Halo 3: ODST Review

Posted by TWHR in Console, Featured, Microsoft, News, Reviews | 4 comments

OK, here we go.

I’m sure you guys have been reading reports and reviews regarding ODST online, the reviews all seem to be very positive so I’m going to say before hand that I loved many aspects of ODST. Unfortunately there are many things that I am still unhappy about, so, to do the work Bungie sha done justice, I will start with the bad and end with the good.

ODST has shipped with two discs, one housing the campaign and Fire Fight mode and in the other disc lives Halo3 multiplayer.

Now I’m all for a new a multiplayer disc because at the moment the very annoying load times the DLC maps have before matchmaking drives me nuts but the reality is that fans of Halo have spent hard cash on the 3 previously released map packs and shouldn’t be asked to pay for them again. It’s frankly disgusting. I also don’t understand why it’s on a separate disc? Matchmaking and a campaign exists on the one disc via Halo 3 so why not release the both together? If space was the issue why not make the campaign downloadable so as to reach new comers without alienating the already loyal fan base?

That would at least fill some of the hole left by the non inclusion of matchmaking in fire fight as you could quickly switch lobbies in a party instead of what’s happening at the moment. Yesterday as I played the mythic maps I was bombarded with invites from people who wanted to play Fire Fight only to leave the game I was playing, change disc’s and find that the lobby was full! What games I did play were extremely laggy with 4 players and after seeing MAG played yesterday with 246 players running online in beta without a hitch it was a little disappointing to say the least. To me it looks like padding for a title that was very obviously meant to be an expansion pack.

Now this could all be over looked (its divine to forgive folks!) if it wasn’t for the price tag attached to the title, even though most retailers in Ireland are pricing the game under 45 euro’s in my opinion this is still 15 euro too much. They really should take a page from Sony’s book. This years expansion of Wipeout HD could easily have been priced the same as the original title and nobody would have complained but instead the option was there too do the fans service and at a decent price. The same with the release on the PS2 of Liberty City stories and Vice Stories, both titles priced at less than 30 euro. All this puts a horrid grey money making cloud over what is some of Bungies best work. At a time when Microsoft is at the crossroads of the console war, Sony is doing a lot more too please their fans while Microsoft are using extremely transparent tactics to stay on top. Video games maybe seen as kids play but Sony are speaking to us as adults.

Anyway enough about the negative aspects of Halo 3:ODST as I said at the start of the review there are parts of this game I love. As you already know I’m sure, ODST puts you in the boots of Orbital Drop Shock Trooped tasked with landing in a covenant ship that has appeared over the earth city New Mombasa. As these event take place in Halo 2 Master Chief isn’t present in fact he isn’t even in the same galaxy.

Before you drop we are introduced to your team lead by commander Dare played well by Tricia Helfer of Battlestar Galactica fame and Buck who is voiced by Nathan Fillion who you will know from Desperate Housewife’s; oh and I think he had a small part in Firefly as well.

The action is as fun as ever

You play as the Rookie a voiceless faceless ODST, as the drop happens the ship in orbit jumps in to slip space and the vacuum blast sends everyone in your squad spinning off target. Game play begins with the rookie escaping from his drop pod and making his way around the city HUB in attempt to find his squad. I’m not telling you anymore about the story because if you have been anticipating the games release your more then likely finished it by now anyway!

The story is told very well; in fact the campaign for me is much more enjoyable story wise then Halo 3. There is a real sense that these guys are pulling together to keep each other alive. One moment in particular brings a fantastic human element to proceedings. Bungie still keep things on the right side of silly and even with the darker tone never takes itself too seriously. As you would expect from an expansion the campaign is relatively short and came in at about 7 hours for me. I played on Heroic but anything lower then that and seasoned played would zip through it.

As mentioned in another review I read; the games set pieces read like a greatest hits compilation from previous titles the battles go from corridor shooter to epic battles including tanks, choppers, banshees and warthogs from one scene to the next.

Game play wise as you play as the rookie and not the Chief there are concessions to make, its seems totally stupid repeating this as I am sure everyone is well aware that that health pack are back for this game. You have a small shield that will protect for a time but after too many hits your health will begin to deplete and you will have to bounce around looking for a health terminal to kiss you better. It does add an extra element of tension to the fire fights but to be honest unless you are playing on Heroic or Legendary difficulty you will very rarely die.

