Halo 3: ODST

Halo 3: ODST, formerly known as Halo 3: Recon, is a First Person Shooter video game. It is currently being developed by Bungie, LLC., and will published by Microsoft Game Studios. ODST is set to be released in the Fall of 2009.

ODST is a campaign expansion and prologue to Halo 3 which will bridge a gap between Halo 2 and Halo 3. An official prequel comic, Helljumper, will be released in the months following up to the release of ODST.

Speculation
Although Bungie consistently stated that Halo 3 was the last game in the trilogy, they never ruled out the possibility of releasing new games set in the same story in the future. An interview by MTV with Don Mattrick (Senior Vice President of Microsoft's Xbox division) revealed that Bungie's game is at the very least Halo-related, and that it is not Bungie's collaborative efforts on Halo Wars or Halo: Chronicles, but a "new" game. Although a proper announcement was meant for July 16th, 2008 at E3, it was canceled by Microsoft because they wanted to focus on games by first-party developers that were coming out in 2008, criteria which the Bungie project did not fit. It was also stated by Microsoft that they did not want to further lengthen their press conference so as not to stretch the attention span of the attendees, and that they wished to give the new Halo project an event of its own to release details on it/

The most popular rumor that had surrounded this new title was that it was a squad-based shooter in the Halo universe with the player filling the role of a Marine Captain, but this is untrue as the player will be filling the role of an ODST Lance Corporal, who goes by the moniker of The Rookie.

Speculation about a supposed third-person shooter, giving the player control of Marines or ODST's instead of SPARTANs, circulated long before Bungie revealed their next project would be Halo-related. Originally, rumors held that this would be the Peter Jackson game, Halo: Chronicles. The presence of Christian Allen, a former Marine and Red Storm employee who worked on the Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six series and joined Bungie in early 2007, heightened speculation.

Known Information
Halo 3: ODST has been known to be in the pre-production phase since January 2008. , four months after the release of Halo 3; and was referred to as Halo 3: Atlas

Bungie has confirmed that the game will be a first-person shooter, like the previous three Halo titles, and that Christian Allen is working on a completely different project within Bungie. Bungie also confirmed that the player will take the role of a surviving Marine, that the game is set in the ruins of New Mombasa, Kenya; and that it will be released in the US "Fall" of 2009, and that it is the last known Halo project related to the Halo trilogy they are working on.

In another interview with a number of different gaming sources, they revealed key information about the game: ODST will be on a standalone disk, it will "include some new multiplayer maps, some of which will be a part of the Mythic Map Pack," and it will run on the Halo 3 engine. Bungie has also stated that it will be compatible with Halo 3 multiplayer, provided they have the Mythic Map Pack and ODST. Forge, Saved films, and Screenshots will be making a comeback.

ODST has been described as "returning players to familiar grounds on a vital top-secret mission. ODST's gripping story, co-operative campaign and new multiplayer content will have Halo fans 'Preparing to Drop' in Fall 2009". The game is not expected to ship at the full-retail price of $60 as it believed that the game's campaign will only run three to six hours. However, in one of their weekly updates, Bungie stated that the campaign will last between three and five hours.

Gameplay
ODST has the main protagonist, The Rookie, searching for beacons across the city of New Mombasa. It is up to the player how they get to the specific location, and in what order, giving a very open-world feeling to the game; something for which the main trilogy has been criticized for, due to it's linear gameplay style. It's likely that these "beacons" are drop pods with a locating device on them. Finding one of these objects sends the player back in the game to find out what happened to one of his four squadmates (Mickey, Dutch, Romeo, and Buck). Once you go back in time for a short period, you will take control of the player for around thirty minutes, and play the situations that the particular character went through. Unlike the overall game, these flashback scenes go along the path of the linear gameplay that has been common throughout the original trilogy of Halo.

Due to the fact that you are playing as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, you will not be using the shielding or the motion tracker featured on the MJOLNIR Battle Armor suits. The Rookie and his squadmates will also lose the ability to dual-wield weapons, such as the M7/Caseless Submachine Gun or the Type-25 Directed Energy Rifle.

