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Review: Halo 3: ODST is short but sweet
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Microsoft and BioWare are trying to develop the Halo universe into a Star Wars-esque type of franchise where they can expand to stories beyond Master Chief and dig in deep. It’s a great move because the world they have created is an intriguing and fun place to explore. Novels and comic books have delved deeper into the Halo universe and now the video games are catching up. Earlier this year we got Halo Wars, a real-time strategy that took place 20 years before the first Halo game. Now we have Halo 3: ODST, which takes place between the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3.
The story is told in a creative manner starting with you as a rookie Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) sent to Earth for a secret mission. As you and your team are dropped to Earth in some pods, you get separated to different parts of the city, which is overrun with Covenant. As the rookie you wake up sometime after the crash to Earth and start exploring the city, looking for your team. As you make your way through streets and empty buildings, you find different kinds of remnants and debris that was used by certain teammates. Once you find these pieces, the story for those teammates begin and you get to play through their experiences after the crash landing.
The gameplay is pretty much identical to Halo 3 with a few new weapons, grenades, and a helmet visor that helps you see in the dark and identify objects of interest, like the debris. Unlike previous Halo games, however, is the need for health packs. For Master Chief, all you had to do was go hide for a minute or two in the midst of battle, recharge and you’re good to go. For an ODST, you have a shield, but once that shield is down and you’re getting hit, you lose health and it stays gone until you grab a health pack somewhere around the city. Honestly, it makes the game a bit more involved and immersive to be running away from enemies hoping to find a health pack.
There are also audio clips that you can find around the city that give you the back story and sound of when the city was invaded by the Covenant. It adds a bit a depth to the entire experience, similar to the audio that was found across Rapture in 2K Games' BioShock.
The graphics, animations, score, and voice acting (by folks like Nathan Fillion and Tricia Helfer) are top notch and maintain the high end production value that the Halo series is known for. The one caveat for the solo campaign though is that it’s very short. You can probably finish it in about six hours. Granted, it’s a fun six hours. But to add a bit more value to the entire experience, there is a co-op multiplayer as well as Firefight Mode, which players take on waves of Covenant. The mode is very similar to Call of Duty: World at War’s Nazi Zombies or Gears of War 2’s Horde mode.
But is the game worth the $60 price tag? For a Halo fan, absolutely, yes. It’s a great addition to the Halo canon plus it comes along with an additional disk that has all of the multiplayer maps from Halo 3, with three new ones for a total of 24. But if you’re new to Halo, you may want to start out with Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3 before deciding whether or not you want to get down with ODST.
Q’s Rating: 4 out of 5
Gametrailers: 8.9 out of 10
G4TV: 5 out of 5
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