Sorry it took so long to get a new vid up guys. December had a lot of stuff going on that I'd rather not get into publicly. Nothing bad though! Much love ♥️
Then i saw him, a behemoth of humanoid appearence, clad in a high tech armor, its looks were akind to that of a shock trooper. But so diferrente so...alien in comparasion, i didnt felt a gram of humanity in the user of that armor, the movements, the markmanship, the shocking agility and strength with wich he crushed humanity"s foes I saw him performing some kind of ritual, maybe a form of respecting his enemys without forgetting the things that they had done, flexing his knees, his rearguard barely touching the body of the slain beast, getting up and doing it again, in mere seconds he did it thirty times and make sure of his kill by slamming a rifle English isnt my first language but i tried XD
when hell comes your way, things like rank and experience start being muddy, and less important. in the chaos of it of all, you have stories of those that survived through guile, wit, and and reflexes. And some stories of luck, happenstance, and timing. Through the chaos of it all, the impossible becomes possible. Just like ODST's are going up against brutes - canonically known for their bulletproof skin, and skulls hard enough to take multiple bullets - civilians going up against ODST's isn't too far fetched. After all, a ODST is no super human, they're just very well trained.
Well Virgil did warn us (the Rookie) about "hitch hikers may be escaped convicts" meaning the cop was gonna turn on us, it's pretty obvious but I thought it was a nice detail
To add to the religious layers. The music in the live action trailer for Halo ODST is a old poem in my people's language (Welsh). It's mainly about defying death and 'jumping feet first' into 'Annwn' 'Annwn' is my people's pre-christian equivalent of Heaven or Hell, depending on who you ask. Great video, I didn't recognise the religious references until now.
There is no such thing as "pre-christian." Christianity is the fulfilled Melchizedek Priesthood which is the first and only priesthood of humanity all prime religion is sourced from template wise. Christianity is the only True religion, The 12 Tribes of Israel including the church of Jesus Christ is Israel the Family of God. Jesus Christ is the 2nd Adam having the authority and dominion of the first man. YHVH Shang-Di Persia Zoroastrian Ahura Mazda is Jesus Christ the voice of God in the flesh.
@@keegans.969 I don't know man, I think that's something for the national library of Wales, not me. It's in Aberystwyth if you live in the UK. Ga' ti darllen gymraeg?
I remember getting an Xbox and *almost* all the halo games for Christmas and playing the hell out of them and having a blast. But I noticed that there was one that I didn’t have, ODST. So I asked my grandma for it for Christmas and after going to her house for breakfast I went back home and before I put the disc in the Xbox I thought “hmm should probably turn off the lights.” And something kinda beautiful happened. I played what would become my favorite game and would lead me to become a musician and love that too. ODST is the most out there game in the series, and it’s great.
I’ve been replaying it lately on the Series X since it runs at a higher frame rate, but I did something similar when the game was first out years ago on my 360, ODST is a timeless gem for sure!
My god this game, this was the first game that I felt was just “yes this is a great game and it is my favourite” before that I was just kinda “I like all these”. One of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard too second only to night in the woods.
this has always been my favorite halo game, and generally one of my favorite games of all time. the neon noir style, the abandoned city, the loneliness, the mysterious vibe, the *soundtrack*, it all comes together so beautifully
"The reason they make him into a Jesus allegory is clever because Master Chief is that badass" has to be one of the most unintentionally funny things I've heard.
Holy shit, Bungie was really ahead of their time when making this game. Easily the most interesting, unique, in-depth analysis I've heard anyone do for ODST. Until watching this, I never would've even realized that the game had such a deep story like this.
Considering the fact that Bungie made ODST nearly 14 years ago and this details get uncovered only after millions of players invested millions of hours in enjoying it, gives me goosebumps. What gives me even more is that OP uncovered this after so many people already invested that time, makes him a Master Chief for me.
@@khoaanh2224Activision never bought Bungie, they were just partners. And Bungie severed that tie sometime in 2020 (I think). Bungie stopped making Halo games because they choose to and even if they came back, how many Halo people are even left at Bungie these days. Plus, would they make games alongside 343 or be absorbed into them, what about Destiny? But, those questions don't even matter, since Activision never owned Bungie in the first place.
What he means there is that the runes hint to Virgil being an engineer, he said he’d talk about the importance of engineers to Virgil, not the runes themselves.
ODST is easily my favorite of any Halo game, it came to me at just the right time and I sat through the entire game in one session, starting from the late night and going to the early dawn. I wholeheartedly believe it has the best soundtrack of any Halo game, just hearing Deference for Darkness come on is enough to bring me to tears, something that happened many times throughout my time playing the game. The game is just so fucking good at establishing a mood and an atmosphere that embraces you and never lets go. Beyond happy that you are talking about it all these years later, not enough people mention it when talking about the Halo series.
loved that there were moments that you could ambust the enemies as they sleeped, heck the sleeping enemies were a great detail to both humanize the comeant and to show just how much of a losing battle that occupating alien troopers were camping out in the city.
Seeing something related to ODST makes me feel sad and angry at 343, they shouldn't have done dirty to the player character Rookie, true we didn't had a clear connection with him or had enough time to for one compared to the other faceless but beloved player character, noble six, but still it was our avatar, our vessel on that phase of the game story
problem is that they couldn't go anywhere with him as a character since he was a blank slate. So unless 343 wanted to characterize him. Which is something that would've pissed people off anyways. So death was the only thing for him.
@@Ahriman13 i agree on that one with you, but i believe there were better ways to handle a death of a faceless player character than on a book story, i would say a comic would have been better but the Didact's death was potrayed that way and no one liked it either
@@lonewanderer6172 it had to be done in the book. It wasn't like they wanted to kill the rookie just to kill him. They had to kill him because the story of odst was being continued in books and not games. They weren't going to make a game to kill the rookie just so they wouldn't have to do it in a book. A comic would have been no better than a novel. If you ask me all that matters is that the rookies death was done well which to me it was. It was tragic and lead to real character development for all the characters, dutch and mickey especially. That's the most I think you could've ask for there.