On the other hand, you will receive a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), which will likely give waypoints, mission objectives, and information which will help the player. In addition to the PDA, the Rookie will also have a new "visual mode", which identifies allies and enemies through the HUD on his helmet's visor; as well as a new weapon, the M7S Submachine Gun, which the protagonist lands in Mombasa with during the initial drop.

As stated by Bungie in the January 23rd Weekly Update, the Sangheili will not be appearing at all in ODST. By December 2008, the game was "representational", meaning that players could experience the game from start to finish, albeit in an unfinished state. The entire Bungie staff was pulled from other duties to play through the game and offer feedback. Among the unfinished elements was the lack of finished dialogue delivered by voice actors; story writer Joseph Staten filled in placeholder audio. Bungie's audio director Martin O'Donnell will contribute music for ODST, as he has done for the previous Halo games. Due to ODST's shift to a new protagonist, O'Donnell created new music that was a homage to Halo, though was taken in a new direction.

Plot


The game is set on the 20th October, during the events of Halo 2, in the First Battle of Earth at Mombasa.

A number of pods carrying ODST's appear in the sky over New Mombasa to clear out the remaining Covenant forces in the city. Prophet of Regret's ship opens a Slipspace portal in Earth's atmosphere above the city, this results in an antimatter-matter annihilation accompanied by a physical shockwave and an EMP. The shockwave tears through Mombasa, badly damaging the city. When the EMP reaches the HEV Pods, it destroys their electronics, which prevents them from making a controlled descent, hence they are destroyed on impact with the ground.

One HEV Pod enters the airspace above Mombasa after the primary EMP has subsided. However, the HEV pod passed through a secondary residual EMP that partially damaged its electronics. Despite this, it still managed to make a pseudo-controlled descent, albeit a rough one; the HEV crashes through the side of a building, knocking its occupant unconscious. As night draws, the lone Marine wakes up, armed only with a submachine gun, and moves forward to secure beacons scattered across the city.

Characters

 * United Nations Space Command
 * The Rookie - The main protagonist of ODST, and a Lance Corporal in the UNSC Marine Corps.
 * Captain Dare - The Rookie's female commanding officer and Naval Intelligence operative . She is voiced by famed actor Tricia Helfer.
 * Mickey - One of the Rookie's squadmates, his expertise in the squad is currently unknown.
 * Dutch - The Heavy Weapons specialist.
 * Romeo - The Marksman in the squad, and is quoted as being a "wiseass".
 * Buck - One of the Rookie's squadmates, his expertise in the squad is unknown.
 * Superintendent - New Mombasa's Urban Infrastructure A.I. construct.
 * Covenant
 * Prophet of Regret - One of the three Hierarchs of the Covenant, his only known role in the game is at the beginning where his Assault Carrier enters slipspace over New Mombasa.

Locations

 * New Mombasa, Kenya
 * Lumumba District
 * Mbaraki District
 * Tanaga District

Equipment
Weapons
 * United Nations Space Command
 * BR55HB SR Battle Rifle
 * MA5C Individual Combat Weapon System
 * M7S Caseless Submachine Gun
 * M41 SSR MAV/AW Rocket Launcher
 * M90A Close Assault Weapon System
 * SRS99D-S2AM Sniper Rifle
 * Unnamed Sidearm
 * W/AV M6 Nonlinear Rifle
 * Covenant
 * Type-2 Energy Weapon/Hammer
 * Type-25 Carbine
 * Type-25 Directed Energy Pistol
 * Type-25 Grenade Launcher
 * Type-33 Guided Munitions Launcher
 * Type-33 Light Anti-Armor Weapon
 * Type-51 Carbine

Vehicles
 * United Nations Space Command
 * Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle
 * M12 "Warthog" Light Reconnaissance Vehicle
 * M831 "Warthog" Troop Transport
 * D77H-TCI "Pelican" Dropship
 * Covenant
 * Type-25 "Wraith" Assault Gun Carriage
 * Type-52 "Phantom" Troop Carrier
 * Assault Carrier (Appearance only)

Trailers
First, different screens of areas of New and Old Mombasa come on screen, followed by HEV pods entering the atmosphere. Here you can see the Prophet of Regret's carrier on the right, then it moves behind buildings. The pods come into view as a large explosion (Caused by the Prophet of Regret's carrier entering Slipspace) appears, sending the pods off-course. Then, the Superintendent appears, and shows warning signs and then reboots. All the screens from earlier flash onto the screen, but heavily damaged from the blast. Then, a single HEV pod falls through the sky, when the Halo 3 Logo appears. The pod then crashes into the camera and goes black, followed by the words 'Prepare to Drop'.

