Halo 3: ODST Forum
This topic has moved here: Subject: 10 years from now, remake ODST.
  • Subject: 10 years from now, remake ODST.
Subject: 10 years from now, remake ODST.

blarg, bow chicka wow wow, boomshakalaka,

Halo 3: ODST brought many ideas to the halo table:
stealth
a squad
not being a super-human
free roam


and tried to bring others:
destroyed city, unique and open ended.
night time and rain.


unfortunately a lot of the ideas presented in the trailer didn't happen (rain swept city, avoiding enormous patrols of brutes) due to game engine requirements, or short production time, and many of the ideas that were in the game fell flat. most of my problems are with the portions of the game that happened at night.

1. the city was all-right. I was expecting to be able to go into more buildings, go on the rooftops, and see less copy and pasted sections. this was one of my biggest problems, the city could've been truly unforgettable instead of just good.

2. stealth didn't happen as far as i am concerned. the silenced weapons were cool, but they never did any thing, because the brutes would still be in hearing range, see it, or see you. this can come down to two problems. the dark wasn't dark enough: the dark would normally allow you to sneak around, but it was not emphasised in-game. this might also being due to the VISR not being a great night vision. the other problem is that there is no need to. despite the title of the game, I am still as invincible as ever, so why would I bother sneak around when i can run head on and dominate. I think that these two problems came down to lack of production time.

3. the whole gritty-at-night-pouring-with-rain didn't happen either. there was no visible rain at all. rain would've added atmosphere and provided ambient noise to assist the stealth weaponry. and the game was to light. wasn't dark enough. this is partly due to the orange skybox.


TL:DR what the game delivered was several concepts, most of which were underdeveloped. this is such a shame, because those concepts were fantastic. in ten years i want to see the game remade, with a full 3 year production cycle going, and a full team behind it. its probably not going to happen, but wouldn't it be nice?

[Edited on 12.22.2010 8:08 AM PST]

  • 12.22.2010 8:06 AM PDT

Yes I think a Remake would be Perfect. Maybe even matchmaking! Think about it! That would be an extremely tactical game!

  • 12.22.2010 8:27 AM PDT

"Fear the wrath of the dead! Or as I like to call it the living impared."

While your points make for a very interesting conversation, many of the concepts that were brought to the table in ODST were polished and added to Reach.

The prime example of one such feature is the VISR. Another feature in ODST that transition to Reach was Firefight. While playing ODST you could not go online and do Matchmaking firefight, Reach enabled that to happen.

In a way, ODST was pre-build of the Reach in small scale sense. ODST was never meant to be a full head on title. Initially it was supposed to be available only via X-Box Live.

But, as it did developed, it turned in to a very short run project.

I do agree with you on one point, and that is it would have been nice to have an Open World environment with many buildings to go into. I suppose that is the price you pay when you have fans demanding something from Bungie.

  • 12.22.2010 8:28 AM PDT

"I only speak two languages: English and Bad English,"
-Bruce Willis, The Fifth Element

I escaped into the waves. The waves...
I went Underground!


Posted by: Deadmeat_2006
I do agree with you on one point, and that is it would have been nice to have an Open World environment with many buildings to go into. I suppose that is the price you pay when you have fans demanding something from Bungie.

The thing I don't understand is, we see freeways and massive city block containing what looks to be roof-exploartion all ready to go in 3D Max (or whatever program they used to create the maps) in this vidoc but we're still confined to street comabt in the actual game.

  • 12.22.2010 8:52 AM PDT

Major C.B.

OP, don't forget that this is Halo 3: ODST, and not Halo ODST. That is, it was created on the Halo 3 engine. Many of the elements you describe - stealth, truly silenced weapons, etc - were simply not a part of the Halo 3 engine. That is, to truly flesh out these features, and to make ODST a project where you're truly vulnerable and relying on stealth, they would have had to massively update the engine. You're proposing a change to the very way the game is played. You're blaming the right things for the lack of your features: Short production time, engine limits, etc. However, you're forgetting to blame the main thing: The project's scope. They didn't mean to create an entirely new game that plays differently. They meant to take their current engine and create a new space in it. This is exactly what they did.

