Bungie has spoken of its regret over faliures in the Firefight mode of Halo ODST.
The studio's community boss Brian Jarrard said it simply didn't have time to fix matchmaking into the mode - and admitted its omission is probably the reason ODST isn't as popular as other Halo games.
Jarrard told CVG sister site OXM: "I regret not being able to go back and make Firefight in ODST work and have match-making. I think we would have loved to have done that.
"We've heard it from the fans, we've heard it from the press. It's definitely something we'd have loved to be able to do but we didn't have the scope on the project. We didn't have the time.
He added: "We accomplished a tremendous amount, but that's probably the reason ODST isn't being played as much right now as we'd like. It has had a shorter lifecycle than any of the Halo titles before. But Reach is our big chance to make up for some of those things. "
Check out CVG next week for a full, exclusive interview with Bungie, in which the studio looks back on its Halo series - and discusses its hopes for Reach.
The firefight was not the only failure of ODST. Graphics were a joke. The characters were very bland. Only good thing was the plot and the music. Halo has been going in the wrong direction since Halo 3. All those trailers for THE biggest letdown of a campaign in history. Oh, and they took away clans from Halo 2 to give...instant replay in Halo 3? Bungie are a joke and Modern Warfare are righfully kicking their arrogant asses.
I think the biggest mistake was the open world hub levels, which were frankly boring. With nothing to do in these levels besides wandering from point A to point B while fighting occasional patrols and occasionally picking up the obligatory audio log, it quickly became tedious and only served to distract me from the main game(in the end I ended up trying to avoid as many enemy patrols as possible, simply to save as much time as I could so I could get back into a proper mission as quickly as the game would allow). The traditionl missons were better by a long way, but apart from the brilliant last mission they were all way too short, taking only 10-15 minutes each tops to complete, before it was back to the wandering around routine again.
I would rather they simply ditch this open city idea completely and make the missions more structered so the storys within each one lead into each other and play the game with the traditional level layout. Open worlds only work if there is plenty to do in them, and frankly Odst's 'open world' was anything but.
A shame really, as I'm a big Halo fan and was really dissapointed by Odst. Hopefully Reach will restore some of my lost faith. It's certainly looking good so far.
if it did have random matchmaking i would be playing it probebly but my crappy firend i've play COD or well COD. i have no one to go on it with well i could ask some around but hell i just want to meet people who would consistantly play on it.
another falier was the fact of an open world city that had nothing in it and the fact voice atcting was below par very bland characters and bad models for them. good gameplay wise everything else was not good. however reach can have 40 is players on screen easily will make for some good battles
ODST sucked all round IMO. I'll never understand how the game got all those good reviews, apparently if it has the name Halo on it, it automatically becomes an awesome game. As mentioned above walking around the streets going from point A to B was so damn tedious, what was the point of fighting any enemies? Me and my mate couldn't wait to get to the proper levels which actually make the Halo games fun. And as everyone knows the lack of matchmaking is just a shocking omission to the game. Bungie say they didn't have the time? Sorry I don't buy that excuse. I sold my copy a few weeks after buying it, sure I will miss out on the Reach beta, but I can live without that.
Errrr Firefight?? The whole freckin thing was a mess. Matching making balls up aside, only a 4 hour campaign based on non of the Spartans but a weaker ODS Trooper, using the same outdated graphics engine and contained maps already avilable and played through in Halo 3? Yeah thanks Bungie, fingers crossed Halo Reach is a better and complete game.
And as everyone knows the lack of matchmaking is just a shocking emission to the game. Bungie say they didn't have the time? Sorry I don't buy that excuse.
I've been known to have the occasional "shocking emission" myself.
Well obviously not a good as the other Halo games- I still enjoyed ODST a lot. The absence of matchmaking was a bit stupid though- as it's one of the most addictive multiplayer games I've played... but you need to have 3 other mates playing it at the same time to get the most out of it.
And how you managed to complete it in 4 hours is quite frankly amazing Starsail. Did you manage to unlock an easier mode than easy? Perhaps one that removed all the enemies and managed to speed up the Rookie so he was moving as quick as a warthog? Gimme a break. It is too short, yeah- but you're just taking the pi*s, dude.
It could be possible but it would take a lot of time and effort and Bungie i'd imagine, are far too busy with Halo:Reach at the moment so there is no way they will commit to adding matchmaking to firefight. Besides, they have already got tons of sales for ODST as it is, so it wouldn't be very profitable for them. Let's just hope they get it right for Reach. Despite the huge disappointment that ODST was, I still have high hopes for Reach.
I thought ODST was allright. Firefight is one of those modes that unless you want to do craply in, you play with people you know hence players that are competent or can create a good laugh or so in the process. The campaign was forgettable, the character design was mixed and the last third of the story was utter pants. But we can't overlook the fact that what is done is a stepping stone to what we may expect in Reach and of itself most of it is pretty good.
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