Nerd Mentality

XBOX 360 REVIEW – Halo 3: ODST

Posted October 22nd 2009 by Frankie Aguilar.

When I heard a new Halo was coming out in 2009 I thought it was a lie, or wishful thinking. When I heard that Master Chief wouldn't be in it, I knew it had to be a lie. The Halo series is a monster franchise, but compared to a certain plumber, Master Chief is still a pimply faced tweener. It wouldn't make any sense to take the marquee character out of a game, based in a universe that depends on him saving it. This lone Spartan, through grit and sheer bad-assery, has been the glue to a convoluted story, and he's majorly responsible for the XBOX being a legitimate brand. So when I started to see information about Halo 3: ODST, I'll admit, I scoffed. A Halo 3 offshoot, that has you take the role of an ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) seemed like a money making scheme, pushed to capitalize on the lull between the summer blockbusters and the Holiday games. The ODST are the troops you see getting killed in the background of Halo 2 and 3, so I remained skeptical. Leave it to Bungie to make me eat my words. Though short, Halo 3: ODST is an fantastic FPS that continues the excellence you've come to expect from the series.

ODST takes the series back to basics. From the out set the game lets you know you're not Master Chief and this isn't the Halo you're used to. The graphical sheen from Halo 3 is still here but a lot of aspects of the original Halo: Combat Evolved resurface. You no longer have the re-charging, human enhancing Spartan armor which is replaced by a stamina system. This system forces you to take cover and wait to regain your composure before returning to the fight. If you take damage when your stamina is low you lose part of a total health bar. What that means is the much maligned health packs from Halo: Combat Evolved make their return. At least this time around they're more than just white squares with red crosses on them.

This lack of overwhelming combat power leads to a more tactical style of play that fits the story like a glove. The game takes place in the New Mombasa, where the first fight on earth in Halo 2 took place. In that game, The Covenant, the main alien aggressors throughout the series make a slipstream jump, a light speed style exit, out of New Mombasa. ODST picks up as the slipstream jump happens, and deals with the aftermath and chaos caused by it. The main character is a nameless ODST Rookie that sets out to find his splintered team after their drop pods are scattered by the slipstream jump. The musical score playing in the background while you familiarize yourself with the controls really stand out. A new, jazz influenced score, engulfs you while you pick off aliens invaders in the dead of night. The blaster fire and explosions are juxtaposed by simple piano progressions, backed by airy vocalization that make the combat feel like a dream.

The story is Tarantino-esque. The time line of the game is staggered, showing events out of order, or from two different perspectives. And in a really cool twist, you get to play as every character through their stories. It's a great way of understanding their motivations and overall story. The characters all have nicknames and all their stories, as well as themselves, come together in a climatic ending that will seem all to familiar to Halo fans. Freed from the ridiculous storyline the engulfed that Chief-centric Halo series, this game explores the human side of these encounters. Master Chief was an unstoppable machine that seemed immune to what was going on around him as long as he had something to kill. This made the series a little one dimensional and made for linear story telling and gameplay. ODST focuses more on the characters and their issues. These soldiers have emotions and conflicts outside of the fact that Earth has been invaded by aliens.

Make no mistake, just because you're not the Chief, doesn't mean you're not a bad ass. ODST are the best of the best that aren't Spartans. You might not have the ability to dual wield, or fall from any height without damage, but you're given tools to help you finish the fight. In another throwback to Combat Evolved, a scoped pistol returns to your arsenal along with a suppressed SMG. The most visible difference is in the HUD, nicknamed VISR. The VISR (or Visual Intelligence System Reconnaissance), lacks the radar system of the Spartan armor but makes up for it with a few new tricks. With a click of the X button, a yellow sheen comes over the world highlighting points of interest and outlining enemies in red. The parts of the game where you play as Rookie take place at night, so this helps out a lot.



What Halo 3: ODST lacks is a legitimate multiplayer mode. The game ships with a separate disc containing the Halo 3's multiplayer mode, pre-loaded with all the map packs and three brand new levels. It has a co-operative mode called Firefight that allows you to take on waves of increasingly difficult covenant warriors with a friend via XBOX Live or in system link, but it would have been really cool to add all the new weapons and characters to the existing Halo 3 multiplayer. The length of the single player game, around eight hours, will be an issue, and the lack of a true multiplayer may make people's decisions for them. If you already have Halo 3, then the second disc is really just three maps that are available on Xbox live. It's a detriment to the game, because the single player mission and story within is the best since the original Halo.

One thing the Halo series has never had a problem with is controls, which are as tight and responsive in ODST as they've ever been, and while it might not be the most overwhelmingly graphical game, it's not a slouch either. The plot of the Halo series has been an issue since about halfway through Halo 2, but ODST smooths out the wrinkles and allows for an engaging story that doesn't have you clicking through the cut scenes to get back to shooting. The overall feel of this game is so different that just taking the time to look around your surroundings is enjoyable, which is a change from the break neck action of the rest of the series. The difficulty levels and medals in the Firefight mode will bring achievement players back to this game, and Halo fans looking to find another excuse to live in that universe will play the story more than once. Being able to fight in the Halo universe and not be expected to save everything all by yourself makes for a awesome game that has me chomping at the bit for Halo: Reach. We may have seen the end of Master Chief for now, but the Bungie still has some Halo goodness in their back pocket, and ODST is a testament to that. Just don't call it and expansion.

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Tags: halo, halo 3 odst, bungie

Posted in: Gaming, Reviews

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