This might be a weird take, but rookie in the book dying never really bothered me, since it's still a stand-in for you. And having YOU get killed, allowing the emotions you felt in that scene be the rookies emotions for your version of the book is really cool, IMO.
to add to the point that we needed to be reminded how dangerous and overpowering the covenant was, I feel like reach really nailed that feeling in perfectly. the whole campaign was basically showing us that even with spartans the covenant could crush humans into dust, and that the best we could do was small scale guerilla missions. when you go back to the original trilogy you get reminded of how badass master chief really is.
"I'll say something about his game that nobody else did" this summed up my reason of subscription. keep thems good content coming. i love new perspectives.
The ODST audio logs where the first time in a game I was desperate to find all the logs. The story was so gripping and how you could see it's effects in the game, really made for good content.
Literally my only issue with the video is that ODST's aren't higher ranks, they're basically special forces. Other than that, honestly this video is a masterpiece.
8:00 Intresting thought I had: from the perspective of the covenenant this whole dantes inferno completly checks out as they are the ones glassing this sinfilled city and they should just trust their god (the prophet) that he knows best and to not feel bad about the humans they are torturing.
I've played all original Xbox and 360 games back to back twice in the last few months. I think ODST is one of the best, and as evidenced by the player's search for their companions, and Dare's search for the Engineer to help win the war, and Buck's search for meaning in the fallout of his relationship and the search for anything to revive in said relationship, the game's theme was about the hunt for one another in the face of overwhelming loneliness and horror. You can say the theme was togetherness, resilience, comfort, safety, etc., but the word I would use is hope.
I also think it's worth noting that the explicit references to Inferno and the ties to the audio logs etc. should not be considered as part of ODST's theme, given that they are effectively 'hidden' or optional content to follow, and thus do not inform the theme of the game, which is as stated above. Much of the game is spent playing the missions - Romeo's/Micky's/Dutch's/Buck's. For a comparison, you could not say that the deleted scenes of (film X) constituted the theme or message or the film, given that only the most thorough of viewers would bother to search them out in the extras, and their not being present mean that the film lacks their inclusion, and thus the film as released, lacks their contribution to the thematic elements of the plot and conflicts. Whilst the references to Inferno are interesting and a pleasant curio to uncover for the player, that they encapsulate what ODST was 'trying to say' is too much of a stretch to be academically robust, and the addition of them should be considered along the lines of the references to shoes in the Big Lebowski or the like - a pleasant leitmotif for the faithful.
When I played through ODST again recently, I thought a lot about how ballsy it was for Bungie to make it's story unfulfilling for most people. If you don't get (and listen to) every audio log, which I didn't manage despite searching hard for them, you're left with a noir detective story where the detective fails. You move on, just another grunt, with loads of questions and the distinct feeling that something's missing. It fits the tone of the game perfectly, and I respect the hell out of Bungie for doing it, but I get why a lot of people felt a bit cheated.
I had to play the game for several year until I found all the audio logs. I remenber every feeling that gaveme those "new" scenes that i haven't seen before. Just an amazing game.
Many people's least favorite, and by far my favorite Halo game for that reason haha. I suppose the lack of good multiplayer/forge was a component for people not liking it as well (the firefight system they added to the game was also kinda meh), but the campaign, soundtrack, story, and even graphics hold to this day and make you feel something uncaptured by any other game.
One of the potential angles of reading the Halo series from a religious perspective is the potential for realizing the manufactured nature of a lot of the present religious elements. Yes, John-117 is being a savior, but John was also a child that was taken from his family and made into that being which can be a savior. And we can see similar things in the Covenant too: ever notice how all the bits of their religion we know about basically all return to the idea of "Serve the Prophets"? What we get to see in this exchange of religious symbols vs religious symbols as the marines and elites duke it out is a peek into the mechanisms of social control in these various societies. We learn that Earth as a side is willing to destroy people to create its heroes to push its colonialist efforts (mind you not saying that Earth is genocidal but they definitely are pushing into the rest of the galaxy and that behavior has a whole fuckin history behind it). We also learn that The Covenant is a faction so removed from logic on a larger level that their societal forces all push someone towards wanting to serve the Prophets in their ever-expansionist and explicitly genocidal-if-they-don't-join-us plots. So in the end, we learn that Humanity and The Covenant are really not all that different.
This was further expanded, Spartan Black team (?) I believe on ONIs orders destroyed a Sangheili colony planet out of nothing but pure Dresden fueled spite to show the covenant humanity were not afraid to show their fangs and commit horrible war ctimes themselves if pushed
When you learn more about the story you learn that the UNSC *needed* the Spartans. Ends justifying the means and all that. As for humans expanding into the galaxy: is that so wrong? To cement our own place in space?
@@oniemployee3437 I wouldn't say so. The Innies were an excuse to experiment on Children after their first supersoldier project failed. In reality the UNSC never needed Spartans to take out the Innies. The Covenant yes, but that's just a lucky coincidence, which goes in toe with Halo's theme of humanity being the perfect mix of luck and tenacity that keeps us going. Also, idk man. Expanding into the galaxy is cool and all but you learn that a lot of the Innies are just people who were neglected because of the never ending expansion of humanity.
Halo odst and it's atmosphere is soo good it really makes you feel small and alone as you use the bare minimum to survive and just like reach hope is all our main characters have in the end considering that the covenant won with sheer numbers alone
My favorite Halo game. Since I was a kid and saw my first ODST fighting alongside Chief, I always wanted to be one of them. This game gave me that and so much more.
ODST and Reach will always be my top 2 Halo games mainly because of the tone, atmosphere and setting. It truly felt like you were fighting a losing war against the Covenant. Even though it was shown and explained that humanity was losing in the other games I never felt like we were. Though that was probably because we were playing as Master Chief.
