Halo 3: ODST

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Halo fans have a little longer to wait until they get their hands on the latest instalment from the Halo 3 universe. And Bungie was recently in London town to show off what will most likely be the second to last Bungie-developed Halo game on Xbox 360. How will you cope?

To find out why ODST is more than just an add-on (it comes on two discs, kids) we caught up with Bungie senior designer Lars Bakken and Microsoft global group product manager, Ryan Crosby.

What stage are you at with development of Halo ODST right now?

Bakken: We're done.

Crosby: From our standpoint, we had to get it done and get everybody working on Halo Reach. Looking at the portfolio as a whole and the title roll out, this coming September is the right time for [ODST's release].

Why release the game on two discs? Would it not fit on one?

Bakken: Absolutely. The Halo 3 Mythic disc, which is the multiplayer experience, has 24 maps, Forge, Save Films, File Share - everything from Halo 3 apart from the Halo 3 campaign. When we shipped the original Halo 3 disc we were hitting the maximum with the 11 maps, the full campaign and all that stuff, so with the Mythic disc, there was really only room for that.

And ODST's campaign is big enough that we had to go for a separate disc for that. And it has its own title ID, so it has it's own set of 1000 Achievements.

Crosby: It's less about size and more about the way that the games are authored. One is authored for Halo 3, one is the new experience, so it makes more sense to put them on two discs, it's the best way for them to work. It's a technical thing.

Bakken: There have been changes to the engine. It's been upgraded in different ways. Halo 3 as the original game is not getting updated at this point, but ODST has had a lot of changes.

Why did you decide that an ODST would be the most interesting character to play as?

Bakken: I think ODSTs were a cool choice because fans of the games remember them from Halo 2 and 3 as just being these bad-asses that show up in really dangerous areas. It gave us the opportunity to not only have these really cool characters from the universe come to life and be the main people you play as, but it also allowed us to tell a more human character-driven story as well, which was really important. Joe Staten - the guy who wrote it - was really interested in telling a different take on characters in the Halo universe.

Does your decision to go open-world with the hub stage of New Mombasa reflect a view that the previously linear Halo games needed innovation?

Bakken: I wouldn't necessarily say that we needed to do something innovative. I think that we felt like we wanted to try something different, and telling the story in a more non-linear fashion, and letting players uncover these clues in the order that they want, was far more interesting to us than anything else. We've done three games now that have been pretty similar in terms of how they were laid out, very linear story progression, so we wanted to try something different.

In terms of gameplay, it seems ODST harks back to the original Halo in many ways. Was that intentional?

Bakken: The original Halo is definitely an influence. People have been asking about the pistol since Halo 2 came out. We know, internally, that the Halo 1 pistol was an awesome weapon but it was also exceedingly unbalanced. But I think with a game like ODST, which is a campaign and a co-op game mode, it's a lot easier to bring back a weapon that is unbalanced in a certain way because it's really fun to have a super powerful weapon that zooms.

My background is coming from the multiplayer side because I worked on Halo 3's multiplayer. Having a weapon like that is very difficult to control because it becomes the thing that everyone wants to use and the sandbox shrinks down to this one thing. But with a game that's just co-operative it's easier to have those unbalanced weapons that are fun to use.

When can we expect Bungie to branch off and do something completely different?

Bakken: There are things going on internally at Bungie that I obviously can't talk about right now, but ODST is a bit of a departure in terms of our storytelling and how the game is set up. I can't talk about Reach really at all, but you can imagine there will be some differences there as well. And there's something else we're working on too which we can't talk about yet.

You mean outside of the Halo universe?

Bakken: Yeah. It's a brand new IP.

What's the plan for download content for ODST?

Bakken: There are no plans right now to do any sort of DLC for ODST in the same way that we supported Halo 3 with DLC. But who knows. Anything's possible, but currently there are no plans.

Crosby: Part of ODST is actually Halo 3 - the multiplayer disc - and that's extending the Halo 3 experience. So there's certainly the option to do it, we just haven't planned it out yet.

What have you learned from other FPS games that have come out since Halo 3, and how've they affected the single and multiplayer gameplay in ODST?

Bakken: We're big gamers internally, we're always playing stuff that's out there. How has that specifically influenced ODST or even [Bungie] games coming in the future? I think it's hard for me to quantify, but you saw games like BioShock come out the same year as Halo 3, with a pretty unique, well-told story. I'm sure that was somewhat of an influence on ODST's story-telling style, in terms of opening up to tell a more character-driven story.

With ODST taking Halo in a slightly new direction, do you feel there's a greater pressure on it to be as successful, if not more, than its predecessors?

Bakken: I suppose. There's always going to be pressure on anything that's done in a successful franchise. I think internally at Bungie we just want to make the best possible games that we can. Yes, we realise that pressure exists but it's almost like you put it out of your mind because you just want to put your head down and make the best game you can and try not to let it affect you.

So have you made the best Halo game yet?

Bakken: Internally, I've said it and a couple of others have actually said that this is the game they're most proud to have worked on since Halo 1. I only worked on Halo 3 and ODST, so I can't make the same claim, but I'm definitely very proud of it.

Is it safe to assume Reach is the last Halo game for the 360 platform?

Bakken: In terms of a platform for Halo games made by Bungie, yes. I can't answer that question for Microsoft though. Whether they have something in the works or not, I don't know if they're actually ready to talk about it yet, but in terms of Bungie-produced Halo games, ODST and then Reach is probably all you're going to get.

Crosby: The Halo universe will live on in lots of different ways. You've seen things like comics and merchandise come out, but I think that there's certainly the possibility that the Halo universe will continue.

Even if there aren't any more games on the way for 360?

Bakken: Once we're on the next generation of machines, yes very possibly, and including on 360 very possibly. We're looking into all sorts of different stuff.

What does Bungie think of Project Natal - would you consider working with it?

Bakken: I think that Natal has some really cool technology. If it makes sense to use it in some way I could totally see it working, but we would have to figure out what makes sense to use Natal for.

Obviously it doesn't make sense to use Natal for a full Halo control scheme. At least in my brain I can't think of a way for that to work right now. That doesn't mean that it can't work in the future but I think Natal could enhance things. It's so far off it's hard to think about how it could work in a Halo game.

Crosby: The magic of the Natal tech truly comes when these guys have had time to work with it. I would argue that the few weeks that these guys have had it isn't enough to determine what works.

In our minds, you do what makes sense for the game, and you don't try and jam the technology into a place where it doesn't fit. So I think given these guys have a little time to play with it, in time we'll find out what works in ways that make sense for the Halo universe.

Mike Jackson