous titles when compared to the huge expansive environments set on Halo/The Ark/etc. But I don't know if it was a combination of the eerie/calm music and the exploration of Mombasa, but I found myself relaxed and somehow having fun just roaming around the city streets dealing with any stray Covenant I came across. The mood was really spot on and I'm actually kind of looking forward to going back to find the last six or so audio logs that I missed.

I think it had a perfect mix of open world sand-box gameplay, but with a clear indication of where you needed to go/what you needed to do next. The flashback missions were all good from what I remember, but I didn't really care about any of the characters aside from Buck for obvious reasons. I'd like to see more FPS games try something similar to ODST as far as it's structure and gameplay philosophy but take it a step further.

I never really kept track of GAF's opinions on this game in the OT as I wanted to stay away from it until I played it, but there hasn't been a bump since about a year ago or something so I figured I'd make a LTTP thread. I was under the impression that GAF overall disliked ODST; am I in the minority for enjoying this game so much?
 
I loved it...partly because of the inclusion of some of the Firefly cast :p


btw bad time to create an LTTP thread with all this E3 madness going on. I feel your pain when this thread sinks to the bottom.
 
My favourite Halo game. Love the style, love the music, love the characters and love everything it's trying to do.

Honestly, I can't go back to Halo 3's campaign after ODST and Reach's campaign was a massive let down because of ODST.

ODST, for me, is perfect. It's probably my favourite shooter of the last five years.
 
Yeah on the flip side I liked Reach's campaign a lot less than I thought I was going to. Everyone hyped it up as it being so amazing, and don't get me wrong I did like it and it was good, but that's another game that I didn't care too much about the story or characters so what I was left with was just another Halo game that was trying to be Halo 1/Halo 3.

Ironically I feel like I'd have felt more for Noble team if they never showed their faces. Trying to humanize Spartans was a bad idea IMO. It just didn't feel right and made them feel like regular soldiers. Also why the hell did they each have different accents? I'm not too familiar with the Spartan program, but aren't the would-be super soldiers taken when they are babies to be trained basically from birth? You'd think this Spartan Program would be at one place, where they would all probably speak in the same accent. Small nitpick and not really important, and I get that they were trying to give each team member their own "thing" so you could easily remember them, but just stuck out to me.
 
ODST surprised me. I was kinda meh about it at first (mainly due to the downtime in the hub world), but after a few hours it really picked up for me and didnt stop. It felt really good for me, and while I wasnt a big fan of the hubworld breaking things up I loved the atmosphere of it.

Plus having a bunch of Firefly people as cast members didnt hurt.
 
Its cool OP, I'll do my chiming in/bumping part. I wasn't too sure on ODST when it was first announced but damn if I didn't get a grin on my face the first hour of playing it.

I knew something was going to be different when the piano music keyed up and we got that short little blurb at the beginning. I felt like it was one of Bungies best narratives, very tight, while the campaign was very nicely paced.

The open city idea worked and made me feel like I was the prey. Sneaking around with the silenced SMG was great and I wish Reachs executions would have been included here. However, on a second playthrough the city hub started to show some weakness's, namely not having much to do. It was also a short but there wasn't a lot of filler.

Oh, and Sadies story was a nice extra with good VA. And those neon lights, damn. Halo3's lighting engine was amazing here.

It was a great experiment and Firefight was a lot of fun. Shit, it got extra bonus points because of the Firefly in my Halo's.
 
I loved it, I'm surprised at the apathy it got. But then again I was never much of a Master Chief fan so the toned-down main character was a good thing for me. Also the city at night was amazing.

I do think Reach ended up being the much better game overall, but ODST was no slouch.
 
I loved it, one of the best Halo campaigns. The music, the atmossphere and the missions were all fun. No library level either. My only complaint about it is, is that I still feel to powerfull as an ODST.
 
I liked it better than Reach's campaign. But it didn't feel much like a Halo game since the entire time I thought the Covenant were after a Forerunner artifact in the Oni Building.... and there's literally no mention of Forerunners at all unless you beat it on Legendary and see a sliver of metal.
 
There was a Forerunner artifact at ONI? I thought the whole time the Covenant was just trying to dig up the portal to the Ark that was underneath Mombasa. They never said anything about a Forerunner artifact at ONI that I remember, although I split my play through up over the course of a few months because I got sidetracked so I might have not remembered.
 
