Thanks for watching! One detail I forgot to mention: Sadie's Story references Dante's Inferno and takes great inspiration from it. The name Vergil has significance, as he is Dante's guide. Likewise, Vergil guides Sadie. Edit: I also refer to the game as Halo ODST in my script, instead of the full title Halo 3 ODST. It was a bit easier for me to say and resulted in less stumbling in my script. So that is why, if you were wondering!

As I’ve grown older, the ODST story has become my favorite Halo campaign.

This was great. Another detail I love about this campaign is that, in addition to the secret encounter with the corrupt cop, if you solve the mystery by finding all of the logs, you also get an alternate cutscene when the Rookie and Dare meet Virgil. The Rookie whistles in order to bring Virgil out of hiding and once he realizes the Rookie is there he immediately floats over to him, indicating that they have formed somewhat of a bond over the course of the game. It was the engineer all along that was guiding the Rookie to where he needed to go, even showing him where to find the audio logs using traffic signages that say “Keep Right,” “Please Walk,””No Access” and so on. Virgil is sentient and wants the player to know his story. If you take the time to learn it through the audio logs, the game reflects that with their bond in the alternate cutscene.

The Superintendent will guide you step-by-step to every audio log if you know how to listen to him. Arrows, text signs, and color coding will tell you whether you're going through right way, where to find resources, and even warn you about upcoming patrols. Watch for the roads and billboards changing when you get close, listen for beeps or the movement of automated machinery. This puts you in conversation with the world rather than just traversing it in a way I haven't seen any other game do

"Not from a stray round or a grenade." Halo 2 Legendary jackals: Are you sure about that?

This game came out after Halo 3 and before Reach, and I always felt you can see Bungie making this as a sort of stepping stone to practice for Reach. Having multiple squad characters who converse and have histories; the Master Chief trilogy before this does have characters but they don't interact in ways beyond basic story. This game's also especially fun to play co-op, just a recommendation. Great video!

It's crazy because as a kid I didn't care for ODST's story because of the flashback moments and the rookie running around by himself but after not playing the game for many years and returning to it as an adult, I love it. For the many reasons you described and just the overall atmosphereic vibes

How i feel with rookie and what can make him seem like he isn't a true rookie is that he new he is still one of the unsc elite. In lore the odsts are not slouches and have experience using enemie weapons. They have to be able to fight a guerilla warfare so being trained on how covenant weapons work completely makes sense.

I love the fact about the Chief destroying all the Covenant army in 3 game.... but a full squad of ODST need one game for saving some data....

14:38 just a note for people who don’t know, the vehicle Dutch jumps in changes depending on what your driving when you trigger the cut scene. But will always be a warthog on Rookie’s side

one of the best parts of the game is while walking around, the area feels more than deserted, but like the whole place ought to be teeming with people, or that they were all there moments ago and you just misssed them. It's a feeling that I feel is missing from a number of other games that take place in deserted cities, and it feels so menacing

ODST always felt like the most grounded Halo game to me

I always felt that the power trip of the mission you play as Mickey followed by the ONI building mission was meant to convey that even though you look like you're winning ultimately you're being backed into a corner and have with no way out and forced to confront the hopelessness of the situation from a power fantasy high.

Even as a kid in elementary school, ODST was always one of my favorite games. I used to write fan-fictions in school narrating experiences I had in the game while playing as The Rookie, like when I ripped a plasma turret off it's base and charged a hunter head-on. Something about the game spoke to me as a kid, but I could never really articulate why, and I'm still learning new things about the game and finding new reasons to love it. Even after 14 years since first playing it, even after finally going back and playing the first two games thanks to the Master Chief Collection, even after playing through all the games again and again, Halo 3: ODST still ranks as one of my favorite games of all time and holds a special place in my heart.

This and Reach are my favorite Halo games, and it mainly comes down to the squad members giving more life/character to what's going on. You get a lot of context and chatter from Cortana and your fellow soldiers, but the squad members give you something more than the stoic soldier and the nameless marines he runs into can. The squad members of both games bring a personality that is missing from Master Chief. The ODST squad does actually get a continuance of their story in some books and they talk about what happens to the rookie, leads into how Buck was a spartan by the time of Halo 5, and even touches on the surviving Noble Team member from Reach. And finally: congratulations on winning the New England Book Festival award.

