Zodi Plays: Halo ODST (Halo of the Wild)

[Lord Raziere]

I saw the Halo collection on the steam sale so I got it now. haven't actually played it though, because I've either played it before or seen lets plays of most of the main campaign stuff on there, and I've got be careful about disc space, so if I do play it myself it'll be either out of nostalgia or to play multiplayer.

Halo ODST Log 003:
yes, good levels and realistically speaking, humans doing their best fighting of the covenant with vehicles rather than human ground troops would be more effective: it allows you destroy vehicles and kill larger amounts of covenant soldiers, thus allowing you to take out strategic points and enemies faster.

open world games are better with environments and a sandbox you can shape however you want anyways. structured story games putting open world stuff into their thing was always a bit weird to me. like open world works best if its primarily designed to be open world: you have to be dedicated to the concept to make it work, so you can fill out all the things you can do in that world, which focusing on a structured story and such takes away from. that and there are franchises that are good for open world, but Halo probably isn't one of them, given that to me, it just doesn't have enough flesh on its bone to be open world: its a barebones shooter experience to play a hero, and it doesn't detail much of the world outside of that experience.

Edit: I just found that the closest thing to the Rookie's real name we have is Lance Corporal J.D. this is funny to me, because JD is the same initials as John Dorian from Scrubs, and now I think of the Rookie as a John Dorian clone whose flashbacks to what his companions are doing are his version of JD-style imagine spots.

[Ninja_Prawn]

When you were like "yay rocket launcher" at the start, that gave me flashbacks. There's an achievement for getting 10 kills with the rocket launcher on that level, and I must have spent at least an hour re-starting this mission over and over until I managed it (I didn't know at the time that there is extra ammo hidden somewhere). Getting 10 kills with 2 shots on a mission that doesn't feature a lot of covenant infantry is not easy.

[Lord Raziere]

Also I'd like to give some profiles, some background of the squad members in ODST before the Battle of Mombasa (the current battle your playing through in ODST) since the game doesn't go into it:

Lance Corporal JD Aka "Rookie"
Born in Crisium City, Naniwa, Luna (Yes he is born on the moon and its confirmed the Rookie is male), on February 9, 2525, and enlisted the marine corps in July 7, 2547, so he was 22 at the time, despite his lack of combat experience he volunteered and was accepted into the ODST. He completed his ODST training in 2552, five years later at age 27, he was deployed to the Battle of New Jerusalem in the Cygnus system against the Covenant. he saw most if nearly all his fellow troopers die in battle.

Weeks after that, he participated in the Raid on Mount Haven. charged with defending the transport of a Forerunner artifact. But he responded to a distress call by a veteran ODST named Gave Yevgenny, who himself had gone against orders (the orders being to steal a bunch of gold in a separate clandestine operation from a colony's bank, presumably to fund the war effort) in order to save civilian children even though there weren't enough pelicans to carry both the children and gold being transported, the other ODSTs arguing that the children and teacher were as good as dead. Gave used a Pelican to pick up the artifacts the Covenant were looking for, hoping to lure the covenant away in pursuit of the relics, but his fellow ODSTs "accidentally" shot him down. Gave knew he was dying and told Rookie his tragic life story, Rookie promised to remember him then told Rookie to get away from the crash site, as he was going to detonate a nuclear warhead.

Rookie did so, and when he reached the other side of the mountain, Gave detonated it, taking out both the covenant forces and the renegade ODSTs. Rookie was the only survivor and he would always remember Gave's sacrifice. he was then assigned as a replacement for an ODST who died during the Fall of Reach, and they they gave him the call sign "Rookie".

Commentary on Rookie:
"Rookie" is kind of a misnomer considering his background. He has arguably seen more death and combat than most people do in their lives and has been the only survivor of battles against the Covenant twice. Considering he is an ODST, the guy must've had high marks or something. It makes sense that he would searching for his squad mates given that has undergone two situations were he was the only or one of the few survivors and wants to find as many as he can.