The second part to the trailer, released on the 8th of October, followed on from this - the Superintendent reinitialized itself, attempting to assess the catastrophic devastation and tries to identify the object that survived. Later, after a Covenant Phantom dropship has passed by, the object opens to reveal a lone surviving Marine Shock Trooper to clamber out, wielding a modified M7S Caseless Submachine Gun. The Marine narrowly avoids a Jiralhanae patrol, before encountering messages from the Superintendent, presumably leading him to safety.

Multiplayer
Although ODST lacks an official Multi-player mode on Xbox LIVE, all map packs (Heroic, Legendary, and Mythic) will be available for those who haven't already purchased them over Xbox LIVE Marketplace. In addition to the other map packs, an additional map pack will be featured in the ODST package. These maps are currently known as Citadel, Heretic, and Longshore.

Trivia

 * The Rookie in ODST is a Lance Corporal, a junior enlisted rank in the UNSC Marine Corps. Therefore it's apparent that the player will not be filling the role of the speculated Marine Captain, though this officer will be playing the Rookie's squad leader.
 * The tagline for the game is Prepare to Drop referencing the way ODST's enter into the combat zone.
 * A teaser trailer for Halo 3: ODST was Keep It Clean released on September 25th, 2008 at 07:07:07 am PST, which coincided with the one year anniversary of Halo 3. The trailer was viewed through the many security cameras around New Mombasa. The time is an obvious reference to seven.
 * After the lone HEV pod drops and the Superintendent is scanning it the screen goes black and the words *SEARCH TERMINATED! ONI.SEC.PRCTL.1A appears. This indicates that the organization ONI who have done a lot of behind the scenes work in the Halo series terminated the Superintendent search.
 * Martin O'Donnell has been confirmed to be composing the score for this game. Bungie also released the track played in the trailer named "Prepare to Drop" its track length is 1:17, a reference to John-117. The track is available here.
 * It has been stated by Bungie that there will be a way to unlock the Recon Armor Permutation in Halo 3: ODST. This method will require you to unlock the current Vidmaster Challenges., and three more Vidmaster Challenges only available through purchasing ODST.
 * On November 25th, 2008, Bungie LLC. renamed the in-development Halo 3: Recon to Halo 3: ODST. The reasons to why the upcoming expansion was renamed is due to the player playing the character of an ODST in the game.
 * Though the game takes place during the events of Halo 2 (First Battle of Earth and Battle of Installation 05); all of the character, weapon, and vehicle models were taken from Halo 3, creating an inconsistency within the canon, unless regarded as a retroactive retcon.
 * According to Amazon.com, Halo 3: ODST is to be released in North America on October 6th, 2009. This has yet to be confirmed by either Bungie or Microsoft. More recently, a link on the Canadian Xbox.com site revealed that the release date for Halo 3: ODST is September 20th, 2009 . Though it was quickly taken down, likely due to a leak.
 * During an interview at Gencon 2008 in Brisbane, Australia; Alan Tudyk commented on a so called Halo 3 Supplemental, in which himself and fellow Firefly actors Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin would lend their voices to the game. All three of the actors played the role of Marines in Halo 3. Out of the three, only Nathan Fillion has been confirmed as a cast member for Halo 3: ODST. Assuming that this supplemental is Halo 3: ODST, Tudyk and Baldwin will likely voice members of the squad in the game.

Internal Links

 * Halo 3
 * Keep It Clean (Trailer)
 * Orbital Drop Shock Troopers