Re: Halo 3: ODST
CVG Hands-on
CVG Hands-on
"One of the things (Writer) Joe Staten talked about early on with ODST was thinking about it as a mystery," says Curtis. "You see a lot of crime dramas where detectives have this crazy ability to travel to the scene of the crime and sort of 'imagine' how the crime took place. The Rookie has that ability, so when he finds one of these clue objects you get to 'recreate' what happened to that character."
The ten flashbacks each tell a story from earlier that same day
The ten flashbacks each tell a story from earlier that same day
"We wanted to make the experience of playing as an ODST feel different," says Curtis, "so you're definitely weaker and more vulnerable, but that means you have to change up the tactics you're used to using." Spartans are walking tanks but ODSTs have only a miniscule regenerating shield that will soak up three Carbine hits before the damage begins cutting into non-regenerating health. They're smaller, slower, and don't see nearly so well in the dark, but Bungie are throwing as many Hunters, Brutes, and Grunts at ODSTs as they'd normally throw at the Master Chief. "Why wouldn't we?" asks Curtis. "It's very easy as the Master Chief to run right into the middle of a big encounter but in ODST it's more tactical and you really have to plan your attacks; whether to engage enemies or to take a different path altogether."
ODST draws from the best of Halo and, at night, the best of the Tom Clancy games. You'll empty your SMG and pistol quickly enough to need to move onto the Covenant weapons, but even with Plasma Rifles and Spikers blazing in the night it's a cross between Halo and Ghost Recon.
ODST draws from the best of Halo and, at night, the best of the Tom Clancy games. You'll empty your SMG and pistol quickly enough to need to move onto the Covenant weapons, but even with Plasma Rifles and Spikers blazing in the night it's a cross between Halo and Ghost Recon.
The world in which you'll spend most of the story is almost pitch-black. A light rain leaves the city shrouded by fine mist, and streets are illuminated only by roadsigns and the barely functioning streetlamps. It's a city where you're forever low on ammunition and have to scavenge for every last clip and grenade, but a city you can navigate in shadow, staying stealthy and using the darkness against the Covenant.
"We tried really hard to think about what defines film noir. I think Marty (O'Donnell, Halo's Audio Director) did a fantastic job with completely new music which really nails that rainy, night-time, lonely vibe," says Curtis of the first Halo soundtrack to feature sleazy sax in place of chanting monks. "Marty's music has always played a huge part in the experience of a Halo game but I feel especially lucky to be the Lead Producer on this one because he really knocked it out of the park this time, with a completely different style of music. It was a ton of work on a really short timeline."
"We asked how we'd light scenes and areas and how we'd build the environments. We wanted to create something different to the dramatic action sequences with the Master Chief charging in like a superhero. We wanted something set more at night, with a very different mood."
It takes The Rookie's enhanced reality VISR system to draw everything into sharper contrast and make enemies more clearly visible in the murky city. The most conspicuously Clancy-esque gadget in ODST, the VISR, incorporates a Head-Up compass, map, waypoint system, and enhanced reality nightvision mode which accents friendlies in green, useful items in yellow, and enemies in bold red.
Alone in the city you'll face major set-pieces near every piece of evidence and dozens more Grunt and Brute patrols throughout the massive open world. "Typically, in a Halo game we know where you're coming from so we can set up an encounter and designate good fallback points for the AI, but in ODST we had to make sure we had groups of Covenant patrolling the city who could react from wherever you attack from and look intelligent doing it." Just as the game's engine was modified to cope with an open world, so the AI was modified to handle a trooper who can attack from any side and by any means. It looks and feels like Halo, but it's Halo with a brain - less Star Wars and more Blade Runner; less X-Men and more Dark Knight.
When the game is over, it's really only just beginning; on your second run every door is unlocked and the entire city is wide open. Each flashback can be selected and played in isolation, or tackled as part of the open world in any order you please. The city becomes a true sandbox with secret terminals to find and extra missions to tackle, and even some Mongooses to ride and new characters to unlock for the ten Firefight maps.
