ODST is a better game than Halo 3

[Soviet Heavy]

I know that ODST fans might be a little on the short hand compared to the fans of the main series, but I feel that Halo 3 ODST was a much better package than Halo 3.

Understandably, some people were disappointed with ODST for basically being the same game, but on a content level, I think it was much better.

First off, it comes with the full multiplayer component of Halo 3. That alone would have been enough to buy it for. But it also included Firefight, an ODST exclusive at the time as well.

The second thing was the campaign, which I felt was miles better than Halo 3's. I dunno, it just felt different, and the story was much better told and more engaging. The characters felt more fleshed out and vulnerable than the Chief, and it was way more personal.

The music itself was probably the best in the series outside of Halo 2. The dark, haunting melody of Rain still stands as one of my favorite piano pieces ever.

All in all, it just felt like a better overall package than Halo 3. If it had come out on its own, instead of living in the shadow of its older brethren, I feel this game would have been much more impactful than it was.

 

[FoAmY99]

I can see where you're coming from. Yes the characterization was slightly better than 3. The music was a step away from the usual bombastic soundtrack we're used to in a Halo game. I think were both great games. Firefight is levels above Gears of War's Horde mode (mainly due to Halo having far better enemy AI)

As much as my inner Halo fanboy screams blasphemy for saying anything bad about any Halo game, ODST just wasn't up to par with 3. I won't say its the black sheep of the franchise, (I think Halo Wars fits that better) They could have gone so much farther with ODST. They could have made a version of Firefight that had you dropping in from above at the start of a round and when you respawned (like Section 8). They could have made the story longer, and make sense at the end (the legendary ending I mean) And they could have at least given the Rookie a voice. Completely silent protaganists might as well be a trademark/copyright of Valve.

 

[audiblemirage]

For the most part, I would have to agree with you. For some reason I liked the setting and pacing quite a bit better, and as you mentioned, it came with the multiplayer plus bonus firefight. The story seemed slightly better, but of course that's not saying much and it's definitely not the reason most people (including myself) play the games. I am a professed fanboy of the Firefly series, so when I saw that one of the characters was modeled after and voiced by Nathan Fillion I basically cried with joy. The only thing I can't agree with you on is the music, way to "jazzy" for my taste. I'm a metal guy, maybe that's why I'm more drawn to the classical, orchestrated style of the original music.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

idk what it is, but it just didn't line up with me right, personally when i think of halo i loved the aspect of being that super human juggernaut who's guns seemed limitless and could take on any opponent with style and finesse. that was complete opposite in odst, and i absolutely hated the parts of walking through the city, that nearly made me quit the campaign the first and only time i played it (i seriously loathe those parts with a passion),

i did like the characters, those were fun
firefight was awesome
having the whole multiplayer on the 2nd disk was also a big plus

idk, i just didn't get the right vibe at all playing the campaign, like i said, the characters were good, but i just hated the walking through the city parts and i hated how different it was from the older games on those parts.

in halo games, odst does rank the lowest (besides halo wars)

 

[Tupolev]

In some ways, the story is much more effective. Actually, you could argue [http://forwarduntodawn.com/nine-levels-underground/] that the storytelling in ODST is kind of brilliant at some level. Though I still think Bungie should have made the audio logs a tad more straightforward to grab; the main plot seems kind of simplistic and blank without them.
The problem I have with ODST's campaign is that the combat is kind of lackluster; it's got neither the dynamic flow of Halo CE nor the classic vulnerability that it claims to use. And at some level the combat thus winds up being not only weak (by Halo standards, anyway), but dissonant with the storytelling.

As for how it compares with H3, I dunno. H3 is a rollercoastering mess as far as the storytelling goes, with its main saving graces being some well-built setpieces, a bunch of nostalgia yanking, and some admitedly very well-written terminals.
I think I like Halo 3's combat more; as much as the brute AI sucks in Halo 3, the overall combat engineering is much better.

Still, my favorite Halo remains Combat Evolved. Halo 2 represented a massive stylistic and mechanical change for the series, and Bungie stuck with it. I never felt that they got that style to function completely right; tweaks in places screwed other things up, whereas the first title is pretty much completely internally resonant.