Probably one of the most immersive halo campaigns in the series. The sounds and the environment while sneaking through the streets of new mambasa was a great experience. Suggest playing on Legendary for the full experience.
I just love Rookie, he's my favorite character in the Halo universe (and i say that as a guy who actually read some of the books). This faceless nobody who slinks around a dying city, investigating and picking up clues like an honest-to-God noir detective, complete with rain-slicked darkened streets and a saxophone in the background. Not only does he track down his squad, he goes out of his way to solve a completely unrelated case along the way, bring a corrupt cop to justice, and make friends with an alien who wordlessly helps him throughout the whole quest by tapping into the City's AI, leading him around with car alarms and holographic street signs.
finished halo 3 odst a few days ago, missed a few of the audio transcripts but otherwise i tried my best to not miss a thing man was it a great experience. everything of that game is so well done and the gameplay is really fun gonna edit once i finish the vid as many people do lol edit: i forgor……….
I always really enjoyed the struggle of the rookie in order as compared to the chief. In a weird way I felt like I had more consequences to my actions. With ammo and armor scarcity, my choices for plan-of-attack felt more focused. The ai was intelligent enough to know (or not know my actions) and made me feel like everything I did had a bigger consequence than mainline games. I always felt there was more of a story for odst but I did skip all the logs. Thanks for this video! It helped me understand why it's easily one of my favorite games of all time.
You know what would further reinforce how badass Chief is and how powerful his enemies are? A sequel to ODST where you fight the Flood when they invade earth in H3
Thank you for bringing me even more love to one of my favorite games of all time. I will never forget the excitement leading up to release - my walls were plastered with the pull-out posters from the XBOX magazine special issue on ODST! and it is incredible that over ten years later this six-to-eight hour game still surprises us. One of the most under-rated channels for video game essays, great work as always!
Ima correct you, ODST isn’t a rank, it’s a special forces group like if the navy seals was their own thing. Any branch can submit their personal to be a ODST IF they make the cut, which is extremely difficult
ODST had a dramatic shift in the themes, characters, setting, dialogue, atmosphere, level design, and enemies, yet it's still distinctly a Halo game. The fact that such a wild spinoff stands as a masterpiece in its own right speaks volumes about Bungie's talent back then.
game came out on my birthday... knew from the trailers I would love it... my brother got me loving the odst since h2, and It's still cemented as my favourite halo game to date.
fun fact:the cutscene changes when you meet vergil if you found all the logs if you do it at first with no logs, its just a told to stand down or something do it with the audio logs, and you just whistle them over
Glad to see ODST is getting more recognition over time. Honestly my favorite game ever since it came out, I played the shit out of this before getting internet and being introduced to online halo multiplayer
I never played halo 3 or odst.. didn't actually know what odst was till now But near the end of the video you mentioned about seeing master chief from another point of view That makes me think about raiden, how you are seeing how cool solid snake is from afar
I love your use of the theatre mode to add in clips, especially after Oni alpha site showing the rookie sneaking through the tunnel. I've played this game to death and you nail how it feels to play and I just love everything about this :3 As a big halo fan I'll be hoping for a video on Reach, but we will see o.o
This is my favorite game in the franchise. However, the marketing set completely different expectations compared to what we got. If you were to go off of the marketing, you would expect each flashback to show a less than heroic death of each of your squad mates, with you being the last to die or the only one to make it out. Instead we get a decent story, but not carrying the tension the marketing suggested. My guess for why they didn't do that is because Halo reach was coming out a year later and had a story similar to what I just described and they didn't want the two to feel too similar.
Thank you! I never got all this during my playthrough. I only recently played ODST for the first time and I fell in love with it, especially the Rookie part. Given, it was claustrofobic in a way and scary to me, but it was so different from Halo in general that I loved it, despite pooping my pants. It is definetly a game I will go back to after I finish Halo 4. I didn't find all the audio logs on my playthrough, but I will do my best to try and find them on the 2nd run. Now I'm off to watch your Halo 3 video. (A quick sidenote on Halo 4, I really loved the beginning of it; you're alone, have no idea where and what's going on. It really drove home the feeling of desolace, and in a way I wished it would've stayed that way. It became pretty basic Halo game after you encounter the other humans. Given, I haven't finished it yet, but something just was lost when MC wasn't alone anymore. I'm still curious how the story will turn out though.)
I played this game recently with the MCC on PC. I did not put much thought into the game when playing, collected a few logs and went on to 3. Really puts the game into a interesting perspective I would've otherwise missed
Hey man. Phenomenal Video! I really like your addition and development on the Inferno theory. I hate to be the "That was me" guy, but I genuinely thought I had cracked some massive easter egg when I first coined this theory with Scatcycle of the SGP. (You can actually see my original post regarding this at 5:14 on Gruntspyjamas. We knew that Sadie's Story was an allegory, but finding out that there was something of substance within the actual levels was awesome. After we had developed this, I had intended to get down to breaking into the WHY. Why was ODST an allegory? What purpose did it serve. I don't think I could have done that anywhere NEAR as well as you have done - I think it could be developed further, but I think at this point it is out of my hands.
Just a small nitpick, the actual work of Dante Alighieri isn’t called “Dante’s Inferno”, it’s called “The Divine Comedy”. The inferno bit is just a small portion of the work.
I hadn't seen the Halo 3 vid, so when you asked me to go watch it I did. Your voice has changed a lot over the last year. Well done, I can't imagine that's easy.
drop into hell what the ODST would say is actually just in reference to the fire that would generate underneath their feet from dropping feet first into orbit but it plays nicely into the rest of the actual references to religous symbolism
i. i did not realize there were that many audio logs. i thought there were, like, 10, all along the roughly set path of the game. i kinda wondered why it felt so disjointed and incomplete.......
