Zodi Plays: Halo ODST (Halo of the Wild)

[DataNinja]

So, fun facts time! You know how there was discussion recently about how there are no human enemies in Halo? There is one, actually. If you collect 29 of the 30 data logs, you find out the human cop dude who accompanies you through some of this level is actually corrupt (big surprise) and is a minion of the corrupt captain who's shown up as an antagonist to the person central to the data logs. (This was why the Superintendent didn't let him in without Rookie, and why the AI used the "warning, hitchhiker's may be escaped convicts" line.)

Basically, if you have 29 data logs , you find out that the dude's there to make sure that the corrupt cop finished the job of killing some certain humans (including the one who programmed Superintendent). And so he turns on you instead of dying to the drones, and tries to kill you so you can't reveal this to anyone else. (And this is how you get the 30th data log.) ...it's not worth finding them all.


Ah, man. You missed the flamethrower in the frozen section. That's there for... some reason.


Guarantee the scripted Engineer door sequence is so they could do loading zone stuff.


Also! You get an achievement if you never kill a single Engineer all game!


Another fun fact: If you get all of the audio logs, The Rookie will be the one to make contact with the Engineer instead of Dare.

[Lord Raziere]

Halo ODST Profile:
Veronica Dare
Surprisingly light and sparse: Born on Actium in 2515, making her 47 years old at this time, graduate of the naval academy, and is a member of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), she was at one point in a romantic relationship with Edward Buck as was assigned to some ship as an Intelligence Officer, she survived the Fall of Reach but what exactly she was doing and why she was with Buck remains unknown.

So we're going to have some cross-digging here: Buck is five years older than her, making him 53. He enlisted at 18 on Draco III in 2528, Veronica would be 13 on a completely different colony and too young so it can't be a teenage thing, meaning any relationship they would've had to have would be at the earliest, started in Year 2533, the year that Veronica would be 18, but I'm not sure how Buck would have the time for such a relationship with all the battles he has been in. They're in different branches of the military so the fraternization thing isn't actually a concern, thats more an internal chain of command thing, the 2533 date has no notable events on it other than the birth of some future Spartan-III's (no relation), so I guess its possible that they might date for a few months then went their separate ways.

Finding another wiki article on her with different information and this sheds more light: She actually first dated Buck in 2545 at Castellenata, Saturn. apparently they only spent a week together before they broke up. Yeah, I don't see these two insist on caring about each other this much. in 2546, Dare ordered Buck during the Battle of Sargasso to retrieve important research data from a laboratory, OnI wanted it scret because standard op procedure would let the covenant know about the data, and apparently Buck disobeyed an ordered and got reprimanded by her for it but not much of any other punishment and Dare would not be seen by Buck for another six years. also retrieving the data was disobeying the Cole Protocol because ONI didn't want its research being destroyed.

Thoughts:
So yeah, leave it to an ONI agent to have the most boring backstory. apparently ONI's cover up game extends beyond the fourth wall, because there is no way an ONI agent isn't involved in shady or screwed up operation. whatever is important about her is strictly a secret of this game.

Halo ODST Log 007: The ONI That Loved Me
*James Bond Music*

VERGIL is the superintendent AI of the city of Mombasa, and can only communicate in pre-recorded messages that Dataninja was talking about earlier. "HITCHHIKERS MAY BE ESCAPED CONVICTS" is just another message that it applied to this situation because it can't do much else.

also the enemies are lower in number here: you only see a couple at a time compared to the active warzone parts in the flashbacks. yeah it is low key compared to the others, perhaps this is what was more intended?

yeah it feels like she doesn't even remembers Rookie, she just assumes the ODST is some random trooper who wandered in or something.

well in a real war situation the bug troops would keep to the skies and swarm at you in the thousands while firing downwards to kill everyone under them rather then wander into easily aimable tight spaces in the first place. surprisingly, real life good strategy on the part of the enemy makes for bad gameplay, you have to program some stupidity to make it fun.

"the AI told the brute to spay and neuter its pets thats super rude"- Zodi
I mean the AI is made by UNSC and the covenant is invading the city that the AI watches over. considering that it doesn't have any guns to open fire on it in retaliation, I think rudeness is more than called for.

and so this all comes ahead: she is pretty much on a secret mission to escort the Engineer out of here and use its information against the Covenant. pretty smart to find an alien willing to work for their side. that is big. no wonder its important.

well....lets be honest Zodi: its a prequel/interquel game. there is never anything new at the end. the journey really matters more than the destination, and whats new is more about the perspective and the people in that perspective compared to Master Chief. is it that much different? eeeeeeeh, maybe not. but it still gives some perspective on the universe of Halo that you wouldn't have without it and you can see what they intended to go for even if they didn't achieve it. if the differences between an ODST and a Spartan were more dramatic in gameplay, perhaps this would be pulled off better? but that would require buffing Spartan gameplay to something else. like imagine implementing mechanics for Spartan Time and and doing Doom Guy style melee attacks that instead pull off a "military professional takedown" feel rather than Doom guy's berserker style, things that make MC feel like your playing a superhero or an unstoppable juggernaut who just so happens to shoot guns while ODSTs get normal shooter gameplay.

