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Subject: The Realism of Halo 3: ODST

Ever since I played ODST, I've been having a hard time believing that ODST soldiers can take that much punishment in their armor, and make it out. It's a bit absurd to say that a team of about one or two simple troopers (the most you have at one time for the majority of the game, who are actually "fighting") could take down a whole battalion of Covenant.

Sometimes, I even get the feeling that ODST is a parody of the Halo series, but of how seriously the characters don't take the Covenant, or the situation (by cracking jokes constantly, and being so superficial).

Compare ODST to Reach, and you can see how differently the two game are in terms of atmosphere. But that doesn't make much sense, because this is humanity's final stand at Earth, and for the characters to be treating it so simply is kind of an insult, to me at least.

What do you think?

[Edited on 08.01.2011 5:08 PM PDT]

  • 08.01.2011 4:40 PM PDT
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ODST was one of the best Halo games. I don't know what you're talking about.

  • 08.01.2011 4:42 PM PDT

"I don't care if it's God's own anti-Son of a -blam!- Machine or a giant hula-hoop!"

Posted by: Liam Neeson
ODST was one of the best Halo games. I don't know what you're talking about.

It was in the top 5.

  • 08.01.2011 4:43 PM PDT

I love ODST, I actually replayed it today, but I agree, the childish way the characters act in the game has a huge negative effect on the game.

  • 08.01.2011 4:44 PM PDT

"On the seventh day, god did not rest, but rather he created 64 player multiplayer!"

The way I see it...it's a game, and it wouldn't be very fun if you died in one shot.

Even Call of Duty, a game that tries to be realistic in many ways, doesn't allow you to die in one hit.

  • 08.01.2011 4:44 PM PDT
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  • Fabled Legendary Member

I understand nothing because my life is a conspiracy.

Have you seen how much they can take in campaign as AI?

  • 08.01.2011 4:45 PM PDT

Welcome to bungie, you have no rights. play nice!
CLICK!

Canon wise, I think they took way more time and that they were more carefull taking a lot of cover and that there were less enemies.

  • 08.01.2011 4:46 PM PDT

By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.

ODST is one of the best Halo games, hands down.

One could argue that the jokes are simply a coping mechanism, it's what keeps the characters from slipping into some form of depression because they know they're losing the war pretty badly. Although, I highly disapprove of Mickey's use of "son of a gun!"...

As for the atmosphere, Reach had none. ODST had a fantastic atmosphere. The noir-esque feel at night whilst alone in an occupied city was simply stunning with Marty's phenominal soundtrack, the flashback missions were similarly well done. Then Sadie's Story managed to capture everything good about Halo into 1 small story about a young girl astray in the middle of an invading army presented in a style similar to Dante's Inferno.

ODST was nothing short of perfection, the game would be a lot less fun if you died in like 5 shots. Gameplay =/= canon.

  • 08.01.2011 4:54 PM PDT

ODST's have more personality than spartans, they have had more contact with people. It's reasonable for the ODST's to be less serious than Noble team, comparatively what happened on Reach was much worse than Earth. As far as punishment goes, ODST's are one step below spartans, and if I recall the most recent recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor had his arm blown off and kept fighting to save his squad. As far as I'm concerned that's a real person that took more punishment, and kept fighting through it, than any of the ODST's did in the game.

  • 08.01.2011 4:58 PM PDT
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  • Exalted Legendary Member

Tom.

How does Halo: Reach not have ANY atmosphere?

The OST for reach is compelling, the loss of each Spartan was created very well making you feel like you've actually lost somebody.

ODST was good, Reach was better in my opinion. More emotion in the latter.

  • 08.01.2011 5:02 PM PDT

By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.

Posted by: tomk456
How does Halo: Reach not have ANY atmosphere?

The OST for reach is compelling, the loss of each Spartan was created very well making you feel like you've actually lost somebody.

ODST was good, Reach was better in my opinion. More emotion in the latter.


There were only 3 points in Reach where there was any kind of atmosphere: Tip of the Spear's opening, the evac ship being shot down in Exodus and Kat's death. Everything else was utterly sterile, there was no sense of loss at all.

I never felt like I lost anyone in Reach, the characters were laughably awful archetypes we knew nothing about because the game lacked any kind of character development. The only character with potential was Jorge, oh but Bungie couldn't be bothered to keep the interesting one alive so they killed him first and had you finish the game with the arrogant prat Emile.

