A highly-trained branch of the UNSC known as the Noble Team must defend the planet of Reach from a massive Covenant invasion.
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ODST didn't just ship with its own campaign and Firefight mode, it also included the entirety of Halo 3's multiplayer on a separate disc in the box. New copies even came with access codes for the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta, so buying ODST effectively bought you a foot in the door for Bungie's next game too.
Long before sprinting became a genre-wide staple thanks to games like Call of Duty 4, and years before Bungie officially added it as an armour ability in Halo: Reach, the mechanic was actually prototyped for Halo 2. It got cut, but leftover animation files for it were still sitting in the game's code the whole time.
Several Warthog variants, including an arctic camo version, a proper transport model, and a small ATV, were all built for Halo 2 and then dropped before launch. They didn't go to waste forever though. The ATV effectively resurfaced as the Mongoose in Halo 3, and the arctic Warthog eventually made it into a Halo 3 map pack years later.
During Never Surrender, if you flip a switch on a far-off platform near the hospital and make your way back to Club Errera, the whole place transforms. Instead of gunfire you get grunts and a Brute DJ spinning 'Siege of Madrigal' like it's the end of the world (which, to be fair, it kind of is). That track's actually a callback to Bungie's old Myth games, so it's been quietly following the studio around for years.
There's a moment aboard the Pillar of Autumn near the end of the campaign where, if you play your cards right during the cutscene, you can spot Master Chief already tucked away in his cryo pod. It's a tiny blink-and-you-miss-it nod that ties Reach's ending directly into the opening of the very first Halo.
One of the more fiddly secrets in the game unlocks a genuine little race track. You have to stand in two very specific spots and aim your reticule just right, and the payoff is a wink to Ridge Racer. It's the kind of thing that only exists because someone on the dev team clearly loved that series.
Down in the corner of your HUD, next to the minimap, the game names whatever bit of the map you're standing on. Most of these are useful callouts, but a few multiplayer maps hide joke locations tucked into odd corners, like a ledge on Boardwalk nicknamed 'Makeout Point.' Camp in one long enough and you'll pop the Confused Callouts achievement.
Crank the difficulty up to Legendary on Winter Contingency and there's a one-off Elite roaming the level that simply doesn't show up on any other setting. Most players never see it because, well, not many people finish the opening mission on the hardest difficulty just to poke around.
Keep an eye on your fireteam roster in a few missions and you might spot a soldier tagged 'MRTY,' with 'O-Donnell' printed underneath. It's a little in-joke honouring Marty O'Donnell, the composer behind the game's score and pretty much the entire Halo sound.
Spawn in the coliseum area of Forge World and fly out toward the snow-capped peak in the distance. From the right angle, the whole mountain reads as a giant skull. It's not tied to any achievement or unlock, it's purely there for anyone curious enough to go look.
