Halo 3: ODST Review

It was a dark and stormy night...

There’s nothing like a good franchise, when it comes to developing games.  Although the game is very well put together, I couldn’t shake the feeling that if ODST had not been prefixed by Halo 3, it wouldn’t have sold half the copies it did.  Which would have been a pity, because although this game certainly does take advantage of the fact that it’s fan-base has been established for well over five years now, it’s certainly the most interesting thing they’ve done with the franchise for a long time

For the campaign of Halo 3: ODST, players take control of the squad’s newest member: “The Rookie”.  For contextual reasons unknown, although possibly due to some sort of hilarious military hazing ritual, Rookie never speaks or removes his helmet.  He may also have to do the rest of the squad’s washing up and laundry, although the game doesn’t let you stay on your drop ship long enough to find out.  The action takes place somewhere around the end of Halo 2 in the series’ chronology.  The ODST squad is being deployed to take out the Prophet of Regret’s ship, which is hovering above the African mega-city of New Mombasa.  The squad’s new commanding officer, a Naval Intelligence officer called Dare, has other plans however.  Instead of assaulting the carrier she directs the squad to new coordinates inside the city, a move which essentially saves the entire squads lives as Regret’s carrier jumps to slipspace and destroys all the attacking dropships.

I like to believe that "The Immigrant Song" was playing during this shot

Knocked off course, the rest of the Rookie’s squad is scattered around the city.  The Rookie doesn’t regain conciousness until six hours after crashing, and this is where players begin the story.  Controlling the Rookie (alone or co-op), players have to track down the original cast of TV’s FireFly other members of the squad.  The events following the crash are told in a series of flashbacks every time the Rookie discovers another clue.  While your first reaction to this may be: “He figured out how much from a broken sniper rifle?”, it’s actually a very nice way to diversify the game’s action.  For the most part, the flashbacks are non-stop action with clearly defined objectives.  Reach friendly troops, defend from a Covenant assault, etc.  This is offset nicely by the Rookie’s storyline, which is set in an open-world version of New Mombasa.  You have the freedom to wander the city as much as you like, collecting audio-logs that document New Mombasa’s evacuation and fighting Covenant patrols.  Waypoints will show you where to find your next clue when you’re ready to progress with the story.

As I’ve previously waxed lyrical upon, ODST is actually a game that deserves to be played through at least once single-player with Legendary difficulty.  There is a vastly different atmosphere playing the Rookie when he’s alone and vulnerable as opposed to with a well-armed friend.  Both ways are highly enjoyable too, for different reasons.

Meet the Rookie, the Rookie, the Rookie and the Rookie

The campaign is short, compared to your usual Halo storyline, but it’s not neccesarily a bad thing.  For myself and Mark playing relatively no nonsense co-op, it took about six hours (including the time it took to eat the pizza).  While this is indeed short, each chapter is well produced and blessfully concise, which is more than we can say for half of Halo 3.  Not once did I have to stop and listen to a computer recite cryptic crossword clues at me, a fact that I am eternally grateful for.  The acting is quite good quality and moves the story along nicely, perhaps in spite of an oddball romance between Dare and the squad’s sergeant Buck.

So while the story is short, ODST more than makes up for this with it’s new multiplayer mode.  Firefight allows for up to four players to fight against constant waves of Covenant enemies, replenishing health packs and supplies at the end of each round.  Players use a combined pool of lives, which can be replenished at certain score levels and through bonus rounds at the end of every set.  The reason Firefight is such a winner in my books, is that it removes the rather unpleasant atmosphere that most gamers have come to associate Halo multiplayer with.  Players are working together to advance their score, as opposed to traditional multiplayer where you can be abused out of a server in under 30 seconds for not grasping the finer mechanics of double-melee-plasma-grenading.  Certainly, you can still come under fire in a Firefight match (especially if you continue to be a drain on the lives count), but the enforced need for teamwork takes away a lot of the edge.  The only problem I can see is with Bungie’s bizarre decision not to include matchmaking.  This means that if you’d like a game of Firefight, you’d better start expanding your Xbox Live friends pool, because they’re the only people that will show up when you’re looking for a game.

An ODST with a Spartan Laser? Blasphemy, I say!

I should say that if you do like the traditional, hyper-competitive Halo deathmatch, it’s actually included on ODST‘s second disc.  It’s a simple stand-alone version of Halo 3‘s multiplayer with all the map packs included.  Although it wasn’t a selling point for me, it does offer a welcome measure of variety.

Honestly, when you get right down to it, Bungie haven’t strayed far off the path with ODST.  While they seemed at pains to remind everyone that Master Chief isn’t present in this game, there isn’t much the squad can’t do compared to the long time Halo hero.  Health does need to be replenished from med-stations around the levels, but before you take actual damage you have to lose all your stamina.

Just to reiterate here: you don’t have a shield.  Oh my no.  Only Master Chief had shields built in to his suit.  The ODSTs are just physically very tough, that’s all.  So while it might seem like they have a shield, they don’t, it’s just that they are impervious to harm as long as they drink enough Gatorade.  Dual wielding has also been thrown out as something that only Master Chief could do, but to be honest I don’t think anyone is really complaining.  There was nothing like facing a multiplayer opponent dualwielding Needlers to raise the ire of your typical Halo player.

Apart from that, everything is nearly identical.  Apparently you can still melee punch your way through a tank’s armour, hoist a gravity hammer and rip turrets from their framework to carry around with you.  So while a lot about the game has changed, let’s just say that for the most part it’s stayed the same.

Is it worth a full retail release?  I’d say no, but it also wouldn’t take much of a price drop to convince me.  I price-matched my copy to a rather friendly AU$70, and that seems about right.  I should make a special mention of the game’s online connectivity.  The game allows you to save recordings of matches, take screenshots and compare medal counts through Bungie’s website, which is a very nice touch.

The Verdict:

Pros: The gameplay is different enough to appease critics, and familiar enough to satisfy long time fans.  The Campaign has a good pacing, interesting story (in Halo terms) and doesn’t waste a lot of time trying to be suitably “epic”.  Firefight is pure brilliance.

Cons: The Campaign is undeniably short, and even at it’s hardest difficulty doesn’t prove too difficult if you’re persistent.  The audio-logs seem a little at odds with the rest of the game, considering that while they do offer an alternate view of New Mombasa’s invasion, it seems like Bungie couldn’t make up their mind if they should be comical or not.  As it stands, the danger set up by the voice actors is constantly undermined by meeting a wacky new survivor.  Although it did make me want a kebab.  And where the hell is Firefight’s matchmaking?

Overall: This is probably the most original thing that Bungie has done with the Halo series since Combat Evolved.  While the price-tag may speak to some people otherwise, the game doesn’t feel “tacked on” or opportunistic.  Firefight more than makes up for the brief nature of the game’s Campaign, and makes the game constantly replayable.  While the full retail price chafes badly, since I picked it up a little cheaper I’ve got no qualms giving ODST a 4 out of 5.  Nice work, Bungie! Try and stay in the same mind-frame for Halo: Reach!