What began as a simple Halo 3 expansion evolved into it’s own, full-length project. Sans Master Chief, ODST is definitely a unique game that is worth your time.
WHAT YOU’LL LIKE
Not just a Halo sequel
Though ODST shares it’s name with Halo 3, it is not just another installment in the series. Since, for the first time, we are playing as neither Master Chief nor the Arbiter, the gameplay is just fundamentally different. In the previous Halo games, on pretty much every difficulty except Legendary, you could basically just run out with guns blazing and be okay. Not so in ODST. Stealth and strategy is much more important than brawn. Playing as a standard, not augmented trooper, if you get hit by a Brute, you will fly back about twenty feet. On Easy or Normal, you may be able to get away with playing with reckless abandon, but on Heroic or Legendary, you will not last very long unless you are a Halo grand master.
Outstanding audio/visual effects
The world design in this game is absolutely fantastic. The storyline is told as a series of flashbacks as you track down your missing teammates, so you will end up playing through the same parts of the city more than once, but you’d never realize it without landmarks. While playing during the day, while the battles are still in full swing, the city is bustling and noisy. Transitioning to playing as the main character, the city is dark, silent and completely empty except for the occasional Covenant patrol. Though it’s the same city, the environment is completely different. The sound effects add wonderfully to the various atmospheres of the game. The music, too, is a perfect complement to the more laid back attitude of the game. Martin O’Donnell and Martin Salvatori are back as score composers, and they have completely changed their style to suit the game. While playing as the rookie, you are accompanied by quiet, somewhat haunting music that accentuates the dark atmosphere.
Great voice actors
Apparently, the game developers were great fans of Firefly. Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin and Alan Tudyk are all the voices of main characters, and they do a great job. The banter back and forth between these guys, all of whom already have great chemistry, is laugh-out-loud funny in places.
New maps and new modes
Rather than incorporating multiplayer into ODST, the game came packaged with a second disc with all of the original multiplayer content from Halo 3 as well as some new stuff. There are twenty-four maps, including the original eleven maps from the game, the Heroic, Legendary and Mythic map packs, Cold Storage, as well as three completely new maps. On the off-chance that you don’t have Halo 3, you don’t need the game to use the second ODST disc. Also new for ODST is Firefight, a co-op game mode that will pit players against waves of enemies which increase in difficulty. The player or players have a combined pool of seven lives to spend which get refilled at the end of each phase.
WHAT YOU WON’T LIKE
Length
For an experienced FPS player on normal, the campaign will take about six hours to complete. Playing on Heroic or Legendary, it will take a mite longer, but if you just blaze through it, it leaves you wishing it was longer.
Awkward Co-op
No attempt was made to incorporate the co-op into the story at all. If you play with your buddies (up to 3), there are just unexplained other troopers with you, which is a little awkward. The campaign is better appreciated solo, so if your buddies want to play, make them wait until you finish it first.
RECOMMENDATION
If you love your first-person-shooters, this game is worth buying, or at least renting. It’s also a good deal, since it comes with about a billion dollars’ worth of DLC maps. I really enjoyed this game. It’s still Halo, but refreshingly different.
October 1st, 2009 at 6:09 pm
I really loved the atmosphere of the game and jumping between the different characters as you unravel the story. The music is hauntingly excellent, the best since the first Halo.
October 1st, 2009 at 7:46 pm
I didn’t like ODST. It just didn’t feel right, one of my biggest gripes was how the grenades were thrown (strange, yes). Way too short and scrambled a game, even on Legendary, and the last level was particularly uninspired. As mentioned above though, the music was awesome.
October 1st, 2009 at 11:09 pm
It was far too short, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I’d love to see more Halo in this vein though I feel that desire is moot at this point.