This was such a good video, I knew about the religious allegories in Halo but not to this extent with ODST, I think you just convinced me that ODST is my favorite story in Halo. Def subbed
I'm very very glad you focused on Vergil. I've always wanted there to be a video that just focused on all the things he can do throughout the game to try and indirectly communicate with you
"Kinsler gave me real specific instructions, make sure the doc's dead and make double sure no one knows about it" and he rams a table while saying it at 14:15 lol XD
I felt bad for that cop on my first playthrough, he usually gets ripped to shreds by drones if you don’t do Sadie’s audio logs. Now I don’t feel so bad!
I really enjoyed ODST for its atmosphere and unique story. Still I was completely oblivious to any of this. One final brilliant nuance is that the protagonist is an ODST, an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, which aligns perfectly with their decent into hell. What a brilliant set of writers for this game. Love these literary analysis videos.
Great video, but did I miss the part where you explained those glyphs being “relevant to virgil”? I was pretty sold on rocket sloths recent breakdown on the deeper meaning of them mostly being nonexistent, where they instead acted as “stars” in player generated head cannon/lore “constellations”
Before I even watch this video I have to say this game struck me in my soul with just something I can’t even explain it might’ve been the soundtrack it might’ve been the story and the nuances, but this game will always have a place in my heart for whatever it did to me however it touched me, it’s one of my favorite experiences I’ve ever had in my life
Fun fact, if you DONT get all the audio logs, after the cop dies to the drones and you walk up to that same door you can hear Sadie behind the door. It's one line of dialogue and i don't remember what it says exactly
Also virgil never helped the unsc. There was a tie in book (because of course there is) that goes further into depth with Johnsons and Virgils initial interaction at the ending of odst
"these ODSTs and virgil are probably the reason ultimately won the war" im gonna be real, this is a bad take. the only reason humanity had a chance was elite support bc of the great schism. like the intel on the ark was probably useful but literally nothing couldve been done without the help of the arbiter and his faction, humanity was in absolute shambles by the time the plot of halo 3 starts. hell i think the fleet that goes to the ark only has 2 human ships in it, the rest being elite faction forces.
Dude...holy fucking shit, you have no idea how timely this felt for me. I LITERALLY just finished ODST and i can't help but recontextualize everything now. I thought the logs were actually really good companion pieces, especially when it filled my hears fighting covenant troops or the void of the new Mombasa loneliness, but man....i have to sit down
Sorry it took so long to get a new vid up guys. December had a lot of stuff going on that I'd rather not get into publicly. Nothing bad though! Much love ♥️
Just glad you're still uploading! 👍
It’s all good!! Still waiting on more Deathloop content! You sparked my obsession for that game with your last video!
May God bless you, Leadhead!
Thank you for your valuable content. I always learn something new.
Dude dont worry take all the time you need.
No need to apologize for quality like this!
Fascinating
sup Marty
Thank you Marty
Your music has been filling my head since I was 5, thank you for my childhood
very poggers martin.
Marty o'donnell either you love his music or you just never heard of his music.
"Veterans are gonna get misty eyed about your actions" *cut to a clip of master chief defiling several covenant corpses with his tea bags*
Then i saw him, a behemoth of humanoid appearence, clad in a high tech armor, its looks were akind to that of a shock trooper.
But so diferrente so...alien in comparasion, i didnt felt a gram of humanity in the user of that armor, the movements, the markmanship, the shocking agility and strength with wich he crushed humanity"s foes
I saw him performing some kind of ritual, maybe a form of respecting his enemys without forgetting the things that they had done, flexing his knees, his rearguard barely touching the body of the slain beast, getting up and doing it again, in mere seconds he did it thirty times and make sure of his kill by slamming a rifle
English isnt my first language but i tried XD
random marine shedding a tear at the thought of it
@@crazybunny1134 Shakespeare would be quaking 😮
@@crazybunny1134 Im crying this is perfection
That police officer is kinda hilarious to me, like what did he expect trying to boss around and kill an ODST?
You don't know the streets of New Mombasa.
cop moment
when hell comes your way, things like rank and experience start being muddy, and less important. in the chaos of it of all, you have stories of those that survived through guile, wit, and and reflexes. And some stories of luck, happenstance, and timing. Through the chaos of it all, the impossible becomes possible. Just like ODST's are going up against brutes - canonically known for their bulletproof skin, and skulls hard enough to take multiple bullets - civilians going up against ODST's isn't too far fetched. After all, a ODST is no super human, they're just very well trained.
Well Virgil did warn us (the Rookie) about "hitch hikers may be escaped convicts" meaning the cop was gonna turn on us, it's pretty obvious but I thought it was a nice detail
He had close range, a shotgun and the element of surprise
To add to the religious layers. The music in the live action trailer for Halo ODST is a old poem in my people's language (Welsh).
It's mainly about defying death and 'jumping feet first' into 'Annwn'
'Annwn' is my people's pre-christian equivalent of Heaven or Hell, depending on who you ask.
Great video, I didn't recognise the religious references until now.
its weird how all cultures have a refrence to heaven or hell while being thousands of miles apart
@@Themrine2013 What's weirder is that they all have a story about a great flood.
Out of curiosity, what is the name of the poem? After reading this, I'm interested in reading the original poem.
There is no such thing as "pre-christian." Christianity is the fulfilled Melchizedek Priesthood which is the first and only priesthood of humanity all prime religion is sourced from template wise. Christianity is the only True religion, The 12 Tribes of Israel including the church of Jesus Christ is Israel the Family of God. Jesus Christ is the 2nd Adam having the authority and dominion of the first man. YHVH Shang-Di Persia Zoroastrian Ahura Mazda is Jesus Christ the voice of God in the flesh.
@@keegans.969 I don't know man, I think that's something for the national library of Wales, not me. It's in Aberystwyth if you live in the UK. Ga' ti darllen gymraeg?
I remember getting an Xbox and *almost* all the halo games for Christmas and playing the hell out of them and having a blast. But I noticed that there was one that I didn’t have, ODST. So I asked my grandma for it for Christmas and after going to her house for breakfast I went back home and before I put the disc in the Xbox I thought “hmm should probably turn off the lights.” And something kinda beautiful happened. I played what would become my favorite game and would lead me to become a musician and love that too. ODST is the most out there game in the series, and it’s great.
