When the full Halo 3: ODST trailer was released in late 2008, Bungie fans lost their minds. Frustrating and exhilarating at the same time, the trailer posed more questions about the future of the Halo franchise than it answered in just under three minutes. What happens on January 6, 2009? Who is Maddie? Where are the Spartans? One man knows the answers: Joseph Staten, Bungie’s story guru for Halo 3: ODST. We asked him to go scene by scene through the trailer with us, explaining what we’re seeing and what it means. If you’re looking for clues, you’ve found them.

Timestamp 00:07

OXM: Are we staying in New Mombasa for good this time?

JOSEPH STATEN: We heard a lot of feedback from our fans that, dammit, they just wanted to be on Earth. They want the cool, fun, urban Earth experience…so yes, this is all about New Mombasa and staying in the city.

OXM: What’s this building labeled “TRAXUS” all about? Seems familiar.

JS: Traxus is one of the sort of long-standing corporate entities in the Halo universe. I think fans that get really deep into the Halo fiction will finally learn what Traxus does for a living in the game. One of the ways we’ve fleshed out the city is to better define the corporations in the Halo universe and definitely add some [new corporations] as well.

Timestamp 00:13

OXM: We seem to be looking through several security cameras. Are these the “eyes” of this Superintendent character that’s been posting on the Bungie forums? Will he be helping our ODST during the game?

JS: Yes, that’s correct, but “helping” is such a broad term. He’ll definitely be watching the ODST character as you play. And some of the things he’ll do will be helpful.

OXM: “Watching”? So we’re going to see the Superintendent’s point of view throughout the game?

JS: What you see in the trailer is visually a good representation of what you’ll see in the game from the Superintendent camera perspective. Those are replicated in the game in cinematics and other places.

OXM: A sign reads “Evacuate city of New Mombasa.” Has that happened, or will we be encountering civilians?

JS: While there will be people other than marines running around, most of the civilians, if not all, have either been killed or have escaped the city by the time you get there. I can’t confirm who you’ll be seeing, but there are people who aren’t soldiers in the city, [ranging] from our friend the Superintendent to other beings.

Timestamp 00:20

OXM: First off, where are all of these ODST drop pods coming from?

JS: They’re coming from a ship in orbit above East Africa. It’s a major orbital deployment. That’s one of the fun things players will get to experience in the game — what it actually feels like to be an ODST dropping from orbit, burning through the atmosphere.

OXM: The Superintendent doesn’t seem to like those drop pods heading off to the right. Why don’t they have authorization?

JS: I can’t tell you why, but it seems like a last-minute division of forces. The larger mass of drop pods that went off-screen [to the] left — that’s where the really bad thing comes from [the EMP blast caused by the Prophet of Regret’s departure]. You are part of the group that headed off to the right of the screen.

Timestamp 00:31

OXM: The Superintendent issues several messages, from “YELLOW MEANS YIELD” to “PARDON OUR DUST.” But two screens immediately caught our eye. The first is this “DANGER: FLOOD ZONE.” We’re talking about flood in the form of water, right?

JS: That does not refer to the Flood we all know and love. I can’t say either way [if there will be Flood], but it’s best to say that this is a very isolated pocket of the universe.

OXM: One of the messages — “Maddie, where are you?” — seems to have been pulled due to fans linking this phrase to a website about missing real-world British toddler Madeleine McCann. Will this Fictional, Halo-world “Maddie” still appear in the game?

JS: The Maddie thing — we feel quite awful about that misunderstanding. There is a character named Maddie in the game, or there was. We’re changing her name. She was a member of the…well, she was one of the characters in the game. She’s still there, but she’s named something different now. She’s not an ODST.

Timestamp 00:36

OXM: During the Superintendent’s apparent reboot, there seems to be a date hidden in the text. Should we expect something on 01/06/09?

JS: It’s so funny. We worked very hard to be careful about the things we put in there. It’s just some random text spew. It doesn’t mean anything.

Timestamp 00:51

OXM: Are we the only ODST that landed safely?

JS: It’s likely that other members of your squad have survived, although we haven’t confirmed that in the trailer.

OXM: Before our ODST leaves his pod, day turns to night and it begins to rain. Will we be seeing these sort of visual elements throughout the game?

JS: The visual texture of the game will be very similar to the trailer. A city damaged by the blast event, nighttime, a certain amount of rain, nice film noir shadows…

OXM: Will we have to use the darkness and rain to sneak around Sam Fisher–style?

JS: Halo 3: ODST is an upfront action game. While there will be moments where being sneaky will be useful, you’re not having to deal with using darkness and shadows and rain tactically. It’s not that kind of game.

Timestamp 02:00

OXM: The brutes seem to be hunting down our ODST friend. Have the Covenant changed at all, or are these guys the same ones we beat down in Halo 3?

JS: We’ve made improvements on how the Brutes behave from Halo 3…we’ve changed the scale of the experience. You’re shorter and the Brutes are bigger and more menacing. Suffice it to say, the Brutes fight an ODST differently than they’d fight a Spartan.

OXM: We assume the ODSTs are more fragile than the invincible Master Chief. How will all of this change gameplay?

JS: A lot of that stuff is still being figured out now. We like to describe the ODSTs as the best-of-the-best marines…but they’re not Spartans. They’re about as powerful and capable as a human being can be without Spartan augmentation. Play will immediately feel familiar, but there’ll also be very stark differences that fans of the Halo series will [notice] immediately.

OXM: You’re sure they’re not Spartans? The Superintendent posted some sort of communication that seemed to suggest that the ODSTs are S1 types. Aren’t those Spartans?

JS: They’re just normal ODSTs. They have nothing to do with the Spartan program. I can’t tell you what S1 really means, but I can tell you that it has nothing to do with Spartans.

OXM: Concerning this communication, are we going to be hearing from Dare.V. again?

JS: Maybe. The Superintendent has a connection to a lot of different people in the Halo universe. Some of those voices were pretty interesting. You may hear from them again...