It's fanfare will of died down since it's climatic finale back in 2007
but Halo 3, and the rest of the Halo series in general, still has a
powerful legacy as the Xbox's major IP. It has seen books, comics,
multiplayer DLC, references in all forms of pop-culture, an RTS spin-off
and an upcoming series of short anime developed films. Yet an actual
expansion pack for the main game itself still hasn't been fleshed out,
until now.
Halo 3 ODST, the first of an assumed series of Halo expansions, has you
play as a member of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper unit. They're the
chaps in the black armoured uniforms, who are regarded as the elite
forces and recon squad fighters of the UNSC Marines Corps. As such you
and your comrades: Dutch, Romeo, Mickey, Buck and Dare are placed with a
classified objective of retrieving the technician of New Mombassa.
There is no Master Chief but this game is still Halo to the core. The
shock troopers are surprisingly nimble and strong like the spartan
previous, with the ability to carry two weapons, operate a variety of
vehicles and take on a whole onslaught of covenant forces while
successfully living to tell the tale. There are some differences -
namely in that the troopers can't dual wield like the chief and also
they're far more prone to damage thanks to the lack of shields. Instead,
ODST relies on fatigue which really varies as a lifeline in combat.
Powerful strikes can instantly kill you straight from the get-go but
absorbing a number of threats and heading into cover still works just as
well as it did in Halo 3.
Which is a necessity as the campaign mode of ODST sees you demolishing
bridges, flying through tunnels and checkpoints in a banshee, taking on
wraths in a simple three man warthog and speeding down highways in a
mongoose. it's the typical Halo take on gameplay, with four player co-op
support if you want to bring any friends along for the journey. Besides
that, Halo ODST is a very cinematic experience with high quality
produced visuals and music - especially during cut-scenes. The only real departure is that each level is experienced through
flashback, which the Rookie (you), has to search out for by detecting
clues near each SOS beacon sent out in the game. To help with this, the
shock troopers have a special feature to their hud known as VISR which
highlights enemies, allies and helpful items during play.
On the whole, the campaign is an entertaining fare. All the old guns
make an appearance as do the covenant foes from Halo games of past. As
far as new is concerned, you do have a custom designed machine gun and
magnum to use. The magnum is very reminiscent of that from Halo 1, it's
accurate and powerful yet limited in ammunition. The story and sub-plots
are also mildly engaging but forgettable and unoriginal. The majority
of the squad sits under the usual soldier stereotypes, if you've seen
Aliens, you'd quickly establish who your Hicks and Hudson of Halo ODST
is. Yet the biggest problem with the campaign is that it's short. Fortunately the campaign isn't ODST's main selling point. Its instead
its multiplayer. Firefight in particular turns Halo ODST from a
generally solid shooter to an absorbing and utterly brilliant one. It
moulds itself on the Gears of War Horde mode/Call of Duty 5 Nazi Zombies
template where you face increasingly resistant numbers of covenant
forces in a survival type mode. There is a limited amount of ammo and
prioritizing who to kill becomes a major area of discussion in the short
time it takes for brutes wielding gravity hammers to pose any threat
Eventually, as you progress to later rounds, handicaps and gameplay
modifers are added such as having to melee enemies in order to heal and
avoiding the limitless grenades that the grunts have at their disposal.
Firefight can be infuriatingly frantic and a great social get-together
with a bunch of friends online. Eventually you get bonus rounds and
weapon drops for doing so well after a while. Yet unfortunately social
is as far as firefight goes as there is no matchmaking or lobby systems
available in order to join anyone else games. Matchingmaking however is a potent feature on ODST's second disc, Halo
3: Mythic. This disc is a stand-alone multiplayer Halo 3 featuring all
the maps including Heroic, Legendary, Mythic and Cold Storage. There are
also three new maps of Citadel, Longshore and Heretic. This makes the
bargain value of ODST palpable, believing you have the ability to play
online anyway as gaining these map packs separate would undoubtedly cost
more to begin with. And since the new maps are all located on the disc,
there is no need to download them straight to the hard-drive either.
If you're unknowing of how fun Halo 3's multiplayer is then ODST will
open so many doors for you. The depth and design of levels like The Pit,
Pit Stop and Last Resort are amazing and there is a good choice of
small, medium and large levels. As far as servers are concerned theres
the usual lone slayer, team slayer, and capture the flag but also
obscure modes such as VIP, Infection and Assault. You can choose
between social or ranked servers if you wish to do so and they're all
vastly populated with 100,000+ players online, at the time of this
review. You can also create custom maps and game modes via Halo's forge mode, a
sandbox style game, allowing you to freely create and re-decorate levels
as you wish.
Chances though are, as Halo-a-holic gamers we are, you
might already have most of the map-packs and Halo 3 on Xbox 360. Which
leads me to the flaws of ODST. Basically, besides being a short and
somewhat unoriginal entry into the series, Halo ODST is just too similar
to it's predecessors. It really feels like Halo 3, despite the different set of levels, new
weapons and gameplay features. There isn't enough to make this feel like
an expansion pack but rather a DLC add-on instead - if it wasn't for
firefight anyway. The flood are missing and variation between levels is
weak in comparison to Halo 3's jump from green, lush rainforests, to
sparse and dusty deserts or spine-chilling winter wildernesses.
However, as it stands, Halo ODST is a solid shooter. It is made twice as
tempting with the inclusion of firefight, with it's intense four player
fighting, and made three/four times as tempting with the value for
money Halo 3 Mythic bonus disc. It is a win/win situation. If neither
those interest you then as a last lifeline Halo Reach's upcoming
multiplayer beta will. In anyone's case, there isn't much reason to
ignore Halo ODST. It is a bargain, exclusive to Xbox 360 and has all the
A grade content perfect for a £30 or perhaps even £40 release.