I’ve been replaying it lately on the Series X since it runs at a higher frame rate, but I did something similar when the game was first out years ago on my 360, ODST is a timeless gem for sure!
Beautiful
It was my first halo game and one of my favourites
I remember being to poor to get an xbox 360 and being stuck with a PS2 so I'd religiously watch youtube playthroughs of all the games
My god this game, this was the first game that I felt was just “yes this is a great game and it is my favourite” before that I was just kinda “I like all these”. One of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard too second only to night in the woods.
Night in the woods was beautiful
this has always been my favorite halo game, and generally one of my favorite games of all time. the neon noir style, the abandoned city, the loneliness, the mysterious vibe, the *soundtrack*, it all comes together so beautifully
Halo 2
I fully agree with you, once I played ODST, it became my favourite game, and the soundtrack as well
Totally agree, the game was so fun and the soundtrack epic.
"The reason they make him into a Jesus allegory is clever because Master Chief is that badass" has to be one of the most unintentionally funny things I've heard.
@@Banthisyoutube "I'm here to turn the other cheek and execute judgement, and I'm all out of cheeks..."
Holy shit, Bungie was really ahead of their time when making this game. Easily the most interesting, unique, in-depth analysis I've heard anyone do for ODST. Until watching this, I never would've even realized that the game had such a deep story like this.
Considering the fact that Bungie made ODST nearly 14 years ago and this details get uncovered only after millions of players invested millions of hours in enjoying it, gives me goosebumps. What gives me even more is that OP uncovered this after so many people already invested that time, makes him a Master Chief for me.
well now that microsoft bought activision, bungie is back in microsoft hand
@@khoaanh2224Activision never bought Bungie, they were just partners. And Bungie severed that tie sometime in 2020 (I think). Bungie stopped making Halo games because they choose to and even if they came back, how many Halo people are even left at Bungie these days. Plus, would they make games alongside 343 or be absorbed into them, what about Destiny? But, those questions don't even matter, since Activision never owned Bungie in the first place.
There's quite a few channels that discuss ODST in just as much if not deeper depth
halo fans when a bungie employee shits their pants: this is truly the deepest commentary on human condition
15:07 "I'll talk about these runes in a moment"
>proceeds to not mention the runes again
What he means there is that the runes hint to Virgil being an engineer, he said he’d talk about the importance of engineers to Virgil, not the runes themselves.
@@galacticupfan7386 *she
Damn I was hoping hed solve the mystery rocketsloth has been investigating
@@shadepizza4217 I see you, say it again. She elaborated fully on her point about Vergil and the Engineers
@@shadepizza4217 wait wdym 'she'
We're talking about Leadhead, right?
Guess this just adds another meaning to the ODSTs' nickname "Helljumpers"
Props to Bungie for making two of the most memorable, atmospheric, and well told stories in FPS history back to back
4
3 if you’re including marathon
@@dominoprime Fuck those games
@@hawkevick9184 Aww, why so sour?
I mean 5 really if you’re talking about all their Halo games.
ODST is easily my favorite of any Halo game, it came to me at just the right time and I sat through the entire game in one session, starting from the late night and going to the early dawn. I wholeheartedly believe it has the best soundtrack of any Halo game, just hearing Deference for Darkness come on is enough to bring me to tears, something that happened many times throughout my time playing the game. The game is just so fucking good at establishing a mood and an atmosphere that embraces you and never lets go. Beyond happy that you are talking about it all these years later, not enough people mention it when talking about the Halo series.
only just finished it today and the whole atmosphere, alongside the rain and film-grain effects just felt therapeutic for some reason
"Late night to early dawn." God damn that's poetic and I bet you felt like the Rookie after that night.
Lucky barstard.
This game seemed to hit a lot of people at just the right time in their lives
loved that there were moments that you could ambust the enemies as they sleeped, heck the sleeping enemies were a great detail to both humanize the comeant and to show just how much of a losing battle that occupating alien troopers were camping out in the city.
Seeing something related to ODST makes me feel sad and angry at 343, they shouldn't have done dirty to the player character Rookie, true we didn't had a clear connection with him or had enough time to for one compared to the other faceless but beloved player character, noble six, but still it was our avatar, our vessel on that phase of the game story
problem is that they couldn't go anywhere with him as a character since he was a blank slate. So unless 343 wanted to characterize him. Which is something that would've pissed people off anyways. So death was the only thing for him.
@@Ahriman13 i agree on that one with you, but i believe there were better ways to handle a death of a faceless player character than on a book story, i would say a comic would have been better but the Didact's death was potrayed that way and no one liked it either
@@lonewanderer6172 it had to be done in the book. It wasn't like they wanted to kill the rookie just to kill him. They had to kill him because the story of odst was being continued in books and not games. They weren't going to make a game to kill the rookie just so they wouldn't have to do it in a book. A comic would have been no better than a novel. If you ask me all that matters is that the rookies death was done well which to me it was. It was tragic and lead to real character development for all the characters, dutch and mickey especially. That's the most I think you could've ask for there.
This might be a weird take, but rookie in the book dying never really bothered me, since it's still a stand-in for you. And having YOU get killed, allowing the emotions you felt in that scene be the rookies emotions for your version of the book is really cool, IMO.
@Pabs true, very true.
to add to the point that we needed to be reminded how dangerous and overpowering the covenant was, I feel like reach really nailed that feeling in perfectly. the whole campaign was basically showing us that even with spartans the covenant could crush humans into dust, and that the best we could do was small scale guerilla missions. when you go back to the original trilogy you get reminded of how badass master chief really is.
"I'll say something about his game that nobody else did" this summed up my reason of subscription. keep thems good content coming. i love new perspectives.
The ODST audio logs where the first time in a game I was desperate to find all the logs. The story was so gripping and how you could see it's effects in the game, really made for good content.