Also, think about segments such as Uplift Reserve. How would they do these missions if they rewired the engine to rely on stealth and make you truly vulnerable? The answer is they simply wouldn't be able to. And so I disagree with you, OP: This project did exactly what they meant it to do, and it was a one-off for a reason.

  • 12.22.2010 11:26 AM PDT

Dranova Darklight

Posted by: Deadmeat_2006
While your points make for a very interesting conversation, many of the concepts that were brought to the table in ODST were polished and added to Reach.

The prime example of one such feature is the VISR. Another feature in ODST that transition to Reach was Firefight. While playing ODST you could not go online and do Matchmaking firefight, Reach enabled that to happen.

In a way, ODST was pre-build of the Reach in small scale sense. ODST was never meant to be a full head on title. Initially it was supposed to be available only via X-Box Live.

But, as it did developed, it turned in to a very short run project.

I do agree with you on one point, and that is it would have been nice to have an Open World environment with many buildings to go into. I suppose that is the price you pay when you have fans demanding something from Bungie.


If your talking about the night vision in reach it was in halo CE with the sniper rifle. in ODST there were a few points in which you apparently have super human str(ripping turrets off and the grav. hammer)

[Edited on 12.23.2010 12:21 AM PST]

  • 12.23.2010 12:17 AM PDT

Major C.B.

Posted by: SilentDarklight
Posted by: Deadmeat_2006
While your points make for a very interesting conversation, many of the concepts that were brought to the table in ODST were polished and added to Reach.

The prime example of one such feature is the VISR. Another feature in ODST that transition to Reach was Firefight. While playing ODST you could not go online and do Matchmaking firefight, Reach enabled that to happen.

In a way, ODST was pre-build of the Reach in small scale sense. ODST was never meant to be a full head on title. Initially it was supposed to be available only via X-Box Live.

But, as it did developed, it turned in to a very short run project.

I do agree with you on one point, and that is it would have been nice to have an Open World environment with many buildings to go into. I suppose that is the price you pay when you have fans demanding something from Bungie.


If your talking about the night vision in reach it was in halo CE with the sniper rifle. in ODST there were a few points in which you apparently have super human str(ripping turrets off and the grav. hammer)


Again, because of the engine. I would imagine programming in Halo 2-like turrets would be a bit more difficult than, say, eliminating duel-wielding. I could be wrong. But anyways, who doesn't like walking around with a huge gun?! It added to gameplay for me. Saved my ass in Firefight so many times, too....

  • 12.23.2010 12:39 AM PDT

blarg, bow chicka wow wow, boomshakalaka,

Posted by: Deadmeat_2006
While your points make for a very interesting conversation, many of the concepts that were brought to the table in ODST were polished and added to Reach.

The prime example of one such feature is the VISR. Another feature in ODST that transition to Reach was Firefight. While playing ODST you could not go online and do Matchmaking firefight, Reach enabled that to happen.

In a way, ODST was pre-build of the Reach in small scale sense. ODST was never meant to be a full head on title. Initially it was supposed to be available only via X-Box Live.

But, as it did developed, it turned in to a very short run project.

I do agree with you on one point, and that is it would have been nice to have an Open World environment with many buildings to go into. I suppose that is the price you pay when you have fans demanding something from Bungie.


Im not saying ODST was a failure, what im saying is ODST brought some interesting concepts, and i want them to be fleshed out mare than they were. if this is given more development time, and a bigger team working on it, it could and would be amazing. im not complaining, but hoping, and suggesting.

ps, although the VISR was great, it was a "low-light vision mode" instead of night vision. i would prefer a mix of the two. the outlining combined with proper night vision.

[Edited on 12.23.2010 4:30 AM PST]

  • 12.23.2010 4:27 AM PDT