 

[Hader]

Halo CE is still better.

/thread

 

[Stoink]

im a massive halo fan
that said i thought halo 3 was rubbish
the only good ones were 1 and 2
and i guess reach if only for multiplayer

 

[Bobbity]

It doesn't matter, because Halo 1 is still the best
If you're talking about the game with the most features and whatnot, then Reach is out (and has been for a while now), and it's also better than ODST.

 

[Hader]

It doesn't matter, because Halo 1 is still the best

Good man

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

My rebuttal.

The story had almost nothing to do with anything in the Haloverse.

The characters were either stupid or annoying.

The writing and voice acting was like a bad TV sitcom.

The music, while kinda interesting, just sounded like Jazz to me.

Not only was it a rip off to have to pay $60 for five hours of game-play, but they didn't even add anything to the game. The only real additions were silencers and scopes to two weapons. (Not to mention that the silencers did precisely dick.)

Now, is it a horrible game?

No. Not by any means, but it doesn't even come close to comparing to Halo 3.

/Halo fanboy rage end.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Until Reach came along, ODST was my favorite game in the series (though some of that might be attributed to playing Halo CE so long that I got a little tired of it). I felt the campaign was much better than Halo 3. Placing the character in the shoes of a lone ODST separated from his squad gave it a palpable feeling of vulnerability and loneliness. Piecing together the events of your fellow squadmates through "flashback" missions was a clever approach to tying together the storyline.

The fact that the entire game took place on Earth was terrific for me. I had been wanting such a campaign ever since Bungie released their extremely misleading early trailers for Halo 2 (I'm still a tad bitter about that). I also was extremely grateful the gimmicky dual-wielding feature was removed and the pistol returned to its former glory. Last but not least, there was ABSOLUTELY NO FLOOD.

The game's definitely not perfect though. First off, your character feels too powerful on the lower difficulties. I realize ODSTs are supposed to be much better than your typical Marine, but being able to defeat a Brute in a slugging match just feels wrong. You might as well have made them Spartans if they can pull stunts like that. I always play on at least Heroic difficulty because of this. I also hated Buck and Dare's "romance" (and I use that term loosely here). One minute they'd be at each others' throats, and literally seconds later they'd start lip-mashing for no apparent reason. I think they wanted it to come across as charming in a "Han and Leia" sort of way, but it just seemed schizophrenic and dysfunctional to me. Finally, it would have been nice if Firefight mode had matchmaking support and an option to tweak skull order, but fortunately Reach handily addressed these issues.

 

[Vrex360]

I agree that I loved the campaign and quiet moody atmosphere of ODST and the voice acting was fun if a bit silly at points and the music was fantastic and it was GREAT to finally see the Covenant Engineers. And I had a lot of fun with the Visor and playing firefight.

But then again, Halo 3 has Elites and the Arbiter. ODST does not. I know that might not seem like much of a complaint but never mind, I love myself some Elites so that makes Halo 3 the better game.
Oh and plus, Halo 3 while short felt epic. Like a grand if shortened conclusion to the series.

But by far, my favorite has to be Halo 2. It balanced good campaign and story telling with decent multiplayer, rather than one eclipsing the other as seemed to be the result of Halo 3 through to Reach.

 

[clutch-monkey]

did anyone else really miss the battle rifle in ODST? i thought it was a shame to not include it, except to tease us with it briefly in that cut scene with the downed pelican

edit: also they needed to remove the simplistic melee one hit kill - needed an assasination animation like reach. i mean look:

[http://img190.imageshack.us/i/95538584full.jpg/]

puny human! not seven foot bionic tank.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

1) The multiplayer component is part of Halo 3, not ODST. To count it as a point for the other just because they're in the same case is a bad call in my opinion.

2) Firefight was alright...for the first 3 wave, after that, it got extremely boring.

3) The Campaign wasn't anything to write home about it in my opinion. It was short, the characters outside of Buck weren't that interesting and the New Mombasa street level was just a jumbled pile of random enemy encounters.

 

[Crowser]

Halo: CE has the best single player
Reach has the best multiplayer
I also feel Reach is the best overall package, as it had the second best single player as well.