Developed by: Bungie
Published by: Microsoft Game Studios
Score: 75
3 years and 4 days ago Halo 3, the game touted as “The most anticipated game of all time” (until the next one, that is) was released. We at THS almost immediately viewed the game as a big disappointment and have since moved on to greener pastures, however many players have remained faithful to the once-revolutionary-yet-now-average franchise. Those faithful have now been rewarded with Halo ODST, a title which introduces a new story campaign and an extra multi-player disc that includes, er, all the maps they’ve already bought.
The campaign begins with you in the shoes of a rookie Orbital Drop Shock Trooper(most random non-japanese acronym ever) who lands along with your unit in the city of New Mombasa. The entire unit gets separated and you wake up 6 hours after the drop, unable to communicate with anyone. From then on you find clues as to your teammates’ whereabouts, assuming control of them as well through flashback segments that fill in the gaps of events that occurred in between the initial drop and the rookie’s awakening. To be honest that’s pretty much all I can tell you about the plot, and though I’ve always admired Bungie’s attempts to create a vivid sci-fi universe through imagery and storytelling, I never really gave a shit and only want to shoot stuff.
On the game play front, not much has changed. The only new addition of note is the new sub-machine gun (w/scope) which is the standard ODST weapon. This gun is horrible and should never be used. As an ODST you are not able to dual wield weapons either, because apparently only SPARTAN super-soldiers are strong enough to hold two pistols at the same time. Other than that, if you’ve played the previous Halo titles then you know what to expect here. You’ll fight the same Covenant using the same methods you always have, eventually take down a Scarab, have a thrilling high speed escape via Warthog in the end, and be treated to a few lame, anti-climactic cutscenes in the end as usual. The developers toyed with the concept of an open world setting, as the game revolves around the city of Mumbasa and you’re free to find the clues and play the levels in whatever order you wish. However this really isn’t freedom at all, you still have to complete all the missions in order to advance and you have to complete said missions the way the game wants you to(e.g. the game setting road barriers when it doesn’t want you to advance with the tank anymore). However despite the lack of anything new, I have to say I fairly enjoyed the campaign mode this time around. Maybe it’s because I didn’t buy into the hype this time, maybe it’s because it’s been 3 years since I’ve played a Halo title, or maybe it’s because I played it co-op on Legendary so it took twice as long as it probably should have, but I enjoyed the whole experience thoroughly and was left wanting more when it did end.
Really though, for most people the campaign mode will be an afterthought. The main course for the majority of the Halo community is the multi-player, and from what I understand the game includes all the previous map pack content plus a few new maps. There’s a new mode called Firefight, which is exactly like the Horde mode in Gears of War 2(kill all enemies, advance to next round, repeat until dead) and will probably be seen in every other big name FPS to come as well. Unfortunately my Xbox is FUCKING BROKEN AGAIN and I only played the game’s campaign via my brother-in-law’s console, so I really can’t tell you anything at all about the multi-player. Just assume it’s as good as it’s ever been, and if they really did add one of the best maps from Halo 2(Mid-fucking-ship) in it without fucking it up, add two points to my(pretty much meaningless) score.
Oh yeah, I guess I have to talk about the graphics. Once again, if you played Halo 3 then you know what to expect here, as everything looks like it did there(yeah well shit I don’t get paid for writing these, so fuck going into meaningless detail about polygon counts and stuff). The character faces are surprisingly low-res though, and their faces are all about as detailed as the generic NPCs from Halo 2. I guess this is fitting in a way, since the ODST unit is comprised of the most generic rag tag group of military stereotypes ever. Everything else looks good though, and all the alien stuff shimmers and looks all alien-y(again, I don’t get paid for this).
All in all, ODST stays true to the formula that has made Bungie millions of dollars, yet still remains fun throughout. If you’re not a hardcore Halo fan I would recommend it as a rental, as the campaign mode can be finished in a weekend and let’s face it, if you haven’t been playing the multi-player since the beginning you’re just gonna get your ass kicked. If you’re a die hard Halo fan you’ve already had this on pre-order since last year and have played it nonstop since its release and are probably not even reading this or any review anyway. However if you are, hear me out: PLEASE stop buying up everything simply because it has the Halo branding on it and let Bungie know that we would like something NEW and SIGNIFICANT for Halo:Reach. Thanks.