I'm replaying this game right now. I remember playing it years ago when I was younger and just feeling a sense of fear and dread. Something just felt very uneasy, as if my character didn't belong where he was. Such a fantastic game.

Worth noting the audio logs are a mirror of Dante's Inferno. Appropriate for a city descending into ruin.

15:52 not to mention you can actually carry 3 of each grenade instead of just 2. The backpack could explain that tho.

I remember that at the time the game came out, Night Vision made it so the enemy could see you. Reflection of the green light on your face. I don’t know if that was ever changed.

A very nice analysis for sure, especially the counterplay between ODST vulnerability vs Spartan power fantasies. It would have been neat to see you talk more about the superintendent and how it helps the Rookie more throughout the game (signs with directions appearing and weapon caches opening up) but aside from that and some minor mistakes like referring to the phantom as a wraith at the end, it was much appreciated. I always look forward to hearing someone talk about ODST. Cheers and job well done!

Definitely my favorite halo game! I love wandering the silent streets of new Mombasa, listening to Marty O’Donnell; the atmosphere is quiet and beautiful. Nice seeing it get covered, great video.

Ah! I loved this breakdown! I really love this soundtrack to this game as well. So thank you for including it in the video as you could

i only just now played and completed odst for the first time a couple weeks back, and wow. the parallels it has with halo reach are for me indicative of the game reach was to become, and i love that about it. great essay. the melancholy, confusion, helplessness etc of war and its consequences are spelled out well in this game and in reach

This game was huge for me when it came out. The storyline with virgil and the teen girl were originally part of the ilovebees ARG where you find out her and her friends are spartan 1.5's cause thier parents are all spartan 1's, so her journey turns into helping her friends steal a pelican so they can do an op on a covenant home world. Was some cool shit to see bungie didnt forget that.

Only thing I have to add is that the ODST not being able to use covenant weapons wouldn't actually work well narratively, as we see marines use covenant weapons in all 3 Halo games, let alone Keys actively using a weapon and even ship in CE.

I liked the constant green hue of the NOD when playing as the Rookie, it made you feel... separated from the world. Like you're traversing the spirit world in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. You're a revanent traversing a graveyard.

Btw Buck taking on a Scarab isn't really a power fantasy to Quote Johnson "We've all ran the simulations, they're tough but ain't invincible, stick with the Master Chief he'll know what to do" So it means all unsc troops have ran how to take down Scarabs and it wouldn't be far fetch that the best soldiers that are not spartans would know how to easily take them down.

Amazing video. Some details I especially love about this game are the fact the second time you hear the song rain in the game is after Kikowani station in the soundtrack it’s on the larger compilation track “The Light at the end” which is a fitting name since it plays right after Rookie receives the call from Veronica over the radio, he’s found the light at the end of the tunnel and a way out of the dark lonely city. Another neat detail is if you don’t shoot any of the engineers and have listened to all the audio logs the cutscene where Rookie and Veronica meet Virgil changes and instead of pointing his gun at the engineer he does the whistle from the superintendent, since the engineer controlling the superintendent has been guiding Rookie through the city. Which is shown in the gameplay sections as rookie with the signs changing to give you directions, or cameras mounted on walls turning on and watching you. It helps tie the audio logs in too, those sirens and wonky panels in the street around the city are Virgil telling you an audio log is nearby and once you’ve found it they turn off. Also the way that Bungie uses allusions to Dante’s Inferno throughout the game to communicate the apocalyptic state of the city in both the audio logs, with each chapter representing a different ring of hell and its corresponding sin, and the Mombasa streets sections with Rookie being guided by Virgil and the legendary ending cutscene being the covenant prophet of truth in the caves under New Mombasa as an allusion to Satan when Dante reaches the bottom ring of hell. It’s just so well put together.

thank you for making this video i’ve been excitedly waiting for this video

15:00 I like how they made it so that whatever vehicle you drove off the ramp is the one used in the cutscene.

How to get the ODST Experience™: Play on Legendary, enable most modifiers that make the enemies tougher like Mythic, Tilt, Tough Luck, etc. For Calvin's added flaver also enable Foreign (can't use Covie weapons) and Famine (lower ammo drops) lol

Thank you for video! And a Happy New Year to you!