ODSTs receive months of intense training: three weeks of rigorous training to get physically fit, practice jumping from high places to prepare for transorbital drops, things like that this time period is also the opportunity for people to drop out if they can't keep up and be returned to their previous unit. then they work on squad tactics and teamwork, one example being they must climb up a mountain to its peak. in full ODST armor. occasionally the instructors shoot a trainee in the leg with a paralysis round meant for training...and if they don't speed up, they are shot in the other leg to, forcing them to crawl all the way there, and this training simulation would be repeated several times with added difficulties.

and what they're actually meant to do as missions is various specialized, small-scale, high risk operations involving things long ranged reconnaissance behind enemy lines. These guys are meant to go in first to hostile hellish environments before anyone else and establish things like landing points, they are expected to be flexible enough to adapt to any situation, they're all about that guerilla operations and tip of the spear stuff, seeing themselves as commandos, and many ODSTs see being returned to unit as highly humiliating and worse than death because they believe in their own competence so much. They even have a one-sided rivalry with the Spartans, probably originating from when MC himself killed two ODSTs when he was a teenager due to some stupid fight that wasn't really over anything the ODSTs were just being jerks, and they call Spartans "glory-hungry bullet catchers".

So yeah, thats the kind of soldiers Rookie is working with and the kind of training he went through to be one of them. he went through a lot in a short amount of time, and still going through a lot as he battles through Mombasa, instead of just trying to escape or something.

[LaZodiac]

All that context is going to make a very silly joke I make next episode much funnier, so thanks Raziere

It truly is amusing they put all this backstory into a character who has no spoken lines of dialogue or even face, and due to how this game works is Sir Not Appearing In This Video'd Game.

[LaZodiac]

Speaking of which, funny joke time.

Zodi Plays: Halo ODST [4] Dutch and Mickey Adventures

Video Length: 14:52

Coming right off the heels of last time, we continue the adventures of Dutch and Mickey as they run a fire-fight through the city, across a bridge that leads to the ONY ONI Data Center, assisting the military forces that are heading in that direction to completely destroy the place, so as to prevent any remnant Covenant forces from snatching our valuable secret soldier black ops data. Even without knowing that these guys are super super SUPER evil and thus kinda coercing the military into doing this, it DOES make sense for this squad to do this. The Covenant gaining more of our information would be bad.

But it does speak to a certain... texture, that the military is focused on destroying its own assets than outright stopping the threat. Maybe it's because the Covenant is just too big to stop, so they are intentionally fighting a losing war, but... well, it's not a good look.

Meanwhile, Dutch and Mickey just want to blow things up and survive. That's fair. Go team. Hope you all enjoyed, we'll see you all next time.

[Aeson]

In the NATO phonetic alphabet, Foxtrot represents the letter 'F.' "Get yourself foxtrotted" therefore means "Get yourself f...ed."

[PoeticallyPsyco]

But it does speak to a certain... texture, that the military is focused on destroying its own assets than outright stopping the threat. Maybe it's because the Covenant is just too big to stop, so they are intentionally fighting a losing war, but... well, it's not a good look.

Yeah, at this point in the war pretty much everyone knows humanity has lost (in the military at least; ONI has done a remarkably competent job of keeping that under wraps and preventing civilian panic). They're clinging on with everything they have left and hoping for a miracle that can turn the tide, because the Covenant (or more specifically, the Prophets of Truth, Regret, and Mercy) won't accept anything less than their eradication.

[Lord Raziere]

Halo ODST Log 004:
Well a bridge makes sense to blow up: vehicles and ground troops will have harder time attacking you if they're on the other side of the water. even guns get more inaccurate with range, and now you can focus on the aircraft to make sure they don't screw things up.

Zodi how are you still alive, normally you don't live this long without your shields

as for the ONI facility..... admittedly it made more sense when it was the Cole Protocol, but I can see why they are so scorched earth about all this. but I mean they're already on Earth now. the reason this is still following the protocol would be to prevent them from finding literally all the colonies humanity has made. which......fair given the Covenant have been pretty genocidal about this.