[LaZodiac]

It's time to finish this... fight? Excursion into a dead city?

Zodi Plays: Halo ODST [8] [FINALE] Passing The Buck

Video Length: 44:10

In this episode, we go through the final level of ODST... which seems far, far too soon for that to happen! We then ramble a bit about it and the purpose of interquel games. Overall I think it i IS possible for a game like this to matter, they just need to have it unveil a thing hidden in the main games, or explain some seeming plothole between the two. Explain something, at the very least. ODST though is uh... none of these.

Still a really fun game though!

[Lord Raziere]

Halo ODST Log 008:
In which Buck's two subordinates, tired of his stupid romance decide to be insubordinate and eventually murder him, considering him a bigger enemy than the Covenant, also possibly because they don't like looking at Nathan Fillion.

"why would you torture yourself like that?"- I dunno because some people really liked Firefly? to torture other people with it? the concept of putting on a goof skin you yourself don't care that much for but other people hate more to annoy them is not an unknown phenomenon in multiplayer gaming.

yeah all things considered. I think I like Halo Reach better in comparison.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Ah, wrecking all the Covenant with a fuel rod cannon as they jump out of phantoms. You love to see it.

To answer the question of "do the engineers feature in any other games", yes, they are in Reach and Halo Wars. None of them are as cute as Vergil though.

[Lord Raziere]

Epilogue: Where are they now?
Yeah about none of them dying.....

Spoiler

Show

Rookie would die two years later on a mission to Draco III, after the Covenant War had ended. He would be taken prisoner by Insurrectionists and then shot in the head by their leader Captain Ingridson when Team Alpha Nine managed to get near her.

Micky who had hesitated to shoot the leader would be blamed by Romeo for Rookie's death after they killed her. The groups harmony was lost, the team would be dissolved, Buck Romeo and Mickey would go on to become Spartan IV's. Mickey however would betray Buck and Romeo to Insurrectionists himself, and be imprisoned for life for it. But then during the Created conflict would be broken out of prison to help fight robots and thus reuniting Team Alpha Nine

Veronica Dare would eventually marry Buck during the Created conflict. In a bar. Moments after she proposed. by some guy named Roland, onboard some ship named "Infinity", with both Team Osiris and Alpha Nine in attendance

Before the reunification of Alpha Nine, it is rumored that Romeo was caught sleeping with the admiral's wife and was sent to escort liaisons to the Unnogy government on Balaho as punishment.

Edward Buck would continue to be Nathan Fillion, thats as many as four tens and thats terrible.

spoilered only because these events technically involve later games, in that they in orbit around their events, but not really important to anything.

[Rynjin]

Did Nathan Fillion kill your dog or something?

[LaZodiac]

Did Nathan Fillion kill your dog or something?

Naw. He's just a diva star who treats people like **** in real life, so I'm not a big fan.

Additionally; his voice acting and the lines given are annoying to listen to since they play so often, so we wanted to avoid them as much as we could.

[DataNinja]

Aaaah. Zodi died as she lived. Explosively.

Still a really fun game though!

Well, I'm glad things changed from the first few episodes. (I wonder what caused that...)



Last fun fact for the LP: The Engineer who merged with Vergil's name is "Quick to Adjust." (Huragok make more Huragok by taking 2 or more of them, and then taking materials and literally building a new one, who is a mixture of all the 'parent' Huragok. It's quicker (and the new Engineer has more experiences) the more that partake in the process. Their names come from the result after they're filled with buoyant gasses for the first time: Lighter Than Some, Prone to Drift, Sometimes Sinks, Drifts Randomly, and Requires Adjustment are all known Huragok names.)

---

However! Engineers! I left these off during my "ramble about the Covenant", for obvious reasons. Huragok occupy a... strange hierarchy in the Covenant. They are a non-Covenant species, and are pretty much helpful to... anyone. They were actually made by the Forerunners (which never has relevancy in any game), and get irate when people try and hurt Forerunner stuff. They're the reason the Covenant tech really works. Since it's all reverse-engineered Forerunner stuff, most of it's not even understood by the Covenant.

This not-actual-Covenant affiliation is really why they got bombs stuck to them. So they'd be blown up if anyone tried to capture one. Since it was known that they don't actually care who's side you're on.

So, yeah. Forerunner biological supercomputers. They mostly stick to themselves, but can be real friendly if they like you. Post-war, a lot of them stuck around with the UNSC, helping to ensure the technological superiority over the remnants of the fractured Covenant post-3.

[LaZodiac]

I live!

And Reach begins!