One of my favorite games, also I think The Rookie and UNSC mowing down Covenant troops is still pretty acurate since most of the time in the lore is always said that humanity at ground level is better than the covenant, but the win most of the war in the space because ground troops are helpless against glassing from orbit. Thats why the go to tactic of the covenant most of the time is to use their superior space ships

I often say CE and 3 are some of my favourite campaigns but man, at the end of the day, ODST is always at the top. Great video!

Such a great breakdown. Enjoyed the hell out of this vid, keep up the good work mate

This is probably my favorite Halo campaign. Yes, I had fun with Reach and I'll always find a reason to replay it. Yes, Halo Infinite is new and finally refreshing to have a good Halo game again. Yet, they aren't this. Halo ODST really connected with me because I was able to put down my controller and really think to myself that: "This could be me." A human, lost, confused, and only really surviving even if barely. While playing this game, I felt like Rookie. I was tired after every engagement, I was reinvigorated after wiping out a squad of Brutes and Grunts. I cheered because I survived and that's really the most I could do. Survive. I love the power fantasy of being able to power through hordes of enemies twice my size with weapons no ordinary man could handle. With ODST and the Rookie, every single enemy defeated felt meaningful. This comment is longer than expected. Anyways, I'm just trying to say that I truly love this game and wish more like this existed.

Great video man! While I was watching it I assumed that you’d have a really high viewership due to how professional and high quality you are and when I finished it i was shocked that you didn’t. Your content is great and I’ll definitely check out the rest of it, you deserve way more subs so keep it up

The fact you reply to all comments mate is awesome, you’re doing a great job and I wish you the best, keep up the good work. Halo fans are loyal to those who do it justice.

Such excellent and high quality video essays, I hope you grow this year

14:21 It also symbolises that there’s no way out of the city and the last means of escape was destroyed

Bungie's Halo core truly is one of the greatest series ever. Five games that all have their strengths and feel different enough to one another, but still tell one unifying story of mass desperation.

Despite being around at the time, I still have no idea how this game's release was controversial. Perhaps we didn't know how good we had it and were spoiled from Bungie's game-changing output (pardon the pun), and from being in the golden age of gaming when it had just became profitable so budgets were high and technology advancing - but not so profitable that it hadn't yet become the mafia-style shakedown and the vector for child gambling like it is today. Halo 3 ODST is a masterclass in music, in atmosphere, and in telling a story with limited resources. The love and care that went into this, and the games before it, are unmatched before and since.

Finished watching your video and I have to say you have a lot of potential. Keep it up, great video

The thing I like about the Engineers is even though we easily tell they’re being forced to serve the Covenant, you get no choice about killing them or not, they’ll explode eventually anyway.

Definitely my favorite halo too. Great in depth video man.

If you were to finish all the audio logs and in the mission where you're rescuing Dare, if you keep that police officer alive he will go to find Sadie's father's dead corpse and open a secret room. When he finds the body he will turn on you saying "there can't be any witnesses". It's a small detail related to the audio logs that can cause an in game effect. I'd highly suggest going back and doing this in the game.

ODST on Legendary was exactly The Way. Small, frail, resource starved and hesitant about any combat encounter in which you couldn't stack the deck in your favor... Also, it's always been my impression that pound for pound humanity always had the better ground game. It's why the Covies leaned so heavily on glassing us. In most cases, it seams the only time UNSC struggles on the ground it's because they are out gunned, out numbered, and the Navy can't hold Air/Space Superiority for s--t.

The "Went through hell for that!?" Quote I always took as a comment on the state of the city. After everything they did, what they went through and how hard they worked that the end result was still a completely decimated city overrun by Covernant. I suppose it works with Dare and Bucks relationship, but calling her a 'that' seems pretty harsh.

As far as the tank section goes, it's worth noting that the UNSC are astablished to be the superior ground force. The reason why the convenent were winning the war was because of the superior numbers and spacecrafts, which they often use to glass planets, negating the need to engage in a ground assault.

Great video. I think ive seen every video essay on ODST on youtube, but this one got me to realize something. Rogue One is the odst of star wars, and thats why its also one of my favoriates in that franchise. The grounded nature makes everything hit with more weight. Thanks.

Hey dude I love this series I just wanted to say you’ve done an excellent job !!!

The opening text in ODST for me, was supposed to feel like War Documentaries.

What a wonderful and masterful critique piece of the game. Beautiful review of the story and so much so that I learned a thing or two in regards to story telling, thank you.