But yeah, I wonder how much of the covenant War was basically humans blowing up their own stuff while the Covenant finds the ruined remains and are like:
Elite 1: "again!? these heretics are stubborn, they just want to die as slowly as possible, don't they?"
Elite 2: "Well we are killing every single one of them down to every last civilian man, woman and child. I don't think they appreciate that."
Elite 1:"Well surely its what they deserve after whatever diplomatic incident that resulted in war being declared on them."
Elite 2:"Well a bunch of kig-yar privateers discovered a human ships and started raiding them because they can, they lost, then there was some diplomacy between the humans towards brutes and those flying bug guys with the humans trying to be diplomatic, but then a grunt attacked a militia member and everything went south, oh and the prophets were already planning on using forerunner relics to declare a new age of reclamation anyways and decided to declare a holy war of genocide because they didn't like humans being forerunners."
Elite 1:"....wow that makes us sound like the villains."
Elite 2: "Huh.....it actually kind of does...."
Elite 1:"Wait how did know all that anyways? isn't that info secret if it got out would basically destroy the Covenant?"
Elite 2: "Well you see-" *A Brute bursts in*
Brute: "He's right! Time to silence both of you heretics for knowing that!"
Elite 1: "....wait your the assassin sent to kill us? Your a brute! You don't know stealth!"
Brute: "Eh, we're all the prophets really have as far as secret police go. Its why they need a fake religion to convince everyone what we do is holy, because we can't do subtle at all, unlike ONI."
*shoots them both with a brute shot*

[LaZodiac]

In the NATO phonetic alphabet, Foxtrot represents the letter 'F.' "Get yourself foxtrotted" therefore means "Get yourself f...ed."

Aah, yes, right. I should know this.

Halo ODST Log 004:
Well a bridge makes sense to blow up: vehicles and ground troops will have harder time attacking you if they're on the other side of the water. even guns get more inaccurate with range, and now you can focus on the aircraft to make sure they don't screw things up.

Zodi how are you still alive, normally you don't live this long without your shields

as for the ONI facility..... admittedly it made more sense when it was the Cole Protocol, but I can see why they are so scorched earth about all this. but I mean they're already on Earth now. the reason this is still following the protocol would be to prevent them from finding literally all the colonies humanity has made. which......fair given the Covenant have been pretty genocidal about this.

Look it's the raw power of Having A Hammer. I'm invincible!

But yeah, I wonder how much of the covenant War was basically humans blowing up their own stuff while the Covenant finds the ruined remains and are like:
Elite 1: "again!? these heretics are stubborn, they just want to die as slowly as possible, don't they?"
Elite 2: "Well we are killing every single one of them down to every last civilian man, woman and child. I don't think they appreciate that."
Elite 1:"Well surely its what they deserve after whatever diplomatic incident that resulted in war being declared on them."
Elite 2:"Well a bunch of kig-yar privateers discovered a human ships and started raiding them because they can, they lost, then there was some diplomacy between the humans towards brutes and those flying bug guys with the humans trying to be diplomatic, but then a grunt attacked a militia member and everything went south, oh and the prophets were already planning on using forerunner relics to declare a new age of reclamation anyways and decided to declare a holy war of genocide because they didn't like humans being forerunners."
Elite 1:"....wow that makes us sound like the villains."
Elite 2: "Huh.....it actually kind of does...."
Elite 1:"Wait how did know all that anyways? isn't that info secret if it got out would basically destroy the Covenant?"
Elite 2: "Well you see-" *A Brute bursts in*
Brute: "He's right! Time to silence both of you heretics for knowing that!"
Elite 1: "....wait your the assassin sent to kill us? Your a brute! You don't know stealth!"
Brute: "Eh, we're all the prophets really have as far as secret police go. Its why they need a fake religion to convince everyone what we do is holy, because we can't do subtle at all, unlike ONI."
*shoots them both with a brute shot*

[Lord Raziere]

Y'know....its a real shame, now that I think about it. there is no way your going to get an ODST for the Covenant side, because they've repeatedly unwillingness for you to fire on humans in any capacity unless its multiplayer, which actually has a canonical explanation of those actually being a form of Spartan-IV training, who are spartans that made after MC, and basically has the same capabilities but without the need for child soldiers. basically they figured out how pump people full of drugs without MC's lifetime training regimen, and are instead drawn from the normal military.

