“Halo 3: ODST” is the newest release in the incredibly popular Halo franchise of first-person shooters produced by software giant Bungie. A side story to the events of “Halo 2” and “Halo 3” the events of ODST take place on the planet Earth as the Covenant begins their invasion. The twist? Gamers are no longer in the shoes of the iconic Master Chief and instead play as a group of Orbital Shock Drop Troopers, or ODSTs if you will, as they fight the invading Covenant through the streets of New Mombasa, Kenya.
The storyline is love it or leave it. You are a rookie ODST who has been dropped into New Mombasa during an alien invasion and must uncover the truth behind what happened to your squadron while also fighting against the remnants of the invading Covenant. The storyline, while still interesting, is something only a Halo fan will truly appreciate. You are playing a group of side characters in the overall Halo mythos that more casual fans of the series, like me, won’t truly appreciate.
The campaign itself is a joy to play through for any fan of first-person shooters. The game takes a more open world approach to mission structure with the destroyed city acting as a hub world with the majority of the game being told through flashbacks initiated by finding remnants of your fallen comrades. While relatively short compared to other games in the series, the nature of ODST’s format makes this a strength not a weakness. While the ability to explore a city abandoned by men and ravaged by aliens is fun the novelty would begin to wear off if you got a chance to realize how small the world really is. The action is exactly what you want out of a game like this. During your segments as the rookie you are allowed to take a less combat oriented approach but once a flashback sequence starts you are dropped into a hectic firefight. The more dedicated players have the option to search for 30 hidden audio logs further detailing the fate of New Mombasa and its’ inhabitants before your group of ODSTs arrived. For those who are not into collecting items they’ll find the game to be over in as little as six hours with the quest for audio logs tacking on a few more hours.
Graphically the game is an improvement over Halo 3. While the graphics do in feel dated compared to some of the more visually intensive games that have been released since 2007 the game is by no means bad looking. The Halo 3 engine has been polished to a shine and through a few neat tricks the game managed to hold up surprisingly well to more modern first-person shooters. Most notably the “Visual Intelligence System Reconnaissance,” or VISR for short, which when activated envelopes the world in a series of colored lines designating friend, foe, and objects of interest. The VISR view makes the game resemble a cartoon with the bright bold lines around every object, an effect I loved.
The gameplay is the same run and gun action fans of the Halo series crave. While you are not the Master Chief there is no need to forget anything you know about Halo. Your ODST lacks a few features that the Spartan legend possessed, most notably the lack of an energy shield and regenerating health. In the place of the shield however is the stamina system, which for all intents and purposes serves as a regenerating energy shield. Your ODST can take gunfire for a short amount of time until their stamina meter is depleted, once emptied your character begins to take damage to their non-regenerating health bar. You health however can be replenished via medipacks found throughout the game. Honestly I never noticed much of a difference between the new and old health systems because the medipacks are plentiful.
The action is, like always in the series, fun. The controls are responsive and each weapon feels unique while still being useful. There are a few new additions to your soldier’s arsenal; a silenced sub-machine gun and a silenced magnum pistol, both come with scope to enable zooming. The new weapons don’t add anything new to the series though, and players will find that their old favorites are just as useful and plentiful as before. Absent from the solo campaign is the ability to dual-wield weapons. In addition to the loss of dual wielding weapons your character’s jump feels anemic compared to the standard jump in the series. These are two of the few features in the games that differentiate ODST from a standard Halo title.
The multiplayer aspect is the real attraction. The newest addition to it being Firefight; a mode where a gamer and group of friends, or anyone on Xbox LIVE, can fight against wave after wave of Covenant forces until they fall. The mode is frantic. After a few waves of brutes you’ll soon begin to see how important teamwork really is, if you run into a group of Covenant with your battle rifle like a madman you’ll be waiting to respawn instantly. If you can find a group of friends to play with on a regular basis I can’t imagine the fun of Firefight ever wearing off. In addition to Firefight ODST includes a second disc containing the full Halo 3 multiplayer experience featuring every map available for the game along with all of the modes found in Halo 3 such as Team Slayer and Team Objective.
Those who purchase the game will also find that they are eligible to participate in the beta testing for the upcoming game “Halo: Reach.” Bungie however is not offering details for how this will work at the moment.
To fans of the series the new maps, modes, and storyline make this is a must buy title. To those who aren’t into the whole Halo phenomenon this title probably won’t change how they feel. Halo 3: ODST is by no means a bad game it just isn’t a great game for anyone outside of the Halo obsessed. While Firefight will be taking up hours of my time from now on I don’t see myself touching any of the other ODST exclusive content anytime soon. A short campaign and shortage of new features do drag down the title. If you are a fan of the Halo series you’re going to want to own this game. For everyone else you might just want to borrow it from a friend.