Minor detail, the dead elites in the game didn't die during the great schism, but before it; they were cut off from their kind by being so far out and they couldn't warn anyone about the brutes

Will we ever see a honest remake or sister episode that does this masterpiece justice? Man, i would love some indie to do that.

This was my first halo campaign when I bought my 360 bundle that came with the game and forza 3. I still get the same feeling when replaying halo 3 odst and it’s just a timeless classic. Coming home from Best Buy in 09 and opening that Xbox on a rainy day and loading this up is a day I’ll never forget. Still have that 360 elite to this day!

I understand not being a fan of how powerful the ODST’s are but these aren’t regulars all members of the squad are inducted into the Spartan iv program for heroic events during this game

Shooters always seem to struggle with keeping the story and gameplay properly in line. Lowering stakes too much risks making the game too boring, but they clearly kept too much of the power fantasy in at points. Great video!

Going through this game on legendary with some select skulls on is very fun. Four things/moments stood out to me, the first being that usually you barely have any ammo (If you only play with UNSC weapons via foreign skull.) and while in the beginning this really bugged me because I thought it was unfair, towards the end of the run moments when I had to improvise simply out of necessity and despair really made the game fun. Like trying to splatter the enemies right before the bug hives with a mongoose simply because there are barely any weapons around that you can pick up, choosing targets carefully to make sure that whatever is left behind once you run dry of ammo can’t make use of long range advantage or powerful weapons, and stuff like that. I entered the hives with basically nothing, maybe half a mag of AR ammo? Don’t remember but the second I got the option of getting a shotgun I swapped to it. Everything was mostly smooth sailing at this point, until I got to that Brute Chieftain with a plasma cannon and whole platoon of brutes that came to reinforce a grunt squad. The problem is that usually you won’t get checkpoints in the middle of combat, so if you clear out the first grunt and brute squad the reinforcements from the other brutes will reset you and that sucks. I got lucky one of the times and somehow got a checkpoint after defeating that group, but now I had to kill the 6 remaining brutes, it would be much easier if one of them weren’t a carbine wielding brute who was also behind a trigger that would force the chieftain to agro on me. I was close multiple times but that duo is just too powerful. So instead I tried to run past them and somehow got through. Now, this was the training grounds for my next trick: killing the major buggar and his crew with melee only. The hard part here is to dodge so much plasma fire that isn’t on the same height as you. I also had to run back for med-kits because I was scared of losing all the progress I already achieved. And at last the only hard part left was getting Virgil into the Oliphant and that was basically it. At that point you only have to pick correct targets to kill via tank or gauss hog and time things right. Another tough one was the banshee stealing mission where I had to dismount and open those giant gates for the phantom. Same story, had no ammo so I did as much as I could before deciding to just book it. Made it to the other side where the enemies left me all alone, apart from the gravity hammer Brute Chieftain who I ninja’d so he wouldn’t kill me while I attempted to make it to the control room. This kind of turned into a walkthrough guide sometime in the middle, but I really want to share this because of how much fun I had playing this.

I get tired of video essays typically but I feel like you did something different here, good breakdown on the story and really setting the theme.

Reach will always be my favorite, but this game feels very close to it thematically

Although i can see the point of the night vision comment, personally i love how its done roaming the streets for 2 main reasons. 1. Its honestly the most realistic thing to do in that situation, you're newer to the group, no idea about the area, its dark and rainy with enemies around every corner potentially, im confident ANYONE would spam night vision in that scenerio, regardless of the scenery 😂 besides hes also on a time crunch "lore wise" 2. Time to instantly contradict my last point lore wise lol, but since there isnt a timer or any one set place you HAVE to go, you're able to explore, take your time, find secrets and enjoy the view. Plus, if you want to make legendary harder, boom turn of night vision, a new level of difficulty! Imo it really just gives everyone the choice of doing what they want! All said great video, gonna try and find time to watch the other ones in this series Edit: one last lil detail about the tank ep, you're totally right about it feeling a bit power fantasy-adjacent, but its actually not that inacurate from what we've seen before. In other games marines or npc odsts can use tanks and cause a hell of a lot of damage. At the end of the day, wether its a demon or a teen driving a tank, all ya gotta do is aim and shoot, kinda like aim assist on consoles 😂

You forgot to mention how much of a monster Dare is. She’s an ONI Agent.

