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REVIEW: HALO 3 ODST

Reviewed on Xbox 360. Developed by Bungie. Published by Microsoft Games Studio

So Halo 3 ODST is here. Here are the facts.

1. It’s an expansion pack to Halo 3, using its tech but telling a side story that occurs between the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3

2. The Multiplayer is basically all of Halo 3′s multiplayer maps, plus all of the Halo 3 DLC maps plus three new maps. It even comes on a separate disc.

3. There is a new Firefight mode which is much the same as Horde mode in Gears 2 or the Zombies in CoD WaW

4. Though the multiplayer is mostly recycled, the main campaign is rather short and it was conceived as a cheap expansion, it is full price

5. The game is excellent

6. No Flood. No Cortana (the level). No Library.

So you play as ‘Rookie,’ seemingly  the only survivor of an ODST squad who’ve landed in New Mombasa shortly after the Covenant attacked the city. Your squad is no where to be seen and your job is to traverse the enemy-infested streets of New Mombasa searching for clues as to your team’s whereabouts. Once you’ve found an item belonging to one of them, you’ll experience a flashback to what happened to that trooper. Then you’ll be playing as that trooper for a mission.

So there are two parts to the game. The first part: Rookie search for clues across town  at night and having encounters with Covenant troops along the way starts off to be slow, confusing and not all that much fun. You need to use your scanner (pressing X) which lightens dark areas and draws colourful outlines around everything (and looks like a GRAW game). You also quickly learn that the health system has gone back to a similar style to that of Halo 1. You don’t have a shield now, just stamina that will renew itself if you can stop taking damage for a bit. Once your stamina is depleted, your health will start to suffer and will only regenerate if you can find a health pack. Thing is, they don’t obviously look like a health back so by the time you have memorised what they look like, you will be finished the game. Did I mention the game is short? The distances you will cover on foot start to irritate until you start finding Covenant ghost’s lying about the place (you can’t use any of the other vehicles strewn throughout New Mombasa). Once you do start using them, they time you spend travelling in New Mombasa decreases dramatically as does the amount of time you’ll spend fighting the small groups of Covenant on the city streets. A collectible in the game are the segments of audio diaries hidden in the city documenting one woman’s story as she auditions for The Archers (I guarantee no one who reads this blog will get that one so move on). They are similar to the info drops in Infamous. They give the game some character but are ultimately just something you look for if you absolutely have to do everything in a game. Keep looking and you’ll find a clue to the whereabouts of a crew member and then that’s when the game resumes being awesome.

Once you’ve found the clue, you’ll then play a mission as one of the ODST team members and these are uniformly excellent and proof that Bungie still know how to put together a really tight game. You will also get a chance to drive warthogs, Scorpion tanks and Banshees in some of these missions as well as use some of the bigger guns the Haloverse has to offer. Apart from the differences in ODST troops’ abilities from a Spartan such as Masterchief, these play like the more epic battles in any Halo game.

Also on disc one of this 2-disc set is Firefight mode. Here, you and/or some friends (and they need to be friends due to the lack of matchmaking offered for this mode), you take on successive waves of Covenant in a very similar way to Horde mode in Gears of War 2, Zombie mode in Call of Duty World at War and of course, Left 4 Dead. This was also the subject of our most recent podcast if you’re at all interested.

Disc 2 is known as the Mythic Disc although it shows up as Halo 3 on your Xbox dashboard. Unlike the actual Halo 3 disc, this disc will load faster if you install it on your hard drive. It includes all of the original Halo 3 multiplayer maps plus all of the DLC maps (of which there were quite a few) and 3 new maps. These still hold up well and as not every fan of Halo 3 picked up the DLC, at least here you can be sure of a sizeable population of players with all the maps.

Presentation is pure Halo 3. The same tech, prettied up in places with its maligned sub HD resolution and rock-steady frame rate. There are some ugly textures visible here and there but overall the look is colorfully appealing- though the poor face of Buck seems out of place on such a polished package. Maybe it’s better if Bungie stick to guys wearing masks. The user interface is a little slicker than previous Halo games since it’s now 3D in places and the cinematics in general are nicer. There’s even a nice little tag scene after the credits which is well worth watching. Sound is phenomenal as usual, and we have a voice cast including three guys from Firefly, Caprica 6 and Uncharted guy.

Have you heard the game is short? The package on it’s own is actually great value. A great single player campaign, plus a ton of multiplayer maps and a great coop mode in Firefight.I already had all of the multiplayer maps and I could complain about that but then I also felt that way when I bought Orange Box and ended up with another copy of both TF2 and HL2. There’s no Crackdown 2 multiplayer beta (that would be ironic) included but there is a Halo Reach beta invite included so there’s that as well.

So yes it is worth it but not essential. If you like shooters and own a 360- you should get this if you haven’t already. Would I buy a 360 just to play ODST? No- Halo 3 is still a grander experience. This just gives you more of what you want, which does me fine.

Controller1.com rating 2/3