Halo 3 ODST is the latest in the Halo franchise to hit the Xbox 360. Unlike previous Halo titles ODST began as a stand-alone expansion for Halo 3, yet ended up spiralling into a full blown retail product. But does ODST really offer the content to warrant the full asking price?
The game kicks off by putting you in the shoes of an ODST named the 'Rookie'. From there you drop into New Mombasa yet things don't exactly go to plan resulting in the Rookie being knocked out for hours. Upon waking up you start your adventure under the night sky in the City, all alone. ODST's core structure revolves around you walking around a hub-like open world environment looking for clues from your comrades, which result in flashbacks. During these flashbacks the player is put in the shoes of which ever member of the squad the flashback relates too. It's a really neat idea.
The city itself looks fantastic at night, with a real sense of destruction and combat. Random patrols of Covenant will stand in your way as you battle through the city. The gameplay in these areas really is a welcome departure from what we're used to in a Halo title. Yet for fans of the non-stop fast paced Halo action do not fear, the flashback sequences offer this extremely familiar style.
ODST introduces two new weapons into the mix - the silenced SMG and silenced pistol. Both of these are absolutely fantastic additions. The silenced SMG offers an all around excellent choice to your arsenal, along with the silenced pistol featuring a scope and a 1 shot kill headshot on any unshielded enemy. After jumping back to vanilla Halo 3 it also appears that some of the weapons in ODST have been slightly tweaked to be more effective. Not only that but ODST's are significantly weaker when it comes to sucking up bullets. A new addition to the game is a tweaked health system, much more reminiscent of Halo 1 - stamina acts as a recharging shield represented by how red the screen gets, yet any health lost after that cannot be regenerated through standard means, and instead requires health packs scattered throughout the levels.
The story in ODST is one of the better told stories in any of the Halo games. With what at times feels like the entire cast of Firefly playing as members of the ODST squad, the characters quickly become distinguishable and likeable. Although theres no Master Chief to be seen, the game still does a great job of making the player feel connected to the characters. Also during the night time city sequences Bungie do some amazing work towards making you feel completely alone and cut off from your squad, thanks to the use of some fantastic audio.
The music in ODST is most certainly one of its strongest points. Martin O'Donnell has done a stunning job with the entire soundtrack, from the lonely night time tracks to the upbeat rocky action tunes, the music is a phenomenal rollercoaster ride. All of the weapons and enemies sound exactly as you'd expect from a Halo title, yet the voice overs are probably the best yet from the series - with Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin adding a ton of personality to your ODST comrades. Bungie have also added even more backstory to the game through Audio Logs, which the player can find scattered about the city. These tell the story of Sadie, a young girl trapped in New Mombasa during the Covenant invasion, and offer some genuinely interesting insight into what really happened.
Graphically the game is certainly starting to show the current Halo engine's age, with some average character facial models. However Bungie have pulled no punches when it comes to pushing the engine to its max. Some of the fires and destruction in the distance seen during the night time sequences look gorgeous - it really is a stop and stare moment. Lighting in the game is also rendered fantastically, and the framerate stays consistantly smooth no matter how many explosions are on the screen at one time. Not only that but the game features split screen cooperative multiplayer in its Campaign and Firefight modes - something rarely seen in this generation of shooters due to developers focusing more on the Online side of things.
Firefight is one of the highlights of the ODST package. Tasking you and either 3 buddies online, or another locally, in fending off against waves and waves of Covenant enemies. The game spices things up by throwing various difficulty modifying 'Skulls' into the mix. These activate after each Round, providing extra challenge through rules such as forcing players to melee to regain their stamina, or making the grunts constantly throw grenades at you. Although it is similar to Gears of War 2's Horde mode, Firefight offers more variety and really is a fully fleshed out addition to the game, thanks to it's 10 maps and smart addictive gameplay choices. There is no real competitive multiplayer for ODST, but instead a seperate multiplayer disk featuring Halo 3's full multiplayer mode with all features, all the DLC released to date, and 3 new maps.
Overall Halo 3 ODST is a fantastic package for any Halo fan. With one of the best campaigns from the series spanning around 7 hours on the Heroic difficulty setting, an awesome cooperative multiplayer mode, a guaranteed place in the Halo Reach beta, and the full Halo 3 multiplayer experience with new maps, you really are getting alot of value for your money here. However that said, if you already purchased all of Halo 3's DLC you may feel slightly cheated, yet the campaign and firefight mode's alone are most definitely enough to warrant the price tag. ODST doesn't do a huge amount to spice up the Halo formula, but despite that still offers one of the most compelling experiences so far this year for Halo fans and Xbox 360 owners alike.
Comments
But then in comparison to other Halo's not having its own competitive multiplayer does make it have the expansion feel. But the campaigns length on hard, and firefight are fully fleshed out and definitely not skimped on. Especially considering theres singleplayer only games which offer the same length campaign at full price.
On the topic of the review through, i agree with everything said, the champaign is really fun to do on legendary, unlike halo 3's, despite being a Halo fanboy, i hated Halo 3's champaign, it was like they just put it together at the last minuet without checking what there doing.
I hope for reach that they do newer models for the Marines, it seems as if they've used the same models since Halo 2.
I didn't hate Halo 3's campaign but I didnt think it was anywhere near as good as the others. I played it in coop first time through so that certainly helped.
And the Marines arn't going to change much...as thats how they look! Not just going to redesign the marine armour when thats how they actually looked. However they may change stuff up abit with reach considering its significantly earlier in the time period. Halo 2 and Halo 3 follow on literally side by side, wouldnt make sense to change it
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