Note: 
Some minor spoilers in this article…
So I’m playing Halo: ODST right now and enjoying the experience for the most part… except for the triggered checkpoint saves! It’s happened more than once during ODST where I trigger a checkpoint save at the most inopportune time.
But last night, I was quite literally a few steps from having to replay an entire mission all over again from the beginning because of rotten checkpoint save timing!
In ODST, the Covenant’s four-legged walking tank, which the UNSC calls “the Scarab”, makes an appearance and you have to bypass or destroy it.
The irony here is that I’ve been taking a semi-stealthy approach in the game and avoiding Covenant infantry patrols here and there. Yet, I decide to actually engage this behemoth. Go fig… 
I succeed in boarding the Scarab (yeah, it’s that big. You can fight on it and in it! It’s like a walking building) and knocking out the power generator which creates an overload and a resulting explosion that you don’t want to stick around for.
I had just a sliver of health left and I’m running away from the Scarab like a mad man when I triggered a checkpoint save! So the Scarab blows up and kills me but with the game reloading at the checkpoint that was just saved, I was faced with the possibility of an inescapable fatal loop that will force me to restart the mission from the very beginning.
I hit the ground running on the next reload with seemingly no way out. Then I discovered that if I jump a moment before the Scarab explodes, I get thrown by the force of the explosion, lose almost all of my remaining health but survive; a hair’s breadth away from death!
I came very close to being stuck within an inescapable fatal loop thanks to an automatically triggered checkpoint save.
Manually Triggered Checkpoints
Banshee Fighter
I concede that I could have fought the Scarab entirely using a captured Covenant Banshee fighter (like this person did (YouTube) or bypassed the Scarab entirely. But that doesn’t change the fact that the situation of creating an inescapable fatal loop still exists within the game.
The checkpoint saves in ODST are invisible. They aren’t marked on the map or represented by some object or device. You just stumble into them.
Granted, the single player experience in ODST would be greatly diminished with a dynamic “save anywhere” system but visible checkpoints placed in relatively safe areas that a player could activate when needed would alleviate the problem of potentially getting stuck in inescapable fatal loops.
They should give the ability to return to one of the last N checkpoints instead of just limiting it to the last one crossed.
I think the lack of a better save system in ODST was a design choice. Not being able to create and load specific saves controls how quickly the player can progress through the single player campaign.
They knew the campaign was going to be rather anemic, so they had to use a save system that would slow the player down, increase the risk and punishment for brisk/careless game play.
In a way, it meshes with the game’s theme, being trapped and isolated behind enemy lines with no re-supply, no support and facing insurmountable odds. The save system forces the player to simply forge ahead and play the cards they’re dealt each time. But it makes it no less annoying at times.
Almost had same situation, falling out of a Hornet in Halo 3, however if you let the loop go round a few times it reverts back to the previous checkpoint, unsure if ODST does the same?
Hi, Joe.
I didn’t know they had that function in Halo 3 since I don’t think I’ve ever found myself in a death loop in Halo 3 but I’m glad the developers had considered that possibility.
If they had that in Halo 3, then I think that the chances are more than likely they incorporated it into ODST as well.
Good to know!