I didn't appreciate this game enough until i played the horrible mess that was reach. in my opinion it was the last descent campaign bungie made.

and don't even get me started on the music. Marty captured the mode of the game so perfectly, i think it alone made the experience 10x better.
 
i really enjoyed all the missions but the "base world" stuff was boring

just lots of walking around .. and when you get a ghost it becomes almost unfair
 
brianjones said:
i really enjoyed all the missions but the "base world" stuff was boring

just lots of walking around .. and when you get a ghost it becomes almost unfair
Click to expand...

I agree. The soundtrack during the city parts was incredible, and I enjoyed the ambiance but it was pretty dull after a few hours and navigation was confusing.

wait

brianjones is on the gaming side, WHOA
 
Enjoyed it more than Halo 3 campaign wise. Really atmospheric and the soundtrack was (as usual) amazing. Enjoyed the cast and the setting. Seriously wouldn't mind another game similar to ODST.
 
ODST is my favorite halo game. I enjoyed the way the story was presented with the short flashbacks, and I liked the mood of being alone in the city. It was a nice change from the standard halo.
 
I really liked it...seemed like any other Halo to me, except for the need for health packs (which, at times, were a little tough to come by). Overall, I don't get the hate that some people have for it, but, then again, I really don't play Halo for the story.
 
Best thing to come from any Halo game:

Rain

UnluckyKate said:
I have chills remembering the live action trailer
Click to expand...

Hell yea. That trailer was incredible.

I really enjoyed the game more than I thought I would.
 
Yes the soundtrack was incredible and I immediately bought it off of amazon after beating the game. The Halo series has such great music. If/when they ever do a Halo film, they better hire Martin for the score or I'll throw a fit.
 
ODST was great. I like Halo's style of combat, and ODST's campaign had everything I desire in a Halo game from a gameplay perspective. Large scale firefights in open areas that gives you enough freedom to move around. Plus vehicle sections to change it up. Playing on legendary, having to deal with health, and having to put some thought into how you approach certain battles made the combat very satisfying, imo. The game's length was fairly decent too.

I didn't pay too much attention to the hub world stuff, since it was fairly clear where you had to go next. I also wasn't interested in the narrative elements.

The soundtrack is indeed awesome.
 
I loved it. Especially on my second playthrough, I missed a lot of details and story my first time through.

Love the feel of the weapons, the vulnerability of the characters you play as(gameplay wise), the story, the mission structure. It all feels wonderful, and decidedly different from the rest of the Halo series.
 
Enjoyed it way more than Reach (which screwed up on one thing Bungie never fail on, and that is the soundtrack), cant believe a small team of guys built the campaign in 9 months.

Its simply textbook game development.
 
I loved the campaign in this game. The open world nature of this game was fantastic.
 
Stallion Free said:
I thought the hub was boring as shit, but the flashback missions were generally better than anything in Reach.
Click to expand...
I messed around in the hub a significant amount of time, felt great. (did not get all recordings, ha)
 
McNei1y said:
Best thing to come from any Halo game:

Rain
Click to expand...

It was incredible to see how the old man orchestrated the soundtrack, marrying it with the team's design and artwork as each element of the full experience came online. The few days I spent helping him name the tracks are among the most memorable for me. Felt exactly like stealing.
 
Been said like ten times already, but the soundtrack was fantastic, even against Halo's usually high quality.

I really liked the game because the missions flowed into each other - it wasn't Halo's usual space opera, where the levels seem to be built and then connected together later.
 
urk said:
It was incredible to see how the old man orchestrated the soundtrack, marrying it with the team's design and artwork as each element of the full experience came online. The few days I spent helping him name the tracks are among the most memorable for me. Felt exactly like stealing.
Click to expand...

if Marty offered me a chance to name the tracks, i would refuse. I'm simply not worthy.
 
I began playing this with a friend recently after beating Halo Reach. Loved how different it felt and how you needed to be careful when moving through levels, moreso than in the other games.
 
This game had the best trailers/videos for any Halo game. The two-part announcement trailer was crazy. There was an incredible amount of hidden tidbits for the fans to find and put together. After the MS pulled Bungie's initial reveal of the game at E3 2008 (In the worst way possible-at the last second, after a countdown timer ended) the two part reveal trailer made up for it big time a couple months later, then followed by a bunch of awesome commericals. Also read AJ's editorial on the trailers, it was wild what those guys could find in just a trailer.
-Two-Part Teaser/Reveal Trailer
-Ascendant Justice pieces everything together 72 hrs later.
-Halo 3: ODST Extended Commercial
-ODST E3 09 Demo
 
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