Halo 3: ODST

WARNING:

May contain Spoilers and/or Bad Language.
 
Halo 3 was one of the most anticipated titles and the best selling game in 2007 in the US.  It included amazing features such as: Video Recording and Forge.  How does Halo 3: ODST stand against it's predecessor?
 

• The story takes place between Halo 2 and Halo 3, in the city of New Mombasa.  You play as The Rookie, an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST), you and your squad drop into the city to clear Covenant forces.  During the drop, you and your squad are forced away from where you are suppose to land.  Now you must search for your squad members and complete your mission.
• As an ODST, you can't jump as high, can't run as fast, have Stamina and Health instead of a Shield, can't use Equipment, have no motion tracker and can't dual-wield.   However, you can hold 3 of each grenade type and have access to the VISR (Visual Intelligence System, Reconnaissance) HUD, which enables you to see in the dark, mark allies, objects and enemies in different colours and access a map of the city.  ODST's throw grenades higher also.  The default weaponry for an ODST are: Auto Mag and Silenced SMG.
• The Auto Mag is an improved version of the Halo pistol, now surpressed and in automatic.  Getting headshots has never been so satisfying.
• The Silenced SMG however is lacking power.  This gun is ineffective against Brutes (due to their shields) and getting headshots is difficult.  Recommended for use against the bugs.
• The campaign is separated into 2 missions: the actual mission (you playing as The Rookie) and flashback missions (you playing as the respective ODST of that flashback mission).  Initially, the actual mission will be linear but will eventaully let you choose what flashback mission to play next.  The flashback missions are linear - moving from one point to another (like previous Halo games by Bungie).  Starting a flashback mission is easy as finding the object that was used or seen from it.
• The campaign can last around 9 hours (playing solo on Legendary) or around 4-5 hours (playing 4-players on Legendary).  However, times vary depending on your skill, your friend's skills, what skulls you have enabled and how time you take to explore each mission and/or the city.
• On Firefight, the Halo version to Gears of War 2's Horde mode, you and 3 other friends fight against an infinity number of enemies, with the twist of Halo 3 skulls.  These skulls turn on and off each Round and Set.  There are 5 Waves in a Round, 3 Rounds in a Set.  Surviving each Set awards you a Bonus Round, giving you 60 seconds of killing as much enemies as you can with all Skulls activated.  Getting enough points in the Bonus Round awards you extra lives, which are decided depending on how many players there are - 1 life for a solo play, 2 lives for 2 players, etc.  This is where most of the replayability is.
• There are no matchmaking for the campaign and Firefight, which I kind of like.  I rather play with people I know and not leavers or team killers.  Of course, this resulted in mass friend invitations being sent to strangers.  But at least you can also remove them from your friend's list if you find out that they are one of those "bad people".
• The bad thing about Halo 3: ODST is that video recording, video editing and upload service is available to those who have subscribed to Bungie PRO.  At the time of this post, Bungie is still working on the system and will release it soon.  For the mean time (and us non-subscribers), we can only watch the film from our hard drives and take screenshots.  To share your videos, you'll need to invite your friends to your theatre.  The fast forwarding is quite slow compared to Halo 3's.
  
• That was only on disc 1, disc 2 features the complete Halo 3 multiplayer experience.  Featuring all the maps ever released by Bungie with the video recording, video editing and matchmaking system of Halo  3, this is a great bonus for those who didn't purchase the maps when they were released (like me).
  
• Earning Achievements during the campaign is not persistent - meaning, you have to unlock Achievements in the current mission.  Ending the mission does not carry over your current Achievement progress into the next mission.  I don't understand why Bungie developed the system this way, it's just annoying.  The Achievement list is great and it's not too hard with the right group of players (especially for Firefight).
• Earning Audio Logs throughout the campaign will unlock Supply Cache's around certain parts of the city for The Rookie to use.
  
• Halo 3: ODST also includes the final 3 Vidmaster series Achievements.  Once all 7 Vidmaster Achievements are unlocked, and assuming you have linked your Xbox LIVE account to Bungie.net, you can unlock the infamous Recon armour for use in multiplayer.

 
There was a big controversy around the price tag of Halo 3: ODST, however in the UK it was £30.  A full retail game costs around £50, so it was a good price for the UK for once.  The campaign is great on the first playthrough but afterwards, the only reason most people would play it is for Achievements.  I'm quite disappointed with the campaign, it's not as compelling as I'd thought it'd be.  Also, roaming the streets as The Rookie is quite boring and don't be surprised if you run out of ammo.  Firefight is the mode that many people will be playing for a while.
 
With the complete Halo 3 multiplayer disc included, easy 1k Achievements and a multiplayer beta invite for Halo: Reach - Halo 3: ODST is a good bundle.