like, for some reason we'll just never get even a level where where we fire on a bunch of humans, because apparently this franchise is all about shooting aliens, fungus zombies and robots. even though there is still the Insurrection, a completely human force to fight that MC was originally designed for. they just seemingly got pushed aside as a concern once the covenant war got going, but apparently are still around in some form given that UNSC kind had to focus all their resources on stopping the Covenant, and a lot of colonies cut off contact as a result because they were abandoned, and its not that long since it ended. you'd think an ODST game about fighting the Insurrections with a greyer more screwed up conflict would be a better sadder premise for the games tone than we got to, because the ODSTs would be around for that conflict but not the spartans, and it would explore a little seen portion of Halo lore in a videogame for once, and its not as if they don't have the assets or the ability to do it, they got concept art and everything of what insurrectionists look like, their weapons would probably be very similar to UNSC ones, and they even had this thing called rumbledrugs they'd use to combat freaking spartan-IIs, which granted is basically a sacrifice/kaio-ken kind of play given that it causes massive physiological damage afterwards and also cause mental instability, but for a faction we never see or fight, they're pretty well thought out in terms of how they work.

[Rynjin]

Spoiler: for Reach(?) I Genuinely Don't Remember Which Game This Is

Show

I was going to dispute that, because I was like "isn't one of the levels in Reach(?)" about you being sent in to combat an insurrectionist group, but then I remembered the Covenant wiped out everybody before you even got there so *shrug*.

[DataNinja]

Prolly wanna spoiler that, Rynjin, since Zodi hasn't played Reach, and is going in blind.

[Rynjin]

Sure, though I'm not actually sure it was from Reach.

[DataNinja]

Man, yeah, these levels sure are a lot shorter-feeling without the wandering.

I'm kinda sad that you've been talking over the city Superintendent AI, because, especially here, because it's a dumb AI with limited intelligence, and can only communicate in pre-programmed messages. (Such as helping direct the Rookie through "ATTENTION PARTY OF ONE, COME IMMEDIATELY TO LOST AND FOUND! LOWER LEVELS.") The bridge scene makes me laugh, though, because it finally acquiesces to having the bridge blown up (after refusing with "KEEP IT CLEAN! RESPECT PUBLIC PROPERTY!") with "BRIDGE TOLL ACCEPTED. HAVE A PLEASANT TRIP." It does a lot with a little, and really helps give some charm.

Also, yeah, ONI kinda just wants none of their project data gotten, because A) don't want the last few colonies found, and B) they don't want the Covenant getting their hands on any ONI research - since Covenant don't tend to develop, just copy.

[Ninja_Prawn]

It's pretty on-brand for ONI to just be paranoid in general. They are spooks after all, and they probably have a lot of skeletons in their closets.

[DataNinja]

It's pretty on-brand for ONI to just be paranoid in general. They are spooks after all, and they probably have a lot of skeletons in their closets.

They likely have so many that their skeleton closets have their own skeleton closets.

[LaZodiac]

Wherefor art thou, Halo video? Right here.

Zodi Plays: Halo ODST [5] Regular Soldier Man

Video Length: 17:11

We take the reigns of Romeo, the... probably worst member of this team- but as a result, we get a sniper rifle, so that's cool. Truthfully, Nation Fillion and Romeo's abrasive personalities aside, this is probably one of the best levels so far. It's a fun run up to a big wave fight at the end, and because of the copious amount of missile turrets, it's actually quite enjoyable to play through. The only problem is, as we go over to a degree and will discuss more later; if this is a game where you're supposed to not feel like Master Chief, this level shows that that intended feel has failed. It failed with flying colours, and that's kind of impressive to me.

Anyway. Hope you all enjoyed. We'll see you all next time for more ODST!

[Lord Raziere]

Halo ODST Profiles:
Profile: Edward Buck
AKA: Nathan Fillion
Born in 2510, New albany, Lombard on Draco III, enlisted in the UNSC Marine Corps at 18 in the year 2528. He fought at the Battles of madrigal, The Great Bear, Liberation of Harvest, then was trained as an ODST then fought at the Battle of Vodin, Battle of Charybdis IX and Battle of Alluvion but still as normal marine member despite his ODST training. In 2545, Draco III was destroyed by the Covenant and Buck would joined the ODSTs fully, devastated at the loss of his home, friends and family. Then he fought at the battles of Sargasso and Bounty. He was also a survivor of the Fall of Reach.

