Halo 3: ODST

This Week: Halo 3: ODST

Trying to convince unsuspecting buyers that he is Master Chief.

So I never played this game when it first came out. I bought it, but to this day it remains sealed in its original shrink wrapped packaging. And for that we mostly blame Halo Wars, but we’ll talk about that next week.

I knew a little about Halo 3: ODST. It was meant to run alongside Halo 3 and play as a character who wasn’t Master Chief. As a result you didn’t have the same armor and unstoppable power as a Spartan, so you had to be more cautious. So right off the bat, I’m thinking, “So you want me to die?” Going in like I’m a walking tank and beating people to death with my health bar is my go to move.

I generally go in hoping that I manage to kill everything else before my hit points run out. Not the best strategy for a first person shooter. . . or you know, anything, but

So Halo 3:ODST just sat on my shelf not getting played. It was always on my to do list, but Halo Wars had to come first.

There were so many options, but this was the best.

So when Covid-19 attacked, and I finished Halo 3, I of course had to start Halo Wars next, right? Well, check the title. I had the Master Chief Collection which came with ODST and Reach, but not Halo Wars. I found out that Halo Wars 2 Ultimate Edition came with Halo Wars Definitive Edition, so I ordered that and decided in the mean time to play Halo: ODST, which was free with the Master Chief collection. So to keep the momentum going, I loaded up Halo ODST.

And it immediately took me to the Xbox Live Store to buy it.

I decided to avoid all the gifs that said F***, despite feeling it strongly.

So, when I first bought the Master Chief Collection, I knew it was just Halo 1-4. But when I started hearing about the PC releases of Master Chief Collection including Reach and ODST. So when I eventually found my missing MCC disc and loaded up, I saw Reach and ODST both listed. So I assumed that they were now included in for everybody who bought the game.

Nope, ODST was gifted to players who bought the game when it first came out and was buggy as all hell. Now it is $5. $5 for a game I already bought on the 360 and was shrink wrapped on my shelf?

But. . . I would have to get up, find the game, unwrap it, open the box, eject the Master Chief Collection, load in Halo 3: ODST, wait for it to load, deal with the stupid 360 Emulator, and then do it all over again for Reach. Also, it’s just $5 and I got my stimulus check.

Yeah, it was just simpler. So I loaded it up and HOLY F***BERRIES! IS THAT NATHAN FILLION?!?

The only way to respond to this gif. . .

Yeah, I had become aware that Nathan Fillion appeared in Halo 5, but what I didn’t realize was that he was in Halo 3: ODST. I probably would have played that game a lot sooner had I known. Or at least maybe watched some cut scenes.

I had my own idea of what Halo 3: ODST was supposed to be. I imagined you were an ODST who was participating in missions that ran parallel to what Master Chief was doing. While Master Chief was fighting the big fight, you were playing the smaller missions. I imagined that you were going to see some of the events from Halo 3, but you had your own job.

And to a minor degree that is true. You have your own mission, but it doesn’t really have ANYTHING to do with Halo 3. The ODST drop at the beginning of Halo 2 and then the final scene occurs just before Halo 3.

Honestly it is kind of confusing, because as far as I know, the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3 seem like they could be one really long bad day for Master Chief. However, because Halo doesn’t delve into the realism of Master Chief eating, sleeping, and using the necessary, one should assume that whenever he isn’t immediately going from one threat to another, a sleep or two has passed.

At least we know this to be true in Halo 3: ODST. We begin the game as the unnamed Rookie who is sleeping, drops down in his pod, and then falls asleep again.

I think I figured out the Rookie’s name. . .

From here, a rather interesting game format occurs. You end up wandering around the abandoned city of New Mombasa at night trying to figure out what happened to the rest of your team. Somehow by looking at an empty can of biofoam, you can figure out that your team stole a Phantom and bailed out of the city. Are we sure that the Rookie didn’t die and was brought back by a big black bird?

Every time he finds a clue, we cut to another team member and get to play as them for a mission. It’s a neat form of storytelling and gives us a way to prevent the Rookie from having any lines because he has no one to talk to. Win win.

I really don’t know why this was called Halo 3: ODST. It has almost nothing to do with Halo 3. It would have been fine as Halo ODST. And apparently I am the only one asking this question because google is giving me no answers.

Then again, a late night search while typing the article probably doesn’t count as research. Unless you’re [insert political new source of your choice]

My only drawback is the weird love story at the end and the engineers. It was weird having this new creature that we haven’t seen for three games suddenly make an appearance. Apparently they were in the books though, so what the hell.

Anywho, Halo 3: ODST. I recommend it, nice little side story that has nothing to do with Halo 3, but has Nathan Fillion, so 10/10!