Question about Halo series

I've never owned a Xbox console. I recently won a Xbox one so I figured I'd play through all the Halo games. I own the MCC and Halo 5 but I had a few questions about the other ones. Do you feel Reach and ODST are essential to enjoying the full experience of Halo or can I just not include them in my Halo journey? And how well do the BC versions of them run if you think I should include them.

Thanks for any advice

Stay away from ODST as its easily the worst entry into series. Reach is alright though.

Neither are that great.

Reach ain't bad....never playedODST bc I heard so many bad things about it.

ODST was bad ?

I kind of disagree. I enjoyed it.

You can get ODST as DLC for the MCC. You don't have to use the backwards compatibility to play it. It's worth playing if you enjoy the other games.

@PurpleMan5000: is it free?

Oh and I didn't look up reviews because I trust player opinions over reviewers any day of the week.

ODST is a much different experience. If you're finding that you're loving the series, definitely check it out! Otherwise you could probably pass on it.

Reach is worth playing through, but it doesn't run the best on Xbox One yet as far as I've heard. I haven't had the time to try my copy yet and maybe that report has changed.

Pretty sure it's a $5 upgrade.

No. I don't remember what it cost, but I think it was $5.

Neither is essential, but if you're going to jump in you might as well play them to get a little more knowledge on where everything stands and why. Also before you play through Halo 5, make sure you watch The Fall of Reach so you know who everyone is and what's going on, the game relies heavily on the extended lore of the franchise that is not explored in depth in the other games.

@nyadc: nice thx. Didn't even know that existed. I just hope I remember. Going to start the collection this weekend. I'm sure it will take me a while to finish them all.

Halo ODST basically takes place between Halo 2 when the Master Chief leaves Earth again, the game tells a story about ODST team members on what's happening to Earth and you take control codename: Rookie. ODST was free when MS offer for those who purchase MCC day one during the whole MP fiasco and it's like $5 dollars, so pick it up, it's fun it has firefight, and the music is great but it doesn't actually follow the Master Chief's storyline what-so-ever.

Halo Reach is actually better then ODST. Halo Reach tells the story about Planet Reach which was the strongest UNSC in the Sol system at the time and the timeline takes place before Halo: Combat Evolve started. Like ODST, you take control of a Spartan name: Noble 6 and Halo Reach my most played Halo game after Halo 3 back on Xbox 360.

Edit: Also don't listen to any haters here, both ODST and Reach are great games to be play.

I found ODST to be the best Halo in the series.

@davillain-: how well does ODST run?

They're all good in their own way.

I feel some will disagree, but if you like the RTS genre try out Halo Wars. The second one will be coming out in a while, but it was a good game in my opinion.

Play in this order:

Halo 1 -> Reach (which is essentially a Prologue) -> H2 -> H3 -> H4 -> H5

ODST is dirt. If you are absolutely just in love with Halo by the time you beat 2, then play it before you play Halo 3. I say that, because Halo 3 will probably make you like the series again after ODST.. Then again, be glad you weren't taken for a ride like the rest of us. It should have been an expansion pack instead of a full game. It's purely a Gaiden to the Halo series, and you will not be missing out on anything of any impact to the story if you skip it. Reach, however, is pretty damn good.

It's not a backward compatible game, it was 'remastered' for the Xbox One, so 1080p @ 60 FPS.

odst is actaully My favourite of the whole series

Reach has a great campaign, but I don't think the multiplayer is that active for that game anymore. I would also play reach on the xbox 360 and not the one since it does not run that well on the xbox one.

Looks like I may need to give the others a go, or at least try them. I guess the good thing is they aren't expensive.

I'm installing Reach right now on my Xbox One, I'm going to try it out and see how it performs, I had to do an update to install it so I'm curious if the issues have been resolved, I'll report back in a few hours.

@nyadc: awesome man thx.

And thank you to all. You guys really helped me out. with the order and the animated series. After Halo, I'll give the Gears games a run.

IMO, ODST isn't worth it, but Reach is.

ODST is an excellent addition to the MCC and only $5 as DLC to the MCC, don't listen to the haters. It was hated back in the day because originally it was supposed to be Halo 3 DLC but instead launched at full price along with Halo 3's entire multiplayer maps and all its DLC and they felt it wasn't of the value. Some people hate it for various reasons, as some people out there hate any of the games and plots that aren't Master Chief centric, and both ODST and Halo Reach deviate from the Master Chief story. Playing in multiple times over the years though I've come to appreciate it's gameplay quite a bit. It's probably the most unique of the Halo games in its open world design.

Anyhow, since you haven't played any of the other Halo games either, why not just hold off a bit and see how you feel after playing the games you have. If you need more Halo, then there's always ODST, then do Reach last, maybe they'll either patch the BC game or offer it on the MCC as DLC by then too.

Anyhow, I'd recommend playing with friends if possible, more fun that way. And play on higher difficulty settings too, ads a nice good challenge and not just a breeze of a shooter.

You're gonna get burned out man.

Yeah, if you're going to play this many games in a row you need to pace yourself, that's like 55 hours of just single player content.

Trust me plan to space it out. The PS4 is still my primary console. And I picked up Gears the other day off of Amazon.

It's just a shame that Reach never got a remaster like the other games.

I'd only skip on that game because BC for Xbone isn't that great all the time. And it'll be jarring going from 1080/60 games to a 720/30 one.

I loved ODST, if you have the time you should play it. Gives you a different perspective.

If you like Halo 3, play ODST. If you like Halo 4, play Reach.

