Halo 3:ODST

DarkkendO takes us through a breif glimpse of Halo 3:ODST. Be warned this does contain some story spoilers so don’t read if you don’t want to see them!

Possibly one of the biggest releases this year is Bungies continuation of their flagship series “Halo 3: ODST”. The first thing that came to mind whilst waiting for this game to be delivered are the obvious ties with its predecessor “Halo 3”. I decided that I would play through Halo 2, 3 and finally ODST to make sure that my mind was in Halo mode. Two words can be used to describe this game. Predictably different.

The game is set in New Mombasa where the covenant have landed and want to launch an assault on Earth – humanities last stronghold. The timeline of the game is set alongside Halo 3 however no mention is made of Master Chief’s crusades. The beginning of the game opens with your player – a lowly Orbital Drop Shock Trooper rookie being thrust straight into battle against the covenant forces. Or so one would imagine. The drop doesn’t exactly go to plan and you are left stranded from your teammates.

Killin' bitches. Halo Style.

The style of gameplay revolves basically around the player finding various clues to his squad’s whereabouts. Upon finding these you are flashed to where the object came from and then complete a mission based on how it got there, and once the mission is complete, we retake control of present time to advance towards more clues – inching closer to your fellow ODST’s. This would be good if it didn’t take up two thirds of the game, making me feel like I really haven’t progressed at all!

On a positive note however the missions are quite colourful and give us everything we want from a Halo instalment. The controls, however similar to its predecessor, have one small tweak. The X button (which controlled the equipment in Halo 3) has been removed and replaced with VISR mode. This basically alters the HUD and makes all enemies appear outlined in red, allies in green, and objects etc. in yellow. Perfect for low light situations, but intentionally not so useful in daylight.

***WARNING: SPOLILER ALERT IN THIS PARAGRAPH***

The ending of the game in my opinion leaves much to be desired. After finding a handful of your squad you have an escape, a drive, and a standoff. This leaves the total timeline of the game at about 2 hours after the beginning of the game. As mentioned before, the previous missions are all flashbacks so upon completing these I was thrilled. They were good, don’t get me wrong, but I’m looking for some progression. After all, it’s set alongside Halo Friggin’ 3! I thought I was finishing the fight. I guess I was only delaying it in the end up.

I’m not even going to mention the romance. I find nothing interesting in two 2D characters making amends while me – the protagonist – can’t even utter a single word. Theres more things I want to see in the Halo universe.

***END OF SPOILERS***

Tinted helmets? Surely that makes aiming harder!

My first impressions of Halo 3: ODST are mixed. On one hand I have the familiarity and excitement of a new game in the series, however the fact remains that it’s not Master Chief. The game doesn’t bring anything new to the table that Halo 3 hasn’t already brought. I have yet to play the multiplayer however if anyone wants to join me for a game I’ll be online this week. After that though, I’m returning to Halo 3 for my fix because after all the hype, all this game made me want to do was play Halo 3 again. That, in my opinion, was not the impression Bungie was hoping to leave.

Rating: *** (3/5)