ODST was infinitely better, the sense of loss was much better conveyed because you started the game where the action picked up when Regret fled Earth. You were alone in a city with the maw of the enemy bearing down upon you, in Reach you're always with Army Troopers and at least 1 member of Noble Team and they're all laughable.

Reach's OST was very lackluster, very few tracks created any kind of mood. The exception is the choirs and the final mission where Six dies, otherwise the music was repetitive and didn't give a sense of anything. Marty didn't pull off the sublime job he did in ODST with Reach where you had the noir style saxaphones at night bathed in neon lighting and flashing lights.

ODST was a beautiful work of art, Reach was grains of dirt from start to finish.

  • 08.01.2011 5:11 PM PDT


Posted by: tomk456
How does Halo: Reach not have ANY atmosphere?

The OST for reach is compelling, the loss of each Spartan was created very well making you feel like you've actually lost somebody.

ODST was good, Reach was better in my opinion. More emotion in the latter.


By "atmosphere", I mean the tone of the situation. The situation in Reach was serious, and desperate, and the tone in ODST the complete opposite, which makes no sense within context of the story.

  • 08.01.2011 5:11 PM PDT


Posted by: BlueRuby2k10
Ever since I played ODST, I've been having a hard time believing that ODST soldiers can take that much punishment in their armor, and make it out. It's a bit absurd to say that a team of about one or two simple troopers (the most you have at one time for the majority of the game, who are actually "fighting") could take down a whole battalion of Covenant.

Sometimes, I even get the feeling that ODST is a parody of the Halo series, but of how seriously the characters don't take the Covenant, or the situation (by cracking jokes constantly, and being so superficial).

Compare ODST to Reach, and you can see how differently the two game are in terms of atmosphere. But that doesn't make much sense, because this is humanity's final stand at Earth, and for the characters to be treating it so simply is kind of an insult, to me at least.

What do you think?

It's a videogame, it's not a military simulation. That doesn't mean the feats are impossible, you can reskin ODSTs to a real life equivalent and Covenant to another and you'll see that impossible feats have been accomplished in our history in terms of combat.

It terms of jokes. You're species' entire existence in on the line. That -blam!- is heavy. You try not to crack under pressure. Go ahead and make jokes.

  • 08.01.2011 5:13 PM PDT


Posted by: BlueRuby2k10

Posted by: tomk456
How does Halo: Reach not have ANY atmosphere?

The OST for reach is compelling, the loss of each Spartan was created very well making you feel like you've actually lost somebody.

ODST was good, Reach was better in my opinion. More emotion in the latter.


By "atmosphere", I mean the tone of the situation. The situation in Reach was serious, and desperate, and the tone in ODST the complete opposite, which makes no sense within context of the story.

I'm not sure what you're talking about. ODST was plenty somber, solemn, and dark.

  • 08.01.2011 5:14 PM PDT

@accordingto343

Your one stop shop for all of 343's fabulous errors and ridiculous notions in the Halo lore.

Posted by: BlueRuby2k10
By "atmosphere", I mean the tone of the situation. The situation in Reach was serious, and desperate, and the tone in ODST the complete opposite, which makes no sense within context of the story.


Then you don't understand war.

  • 08.01.2011 5:15 PM PDT

ODSTs were always made out to be these ultimate hardasses. But then bungie made them out to be rather childish and silly.

Also, they made the ODSTs feel too uh...strong. I was hoping for more reliance on the squad and less on being able to take unnatural amounts of dmg.

[Edited on 08.01.2011 5:17 PM PDT]

  • 08.01.2011 5:17 PM PDT

@accordingto343

Your one stop shop for all of 343's fabulous errors and ridiculous notions in the Halo lore.

Posted by: Wazooty
ODSTs were always made out to be these ultimate hardasses. But then bungie made them out to be rather childish and silly.

Also, they made the ODSTs feel too uh...strong. I was hoping for more reliance on the squad and less on being able to take unnatural amounts of dmg.

So the entirety of Buck's squad is an accurate representation of the ODSTs as a whole? And come on, it's a gameplay reason you're strong. Sure taking a single hit form a plasma pistol and dying would be realistic, but not fun.

  • 08.01.2011 5:19 PM PDT

By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.


