Better than Halo 3.
Halo 3: ODST was supposed to be a short expansion but in time it became a full game. Campaign is better than Halo 3 was, Firefight is fun with friends and disc 2 contains all content for Halo 3’s multiplayer. No Halo fan should be without ODST in his or her collection.
THIS IS HOW A STORY SHOULD BE TOLD
Master Chief made a quick visit to New Mombasa, but then he continued his fight into space. Of course that didn’t stop the fighting in New Mombasa. A small group of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers or ODST is deployed, but something goes wrong and everyone gets scattered. Six hours after the drop a nameless and faceless Rookie gains his conscience and drops out from his pod. It’s night, it rains and the city center has been occupied by the Covenant. It is now up to you as this Rookie to find out what happened to your squad.
Story progresses via cutscenes and some in-game dialog. Pacing is good and everything makes sense. Things happen when you expect them to happen and all the characters have appropriate personalities. Aside from Bioshock, Halo 3: ODST is a fine example on how a story in a video game should be told.
A HUB AREA AND SOME FLASHBACKS
Gameplay is pure Halo, but there are some tweaks. You don’t regain your health, you can’t jump as high as the Master Chief and you don’t have that much ammo in your disposal. This means that taking cover is essential and finding health packs is a necessity. Combat especially at night time is a bit easier with your visor on, because it creates an outline around objects: friendlies are green, enemies are red and key items are in bright yellow.
City center acts as a hub area and you can search this open area in whatever order you wish. You don’t have to fight against Covenant patrols and at times it’s the wisest thing to do. When you reach a key item you’ll activate a flashback sequence and get to know what happened to your squad. In these flashbacks the action is much more familiar combat than walking around city center. It takes around 5 to 6 hours to play through the game and I recommend that you do it alone in your first playthrough.
LOOKS BETTER THAN HALO 3
ODST uses the same technology as its predecessor, but since the gameplay area is slightly smaller it means that the graphics are much better than you might remember from Halo 3. Animations are smooth and facial expressions are a success except for Captain Dare who looks too much like a bulky man instead of a blond woman. Music is not the same as before, but it feels like it. Sound design in the city center is great when played alone: just stop and listen once in a while. Sound effects are mostly recycled from Halo 3, but the voice acting is done well. When the actors also have a good script to work with the end result can’t be anything but amazing.
CO-OP AND FIREFIGHT
You can play the entire campaign with up to 4 players and this is especially recommended when playing on Legendary. This is not a surprise to any Halo fan, but what is interesting is a new Firefight, which is basically a Halo version of Gears of War’s Horde. Up to 4 people can play against waves of the Covenant and there are not a whole lot of quiet moments. In each set there are a certain number of skulls activated and they have a signinficant effect on gameplay. All of this feels distinctly Halo, but for some reason you can’t gain any new ranks or levels while playing Firefight and there is no Matchmaking system. This means that if you don’t have ebough friends to play with you will miss one whole section of the game.
MULTIPLAYER
Multiplayer is called Mythic and it contains all the content in Halo 3’s multiplayer in just one disc. To casual players this is a nice deal, but for hardcore fans it’s something that they most likely already have.
FIVE STARS
Halo 3: ODST contains a campaign that is well told, yet different and still familiar. Firefight and co-op in general makes this game a social one, but for some reason there is no matchmaking system. Multiplayer is just Halo 3 with all the released content, but as a whole ODST is a five-star game and a definite must-buy.
