The lights are on
Halo fans are well aware of the confusion around what ODST actually was in the minds of Bungie. It was initially announced as an expansion pack of sorts, making gamers expect a discounted price. Later in development, Bungie decided it featured enough new content to warrant a full-priced release, predictably angering the internet. Writer and Creative Director Joseph Staten has heard the complaints and backlash to the decision, and he's admitted to mistakes in a recent interview.
“We got criticized, fairly, for doing a poor job communicating what ODST was, an expansion pack or a full-fledged, AAA release,” he said. “It definitely turned out to be the latter. But, unfortunately, we didn’t know how much great work we were going to pull-off when we first announced the game. It’s impossible to know, but my gut says that if we’d never said the words ‘expansion pack’ we would have seen an appreciable increase in the review scores. Alas, hindsight is 20/20. But foresight is pretty hard too."
Design Lead Lars Bakken echoed that sentiment: "I'm no PR expert, but it's pretty obvious the game had a series of stumbles - from the naming, to the initial E3 2008 countdown reveal failure, and finally pricing. It would definitely be nice to have a do-over for the game introduction."
Now that you've had a chance to play it for a couple months, what do you think? Does ODST warrant a $60 price tag, or is it just an overpriced expansion pack?
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It was defnitely wworth $60 for me. I never bought any of the map expansions, so I saved money on this.
It was defnitely worth $60 for me. I never bought any of the map expansions, so I saved money on this.
Not to me. Still a great game, but I quit after I got all the achievements. Firefight isn't enough to warrant a full-fledged pricetag.
it was only worth it if you didn't buy the map packs. personally myself i feel a bit cheated in that the single player mode was so short, i would have enjoyed the game much more if they added like 20 more hours of gameplay to the single player mode, and gave it more online features
All in all, I was disappointed. Halo 3 set a very high bar for the series in terms of it's epic storytelling that this title did not acheive with its short campaign. Also ODST really showed the franchises age when it was released the same year as Modern Warfare 2, Borderlands and Assassin's Creed II. I am glad I had the opportunity to play it but I could have rented this game.
I love playin ODST but I agree with what Mr. Staten says about the mistake of calling it an expansion pack at the beggining. If it was never mentioned, noone would be complaining about the price although cheaper games would be nice. I can dream, its the holidays!
If you bought all the previous expansion packs, it wasn't worth paying 60 dollars. At all.
It was an overpriced expansion.
The few maps and achievements were not worth the 60 dollars.
its noting more than a wow patch to me.
The game has enough content to warrent $60, but I personaly believe the quality isn't high enough to warrent a purchase if you already have the original Halo 3 with multiplayer maps.
Like other have noted, it was definitely a good buy if you hadn't bought the maps yet. However, I -had- already bought the maps, and I personally found the campaign rather short and Firefight to not be nearly as long-lived or enjoyable as I'd hoped. I believe that if Firefight had supported matchmaking, this may have been different. Also, perhaps it would've been nice if multiple purchase packages had been offered, e.g. ODST alone, ODST + new maps only, ODST + MP disc + all maps, etc, priced at say $35, $45, and $60, respectively. You would technically save something like $5 if you hadn't bought any of the map packs, pay an expected amount if you had, and gotten a decent experience if you simply didn't care for Halo 3 maps.
i'm not totally sure it was worth the 60. don't get me wrong, i loved the game. but the price was just almost to much for me.
Its a great game, but worth $50 bucks, not 60. The campaign, while fun to play online, was very short, there weren't many new weapons. There was sort of one new enemy, but all in all, the gameplay was in a different vein of Halo, and was refreshing and fun. All in all, Firefight was what made this a buy for me.
Nope. And I don't even have the game! But from what I've heard, the game doesn't have much content to it, so I guess that justifies my answer. But until I actually play it, my comment is pretty useless.
Ha. Most reviewers gave this low 9s. If Bungie thinks that their short little game deserves something like a 9.5, than they're wrong in the head. You played the entire freaking game in one city!
I'd say it was worth $40, but no more than that
It shouldve been 40. I already had halo 3 with most of the maps just like the rest of the halo fans so i dont think it really justifies a $60 price. Firefight is good, but not good enough. You cant even do matchmaking with it.
Yeah I didnt realize what it was till the day before lol
It was worth $80
I think ODST was worth $60. The map packs alone add up to a value of $30 if you buy them separately (though you can't buy heretic, citadel or longshore), meaning that the campaign and firefight only cost you $30. I loved the campaign, so my biggest complaint with the game was no matchmaking for firefight, since I haven't used anything but the Multiplayer disk since the first 2 weeks I had the game.