Its September 21, 10:30pm. I call up a good friend and ask him if he would like to pick me up for the midnight launch. He abruptly tells me that he cannot go, and so my only chance of a ride falls into shambles. Fearing I would end up last in line and have to wait until dawn before getting my copy I quickly begin walking down to the local mall. In case you don't know I am fairly heavy person. Yes I am fat. So walking 40 minutes straight wouldn't be something I would usually do. But it's video games. Anyways I arrive at the mall with enough sweat to fill a pitcher and promptly try to get in. A friendly old man opens the door as I explain my reasons for being there so late. Unsure, he calls down security and they ask me the same questions. I tell them I am here for the midnight launch of a video game at EB Games. They tell me there is no such event and that EB Games is closed until tomorrow. Now, I am pissed but refusing to walk back. I summon a cab and angrily go home. The next day I return to a now open mall to a now open EB Games and demand that they tell me why they would tell me about a midnight release of ODST when I pre-order the game, and then NOT have a midnight release. The clerk looks at me confusedly and says "......whut?" Rage settles in but I will not make a mockery of myself in such a populated area, too many witness to a clerk getting their jugular ripped out. I buy the thing I spent so much effort into I might as well have bled for and return home to relax and play ODST. Now! Onto the review,
Halo 3: ODST is a slice of the struggling fight for survival in between Halo 2 and Halo 3. The character, you, is a rookie Orbital Drop Shock Trooper who has be assigned to a generically differed squad. A complaining sniper, a religious heavy weapons soldier, a talkative demolitions expert, and a hard-asses squad leader. An office of Naval Intelligence officer who seems to have personal connections to the squad leader takes your squad and drops them in New Mombasa right before the slip space event in Halo 2. You get split up from your squad and are forced to search the city until you find them.
The Streets of New Mombasa is an interesting place that players flirted with in Halo 2. This thrust into urban combat was something new, and fit the game well. The map was essential. It was pretty easy to get lost even with it. OH! And the music. Martin O'Donnel and Michael Salvatori are back at it with some amazing music that was very different from the Halo's, which was keeping it's theme.
ODST takes a darker turn in the Halo universe, both literally and story wise.This game has been marketed as something different from the original Halo games. And rightfully so. Because you are no longer the 7' power armored killing machine, the rookie runs slower, jumps lower, and dies easier. To balance the loss of a motion tracker, the ODST's have been outfitted with a night vision mode where enemies are highlighted and a reverse sunglasses effect comes in making everything brighter. The energy shields have been replaced with a stamina system where you can take a little bit of damage from falling or getting shot before you'll need a health pack. However this does little more than put tissue paper up in front of a plasma shot, making you run around frantically looking for one. And that brings back something I missed from the Original Halo. knowing that you can't just hide for a minute and have green vital signs again. When two Hunters charge and you find yourself running full tilt back into a building. (FYI They follow you into buildings as I sadly found out). Your life suddenly had value and something returned, Fear.
The weapons are the one you expect from Halo, the SMG became medium ranged and was silenced (which makes no sense), and the pistol became my new favorite weapon all over again. They mixed the fire as fast as you pull the trigger from Halo 2 and the scope from the first Halo, making it so much awesome. But those like me who love the BR are saddened with a lack thereof. It felt like it was taking away from the Halo feel.
The gameplay was well paced between the intense combat Halo is known for and the semi-stealth sequences as the rookie looks around in the dark for his lost team and audio files from the supervisor AI. These at first seemed to be boring but my interest picked up after a few listenings. Ammo in ODST are few and far between. I found myself frequently using enemy weapons. So when I found the location of a supply cache it was a godsend. Mongeese are sometimes found at these caches which made roaming the city easier and more enjoyable. The at last unveiling of the engineer aliens used by the Covenant was something all Halo fanboys who read the books should be happy about. However their role of giving enemies overshields and self destructing into giant clusterbombs made you feel better about killing them, WHICH IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DO BY THE WAY. Holy crap how are you supposed to kills those things anyways? I per usual probably missed something and found these guys to be invincible.
The campaign was genuinely fun and involving being the guys that follow the Master Chief into battle. However the game didn't feel like Halo. I KNOW that it's not supposed to be but I felt like there should have been more. I'm not sure what, but something felt missing. Also it was balls short, like 6 or 8 hours, then you're done. Ouch. That felt pretty cheap considering Bungie have always been good at making a single player heavy game. But that isn't everything you're dropping the $75 Canadian on though.
Firefight is for a lack of a better comparison, horde mode from Gears 2. The bedrock of it is you fight waves of enemies and see how long you last. With a few buddies it's pretty fun. The constant yelling/team building experiences, and random skulls turned on bring on more challenges. Like horde mode there are a few Jesus rooms where you can hold off more enemies, but that usually falls apart the moment a Hunter lumbers in.
The new maps are great and deserve some mentioning. Longshore's open areas and tunnels makes for objective based games. Citadel's symmetrical hallways and forerunner aesthetic is great for slayer. Heretic, the Halo 2 port of Midship is a map I had fond memories of. Possibly the best swords map, Heretic is great mostly for slayer and the odder game types like oddball and king of the hill.
All in all, Halo 3: ODST is a great game. A fun campaign, with an equally fun firefight and the added value of new maps makes this game worth buying. Just Don't expect the Chief to show up.
+ Going back to New Mombasa
+ More tactical approach to Halo
+ The magnum kicks ass
+ Firefight mode and new maps
- Campaign is shamefully short
- This is just my impression,'s but it felt like something was missing. maybe because it's supposed to be different?
MY RATING: 8.5/10
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