Translation: Buck has seen a lot of battles. The guy is actually 42 years old and a Gunnery Sergeant. He has lost everything in this war, and has survived through some of its most horrible parts (Harvest, Reach). Madrigal was the fourth colony glassed by the Covenant, so he's been around since near the beginning. Also he at some point did have a romantic relationship with Veronica Dare, the Oni woman in as we know her. Apparently watching so many of fellow marines die left him thick-skinned and short fused. Guess he deals with his trauma with anger. Not much other than that.

As an aside: I would not be surprised if he was a clone of Nathan Fillion and some people in the future just have a thing for genetically engineering their children to look like famous actors. trends are going to get weird when we people figure out how to custom make biology.

Profile: Romeo
Real Name: Kojo Agu
He was born in 2524, in Castra on Madrigal. Considering what we just learned from Buck profile, he is age 28 and has also lost his home to the Covenant. Before enlisting he actually served in the UNSC commercial fleet, and bizarrely, he became an ODST, after he had an affair with a governor's wife on....the colony of Castra? That makes no sense, Castra was glassed as we just learned, but there was an evacuation of that attack with the insurrectionists even helping out...I guess it means they probably found a new colony and called it Castra or something and the governor was of the new Castra? huh. Anyways, the governor apparently called upon people he knew in the UNSC, who then sent him to be an ODST all to keep him away from his wife. That is seriously how he got in. what a privileged response to an affair. Guess we know why he's called Romeo.

Thing is, he is a sniper, and he served in multiple battles, with a 100% kill rate. thats pretty good shooting. He participated in the Battle of Ariel with Dutch. and one of the weirdest coincidences happen: he and Dutch express disbelief over Spartan fighting prowess. This caused another ODST Brimley to speak up.....who was the friend of the ODST Master Chief killed 27 years ago when he was a trainee who hadn't gotten his power armor yet, Romeo being a jerk ridiculed Brimley's dead friend for being killed by a teenager, a fight broke out and they were confined to their quarters for a while. Yeah don't make fun of a veteran's dead friend.

Later and Romeo and Dutch were cut off from the ODST unit, they learned the Covenant was digging for some relic, and after some fights and scouting and such, they basically find this Forerunner AI called "The Knowing." basically, it was an AI with knowledge that if the Covenant had could wipe out humanity somehow, so Romeo told it to self-destruct and it did, Dutch actually wanted to use it believing it to be beneficial, but Romeo insisted on destroying it as per ONI standing orders. Guess the scorched earth policy extends to the forerunner stuff and they didn't trust themselves to keep anything safe. Considering the track record of Guilty Spark and Mendicant Bias with Forerunner AI, it was probably for the best.

Then later Romeo filed a transfer paper to serve with Dutch on the same team, they're real good friends. and thats how we got here.

also he apparently racked up loads of conduct violations in his old unit, any of which could resulted in demotion or worse, and was only kept around because he is one of the best snipers in the UNSC. Thats pretty good marksmanship if they're look overlooking that. He also never been on Earth before this battle, guy is a colonist through and through. he is a Lance Corporal.

Thoughts:
Why does Romeo have a better backstory than Buck? Buck's is just a long list of battles he participated in, but Romeo here has a life, one of the weirder reasons for someone to join the ODSTs, and arguably saved humanity in one instance, but Buck is just Nathan Fillion in a digital suit. also apparently even the UNSC isn't above corruption and connections mattering enough to get you transferred for petty things, even while fighting a war for survival against the Covenant.

Halo ODST Log 005:
Hello and welcome back to ODST!

The only things I remember Nathan Fillion from are: Firefly, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and maybe other more recent stuff? I don't look into the lives of actors. they don't interest me. I come for stories and the people within them, not the people outside of them, generally speaking. so to me, I'm just seeing Malcom Reynolds and Captain Hammer be an ODST now.

I mean you can call Buck "Eddie" if you want to not be reminded that his Nathan Fillion. it is a canonical nickname for him. but Buck is his actual last name.