I find that the power fantasy problem quickly goes away on higher difficulty levels, playing it on the MCC it was the campaign where I died most. Because I tried to play like a Spartan at first

I remember in the ViDocs they showed Rookie turning on his VISR, killing the grunts in a hunting pack, then turning it off as he backed away. From the outside it showed his visor glowing blueish when VISR was on, then fading to black when turned off. This with a working stealth system would’ve been perfect for hiding in the shadows gameplay and incentivising turning the VISR off

Dare having recon makes me remember the vid master challenge hype, I miss those times

I think this game is great. Never finished it when I was younger, but I remember it being my favorite Halo game. I wish they continued the ODST games beyond Three and Reach. The setting, atmosphere, and story too me emphesizes that you don't need a game with the size of an ocean. Rather to the contrary, sometimes having a game be the width of a small lake but the depth of an ocean is a very refreshing and great! I love how instead of being this one-man army war hero that you are as Master Chief, and even in other franchises such as CoD; your just one guy doing his best to survive in a war zone and MAYBE, if your lucky... Accomplish your mission. I just wish the gameplay captured this a little better.

While i fully agree that individual ODSTs feel a bit overpowered compared to canon, I think the covenant being overall underpowered as a force matches this point of the story. The group of Covenant that remained on Earth after the carrier jumped to Delta Halo were the stragglers of an already minimized force. The Prophet's fleet was not expecting to find the human home world and overestimated their ability to take the planet.

Legendary ending shows prophet of truth aproaching the portal to the ark in the game this is the same city in 3 that u fight through

The rookie was a marine before and took part in the battle of New Jerusalem and the marine force sent there was nearly wiped out. After that Buck hand picked him to join Alpha Nine. This is from his wiki page.

Very nice.

I know it doesnt really matter, but i think youd be interested in knowing that you can actually see the In Amber Clad chase Regret's ship into the slipspace portal. Its only there for a couple of seconds, but i think its a VERY cool detail! Edit: 5:58 is when the scene plays. Look in the bottom-right corner of the drop pod window, near the space elevator. You can see a little brick flying through the air, then it develops an orange tail, accelerates, and gets 'sucked' and distorted in the same exact way Regret's ship leaves the frame.

I'm sure others have mentioned about the alternate scene with Vergil but I've seen no comments regarding three other things about this video, 1. you kinda called Mickey as "Mikey" for majority of the video and called the phantom a "wraith" at 36:08 2. The game's way of keeping the cutscenes a part of the game by leaving one round left in Romeo's sniper in the NMPD mission 25:04 he fires three shots and when you take control of him, the ammo counter shows one bullet left in the chamber 3. Last but not least, there was also the legendary cutscene after the Johnson talk with Vergil. It features the prophet of truth in it as I recall.

It's all pretty good with one caveat that comes to mind for me. Yes, the Rook's character did toe the line of power fantasy when the ego stroking questions came in, but what you need to consider is his title. His name is the rookie, but he is a rookie within the ranks of a highly secretive, well regimented and oriented, trained to lethality, and supplied more effectively than mainline marines or army. It's literally a case of newest player on the best team. He may be new, but that doesn't say much to his background or experiences. Everyone made the distinction present with Noble 6. Just because Noble 6 filled some shoes, they were still a Spartan. Rookie may be the aforementioned replacement, but he's still special forces, and he's still an ODST.

Great video!! 2 things I will say: I loved your idea that if humans were only able to use UNSC weapons. Also Did you know the night vision does have a purpose other than being able to see when moving around the map. If turned on, you can see the outline of an invisible brute!

To think this could have been a dlc till Microsoft forced a full game release, could have been the best dlc the industry ever seen

I think the commentary is spot on. ODSTs are good, but not Spartans. Just look at Halo Reac! There’s the one mission in new Alexandria, where you have to use a jet pack, and ODST troopers come with you. If you play on heroic or legendary, those troopers die within 10 seconds. The whole atmosphere of halo reach is the unstoppable force of the covenant. Marines and ODST‘s are dying left and right in front of you and there’s nothing you can do about it. but in the halo ODST game, you can go up against the whole pack of covenant and wipe them just if you were like a spartan. Definitely a needed balancing factor or something to show that you are an inferior a human with limited capability.

Love this ... My only comment the use of Covenant weapons in the gameplay...Wish the gameplay used the ODST weapons constantly...