@super600: @Terrencec06: So Reach is fine guy, it chugs a little bit, nothing even remotely as bad as people have lead on and the performance hits that do occur seem to be in line with the 360 ones, it's 100% playable and I streamed it just to confirm here.

http://www.twitch.tv/nyatechtv/v/47332280

Honestly, I don't understand the hate surrounding backward compatibility, it gives people like Terren an opportunity to experience games he would otherwise have to own a 360 for.

Reach is all out action but a great game, ODST is just a really big change in tempo and also an excellent game. If you enjoyed the MCC you should play both IMO. The only single player Halo game I didn't like and actually hate with a passion is Halo 5.

Shouldn't this order be like: Halo Reach>Halo Combat Evolve>Halo 2>Halo ODST>Halo 3>Halo 4>Halo 5 following the story timeline is what I'm saying if the OP is just going to do single player.

Yes, I would also suggest playing Reach first as it's the only one which will have to be played @ 30 FPS, just to get that out of the way.

@Heil68: I'm quite the opposite. Didn't like Reach very much at all and loved the way ODST was done. One of my favourite campaigns out of any of the Halo games. Right there with CE.

ODST is solid, and Reach was decent. I'd say ODST was one of the best in the series... Yup.

Do you need to play them? Hell no.

1 and 3 are the only ones that are AAA.

2 and Reach are worth going through.

ODST is shallow, short, overrated, but an ok game. I wouldn't spend money on it.

4 is garbage. Like literal shit. Avoid at all costs.

Never played 5. I'm sure 343 butchered it though so probably a good idea to steer clear.

Does it really matter when Halo 5 throws it all out the window and presents a completely half-assed SP 'experience' which doesn't make any sense probably even to 343 unless you've read every Halo book ever written to fill in the gaps they couldn't be bothered to explain...

No point playing Halo for story anymore, play for new and cool things to do in MP and pretend everything else just never happened. Halo is pretty much dead and buried outside of MP. You can expect abysmal graphics (i.e. Halo 5) on any future releases too as the whole experience is now fully MP and **** everything else.

You're really being dramatic.

You don't need ODST or Reach.

Halo 1, 2 and 3 are enough.

In a lot of ways, I kinda agree with blue here, Halo 5/6 were done by 343 not Bungie. I was let down Halo 4/5 and 343 isn't and will never be good as Bungie, that's a fact. Halo Reach through Halo 3 is were the good Halo games are which was made by Bungie. This is not me saying that Halo 4/5 is the worst games, it's the disappointing at that.

I think to too much of a degree people are equating different/change with bad, Halo 4 and 5 are admittedly different/changed games, much different approach to things and it's clear that they were made by a different developer. But to be completely honest, I don't find that to be a bad thing, I don't find what they did wrong, and honestly from a technical standpoint they seem to be much better developers than Bungie. The extended lore and deeper/darker story telling that 343i puts out feels more human to me, it feels more real and fleshed out, the other games felt more fantasy if that makes sense and that may be more appealing to other people.

I also appreciate 343i touching on the extended lore, something the books went so deep into but the games just never talked about properly. That was also a problem I had with Bungie's games, their simplicity, they introduced so many dynamics to the lore, but never actually explored any of it, it always left you wondering what all these things were, why this was all happening, what came before, who they were etc... Which actually ties into 343's games perfectly, because of Bungie leaving so many plot holes open, I explored the extended lore myself and that geared me perfectly for 343's games, something it seems like not a lot of people did.

I'm one of the people who get it, I like it, others may not.

TC, never listen to his ramblings on Halo. LOL

Seriously? My opinion differs from my buddy Heil's. As you play through Halo 2, you get to a point where the main characters follow the Covenant into a "slipspace" (Halo's version of FTL travel) hole. But the hole was opened in earth's atmosphere, which humans had never seen done. ODST is a story of strictly human soldiers (not Spartans which are augmented humans akin to cyborgs) on a mission on the area of Earth where that slipspace hole was torn. So it actually takes place on earth during the events of Halo 2 which has moved away from earth at that time. I am a Halo canon/archive member, reader nerd, geek, junkie. I liked ODST as you aren't as resilient as a Spartan like Master Chief and it shows in the difficulty of the firefights imo.

Reach is about a group of Spartan 3's, which were a cheaper and weaker alternative to Spartan 2's which Master Chief and his buddies are. The 3's are still stronger, faster than reg human soldiers though. I really enjoyed this take on the moments when the Covenant found the planet Reach, which was a major human military installation where they actually raised and trained the Spartan 2's. There was a novel published 3 weeks before the original Xbox and the first Halo launched called the Fall of Reach. Great book. This is not telling that tale but a story of one 6 Spartan squad's battle to defend Reach.

If you haven't guessed I love Halo, have enjoyed all of them thoroughly, read the books, comics, watch the live action stuff (weak or not) and animated stuff. Give it a try. By the end of Halo CE anniversary you'll know if it has grabbed you or not.

@Terrencec06: no, it's not free but it's dirt cheap, a form of compensation for all the trouble the MCC launch caused.

Reach is the dud in the series. Lacks character. Campaign is pretty stale.

This. ODST is God awful. Terrible story, forgettable levels, Buck sucks. The only good thing about it is the music. Halo Reach is great. Its a prequel and has a decent story and some cool missions. Neither is essential to the overall story but Reach is still worth playing.

Reach is outstanding. Best campaign in the series.

@mr_huggles_dog: shiiitttttt, if it was opposite day maybe. odst is awesome, one of the best entries in the series imo. reach is easily one of the weakest, not to mention it runs like dog shit on xone.

to the op, neither are essential to the series imo but both will certainly give you a better grasp on the fantastic lore beyond the core games.