I mean.... historically? the Covenant's main advantage has always been the space battles. every time they get on the ground, it can go either way, its the fact the UNSC's spaceships are worse than Covenant ones in every way that makes them able to win. when its just ground troops, humans have a better track record in general against them even without MC being involved. The ground part of the Liberation of Harvest went pretty well, with UNSC ground forces taking back most of Harvest, its when they were bombarded from orbit they got screwed and the final battle of Harvest was a ground one because the Covenant was too concerned about recovering a Covenant artifact to glass the planet. so with every ground engagement with Covenant being the covenants goal to get something else other than the extermination of humanity, while humans not really caring about the artifacts themselves, you get the humans beating them back at times because they don't have to care about holding back.

But yeah I can see why ODST failed in its goal, that last battle was very "gameplay/story segregation" heavy with all those weapons.

[LaZodiac]

Honestly we only bring up the Nathan Fillion thing as a joke and conversation, not because I think he's a bad person (near I can tell he's basically just a diva and rude/pompous) but because it's, as you say, basically just Nathan Fillion in a CG suit, not an actual character.

I bet if you do the math, Romeo was probably having a fling with the colony's wife as the world was ending for them. That's basically the only reason why that one dude and the toaster poster girl from the new Battlestar Galactica are even on the show, wouldn't put it past them to reference it.

Romeo has a better story in that it is a story, but god is he genuinely just an unpleasant person. If anyone deserved to have horrible spikes slammed through his lungs, it is probably this blow hard right here. Badumtish.

[Lord Raziere]

so what your saying is that if I were to make fun of anyone in ODST with a Zapp Brannigan impression it should be Romeo, and focus on Buck being depressed that he is this clone designer baby who was genetically engineered to be a second Nathan Fillion and feeling he has to live up to his "ancestor"?

[DataNinja]

Man, it's like the thing that this game needed to make you like it was to discard all of the things that it was advertised as.
(But, yeah. Missile pod everything was silly, but also super fun.)

[LaZodiac]

Oh man, Halo times.

Zodi Plays: Halo ODST [6] Em's Good Joke

Video Length: 21:00

In which we play a kinda eh level, and Em tells a good joke. Truthfully, while I say this level isn't great... it's not terrible by any stretch. At the time, in the aftermath of it, it felt bad in comparison, but looking back on it now it wasn't THAT bad. I just really don't like banshees, personally!

[Lord Raziere]

Halo ODST Profile:
Corporal Taylor "Dutch" Henry Miles
Mr. three names was born in 2519, Losantiville, Seven Hills, Mars. Originally a road-train driver (whatever the heck that is) on a truck named the "Flying Dutchman" did he seriously get his nickname from the fact that he drove a truck to pay for his tuition? Apparently this guy actually went to university, studied religion and philosophy, was drafted while attending the university in 2940, and during his time in the Marine Corps he befriended Romeo and fell in love with Gretchen Ketola, another marine. (isn't this kind of fraternization against military protocol? No, that kind thing of this to prevent between enlisted and commanding officers, it doesn't technically say anything about people of same rank) apparently Gretchen getting injured by an Insurrectionist mine made him become more serious at some point? makes sense, seeing your girlfriend nearly get blown up would probably do that to a person. he also served in things involving the Coral asteroid belt and the Jericho space elevator.

At some point he along with teammates named a O'brien, a sniper and Checkman was assigned to help a female Spartan II named Cal-141 assassinate a Prophet on Heian called Operation Grey Veil, which they succeeded at, but a Brute attacked in the middle of it and killed Cal as a result, so O'brien shot the prophet instead, from two miles away, single shot to the head. nice. Cal's actions to save her teammates repeatedly on the mission made greatly respect the Spartans and her sacrifice as a result.

next is Operation Fireside: this seems to be earlier in the same year of 2552, with Romeo its....yeah, we came back to the whole "Knowing" op. but there are a few details that this mentions that Romeo's profile didn't: the first went down to the archaeological dig to free enslaved colonists that the Covenant were using to dig this up, and apparently Romeo tripped over a dead Unggoy and broke his ankle, so Dutch had to carry him out to escape the blast of the Knowing self-destructing. Wow! Dutch is a badass and a good friend. He's someone you can trust to carry you out of a building thats going to explode, thats gold star friend material there.