17:30 If i recall correctly. Stealth was meant to play a much larger role gameplay wise (which is why you get a Silenced SMG and Pistol) however, Bungie was unable to get the balancing right (As for Stealth to work, you need to not have all enemies be alerted) as it was either way too easy due to enemies not being triggered at all from the silenced weapons. Or, as they do in game, they wake up / notice just as much as if you used a rocket launcher. Otherwise, Part of the problem might just be you playing on a much easier difficulty. Heroic is the standard "This is how it should be played" (Even though if you go off lore from the books, its more accurate to play some sort of hodge podge inbetween Heroic and Legendary but alas). ODSTs are trained to use Covenant weapons so preventing that, while you can do it self imposed isn't inherently a lore accurate solution. But basically, you have to modify the game / play at higher difficulties if you want the "True" ODST gameplay (That, Admittedly, differs very little from Spartan gameplay at that same difficulty in reality. But lore wise Normal is about how Spartans perceive the battlefield so its mostly fair) Using skulls to increase enemy aggressiveness and other enemy behaviors to sort of get that balance where you'd be playing a lot closer to how an ODST would be in that situation. Avoiding fighting, using Stealth as much as possible etc

My solution to the gameplay issues would be to scale down the capabilities of the player, not remove them. ODST already partially does this by removing dual wielding. The player should be slower, have shorter jumps. Turrets should operate like Halo 2 where they are entirely fixed. If there's any weapon I would actually remove from the game's sandbox it would be the Spartan Laser, mainly because the name itself implies only Spartans have the physical capabilities of using it. I'd also put a much higher emphasis on stealth and strategy by reducing player health, not just re-adding the Halo CE health system, and by adding more features to the stealth by making enemies lose track of the player, maybe even struggle to FIND the player during night sections unless near a light source. I'd also weaken the player's melee by at least half the damage. ODSTs are regular people, not heavily modified or wearing 2 tons of neurally operated armor (read the books). If ODSTs were all canonically Spartan 1s like Sgt Johnson is, I could see some of the gameplay making sense, but that isn't the case.

playing as master chief made feel like a super hero , playing as the rookie made it feel real

ODST may not have the best gameplay per say, but as an overall game, with all features and elements taken into account, I think it's the best Halo game.

The super human action or shooting gallery segments could just be a way to allure players from Halo 3 or just a limitation to the game engine they used I mean this was a DLC so it was probably easier to just reuse Shooting galleries from Halo 3 then create an entire new scripts of code to make this game feel unique and as someone who got Halo 3 and this game bundled with it in 2010 or 2011 with my Grey Xbox 360 slim playing Halo 3 and ODST back to back I don't really see an issue with the action segments because that's probably how it was intended to be played also the Destiny posters in the game was crazy to think that Bungie would stop making Halo games back then because I thought the posters were just decorations in the game and in 2012 they had that Destiny trailer come out which blew my mind but whats crazy it that ODST in the MCC removed the posters I think from the game just showing how 343 tried to scrub away everything Bungie related from the series

I reckon the night vision is fine, though I do agree the ODST gameplay needed adjustments to make it different from Spartan gameplay.

Pretty much a solid agree on all points, save for the tank level. I personally don't consider it out of place since the rest of the gameplay is very easy to turn power fantasy. That's probably my harshest criticism I can throw at H3: ODST. It doesn't feel right. That said, had they gone with a more sincere route, the tank level could have been the power fantasy section of the game - provided they actually made the tank FEEL like a tank and not a big gun on a flimsy rolling platform. This has been a problem since Halo 2. Lore wise, I think that even to the Covenant, facing one or more Scorpions as an infantry squad is one of the most terrifying things they can expect to encounter, short of a Spartan. Johnson said it best, also while dropping off a Scorpion tank to the Chief and a squad of Marines. "They're tough, but they ain't invincible." It also would have shown that even normal humans - not just these elite special forces that ODSTs are - when rallied around a power position like a column of tanks, have their ways of turning the tables on the Covenant. Of course that alternate universe would have the level involve more Scorpions and Marines to really give it that sense of "We'll give them a black eye at least!" only to have ONI Alpha Site follow that mission up and... Well, the Covenant didn't like that and now are going to mince your forces with theirs. ...Yeah, I'd have built ODST very differently in terms of gameplay. Ultimately I don't rate ODST as highly as some do, mostly because of how it's gameplay doesn't align with what it's portraying, unless you personally handicap yourself. Granted, that's something I do enjoy doing. Playing a game closer to it's portrayal is an interesting experience, when done well.