Literally my only issue with the video is that ODST's aren't higher ranks, they're basically special forces. Other than that, honestly this video is a masterpiece.
may as well be when compared to spartans, ODSTs are just human after all.
8:00 Intresting thought I had: from the perspective of the covenenant this whole dantes inferno completly checks out as they are the ones glassing this sinfilled city and they should just trust their god (the prophet) that he knows best and to not feel bad about the humans they are torturing.
I've played all original Xbox and 360 games back to back twice in the last few months. I think ODST is one of the best, and as evidenced by the player's search for their companions, and Dare's search for the Engineer to help win the war, and Buck's search for meaning in the fallout of his relationship and the search for anything to revive in said relationship, the game's theme was about the hunt for one another in the face of overwhelming loneliness and horror. You can say the theme was togetherness, resilience, comfort, safety, etc., but the word I would use is hope.
I also think it's worth noting that the explicit references to Inferno and the ties to the audio logs etc. should not be considered as part of ODST's theme, given that they are effectively 'hidden' or optional content to follow, and thus do not inform the theme of the game, which is as stated above. Much of the game is spent playing the missions - Romeo's/Micky's/Dutch's/Buck's. For a comparison, you could not say that the deleted scenes of (film X) constituted the theme or message or the film, given that only the most thorough of viewers would bother to search them out in the extras, and their not being present mean that the film lacks their inclusion, and thus the film as released, lacks their contribution to the thematic elements of the plot and conflicts. Whilst the references to Inferno are interesting and a pleasant curio to uncover for the player, that they encapsulate what ODST was 'trying to say' is too much of a stretch to be academically robust, and the addition of them should be considered along the lines of the references to shoes in the Big Lebowski or the like - a pleasant leitmotif for the faithful.
When I played through ODST again recently, I thought a lot about how ballsy it was for Bungie to make it's story unfulfilling for most people.
If you don't get (and listen to) every audio log, which I didn't manage despite searching hard for them, you're left with a noir detective story where the detective fails. You move on, just another grunt, with loads of questions and the distinct feeling that something's missing. It fits the tone of the game perfectly, and I respect the hell out of Bungie for doing it, but I get why a lot of people felt a bit cheated.
I had to play the game for several year until I found all the audio logs. I remenber every feeling that gaveme those "new" scenes that i haven't seen before. Just an amazing game.
You have to search all the audio logs which is basically a Easter Egg in ODST
Many people's least favorite, and by far my favorite Halo game for that reason haha.
I suppose the lack of good multiplayer/forge was a component for people not liking it as well (the firefight system they added to the game was also kinda meh), but the campaign, soundtrack, story, and even graphics hold to this day and make you feel something uncaptured by any other game.
One of the potential angles of reading the Halo series from a religious perspective is the potential for realizing the manufactured nature of a lot of the present religious elements. Yes, John-117 is being a savior, but John was also a child that was taken from his family and made into that being which can be a savior. And we can see similar things in the Covenant too: ever notice how all the bits of their religion we know about basically all return to the idea of "Serve the Prophets"? What we get to see in this exchange of religious symbols vs religious symbols as the marines and elites duke it out is a peek into the mechanisms of social control in these various societies. We learn that Earth as a side is willing to destroy people to create its heroes to push its colonialist efforts (mind you not saying that Earth is genocidal but they definitely are pushing into the rest of the galaxy and that behavior has a whole fuckin history behind it). We also learn that The Covenant is a faction so removed from logic on a larger level that their societal forces all push someone towards wanting to serve the Prophets in their ever-expansionist and explicitly genocidal-if-they-don't-join-us plots. So in the end, we learn that Humanity and The Covenant are really not all that different.
This was further expanded, Spartan Black team (?) I believe on ONIs orders destroyed a Sangheili colony planet out of nothing but pure Dresden fueled spite to show the covenant humanity were not afraid to show their fangs and commit horrible war ctimes themselves if pushed
I believe ONI are humanities answer to the covenant
@@someirishguy1662 I guess it would have been a bit too on the nose if Chief was fighting DAEMON units
When you learn more about the story you learn that the UNSC *needed* the Spartans. Ends justifying the means and all that. As for humans expanding into the galaxy: is that so wrong? To cement our own place in space?
@@oniemployee3437 I wouldn't say so. The Innies were an excuse to experiment on Children after their first supersoldier project failed. In reality the UNSC never needed Spartans to take out the Innies.
The Covenant yes, but that's just a lucky coincidence, which goes in toe with Halo's theme of humanity being the perfect mix of luck and tenacity that keeps us going.
Also, idk man. Expanding into the galaxy is cool and all but you learn that a lot of the Innies are just people who were neglected because of the never ending expansion of humanity.
dude i’ve been obsessed with ODST recently so the timing of this video is impeccable
I just want another ODST spin off game:(
I’d never heard ODST connected with Dante’s Inferno before, but as soon as you said it I knew exactly what you were talking about.
It was a massive "cannot unsee" moment.
It'd been mentioned on the wiki as far back as 2009 when it came out.
NGL the thumbnail is utterly beautiful, please make sure to thank whoever made it (unless it’s you) because it’s probably the best one yet.
Halo odst and it's atmosphere is soo good it really makes you feel small and alone as you use the bare minimum to survive and just like reach hope is all our main characters have in the end considering that the covenant won with sheer numbers alone
My favorite Halo game. Since I was a kid and saw my first ODST fighting alongside Chief, I always wanted to be one of them. This game gave me that and so much more.
Exactly, those first team ups in Halo 2 then actually dropping with them, i used to watch a lot the "another day at the beach" cinematic
I've been waiting for someone to cover ODST's deeper themes in a proper video essay format. Good job, you've earned a sub!
ODST and Reach will always be my top 2 Halo games mainly because of the tone, atmosphere and setting. It truly felt like you were fighting a losing war against the Covenant. Even though it was shown and explained that humanity was losing in the other games I never felt like we were. Though that was probably because we were playing as Master Chief.
