Halo 3: ODST & Halo: Reach - The Unrecognised Highlights of the Halo Franchise - Article
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 27 June 2015 / 6,956 Views
When most people think of Halo, they think of this:
Master Chief, Officer John-117, or simply Chief. He’s synonymous with the Halo series. In fact Master Chief is so well-loved that his relative absence in Halo 2 provoked a fair amount of controversy when the game was first released in 2004.
Master Chief is a super soldier. Abducted at a young age, he knows nothing but brutality and war. He's highly enigmatic, but the problem with all of this is that he’s not very relatable; the Halo series for the most part is a power fantasy, one which ignores the bigger picture of a rich and deep Halo universe in order to make you feel like a badass. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing - fantastical scenarios are gaming's bread and butter, a method of escape from everyday life - but it can make it difficult to relate to the world you're meant to be saving.
Halo 3: ODST marked a major departure from this running theme. Not only was there no Master Chief, but you didn't even take on the role of a super soldier. Instead, ODST follows the story of ordinary soldiers caught in the middle of a Covenant invasion-turned-occupation of a human city called New Mombasa.
In Halo 3: ODST it's your mission as Rookie (and his Orbital Drop Shock Trooper team) to explore the city of New Mombasa just hours after the Covenant invasion force has landed. It's dark and lonely, both metaphorically and visually, as the streets are all-but abandoned and you only have a city AI for company.
Halo 3: ODST set a very different tone for the Halo series, one which allowed you time to think between fights and take in your surroundings. Cars and other bits of human technology are scattered all over the place; litter and debris is strewn around. To further add to this intense atmosphere you also discover audio clips dotted around the city. These audio clips tell the story of a young girl and her attempt to escape the city with the help of the city's AI during the Covenant invasion.
The score, composed by Martin O’Donnell, helped immensely in bringing the city to life, its sombre saxophone and grimy tones helping to portray a truly desolate place.
The characters, too - for the first time in the series really - paint a full picture of humanity in the Halo universe. While previous Halo games focussed almost purely on the notion of 'saving the day', Buck and his teammates in ODST are simply attempting to survive. Death is a constant threat, but as in real life dark humour and banter is often employed to relieve the tension. Halo 3: ODST offers up a somber Halo experience, one I still fondly remember to this day.
Halo: Reach continued with this style of personal, relatable story-telling. Bungie’s attempt at focusing more on story and characters than massive heroics and set-pieces really touched home in Halo: Reach, with the over-powered Spartans suddenly feeling more human as they took on ever-increasing (and ultimately impossible) odds. Take, for example, the cut scene in the video below. It's simple but emotionally charged.
Bungie managed to inject emotion into a series not known for its ability to really move people. The scene above shows how desolate the tone in Halo: Reach becomes, which is certainly fitting given that in the lore of the Halo universe the battle of Reach resulted in the loss of close to 385 million personnel and countless more civilians.
Spartans are meant to be super soldiers; they're the ones that have no feelings and can do no wrong. Halo: Reach turned all of this on its head, with each Spartan having a unique personality rather than being a blank slate hidden underneath Spartan armor. Each Spartan in Halo: Reach deals with the impossible odds they face in a distinct way.
Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach are both good illustrations of less being more. Both demonstrated that even in a modern shooter you don't need masses of enemies and the threat of constant violence in order to tell a good story and provide a compelling gameplay experience.
Regardless of where the series goes from here (indeed, we've already seen with Halo 4 that it is heading in a completely differently direction), Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach will stand tall, for me at least, as examples of great story-telling in the Halo universe.
More Articles
ODST and Reach are two of my favourite Halo games. ODST offered a really good story and introduced some great characters while Reach is possibly my favourite Halo game ever created due to its war feel and seriousness. Hoping Halo 5 is more like a Reach.
This is why 343 should also add reach to the MCC!!! Halo reach & 3 are my favourite for multiplayer. ODST introduced firefight...which they didnt include in the mcc :/
After preordering the Limited Collectors edition, I too hope its more like Reach buddy :)
After Combat Evolved , Reach is safely my 2nd favourite game in the whole series.
Reach is my personal favorite. Most of my general gaming friends crap on the game, but it seems to have a good following amongst serious Halo fans.
Yes, Reach and ODST delivered a completely different experience than the typical halo campaign. Love them both... especially the ODST soundtrack! Damn incredible!
The moment I played Reach it became my favorite in the series and still is and I agree with this article on the most part.
Everything after Halo 3, including Halo Wars, went into a more personal direction in story-telling. Squads will return in Halo 5 so many elements of both installments COULD carry over.
Nice read, some feedback:
-
Why do you consider Reach unrecognized?
-
ODSTs are no ordinary soldiers. If there were no Spartans then they'd be the craziest bunch around, by far.
-
Bungie didn't make a great effort in explaining the difference between Spartan IIs and IIIs, they even went as far as butchering canon, so I can't quite agree with the statement "Halo: Reach turned all of this on its head", or at least not in the way you meant it.
Personally, I think Reach's campaign was fantastic because of the constant feeling of loss and being dominated by the covenant, even though Noble Team accomplished great things. Completely agree with you on ODST.
Reach was good, but nothing like Halo 1-3. That is the trilogy and it has a story arch that lasted some 6 years. We fell in love with the characters, the plot... it was like Star Wars or LOTR. You grew along side the story.
With Reach, it was just one story... one game. With ODST, same thing. You never felt as attached because they were both smaller stories and one and done characters.
ODST is by far my least favorite Halo. Reach on the other hand is one of my favorites. Especially the campaign, although it did mess with the canon.
odst basically was a nice idea and i like it. it has a big weak spot thogh gameplaywise. visr aside that odst plays like a spartan. he can pick up heavy weapons and all that, what actually makes spartans remarkable.
it didn't make anything of the squad gameplaywise.
the different take on storytelling was nice though.
ya gameplay was pretty meh, but I loved it for its atmosphere, story, and soundtrack.
I liked Reach, but not ODST, it was just very meh to me...
ODST? Really? You put that up there with Reach?
Reach will stand as the high point of the series for me. So much done right to help modernize an antiquated series, which 343 tried to undo right away when they took over. Before, y'know, following the precedents for Halo 4. Damn hypocrites.
343 has done an amazing job with the franchise, you have to remember they took over from Halo when Bungie left the game at dead end. 343 not only had to create a new story line for the game but they also worked on the main character of the franchise. Halo 4 has the best gameplay out of all the Halos, offers the best sound and visuals in the series. Only thing Halo 4 didn't offer over the other Halos is the Story wasn't as intoxicating. Halo 5 should be great now that they have had a good feel of the franchise after making MCC.
I still don't understand how can anyone like Halo: Reach story. It's a mess with some plot holes in it, coupled with some truly unremarkable cutscenes and a predictable ending. It has some nice moments, like toying around in Alexandria or the space fight, but that's pretty much it.
It's definitively the worst Halo game, for me.
Predictable ending? Because it happens immediately before the piller of autumn comes out of FTL in the intro to Halo:CE as they talk about the loss of Reach.
2 games Bungie didn't really want to make. They would have made Destiny years earlier and exclusive to xbox if MS let them.
Well I'm glad they made ODST & Reach, as opposed to Destiny.
These games aren't unsung heroes lol. They are the knock-offs and prequels we didn't need. Odst was garbage. Reach was meh.
