Halo 3: ODST Review

Alf Horsley

Halo 3 ODST has transformed over the course of its development from being ‘that other Halo game’ to being one of the most anticipated games of the year for 360 owners. While only really being developed because of the demise into development hell of Peter Jackson’s episodic adventure Halo: Chronicles, ODST has managed to do the series proud. From the outset, the game has an epic feel about it that the whole Halo series is known for. As the game starts up you are presented with a short explanation of the Human-Covenant war shown over a beautiful cloudscape, with crackles of thunder as the passages change from one to the other. Following this is the menu, which almost summarises the feel of the game in itself- the small menu is nestled in front of a shot of the Rookie sleeping, as a sample of the game’s epic soundtrack plays. This sets the mood of the storyline- an epic that is in many ways dissimilar to the Halo we have come to know so far.

The story mode of this game is one of its crowning successes. The plot of the game is easy enough to follow- your squad of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers has made a bad drop and you have to search for them. As you do, you find evidence of their presence in the over world and you play out a linear narrative explaining how that piece of evidence got there. The linear missions follow the story of how each member of the squad find the rest of the group and eventually make an escape from the wrecked city of New Mombasa. The plot, while simple, manages to stay engaging and entertaining throughout as you go through the highs and lows of being the common footsoldiers of the Halo universe. The story does an admiral job of underlining the human faction quite well and giving insight into just how the footsoldiers are treated by command and how they think and feel. The cutscenes play a big role in this- while only brief, these cinemas are amazingly done. From the opening drop to just conversations between the ODSTs as they meet, they manage to keep the feeling of the game constantly gripping. While the graphics of the cutscenes have not changed much, the changes you see are certainly improvements, with the flesh texturing and facial modelling greatly improved and the speech animation looking flawless- a vast improvement on Halo 3 which suffered greatly in cutscenes due to bad speech animation. However, the brevity of these cutscenes can make the short campaign game feel even shorter.

In the campaign game, the defining feature is the soundtrack. The Halo franchise is renowned for having an amazing soundtrack and Bungie’s in house composer Marty O’Donnell can be described as nothing short of a genius.  ODST is a return to form from what was a relatively lacklustre performance in Halo 3. ODST brings the Combat Evolved and Halo 2 Orchestral/Electronic style back, with more variation within this which gives the game a fantastic change from the epic Sci-Fi theme in the main series, giving a grittier, war movie feel.

The open world format of the story between the linear missions in the single player was interesting at first, as it gives you free roam of the city limits between missions. In it you can clean up Covenant patrols, explore new places and collect ‘audio file’ intelligence that follows a storyline as you find new files. However, this quickly became filler between missions and there was not enough to see or do in the city other than kill things, look at closed buildings and doors that looked identical to the ones on the last block and the next block and run the quickest route to the next mission.

The gameplay of ODST hasn’t changed much from Halo 3. This makes sense, since it’s only an expansion based on the same engine, but the new features which the title offers are mostly an improvement. The new VISR night vision system and database system are amazing introductions to the game, especially with the night time setting of a lot of the missions and the entire overworld. The night vision system brightens everything and highlights enemies in red, friendlies in green, weapons and vehicles in blue and ‘points of interest’ (mainly campaign objectives and collectable audio file points) in yellow. Think Rogue Squadron II’s targeting computer. This makes the night time combat a lot easier and leads to fewer teamkills in the co-op mode.

The new health system gives the feeling of being the little man, as health no longer recharges. A feeling of mortality sets in as you by no means have infinite health and take damage in a much greater way than that of the Spartans and Elites of Halo 3. However, the changes to the weapon system can mess up this feeling created by the new health system. The dual wield system of Halo 3 has been done away with, as this would suggest too much strength on the part of the ODSTs, but this is immediately countered by the fact that the ODSTs can wield Gravity Hammers and the 3rd person perspective turrets that are bigger than the troopers themselves. This gives an unbalanced impression that can break immersion.

As with any Halo game, a pivotal part of judging it is the multiplayer game. The campaign game is fully Co-operative, both online and local. This makes the experience of the story more fun, and the short length of the campaign game makes it more accessible for multiplayer gaming. Similarly, the new multiplayer mode, Firefight, is easy to just jump into and the wave after wave format of the co-op game allowing for ‘just one game’ sessions to last for hours on end without ever losing its fun factor. However, the curve in difficulty between campaign and firefight can make it difficult to master for all but the seasoned Halo veterans.
There are some problems with the multiplayer on ODST. The main issue with multiplayer is the lack of a matchmaking system for Firefight. As a result it can only be played with recent player of other games or friends also owning ODST. This means that frequently you’ll only be able to play solo, which can become ridiculously hard. There are also issues with local multiplayer- the lack of 4 player firefight on local play means that if you have a game session going, a lot of people are going to have to sit out or system link will have to be used. The local game can also experience some issues with framerate when the going gets tough.

All in all, while ODST is short, for a lover of the Halo mythos it is simply an indescribable experience that will keep you playing on the edge of your seat from insertion to escape and beyond. The Mythic Multiplayer disc has not been included in this review, but for any Halo player new or old, it makes this package a must have.

You’ll be able to find a feature on the Mythic disc in the features section of the site shortly.

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