"We tried really hard to think about what defines film noir. I think Marty (O'Donnell, Halo's Audio Director) did a fantastic job with completely new music which really nails that rainy, night-time, lonely vibe," says Curtis of the first Halo soundtrack to feature sleazy sax in place of chanting monks. "Marty's music has always played a huge part in the experience of a Halo game but I feel especially lucky to be the Lead Producer on this one because he really knocked it out of the park this time, with a completely different style of music. It was a ton of work on a really short timeline."
"We asked how we'd light scenes and areas and how we'd build the environments. We wanted to create something different to the dramatic action sequences with the Master Chief charging in like a superhero. We wanted something set more at night, with a very different mood."
It takes The Rookie's enhanced reality VISR system to draw everything into sharper contrast and make enemies more clearly visible in the murky city. The most conspicuously Clancy-esque gadget in ODST, the VISR, incorporates a Head-Up compass, map, waypoint system, and enhanced reality nightvision mode which accents friendlies in green, useful items in yellow, and enemies in bold red.
Alone in the city you'll face major set-pieces near every piece of evidence and dozens more Grunt and Brute patrols throughout the massive open world. "Typically, in a Halo game we know where you're coming from so we can set up an encounter and designate good fallback points for the AI, but in ODST we had to make sure we had groups of Covenant patrolling the city who could react from wherever you attack from and look intelligent doing it." Just as the game's engine was modified to cope with an open world, so the AI was modified to handle a trooper who can attack from any side and by any means. It looks and feels like Halo, but it's Halo with a brain - less Star Wars and more Blade Runner; less X-Men and more Dark Knight.
When the game is over, it's really only just beginning; on your second run every door is unlocked and the entire city is wide open. Each flashback can be selected and played in isolation, or tackled as part of the open world in any order you please. The city becomes a true sandbox with secret terminals to find and extra missions to tackle, and even some Mongooses to ride and new characters to unlock for the ten Firefight maps.
It's from the first ODST disc you'll access both Firefight and ODST's final bonus - Halo: Reach's beta test, available early in 2010. Bungie will keep dishing up playlist updates for at least another year, but the future of Halo multiplayer is in Reach, and the future of Bungie looks set with Xbox.
"We've been big fans of the Xbox and the 360; it's something we're super comfortable working on and the support we get for working on it is top notch. I think we're always able to come up with ways to get more out of it. We're certainly interested in the things we could do with Project Natal; it's such a fantastic new interface. Reach is definitely some way into production so it's difficult to say how much we could or couldn't try to include that into the experience."
Halo 3: ODST really is everything Bungie initially claimed that it wouldn't be. It's part Halo, part Far Cry 2, part Ghost Recon; over twice the size of the game they initially announced at TGS 2009, and stealthy right up to the point you actually pull the trigger. Bungie's Halo expansion has become the most ambitious and creative Halo title since Combat Evolved - always unique and original in the big city, always intense and exciting in the flashbacks, and always the very best of two very different worlds.
"We've been big fans of the Xbox and the 360; it's something we're super comfortable working on and the support we get for working on it is top notch. I think we're always able to come up with ways to get more out of it. We're certainly interested in the things we could do with Project Natal; it's such a fantastic new interface. Reach is definitely some way into production so it's difficult to say how much we could or couldn't try to include that into the experience."
Halo 3: ODST really is everything Bungie initially claimed that it wouldn't be. It's part Halo, part Far Cry 2, part Ghost Recon; over twice the size of the game they initially announced at TGS 2009, and stealthy right up to the point you actually pull the trigger. Bungie's Halo expansion has become the most ambitious and creative Halo title since Combat Evolved - always unique and original in the big city, always intense and exciting in the flashbacks, and always the very best of two very different worlds.
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