Halo 3: ODST

Halo 3 ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) gives the player the chance to take a peek into the war before Master Chief took the spotlight in the series. You will be playing as 5 different soldiers each with their own weapon of preference as well as mannerisms. For most of the game you will be playing as the silent rookie (could this be the future Chief?) touring the city and finding objects that will cause a memory flash followed by a small segment of time past where you'll assume the role of one of the other soldiers.

Graphically this game is stunning, but this really comes as no big surprise when you look at previous Halo games. This is done on the same engine as Halo 3, but in my personal opinion some of the levels look sharper this time around. The one sad thing is that you'll have the visor on most of the time, which has a nice effect of adding lines to everything, but the rich colors and scenery gets white washed and you're left with  a very flat looking view. The only thing that I think needs improvement are the faces of the soldiers, they just don't seem to match up with the quality of the rest of the game.

The music just like other Halo games is rich and great to listen to. This is one of the few games where I want to continue to hear the music outside of the game. The voice acting gets me excited simply because it includes some of  the Firefly cast. There are some times where the lines feel like they are falling a bit flat, but overall it was a great experience.

The controls are what you've grown to expect from the series. I personally did have a little bit of trouble with driving the vehicles, but that could have just been me. The best thing is that this is a game that utilizes almost the entire controller's worth of buttons and yet doesn't feel overly complicated to execute, maybe its because I've played all the previous games.

As stated before you will be playing as 5 different soldiers through New Mombasa. You have been sent to try to combat the Convenant and try to find what it is that they are exactly looking for. The interesting thing about this game is the fact that you will be playing the majority of the game through flashbacks. This helps give the player a unique experience of seeing what happened from several different angles. There is also a side mission going on in the game which involves collecting audio files, and a story will unfold from that. I personally didn't like how the game ended, but its something to definitely get to.

On the multiplayer side there's a new type of mode with is called Firefight. You'll be taking on wave after wave of enemies trying to score as many points as possible, as well as having random skulls activated to create a unique experience. Also you'll be able to get the map packs that have been released for Halo 3 packaged into the game.

If you're looking for a very solid First Person Shooter, or just want to get a different look at the Halo universe you need to get this game. The game does feel a bit short, but with the packaged in map packs and the new mode, I think that this game is more than worth it. This game gets a 9.3 out of 10.