Posted by: Wazooty
ODSTs were always made out to be these ultimate hardasses. But then bungie made them out to be rather childish and silly.

Also, they made the ODSTs feel too uh...strong. I was hoping for more reliance on the squad and less on being able to take unnatural amounts of dmg.


I'm questioning the validity of what you say, your profile states you have only played 18 games of ODST's campaign.

  • 08.01.2011 5:19 PM PDT


Posted by: ajw34307

Posted by: Wazooty
ODSTs were always made out to be these ultimate hardasses. But then bungie made them out to be rather childish and silly.

Also, they made the ODSTs feel too uh...strong. I was hoping for more reliance on the squad and less on being able to take unnatural amounts of dmg.


I'm questioning the validity of what you say, your profile states you have only played 18 games of ODST's campaign.


That is one of the stupidest reasons I have ever heard. I doubt I will ever consider anything you say valid as a result.

  • 08.01.2011 5:23 PM PDT


Posted by: Hysterical Joker

Posted by: BlueRuby2k10

Posted by: tomk456
How does Halo: Reach not have ANY atmosphere?

The OST for reach is compelling, the loss of each Spartan was created very well making you feel like you've actually lost somebody.

ODST was good, Reach was better in my opinion. More emotion in the latter.


By "atmosphere", I mean the tone of the situation. The situation in Reach was serious, and desperate, and the tone in ODST the complete opposite, which makes no sense within context of the story.

I'm not sure what you're talking about. ODST was plenty somber, solemn, and dark.


I'm referring to the mission with your loudmouth squadmates.

  • 08.01.2011 5:24 PM PDT

@accordingto343

Your one stop shop for all of 343's fabulous errors and ridiculous notions in the Halo lore.

Posted by: BlueRuby2k10

Posted by: Hysterical Joker

Posted by: BlueRuby2k10

Posted by: tomk456
How does Halo: Reach not have ANY atmosphere?

The OST for reach is compelling, the loss of each Spartan was created very well making you feel like you've actually lost somebody.

ODST was good, Reach was better in my opinion. More emotion in the latter.


By "atmosphere", I mean the tone of the situation. The situation in Reach was serious, and desperate, and the tone in ODST the complete opposite, which makes no sense within context of the story.

I'm not sure what you're talking about. ODST was plenty somber, solemn, and dark.


I'm referring to the mission with your loudmouth squadmates.


The Marines and Army troopers have always been loudmouths in the story, why is it so odd that Buck's squad follows that? They aren't Spartans.

  • 08.01.2011 5:25 PM PDT

Vengeance only leads to an ongoing cycle of hatred.


Posted by: ajw34307
ODST is one of the best Halo games, hands down.

One could argue that the jokes are simply a coping mechanism, it's what keeps the characters from slipping into some form of depression because they know they're losing the war pretty badly. Although, I highly disapprove of Mickey's use of "son of a gun!"...

This. Many people don't realize this. A lot of people hide pain/depression with laughter.

  • 08.01.2011 6:41 PM PDT

Vengeance only leads to an ongoing cycle of hatred.


Posted by: Hydrilus
The way I see it...it's a game, and it wouldn't be very fun if you died in one shot.

Even Call of Duty, a game that tries to be realistic in many ways, doesn't allow you to die in one hit.

Ever hear of a sniper?

  • 08.01.2011 6:42 PM PDT

"On the seventh day, god did not rest, but rather he created 64 player multiplayer!"


Posted by: SEAL Sniper 9

Posted by: Hydrilus
The way I see it...it's a game, and it wouldn't be very fun if you died in one shot.

Even Call of Duty, a game that tries to be realistic in many ways, doesn't allow you to die in one hit.

Ever hear of a sniper?


In multiplayer, yeah...and even then it's not a guaranteed kill, despite the fact you're shooting bullets that will split you in half in real life. I'm referring more to campaign though. You can take hit after hit and not die...and when you're close to dieing, you can hide for a bit and take a bunch more bullets again...hide again...get shot again...hide again...

  • 08.01.2011 6:45 PM PDT

Wow, just wow!

Well, oftentimes, soldiers will turn to humor to try and keep the seriousness of the situation from messing with them... ODST's are also the next best thing to a Spartan.

  • 08.01.2011 7:10 PM PDT

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