Oh and then e participated in the Battle of Tribute, basically he saw the UNSC naval forces suffer 90% of the casualties by the Covenant fleet as he evac'd the civilians, ground battle was stiffer resistance but it didn't mean much and the colony ended up half-glassed before the war was over anmd its considered one of the defining tragedies of the human-covenant war. oh and then Dutch survived in Fall of Reach! so y'know, add him to the exclusive "I survived Reach" club to. wow, Dutch has seen things man.

Thoughts:
Again, Romeo and Dutch seem to have better backstories than Buck: Dutch has a girlfriend, he has saved his fellow comrade from dying, he has witnessed a Spartan, the UNSC Fleet and probably many of his comrades die in the line of duty, but you wouldn't know because in ODST he is just the heavy weapons guy. you'd think in a game about flashbacks we'd get flashbacks to their actual lives and stories. but yeah there is a lot of depth here for a bunch of people that only get played in one game of a shooter.

I'm saving Veronica Dare for last whenever we get to her. because ODST is clearly saving her for last and....I'm guessing whatever she is up to may not be entirely good. She is ONI after all.

ODST Log 006:
...okay....hold on I got to look up what this can thing is....oh okay that canister and foam? its actually biomedical foam its used a form of first aid, it keeps damaged organs in place, stop bleeding and such, its used a medical option when no medical personnel are around, this stuff is used in the med kits you get in gameplay, but its only temporary up to a few hours then it breaks down. so they're not just grabbing some random thing to seal them up, they're using something that has been proven to work. though you might have a point about it not helping with a punctured lung? maybe they just filled it enough to seal up the wound and not suffocate him,? ODSTs are kind of supertrained and these are all experienced soldiers who lets be real, this is not their first rodeo, they've probably have all been trained on its use and all done this before, so perhaps they just know enough about this biofoam to use just enough and you just shouldn't try this at home.

I mean......you might not be ENTIRELY wrong with the "Rookie's fanfic" theory given the gameplay/story segregation bits, but officially this is all supposed to be canon. and again, considering the UNSC's ground force history against the covenant, this isn't THAT implausible, its just that most of the engagements that matter are in space.

....is this Scarab smaller than the others? I swear I think its smaller....

highly trained ODSTs are technically not supposed to be normal, but whatever.

"I wouldn't go down there even if you ordered me to"- Romeo, talking about hypothetical insubordination to his commanding officer! that immediately leads to him being a hypocrite because Buck has decided they're going down there immediately. this is why soldiers don't talk back to military superiors, it gives them ideas.

[LaZodiac]

and apparently Romeo tripped over a dead Unggoy and broke his ankle, so Dutch had to carry him out to escape the blast of the Knowing self-destructing. Wow! Dutch is a badass and a good friend. He's someone you can trust to carry you out of a building thats going to explode, thats gold star friend material there.

...okay....hold on I got to look up what this can thing is....oh okay that canister and foam? its actually biomedical foam its used a form of first aid, it keeps damaged organs in place, stop bleeding and such, its used a medical option when no medical personnel are around, this stuff is used in the med kits you get in gameplay, but its only temporary up to a few hours then it breaks down. so they're not just grabbing some random thing to seal them up, they're using something that has been proven to work. though you might have a point about it not helping with a punctured lung? maybe they just filled it enough to seal up the wound and not suffocate him,? ODSTs are kind of supertrained and these are all experienced soldiers who lets be real, this is not their first rodeo, they've probably have all been trained on its use and all done this before, so perhaps they just know enough about this biofoam to use just enough and you just shouldn't try this at home.

"I wouldn't go down there even if you ordered me to"- Romeo, talking about hypothetical insubordination to his commanding officer! that immediately leads to him being a hypocrite because Buck has decided they're going down there immediately. this is why soldiers don't talk back to military superiors, it gives them ideas.

You need to clarify if this is clever editorializing or if he literally trips over a corpse and becomes unable to fight. Romeo is such a **** up.

