Helldivers 2 seems to tease an Halo 3: ODST crossover

With an upcoming launch on Xbox consoles, Helldivers 2 just dropped a bombastic trailer from a cruiser in orbit. The trailer, set to the 2004 banger Here Comes the Boom by Nelly, showcased classic Helldivers action. But the quieter sting is what has raised eyebrows and sparked discussion of the all-but-confirmed Halo 3: ODST crossover.

While it may not seem like much to non-Halo fans, the final moments of the trailer took me right back to September 2009. An empty city at night, rain dripping down the lens, and that music cue all directly out of Halo 3: ODST.

For those who are unfamiliar, ODST was a spin-off of the mainline Halo games. ODST focused on the titular Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. Besides Master Chief and other Spartans, the ODSTs are the finest soldiers in the Halo franchise. They also, and forgive me if this reminds you of something, dropped in coffin-sized pods ‘feet first into hell’. ODSTs and Helldivers are so similar that there could not be a more natural fit for a crossover for the title.

And it isn’t just this tiny musical sting from ODST’s soundtrack that points in this direction. Players also discovered that by reversing an audio file dropped in the Helldiver’s Discord, you get a sound suspiciously similar to ODST’s Superintendent AI. Given the languishing of the Halo franchise under current Xbox leadership, it is ironic that the Halo content that is exciting fans the most is vague crossover hints from a PlayStation Studios game.

Despite nothing being confirmed yet, I would be confident we’ll see some kind of crossover content at the Xbox launch, even if it is just cosmetic.