Introduction

Concept

Without a doubt, Halo 3: ODST is my favorite game in the franchise because it is the most different. From the open-world nighttime “hub” of New Mombasa to the compact character-driven story to Marty’s award-winning jazz-inspired score, ODST ventured where no Halo game had gone before, proving not only that Halo could be just as rich when it goes small, but that it could hold its own even with Master Chief out of the picture. As Bungie’s first game without him, ODST’s great cast more than made up for his absence, introducing us to now fan-favorite Buck and a tragic Rookie. However, one character in particular hardly got the limelight, which, given her occupation, was probably by design at the time: Captain Veronica Dare, an agent of the Office of Naval Intelligence’s Section One. 

Despite being the highest-ranking character in the game, we hardly get to know her. In fact, unlike the other characters, Dare doesn’t get a mission to herself. Though “Data Hive” and the ensuing events grant her a lot of speaking time (especially against the silent Rookie), for the most part, Dare had been relegated to hiding underground for most of the game due to story purposes. And even with Dare having the final say at the end of the story, the extent of her visual representation ended there, and anything we later knew about her came only from Buck’s perspective in the followup novel New Blood and its recent sequel, Bad Blood. 

An “ODST 2” revisiting Alpha-Nine has been on many people’s minds, but it seems that the two novels have all but confirmed that won’t, and can’t, happen. I’ve often toyed with the notion that the squad could return in a direct sequel game, perhaps set during the late Battle for Earth in the URNA Southwest Campaign—taking them to a desert environment this time—or even a prequel game in New Alexandria on Reach, in which we don’t get the full squad, but get enough of them to be invested. I’ve even thought about a prequel game which follows each member in their own mission prior to joining Alpha-Nine, but just like the aforementioned ideas, they never quite worked out or were otherwise invalidated by the content of the novels.

It suddenly dawned on me that instead of the squad, we could—even should—have Veronica Dare as our protagonist in a direct sequel instead. Not only is the time ripe for a playable female lead in Halo, but for an ODST sequel to be realized in some way, now nearly a decade after it originally released. Looking at the big picture, Halo: Out of Shadow would serve the dual purposes of acting as a spiritual successor to ODST and as a “soft” re-introduction of the Flood.

Title

Out of Shadows was inspired by Marty O’Donnell’s track of the same name, which most prominently plays during the beginning of the Halo 3 mission, “Tsavo Highway,” and is especially appropriate in that regard considering this game takes place in Voi.

In a figurative sense, I viewed the title as an expression of Dare’s new role in the game, forced to come “out of the shadows” as an ONI agent and fight boots-on-the-ground; we’ve actually read it referenced in New Blood, when Buck mentions that Dare does her job “from the shadows” and doesn’t contend with what the regular UNSC trooper has to contend with. Furthermore, upon meeting Jameson Locke in the Halo 5 mission, “Alliance”, the Arbiter jeers “ONI…out of the shadows,” which shows exactly how ONI personnel are viewed by others.

Another interpretation one might have is that the title actually refers to the Flood, which itself has emerged from the shadows, or that Dare and the UNSC has literally run out of shadows in which to hide from them.