Bio-foam is sadly not real, and I'm aware it's the stuff they find in medkits and stuff. But like I said, and you said yourself; this is incredibly not going to be good to have in the lungs! And you couldn't even like, dab it in in an attempt to seal the wound, because it's FOAM and the lungs are SUPER fragile. You so much as touch that sack of breathable flesh and oxygen absorbers with a CHEMICAL FOAM, you're ****ing drowning to death in it. It's such a bad idea!

Romeo continues to make everyone around him miserable by his sheer existence. The man has his gimmick, I'll grant him that much.

[DataNinja]

Ah, fun. This level. The respawning in the banshees suuuuuuucks when you're doing co-op.

[Lord Raziere]

You need to clarify if this is clever editorializing or if he literally trips over a corpse and becomes unable to fight. Romeo is such a **** up.

Bio-foam is sadly not real, and I'm aware it's the stuff they find in medkits and stuff. But like I said, and you said yourself; this is incredibly not going to be good to have in the lungs! And you couldn't even like, dab it in in an attempt to seal the wound, because it's FOAM and the lungs are SUPER fragile. You so much as touch that sack of breathable flesh and oxygen absorbers with a CHEMICAL FOAM, you're ****ing drowning to death in it. It's such a bad idea!

Romeo continues to make everyone around him miserable by his sheer existence. The man has his gimmick, I'll grant him that much.

1. Thats just what the wiki said. I can look more into it, but it sounds more of a "they had already accomplished their mission and were in the escape from the blast zone part of the story" kind of deal. fighting wasn't really their objective anymore, just getting out alive because they had already told an AI to destroy itself per ONI protocol

2. I mean yeah probably, but everything else about Halo science is only slightly implausible compared to what some fictional settings make up. the whole point is to seal up the wound, stop the bleeding, numb the pain, so it seems to be some fast-acting anesthetic/sealant/bandaid all in one. we could probably google what the recommended first aid treatment for a lung puncture would be if we really want to see if this realistic to do, but do we really want that in our search history?

[PoeticallyPsyco]

IIRC, biofoam is breathable in Halo, so getting it in the lungs isn't the complete disaster you'd expect. ...But, I could be getting that mixed up with the restraint foam in Worm.

[Lord Raziere]

.....Well, the latest MJOLNIR VI armors do include biofoam injectors in its design and those cover the body head to toe, so....whatever it does, the UNSC is confident enough to use it for their greatest soldiers in any possible wound so they don't have to use medkits.....because apparently despite all the other bells and whistles the Spartan enhancement process does to you, a regeneration factor is apparently too implausible for this universe....

oh hey the wiki has this picture of its warning label of a sort:

Spoiler

Show

Poly-ethyl-tri-phosphate, nitrous oxide accelerant.

to break that down:
-polyethylene is the most the common used plastic today
-a polyphosphate is a kind of salt formed from tetrahedral phosphate units linked sharing oxygen atoms, and in biology they are involved in energy storage, protein synthesis, lipid synthesis and carbohydrate metabolism
-nitrous oxide is laughing gas and has uses in dentistry and surgery for its pain-reducing effects and is on the world health' organizations one of the most safest and effective medicines

so this is a mix of nitrous oxide, plastic and some triphosphate being used as a foam to treat Romeo's wounds here. these guys went so far as to design THIS!? find a bunch of a bunch of chemicals that had plausible medical use then combine them to come up with a long fictional name, to make this weird foam-polymer-thing? that is some thorough worldbuilding if they're going as far as to make this label thing.

[LaZodiac]

Laughing Gas is a sedative so there's a very good chance Romeo is going to start finding everything really funny and then pass out, because it is DEFINITELY diffusing into his system, especially since it's being shoved into his lungs.

Also I do appreciate the attention to detail Bungie does with this game. Sure, it does end up as sci fi phlebotinum a lot of the time, but they do their best to make it feel legit and I do like that.

[LaZodiac]

O! D! S! T!

Zodi Plays: Halo ODST [7] New Best Friend

Video Length: 31:30

In this episode, we've fully left the initial premise of the video game and are now part of the active story; just in time to meet Dare (because why would they let us play as the lady...). This is an honestly... rather empty feeling level, which is strange as heck, but somehow still fairly fun. Most importantly of all however... we are introduced to a good good friend; squid!

Sadly, that's all for this episode. Next time though... the finale!