Afterwords: Halo 3: ODST

by Bryan Vore on January 14, 2010 at 10:00 AM

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As part of our extensive Halo: Reach coverage, we decided to take a look back at Bungie’s most recent release, Halo 3: ODST. Find out Bungie’s thoughts on final pricing, audio logs, Firefight matchmaking, and the possibility of DLC, straight from ODST creative director Joseph Staten.

When ODST was first announced, Bungie said it wouldn’t be a full $60 title. At what point did you eventually decide ODST would be full price? Did you expect it to be a tough battle since consumers already thought of the game in a certain way?

Well, to be clear, we didn’t decide anything related to the price; those decisions are made outside of Bungie. But the truth is that ODST started out as an expansion pack, and over time evolved into a full-featured beast that we could all stand behind at a $60 price point. It was a frustrating situation to be in, absolutely. It would be great to always know where you’re going to end up – to be able to tell your fans exactly what to expect from the get-go. But that’s really hard to do in general, and it was even harder to do with ODST. The team was much smaller but the tech was much more stable than we were used to – there were just a lot of factors that made ODST’s development more difficult to predict than previous Halo games. It’s tough as a company who takes such pains to be upfront and honest with its fans to see that honesty backfire. But we’d rather have that problem than the opposite.

ODSTs are not as powerful as Spartans in Halo lore, which results in the use of health packs and lack of duel wielding. What do you say to players who thought having a “weaker” character detracted from the fun? How does Bungie weigh the importance of canon versus gameplay?

I’d tell them they’re not using the new pistol enough! All kidding aside, we tried to strike a balance between vulnerability and special forces badass-ness. Aside from the health model, we found that weapon load-out was a great thing to tweak; the new sound-suppressed pistol and SMG were perfect for ODSTs but maybe a little too stealthy for Spartans. Sure, we also allowed our ODSTs to flip overturned Warthogs and rip off mounted turrets. But, in the end, the game has to be fun above all else. And sometimes that means bending the fiction a little.

Some players really enjoyed the story told in the audio logs – possibly more than the main plot – but were frustrated at tracking down all the files. Was there any consideration during development that this story would be more directly integrated into the main plot?

We figured it would take about a week for a movie of all the audio logs to appear on YouTube (and we were right) for folks who didn’t want to scour the city. But for folks who did, we wanted to make it a decent challenge. Some audio logs were definitely harder to find than others, and early on we considered adding all their locations to the map as we unlocked them. But we found through playtesting that people thought this wasn’t fun because it was too easy. So, again, we did our best to land somewhere in the middle, and we’re really happy players enjoyed Sadie’s story.

Comments

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by YAHWHO Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 10:19 AM

although i thought the game was too short i really enjoyed my time in the game.frankly most games are getting shorter it seems.
by James Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 10:31 AM

I thought the campaign was on par with a Halo game, but the lack of Matchmaking in ODST really brought the replay value down for me. I have a non-existent friends list as no one that I know has a 360, never mind a Live account.
by Inkblott Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 11:07 AM

OVerall I love this game it was great and had a good story to it.
by rocketsfan77 Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 11:17 AM

Although ODST was fun, between it and Halo 3 that "WOW" factor I had with the first two on Xbox has been lost. I truly hope that Reach brings it back, because if it doesn't, I think I'll be done with the Halo series. And that's a sad thing to say, as I logged waaaaay too many hours on Halo and (especially) Halo 2.
by massvideogamer Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 11:18 AM

eh fire fight is fun at least
by Blade Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 11:47 AM

I really wish they had given us some DLC with firefight maps similar to Lost Platoon. That was the only one I really enjoyed going back to after getting all the achievements.
by Shadowz O Death Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 11:54 AM

For those of you that don't know, Halo 3: ODST was NOT a full game; it was an EXPANSION PACK to Halo 3 (hence the "3" in "Halo 3: ODST"). It used the SAME GAME ENGINE as Halo 3. Halo: Reach is a FULL game with a BRAND NEW game engine built from the bottom up. Halo 3: ODST was only in development for one year by a VERY small team at Bungie, while the rest of Bungie has been working on Halo: Reach since Halo 3 was released back in 2007.
by John Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 11:59 AM

This game was boring and severely overpriced. Firefight was fun for a couple hours, but became stale quickly. Should have been a $30-$40 game at best. I will never buy another Halo title until it hits the bargain shelf and someone other than its fanboys working at Gamestop says it is a good title.
by smdl2 Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 12:04 PM

Awesome! I've found like half of the audiologs.
by Odizzle Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 12:07 PM

I enjoyed ODST's campaign more than I thougt. The dark and gritty mood of this game is what I liked most. It definitely stood out from the past entries, in a good way.
by Sampson Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 12:16 PM

Great game there, the music in the game was the best yet in Halo
by John Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 12:29 PM

cant wait for Halo:Reach!
by rac2946 Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 12:34 PM

I really did enjoy the campaign of this game even though it was rather short for a Halo game. The only thing that I did not like about this one was how weak the Silenced SMG is. It took like a whole clip of ammo to kill some covenant soldiers.
by Chris Meadows Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 01:15 PM

Liked the campaign. Disliked the fact that Firefight mode didn't support matchmaking. That came as a surprise to me as I didn't find it out until I had already purchased it. Only one friend on my list played ODST regularly and we only played one game of Firefight. It is better suited to 4 people. Maybe I need more friends on my list...
by Triller Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 01:17 PM

@ Shadowz O Death - "...the truth is that ODST started out as an expansion pack, and over time evolved into a full-featured beast that we could all stand behind at a $60 price point." Thats the first thing said by Joseph Staten in this interview. Looks to me to be pretty clear that ODST is not an expansion, it just started as one.

Anyways, I love ODST as much as my other Halo games. I have slowly worked my way back to playing Halo 3 Multiplayer instead of firefight but only because of a lack of people to play with. I want to play more but with only one person it isn't near as awesome.
by chachewie Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 01:40 PM

halo sucks you guys paid 65 bucks for nothing... i got dark sector for sale for $100 who wants it
by gamergirl89 Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 01:59 PM

This should have been a $40
by Shadowz O Death Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 02:19 PM

@ Cougan "Triller" Waddel - $60 or not, I still consider it an expansion pack, because it uses the same game engine as Halo 3. It is basically an "expansion" to the Halo 3 game engine. Halo: Reach is a FULL game and will have a BRAND NEW game engine built from the bottom up. I can't wait until Halo: Reach! =D
by The stupid ass cat in the hat Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 02:26 PM

I still havn't found all audio logs:( better get down to it! I have like 3 more to go. It's a shame that you have to invite people to play firefight.
by The stupid ass cat in the hat Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 02:28 PM

God I remember when ODST came out, I was like OMFG!!! It felt like you was on the streets in Mombassa, you actually felt scared when a brute patrol came out of the shadows. And the music, Marty freaking gj with the soundtrack, you're a genius! :D

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Afterwords: Halo 3: ODST

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