Probably one of the most immersive halo campaigns in the series. The sounds and the environment while sneaking through the streets of new mambasa was a great experience. Suggest playing on Legendary for the full experience.
I just love Rookie, he's my favorite character in the Halo universe (and i say that as a guy who actually read some of the books). This faceless nobody who slinks around a dying city, investigating and picking up clues like an honest-to-God noir detective, complete with rain-slicked darkened streets and a saxophone in the background. Not only does he track down his squad, he goes out of his way to solve a completely unrelated case along the way, bring a corrupt cop to justice, and make friends with an alien who wordlessly helps him throughout the whole quest by tapping into the City's AI, leading him around with car alarms and holographic street signs.
finished halo 3 odst a few days ago, missed a few of the audio transcripts but otherwise i tried my best to not miss a thing
man was it a great experience. everything of that game is so well done and the gameplay is really fun
gonna edit once i finish the vid as many people do lol
edit: i forgor……….
Been 2 years ? How long’s the edit
@@bryanleslie2617 iii forgor
The dates inferno themes around sadies story is so good.
I always really enjoyed the struggle of the rookie in order as compared to the chief. In a weird way I felt like I had more consequences to my actions. With ammo and armor scarcity, my choices for plan-of-attack felt more focused. The ai was intelligent enough to know (or not know my actions) and made me feel like everything I did had a bigger consequence than mainline games.
I always felt there was more of a story for odst but I did skip all the logs. Thanks for this video! It helped me understand why it's easily one of my favorite games of all time.
You know what would further reinforce how badass Chief is and how powerful his enemies are?
A sequel to ODST where you fight the Flood when they invade earth in H3
Thank you for bringing me even more love to one of my favorite games of all time. I will never forget the excitement leading up to release - my walls were plastered with the pull-out posters from the XBOX magazine special issue on ODST! and it is incredible that over ten years later this six-to-eight hour game still surprises us.
One of the most under-rated channels for video game essays, great work as always!
Ima correct you, ODST isn’t a rank, it’s a special forces group like if the navy seals was their own thing. Any branch can submit their personal to be a ODST IF they make the cut, which is extremely difficult
bro wanna be different
@@apgroup5988hes right but its only marines
They are a halfway house between the standard troops and spartans. Special forces is what the ODST’s are.
Oh no.. he trooned out 1 year later.. 😔😔
@@tito3640 Who?
Title: "What was Halo: ODST trying to say?"
First line of CC: "we are dropping into hell bloopers time to go up here"
This is one of my favorite video essays, on Halo, just in general. I aspire one day to make art that has people picking apart its themes and all that.
ODST had a dramatic shift in the themes, characters, setting, dialogue, atmosphere, level design, and enemies, yet it's still distinctly a Halo game. The fact that such a wild spinoff stands as a masterpiece in its own right speaks volumes about Bungie's talent back then.
Dead on, finding all the logs was an experience. I'm grateful to the devs for one hell of a game franchise.
your voice sounds so good, glad you've made this much progress
If only rookie became the legend in the making, would have honestly love to see him being so close to hell, rising out of its ashes like a phoenix
game came out on my birthday... knew from the trailers I would love it... my brother got me loving the odst since h2, and It's still cemented as my favourite halo game to date.
That soundtrack always gets me in the feels
I started playing these games for the first time recently and ODST was so refreshing after going through the first trilogy
fun fact:the cutscene changes when you meet vergil if you found all the logs
if you do it at first with no logs, its just a told to stand down or something
do it with the audio logs, and you just whistle them over
Glad to see ODST is getting more recognition over time. Honestly my favorite game ever since it came out, I played the shit out of this before getting internet and being introduced to online halo multiplayer
I never played halo 3 or odst.. didn't actually know what odst was till now
But near the end of the video you mentioned about seeing master chief from another point of view
That makes me think about raiden, how you are seeing how cool solid snake is from afar
14:26 Sometimes the death animations are just laughable in the Halo 3 engine. But that one?
That was perfect.
I love this game so much, everything about it is great for me, the audiologs, combat and music in the city
I love your use of the theatre mode to add in clips, especially after Oni alpha site showing the rookie sneaking through the tunnel. I've played this game to death and you nail how it feels to play and I just love everything about this :3
As a big halo fan I'll be hoping for a video on Reach, but we will see o.o
This is my favorite game in the franchise. However, the marketing set completely different expectations compared to what we got. If you were to go off of the marketing, you would expect each flashback to show a less than heroic death of each of your squad mates, with you being the last to die or the only one to make it out. Instead we get a decent story, but not carrying the tension the marketing suggested. My guess for why they didn't do that is because Halo reach was coming out a year later and had a story similar to what I just described and they didn't want the two to feel too similar.
Thank you! I never got all this during my playthrough. I only recently played ODST for the first time and I fell in love with it, especially the Rookie part. Given, it was claustrofobic in a way and scary to me, but it was so different from Halo in general that I loved it, despite pooping my pants. It is definetly a game I will go back to after I finish Halo 4.
I didn't find all the audio logs on my playthrough, but I will do my best to try and find them on the 2nd run.
Now I'm off to watch your Halo 3 video.
(A quick sidenote on Halo 4, I really loved the beginning of it; you're alone, have no idea where and what's going on. It really drove home the feeling of desolace, and in a way I wished it would've stayed that way. It became pretty basic Halo game after you encounter the other humans. Given, I haven't finished it yet, but something just was lost when MC wasn't alone anymore. I'm still curious how the story will turn out though.)
I played this game recently with the MCC on PC. I did not put much thought into the game when playing, collected a few logs and went on to 3. Really puts the game into a interesting perspective I would've otherwise missed
I have heard some of this but it's good that you put it in your own words and share it with other fans, good work I know it took long.
Thanks for making me remember, why I love Halo and why it became my favorite game. You gave me tears and good emotions.
