Halo 3: ODST is a solid expansion to Halo 3
Halo 3: ODST is the new expansion to Bungie's extremely popular first person shooter Halo 3 which was released two years ago on the Xbox 360. Now it is important to remember this is an EXPANSION, not a full fledged Halo game.
The game puts you in the shoes of an O.D.S.T(Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) simply called the Rookie by your squad mates which is refreshing for a change since previously you were only able to play as the Master Chief and the Arbiter in previous games. The game begins with your squad mates Dutch, Romeo, and Mickey discussing plans for assaulting the Covenant ship above New Mombasa. Buck arrives and introduces Dare. You and your team then enter HEV's and drop through the atmosphere toward the ship; at the last minute, Dare changes everyone's HEV trajectory to miss the carrier. The Covenant ship enters slipspace, sending a shockwave toward the ODSTs; then your pod collides with another and crashes to the ground, knocking you unconscious for six hours. You awaken and proceed to find clues as to what happened to your squad mates in the dark and dreary city of New Mombasa. Whenever you do find a clue as to what happened to your team mates you have this flashback of what happened to them and basically this is how you start a mission. You play through your squad mates eyes throughout most of the missions and the missions themselves sort of explain what happened to them in great detail. Later on in the game though, you will meet up with your squad and then towards the end, have to find a means as to escaping the city. The game's story is solid, but the scope of it all is not big at all which may be a disappointment to some considering that the Halo franchise is known for the epic, tall tale it told. Then again though this is an expansion not a full fledged sequel so your expectations shouldn't be too high when it comes to the scope of the story.
The gameplay in Halo 3: ODST is practically the same as it was in Halo 3, although some small tweaking has been done since you no longer play as the Super Soldier known as the Master Chief. One of these gameplay mechanics added to the game is that you cannot dual wield anymore since I guess ODST aren't as strong as the Chief and your health has been changed as well, you no longer bear a recharging energy shield and instead a health bar which is ironic because Halo popularized the recharging energy shield in video games. All of this stuff aside though, you still feel pretty powerful and the game doesn't really live up to the whole tactical nature that it has promised to add to the Halo franchise. It's a little bit more tactical, but overall its still a run and gun game like it's predecessors. There is also four player co-op(2 player offline) which was seen in Halo 3 and it is quite fun to play the game with some friends as is every game with co-op included, so this can help add some replay value to the campaign.
After you finish the the campaign there is a mode in the game called Firefight in which you or 3 other players must fight wave after wave of covenant forces. This mode is very similar to Gears of War 2's Horde mode, though there are some more customization options here, such as the added addition of enabling skulls. It's a pretty damn good mode and can be insanely fun especially since the maps on which you play Firefight on are well designed. Bundled along with the game is a second disk which contains Halo 3's multiplayer along with all of the original and downloadable maps that are available for it including the relatively new Mythic Map Pack.
The visuals in Halo 3: ODST use the same game engine found in Halo 3. The game looks great, even breathtaking at times, but sometimes it can look rough due to some ugly looking characters and occasionally low-res textures here and there. These are the only complaints you could make about Halo 3: ODST's graphics though, but thankfully the sound in the game is fantastic and better then the graphics themselves. The original soundtrack is great and has a much more unique feeling to it this time around as opposed to the upbeat Halo orchestral theme seen before. All the weapons sound good just as they did in Halo 3 and really the sound in all of the Halo games is top notch so it's no surprise that the sound is great in ODST.
In the End ODST is more then just an expansion pack and will most definately give you your 60 dollars worth of content. It's also a pretty solid action game that is best played with some friends, so if your a fan of the Halo series you should really check this game out.
