Halo 3: ODST. The Verdict

You must have lived under a rock to not know about the success of Bungie’s golden boy, Halo. In it’s three incarnations, it has never failed to impress, surging to the top of the charts as soon as they were released. Halo 3 has been quoted as being the most hyped game release in History, as well as having the most pre-orders, and sales in 24 hours. It seems that gamers can’t get enough of blasting away the Covenant aliens, and each other in Halo’s addictive multiplayer. Unfortunately, as it seems, Microsoft have noticed the allure of Halo, and have pushed Bungie to make more and more sequels to Halo. As a result, Bungie have bought themselves out, and will stop making Halo games after Halo: Reach is released.

The Craptacular SMG in all it's glory

Anyway, perhaps the penultimate Halo game from Bungie has been released recently, Halo 3: ODST. The game revolves around Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, essentially a futuristic hybrid between the SAS, Paratroopers, and Assassins. These soldiers are the best of the best, but they fall short of the almighty Master Chief. These guys can’t dual wield weapons, don’t have the ability to hijack vehicles, brutally melee enemies, and most importantly, when their overshield depletes, they lose health, and have to find a health-pack in order to restore it, much like the original Halo.

Fortunately, the ODST’s aren’t completely cannon fodder, unlike the unfortunate Marines that were in the previous Halo. They have access to a silenced, beefed up pistol, whilst also having zoom functionality. It’s a fairly good package, great for assassinating helpless grunts, but when faced up against Brutes or Hunters at higher difficulties, it’s not the most useful weapon you can have. The ODST also possess a silenced sub-machine gun, which is an interesting offering, but unfortunately, due to it’s high recoil and low damage output, I ignored the gun completely.

The Heads up Display, clearly labeled by Bungie

ODST’s also have a pretty advanced helmet, featuring a Heads up Display that instantly allows them to survey the battlefield, and tell enemies from allies, as well as locating mission objectives COD4 style. The visor outlines NPC’s, making them very visible in both the day and night time sections of the game. The ODST visor also has a night-vision filter, a useful feature, considering that more than half the game is spent skulking around in the night.

Which brings us to the Plot of the game. Without giving too much away, you assume the role of ‘The Rookie’ an ODST with limited experience, etc. Unfortunately, while you are descending to Earth in a drop pod, an accident occurs, and you black out. Six hours later, you wake up in a pile of rubble, and you don’t know where your squad is. Quickly finding out that you’re in an African city called ‘New Mombasa’ you try to reunite with the squad, with the assistance of the city’s AI. When you look at certain objects, they trigger flashbacks, which allows you to see through the eyes of a different member of the Rookie’s squad. Unlike the Rookie’s viewpoint, these missions take place in the day, full of glorious carnage, and insane set-piece battles.

The Campaign is fairly short though, with the help of friends, it’s pretty much assumed that the Covenant will cower in fear, as you massacre them in the hundreds. If you go it alone, on Heroic, it’s still assumed that you’ll be able to finish the game in 5 hours. Not exactly the world’s longest Campaign, but it leads on to the awesome new multiplayer mode of ODST, Firefight Mode.

Firefight Mode= Nazi Zombies times ten

Firefight Mode can be described as being Halo’s equivalent of Left 4 Dead’s final Zombie defence, Nazi Zombies of COD:WaW, or Gears of War 2’s Horde mode. But ODST makes it bigger and better than any of it’s counterparts. The scene is set in New Mombasa in daylight, when the Covenant make their first appearance, landing forces in Dropships to attack the city. As one of (up to four ODSTs) that are part of the cities defense, it’s your duty to kill as many Covenant aliens as possible. Sounds fairly easy, I suppose…

Unfortunately, Bungie have decided to make your life hell, and have added in the problem of having a shared pool of lives. When you run out of lives, that’s it, game over. And the second, more difficult game modifier, is the addition of skulls. Skulls make life insanely hard for even the most experienced player, when enemies throw grenades like there’s no tomorrow, or making the only way one can regain health by melee-ing the nearest alien in the face.

The Halo 3 engine is dated, but still has it's 'Wow' moments

However, the game is a lot like Halo 3 in a lot of ways. The game uses the exact same engine, which has proven to be a bit jaggy and laggy, as well as having no multiplayer component except for Firefight, and Halo 3’s original multiplayer. The music is amazing as expected from a Halo game, but, before going out and buying ODST, consider this first… Is it worth paying $80 for a game that features a short campaign, medium length Firefight mode, and a Multiplayer experience you probably already have? Newbies to the series, buy this game, it has the amazing original multiplayer, as well as an interesting diversion, but for veterans, perhaps this game isn’t the world’s best value for money.