Hey man. Phenomenal Video! I really like your addition and development on the Inferno theory. I hate to be the "That was me" guy, but I genuinely thought I had cracked some massive easter egg when I first coined this theory with Scatcycle of the SGP. (You can actually see my original post regarding this at 5:14 on Gruntspyjamas.
We knew that Sadie's Story was an allegory, but finding out that there was something of substance within the actual levels was awesome. After we had developed this, I had intended to get down to breaking into the WHY. Why was ODST an allegory? What purpose did it serve. I don't think I could have done that anywhere NEAR as well as you have done - I think it could be developed further, but I think at this point it is out of my hands.
Man this was a good ass video, your halo videos are easily my favorite i hope you do more
This is why I love your channel! Great in-depth research and I love knowing these!
I finished ODST for the 1st time 2 days ago...What a perfect timing!! Amazing videos and work!
Just a small nitpick, the actual work of Dante Alighieri isn’t called “Dante’s Inferno”, it’s called “The Divine Comedy”. The inferno bit is just a small portion of the work.
I hadn't seen the Halo 3 vid, so when you asked me to go watch it I did.
Your voice has changed a lot over the last year. Well done, I can't imagine that's easy.
My god, this Game was my childhood. It had a beautiful dark ambience when roaming the cities at night. I miss you bungie.
ODST is my absolute favorite Halo game, thank you for giving it the love it deserves
The drop cutscene in the begging of the game is probably the best cutscene in the whole series.
drop into hell what the ODST would say is actually just in reference to the fire that would generate underneath their feet from dropping feet first into orbit but it plays nicely into the rest of the actual references to religous symbolism
missed you, lead! looking forward to more
i. i did not realize there were that many audio logs. i thought there were, like, 10, all along the roughly set path of the game. i kinda wondered why it felt so disjointed and incomplete.......
By far my favorite Halo game just because of the themes. Been waiting for this one!
I was just a kid when I played this and kids always make things more atmospheric and I genuinely felt I could see New Manbasa in my house
I loved this and love your videos. Thanks so much for making this! Adding it to my favorites
ok, ive finished watching the video now, and wow, that ending quote hit hard. great vid, friend
Out of all the times I've played odst, I never knew about the rogue cop...
Your voice is getting better :)
i really like the progress you're making with your voice, you sound so good !!
This was such a good video, I knew about the religious allegories in Halo but not to this extent with ODST, I think you just convinced me that ODST is my favorite story in Halo. Def subbed
I'm very very glad you focused on Vergil. I've always wanted there to be a video that just focused on all the things he can do throughout the game to try and indirectly communicate with you
I had never considered the Inferno allegory, thank you for your take I very much enjoyed your perspective and it will resonate with my playthroughs.
20:05 the fall damage give your first look at the landscape covered in red. It was right there the whole time. Amazing game.
Jumping into hell isnt your job. Making sure it's crowded when you get there is.
"Kinsler gave me real specific instructions, make sure the doc's dead and make double sure no one knows about it" and he rams a table while saying it at 14:15 lol XD
Holy shit your voice is so pretty! Thanks for the awesome Halo video
Babe wake up new leadhead video
I felt bad for that cop on my first playthrough, he usually gets ripped to shreds by drones if you don’t do Sadie’s audio logs. Now I don’t feel so bad!
This was an amazing look at this game. Definitely made me look at some aspects of it in a way I might not have before.
I really enjoyed ODST for its atmosphere and unique story. Still I was completely oblivious to any of this. One final brilliant nuance is that the protagonist is an ODST, an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, which aligns perfectly with their decent into hell. What a brilliant set of writers for this game. Love these literary analysis videos.
The part about people just doing "fan-service for Christianity" is way too true
Great video, but did I miss the part where you explained those glyphs being “relevant to virgil”? I was pretty sold on rocket sloths recent breakdown on the deeper meaning of them mostly being nonexistent, where they instead acted as “stars” in player generated head cannon/lore “constellations”
He forgot to mention it, but the glyphs are drawn by the engineers, like the one that absorbed Virgil.
Halo and The Divine Comedy : two of my favorites things
Before I even watch this video I have to say this game struck me in my soul with just something I can’t even explain it might’ve been the soundtrack it might’ve been the story and the nuances, but this game will always have a place in my heart for whatever it did to me however it touched me, it’s one of my favorite experiences I’ve ever had in my life
Your voice is sounding great
Never quite uploading you really have come into your own as a content creator
Fun fact, if you DONT get all the audio logs, after the cop dies to the drones and you walk up to that same door you can hear Sadie behind the door. It's one line of dialogue and i don't remember what it says exactly
Also virgil never helped the unsc. There was a tie in book (because of course there is) that goes further into depth with Johnsons and Virgils initial interaction at the ending of odst
Man i remember being a kid back in the day getting this game with my parents as soon as it came out, how times have changed ;-;
Good point about the survival aspects of the game! I’d argue it did a better job of portraying Halo: Reach’s themes then Halo: Reach did
Your voice is so gentle, I could listen to you talk for hours
"these ODSTs and virgil are probably the reason ultimately won the war" im gonna be real, this is a bad take. the only reason humanity had a chance was elite support bc of the great schism. like the intel on the ark was probably useful but literally nothing couldve been done without the help of the arbiter and his faction, humanity was in absolute shambles by the time the plot of halo 3 starts. hell i think the fleet that goes to the ark only has 2 human ships in it, the rest being elite faction forces.
I think it was just "Forward onto Dawn" and the rest of the fleet were Elite ships, I could be wrong though.
I cringe when people see Master Chief as a Christ figure as well. Makes me cringe.
@@BigGainer98 okay but his story literally was designed as a Jesus allegory
Dude...holy fucking shit, you have no idea how timely this felt for me. I LITERALLY just finished ODST and i can't help but recontextualize everything now. I thought the logs were actually really good companion pieces, especially when it filled my hears fighting covenant troops or the void of the new Mombasa loneliness, but man....i have to sit down