The campaign is set in chapters this time around, as the rookie you walk through the city picking up clues to where your other team members may be, these night time sections are very cool. As the rain splutters down your new visor lets you see things in a whole new light, gone are the greens and purples of old, everything here has more of an industrial feel to it and seriously, the music for these sections is phenomenal. It’s like Halo mixed with the first Deus Ex and truly adds to the atmosphere of the night time sections. Once a piece of the puzzle is found you flash back and play as one of the other team members and you get to see what’s been happening from there point of view. I wont ruin anything else story wise as that’s as much as Bungie told people up to release so lets not spoil any of the cool moments.

Visually ODST isn’t really up to much; it’s the Halo 3 engine we all know and love and still runs smoothly with out a tear to be seen. The art team does a great job of changing things enough to make things different but yet the same. Buildings look very boxy and the emptiness of the streets is disappointing would it have been hard to add some civilians? The only real sense of any occupant of the city comes from Audio files collected thought out the HUB world. These tell the tale of Sophie a little girl who has a relationship with the cities A.I and as interesting as it is in its own right, after Batman:Arkham Asylums riddles, its collectables pales in comparison.

As the rookie isn’t a Spartan; equipment wise he also is left a little short. You can hide in bubble shields but you can’t deploy them, dual wielding is also out the window but some what surprisingly you can still rip turrets from their mounts and actually move a hell of a lot faster with them then even the Chief could!

To balance things out we get two new weapons the new auto Magnum and Silenced SMG. The SMG wasn’t used much by me in Halo 3 because it’s a weak ass weapon and nothing has changed here but the new pistol is great. It fires as fast as you can hit the trigger and zoom scope is a welcome addition. You will find your self dropping the SMG and grabbing a carbine our Laser Rifle pretty quickly especially when playing as the Rook as ammo is scarce to say the least!

So that’s the campaign, atmospheric short and fun.

Then there is the brand new Fire Fight mode and what a feature it is.

You may think that you have seen co op battles with Horde and Left4Dead but you really haven’t, Fire Fight saves ODST from being a ten euro an hour campaign to must have title. Sure the lack of matchmaking is a bane but once inside the fight it’s very easily forgotten. The premise is simple, 4 dudes against wave after wave of covenant. Sounds simple but add a shared pot of lives and ever changing Skulls and you have your self a serious challenge. I played six or seven Fire fights yesterday but unfortunately only two of them were lag free.

Some played ok but one in particular just looked like we were playing in slow motion. What says a lot for the game play is that even with the lag nobody left the game so please sort it out Microsoft this is AAA title. I would have blamed connections but the match that played the best had members from Canada and UK in them completely lag free. It also lacks a ping test or connection indicator like the multiplayer has, at least then we could see whose connection is at fault. Once you have a good connection though it really is a hell of a lot of fun.

If only the co op campaign could match its scope.

The 4 player co op seems very out of place in the rookie’s story and I would have preferred the World at War way of doing things rather then shoe horning co op into a campaign that’s all about loneliness. Still its there and it’s a feature so lets not nit pick.

The 2^nd disc has 3 new maps included for multiplayer and that it’s….along with ability to unlock Recon armour. The new maps are great long shore is especially good but the playlists that are set up for it seems to have other maps included in it, in 5 games played I only got to play a mythic map once?? The rest of the time it was standoff or the awful sandbox.

Anyway you know how I feel about the 2^nd disc so I won’t harp on. Taken as an expansion pack ODST is a 5 star title ( if you’re a Halo fan) but as a full price title it fails by its own standards. If you’re buying this for under 30 euro pre owned your getting a fantastic Halo campaign that changes things up and is scored beautifully along with a killer extra mode. If like me you paid full price you’re getting ripped off and it’s a shame because Bungie has given us brilliant take on its Halo universe that deserves its place along side Halo: Combat evolved.

Also if matchmaking gets added to Fire Fight via DLC add a half a star to the above score but for now I think its a fair one and thats from someone who plays Halo 3 nearly every day.