One thing i think helps balance the gameplay with the story, surprisingly is the LASO difficulty. More than any other halo game the emense difficulty suits the game so well especially in the scenes that otherwise feel like power fantasy. It inposes a frightening diffrence in power between yourself and the covenant. It is odd to say but it feels like LASO was made for ODST even though it is just a challenge mode for hardcore players. This is most noticable on the Solo Rookie missions. In the other levels you have some form of help and can rely on it fairly well. But there alone in the city without guidance aside from vergil and setbacks from the Iron Skull you are alone and afraid. Every patrol of covenant you fight has to be carefully planned if you want to make it through and avoidance is your best chance. It is a unique feeling.

Probably my favorite game of the original trio. Their all good but this one just hits all the boxes of small but very well put together. All the little details and ambiance just fit so well. Side but ODST are training is hell, while I agree that a regular soldier shouldn't be facing down scarabs and hoards. ODST aren't regular soldiers. Their trained and equipped to not only survive but also ensure their mission will be a success. Marines are also known to use covenant weapons when their the only ones avaliable (the mission for keys and the prison break at the end of 2).

Neon Night is such an awesome song. The whole soundtrack for this game is amazing; just like the composers Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori.

As much as I do like the idea of human guns only just to make the game feel a little grittier, I also dunno how to feel about it for lore stuff because ODSTs are usually deployed on missions where it'd make sense for them to get used to using covenant guns, if they aren't trained with them I do think one small thing they could have done is made the player smaller though, like the average brute is a good foot or two taller than Chief even with his armor, or also like the height of a grunt is only like 4-5 inches off the average height of a human but they still look tiny in ODST cuz the player model is scaled the same as the other Halo games

Bucks “oh” will never not be funny.

ODSTs and Marines are trained to use covenant weapons and vehicle via simulations

great video.

Ey cheers on your book !

God I love the world building in Reach and ODST, Bungie where in their bag when they cooked up both titles

I’m just starting the vid so you make have mentioned it but similarly how Chief is called demon they call odst’s imps or lesser demons. You can hear them call you it but it’s fairly rare.

14:38 this depends as there is 2 cutscenes tied to this event ending on this mission based off if your in a ghost or warthog playing scenario A or B or even C as the third option is a brutes chopper which I forgot about til this part of my comment. which ever vehicle your in by the time you end mission is the one shown during the cutscene so warthog is still correct 1/3 of the time on paper :D oh and fun fact about the germane arc I compared it to the normal marines and the lander shares their grenade arcs which also affects the coven nade arcs, you you are in every sense marine only difference is you can still hijack vehicles and mount tanks to get are plant or bash em to destruction. Also around 17:00 in ylwtniom no use of coven weapons which I will tell you is somewhat wrong some marines have some training or at least muscle memory knowledge/intuition of weaponry and can use em, to max efficiency I doubt it, after all in Halo 2 you rescue marines who use coven weapons for the rest of the mission so something tells me most marines and last are given baseline training to use them, further reinforced by Sargent Johnson using a rarer weapon to practice with being the beam rifle or a so call it the coven sniper, Sid won’t ego that trivia if you want a challenge their is a skill for the mcc version of ODST that disables the bath to pickup and use covenant weapons even the ones that are kinda brain dead uses like the angry sword or gravity hammer although they are melee weapons. Final note on difficulty is normal is for casuals while Heroic is the intended difficulty for ok halo games with legendary being a challenge for those who are familiar with halo.

I remember playing this at my cousins house. Fun times. To bad PlayStation and Xbox will most likely not give up there exclusives. Who knows. A lot can change in 50 years

I wish rookie lived

Also no, odst can us Covent weapons. It is due to their training that they can use it. They are meant to be a step below a sparten. To make them different I'd say make it so they can not vehicle highjact. And also give them less health so you need to be more squad oriented when you have your squad or marines. Then while with the rookie more stealthy. I would love if 343i made a remake/remaster that went more in this direction.

Although your points about the power fantasies are valid you have to remember that although an emphasis was put on the story this is still a video game. A video game from a series that is known for being the pinnacle of power fantasies. It was a hard transition and one that couldn’t be sent full speed if they wanted the game to be successful.