While eagerly awaiting the addition of ODST to the MCC, I have been thinking about the mythical sequel to this great game and how it will function. The original ODST was almost identical in gameplay to Halo 3 with the exception of health and overall narrative tone. Now that the Halo 5 beta has concluded and most of us have had a chance to experiment with the thrusters, clamber, and other abilities I find myself wondering if a sequel to ODST can lack these features and still succeed. This is assuming that ODST will be built using the Halo 5 engine, it may not and all of this will be a moot point. With the focus on these abilities, would 343 make the bold choice to cut them from gameplay and return to a more traditional movement set? I would personally enjoy it if ODST did not have the same abilities as spartan iv’s making for a completely different gameplay experience. As for setting, I think it would be interesting to have a game set in between Halo 3 and 4. Maybe following a clandestine unit like the one in the Karen Traviss novels. I believe that the more likely product would be a side story game like ODST, but it will probably follow a squad of spartan iv’s in order to minimize the changes to gameplay. While I find this idea less appealing than following a squad of human ODSTs, it does have potential. Maybe a game following majestic squad where you control spartan Thorne?
Pro tip: when presented with the option to take materia from Cloud and Tifa, DO IT. Unless you want to fight a boss with only Barret’s arm cannon, and I can say from experience that this is not fun.