Review: Halo 3: ODST

The United Nations Space Command is humanity’s best chance in the war against the alien army known as the Covenant.  They have trained an elite group of troopers known as the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. These elite marines drop from a sub-orbital spacecraft to head up the front line in battle after crash landing spectacularly in their pods. In ODST’s case, that crash landing puts them in the darkened streets of New Mombasa.

You assume the role of the Rookie who recently became the newest member of an ODST squad tasked with ridding New Mombasa of enemy forces before taking control of a Covenant battle cruiser.  Unfortunately while  you’re crashing down to Earth prior to the start of your mission, the exact same battle cruiser jumps into hyperspace, which in turn knocks you and your whole squad off course and scatters them across the city. You awaken six hours later, night has fallen and you are left on your own to explore your surroundings and find out what has happen to the five other members of your squad.

From here you are left to pretty much your own devices as you explore the New Mombasa streets. But you are not alone in this dark city – it is infested with Covenant forces out for blood. The dark atmosphere and the hostile environment really create a feeling of isolationism, and highlight the desire to simply survive – not just to kick alien butt like in past Halo titles.

This isn’t the only way in which the game differs from the rest of the series as ODST’s are in no way built like the superhuman Spartans that we’re used to in the original Halo trilogy.  Master Chief had the ability to duel wield weapons, jump inhuman heights and rely on his trusty over shield when the battle heated up. The Rookie doesn’t have any of these battle essentials that seasoned Halo players have kind of grown accustomed to and by removing these abilities, ODST makes you think tactically in heated battle situations.  I used to play Halo by going in all-in, guns blazing and in this situation, I had to take a step back and analyse the situation.

The Rookie is not so ill equipped, as he has two ODST issue weapons, the SMG and the Magnum.  While I never found much use for those weapons in the previous Halo games, here I found myself relying on these weapons most of the time.  Both have been enhanced: they are scoped, have a small boost in power, and are silenced.  These weapons, the Magnum especially, made for some really good head shot kills. Small troops were taken out with ease, while the massive Hunters and Brutes took a bit more work. This illustrates the strength of the ODST in the Halo universe: they knock out the majority of a the enemy forces with ease that a general soldier would admire, while top tier badguys remain a threat.

To accompany your new arsenal of weapons you now have a VISR mode. This handy addition to you HUD  helps you out when you’re all alone in the dark city of New Mombasa. It comes with night vision, Enemy Recognition and a terrain analyser. All these attributes really help you identify your surroundings, and if there is something of great importance near you, your VISR mode will highlight it in a nice bright yellow out line. Dead handy.

The VISR mode also comes equipped with a city map and links up to New Mombasa’s AI so you can identify the last known position of your (missing) squad mates. As you explore the city, you are given navigation points to follow towards them. Once you get to said location you then have to look round for a clue, which triggers off a flashback when found. The flashbacks let you take the seat of a different squad member as they try and bring the whole ODST team back together. The flashbacks play classic Halo style, with all the weaponry, vehicles and all out Covenant slaying action we know and love. All these flashbacks eventually come together to form a pretty good story.

With a good story you need a good cast. I can safely say Bungie are fans of the Sci-Fi TV show Firefly as they have pulled in Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin and Adam Tudyk to voice act members of the ODST squad. I am pleased they have chosen these guys to lend their voices to the game, and not because I am a Firefly fan, but becasue they do a great job in voicing the characters (which coincidently aren’t that far from the rolls they took on in the TV show.)  Joining those three is Tricia Helfer from another hit Sci Fi show, Battlestar Galatica and she does a great job too.

Now to really score the hat trick, the games visuals have to be up to scratch. ODST has done well here, not much different from its predecessor, Halo 3, but that’s probably due to the fact it is built on the same engine. The shadows may be a tad too dark on the day lit levels but nothing  to grab your torches and pitch forks over.

While the campaign is certainly of interest, it’s the multiplayer that has given the Halo series such long legs. ODST looks to extend that reach even further with is brand new Firefight mode. You have the opportunity of teaming up with up to three other people over Xbox LIVE or local connection, then you are slammed onto the battle field. The game is split up into stages which in turn are comprised of three rounds.These rounds are then crammed with eight waves of Covenant of increasing level for you to defeat. You have all of the weapons at your disposal, with each new stage giving you weapon drops.

But its not as simple as that. You know the skulls you spent hours looking for in Halo 3? The ones that increase the difficulty level by adding challenging modifiers to the gameplay, like “you have to melee attack an enemy to recover health”? Well they have made a welcome return here. A selection of them are turned on at random at the start of each stage. Firefights makes for some brutal fun and what seems like never ending game play. I would have loved to see a scarab tank thrown in to Firefight, and a  return of past Halo enemy Elites (because let’s face it, Firefight mode isn’t exactly story driven), but this niggles are small in comparison to the value of the mode as a whole.

Now I would complain about length, as the main campaign mode is a mere 6 hours of gameplay, and the £34.99 price tag I paid for it was a bit steep. However,  ODST comes with a second disc which contains every single Halo 3 multiplayer element known to man. It comes with all the DLC levels, three new levels on top of that, and all your forge and theatre modes. That all means that I can free up some much needed Hard Drive space, and makes me more pleased with the pricetag in general.

Even with only a 6 hour campaign mode and some shadowing issues, all in all Halo 3: ODST is a great game, and a must have for any Halo fan such as myself. Any one for Firefight?

Pluses
+ Great Game play, nice mixture of the classic halo game play we love coupled with the stealthy gameplay while exploring the city.
+ Good story using flashbacks to keep the gamer interested
+ Good cast and voice acting, Gotta love fire fly.
+Firefight is a brilliant multiplayer addition

Minuses
- Graphics have a few shadow problems
- Eventhough the story is good you’ll be done with it in about six hours, needs to be longer
- The £34.99 Price tag is a bit steep

Available now exclusively on Xbox 360
Rated 16 +
Players: 1 - 4
Finished main campaign on Normal Mode also played Firefight online with 4 players also in Normal Mode.

Final Verdict: Even though you are only looking at six hours of gameplay here it’s a darn good six hours with a great variety of all out action and the will to survive on your own. Firefight is a must play for any blood thirsty FPS fans out here who just want to kill, kill, kill so all in all a great addition to the Halo franchise.