Halo 3: ODST takes place during the ending events of Halo 2 and the beginning of Halo 3. The Covenant have found Earth and are landing in the South African city of New Mombasa. Instead of reprising your old role as the Master Chief you play as an ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) and are known as 'The Rookie.' You also have a squad comprising of five other ODSTs. We are first introduced to the squad as they are preparing to drop down in to New Mombasa, and sooner than you would expect you are inside your pod and heading down to Earth. However things go a bit pear shaped when The Prophet of Regret decides to slipspace jump right over New Mombasa. The jump disrupts the landing of your pod, as well as the rest of your squad, and you awake 6 hours after your initial drop.
Exploring the streets of New Mombasa as you search for clues to your squad mates' locations has a large sense of loneliness about it. The actual city itself is fairly large, but as the game progressed I felt that I was running through many areas of the city I'd already visited, and whilst I thought the free roaming aspect of the game was a nice touch, a few more routes that I could take would've been nice. As well as searching for clues as to where your squad mates are, there are audio logs to be found around the city. During my first play through I was only able to found about five of the thirty scattered about the city. Hearing these audio logs gives the now dead city a small breath of life, though I didn't think I was missing much from the audio logs I had listened too.
When you first leave your pod, you notice the first immediate change that ODST bares when compared to Halo 3. Your pod landed about ten feet off the ground and so when you land, you are hurt. Though this is only a minor change, it helps to remind the player that they are no longer a super human solider and are almost the same as every other human being around them. There are a number of other changes that are noticeable. ODSTs are unable to duel wield weapons, hijack enemy vehicles, jump as high as Master Chief or regenerate their health. This definitely feels different, and for me was a good change, though for some it may feel as though the game has taken a step backwards from its predecessors.
Though the ODST do have something that Master Chief could probably benefit from, called Visor Mode. In Visor Mode, the ODST is able to identify; objects that they can interact with, allies from foes, and any ammo or weapons that may be scattered around the battlefield. This was a nice touch to the game, and it will probably help newer players through the campaign as well as Firefight. For me personally, and I had the same gripe with detective mode in Batman: Arkham Asylum, is that I felt I was using it a bit too much. It marred the visuals in some respects and, when I came out of Visor Mode, I had to adjust for a second or two to the lack of outlines around objects.
ODST uses the same technology that powered Halo 3, though the engine has received a minor upgrade to flesh it out a bit. Bright colours have usually dominated the colour palette of Halo 3, however ODST tones it down. The tone down in colour was a plus for me, it helped add to the lonely atmosphere I felt while traversing New Mombasa. The only real gripe I had with the graphics was the faces of NPCs. There was just something about Dare's face in particular that just looked wrong, and it ended up making her look pretty ugly rather than just an average looking woman.
The story of ODST isn't on the same scale as Halo 3's was, it is fairly average and I didn't find my squad mates particularly interesting as there seemed to be a lack of character development. If the game was slightly longer than 6-8 hours, and developed its story, I think I may've cared a bit more about the characters and the city that was destroyed by The Covenant. Also, the relationship between Dare and Buck was fairly cliché and cringe worthy.
A new addition to ODST is the game mode 'Firefight.' Firefight is very similar to Gears of War 2's Horde mode; players take on progressively harder waves of Covenant forces and attempt to rack as high a score as possible. The mode was fun for a few hours but both me and my friends became bored fairly early on as we'd already had our fair share of this kind of gameplay from Horde.
When you buy ODST, you won't be buying one disc, but two. On the second disc is Halo 3's multiplayer, complete with every map pack that has been available for download on the Xbox Live Marketplace. It's a nice touch for those who haven't already bought Halo 3 or the map packs, though I felt a tad ripped off as I had paid for something that I'd already owned. The disc is compatible with every other Halo 3 player out there, so you won't have to worry about searching for people to play with.
Halo fans will probably like ODST and some will love it. It's not quite as epic or indeed memorable as Halo 3 was, but while it lasts it's an enjoyable experience.