Halo 3: ODST Review – “Get Shock Dropped”
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Halo 3: Orbital Drop Shock Trooper - Review
Does Bungie’s effort into showing off the Spec Ops talents of the UNSC ODST give us Shock and Awe or just Awfully Shocking? Read on to find out!
Halo 3: ODST expands on the events of Halo 2 and rather than giving us Master Chief, it opts to show us the lacklustre abilities of the UNSC in the war! Developed by Bungie and utilising a tweaked version of the Halo 3 engine, don’t come here expecting what you got in previous outings, this is a different barrel of fish! Amusingly though, you are the fish and the enemies have never taken so much glee shooting you, grenading you and just generally being unfriendly!
Story – 8
In Halo 3: ODST, you take on the role of the “Rookie” in the ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) squad. These are the veterans and elite of the United Nations Space Command who are tasked with the kind of missions Rambo and the A-team may think twice about.
As the Rookie your unit is tasked with protecting a VIP who has an important secret mission (is there any other kind?). Upon dropping from your ship towards the Covenant Carrier which is laying siege to the city of New Mombasa, under heavy fire from seemingly everywhere…well let’s just say things don’t go to plan! You end up scouring the city to find out what happened to your Squad as well as aiding the clean-up of the city. The fact that you play from multiple perspectives really does add a stronger sense of the storyline as you progress.
The story is really the lynchpin of this game in the sense that its why a lot of the changes were made to the style, gameplay and features we’re used to. I found it to be a fresh angle on the Halo universe and was more satisfying than your average FPS storyline. Obviously though, fans of Halo will garner more from it than someone who just grabs it without touching the other games in the series. Oh and…Legendary completion gives you an extra scene as expected!
Gameplay – 8
Previously in Halo, we’ve been a genetically improved super human encased in state of the art armour and accompanied by an AI. In ODST you have a really nice hat. Oh and a silenced rifle…. On the plus side though, your pistol is back to its head popping abilities of old! Otherwise the selection of guns is basically the same as Halo 3. That’s not a bad thing in my opinion; Exploding things with a Spartan Laser will never get boring!
As we aren’t the Chief in this outing though, Bungie made special effort to highlight that you are much more vulnerable. You have “Stamina” (which is a mini recharging shield basically) then a Health bar that deteriorates when your Stamina shield is down and you get hit. This system really does make you play differently. You are forced to be more devious and careful. This creates a really good atmosphere when you’re low on ammo (expect to change guns, a lot) and slowly creeping through a building and a Brute pops out to say Hi with his Carbine.
Another change in ODST is that you are exploring an area as the Rookie, there’s multiple ways to get to some places meaning you now have a map feature which is functional and efficient. It allows waypoints on your HUD so you don’t get lost. Another feature is the VISR. This basically highlights friends (green) and enemies (red) which may seem rather pointless but is essential when you’re trying to keep alive in a careful fashion.
This sneaky approach is either your cup of tea or you’re a coffee man. It’s a learning curve if you aren’t expecting it but it works well. It’s not all cloak and dagger though; you do get the much loved vehicle sections where you can mow down the Covenant in your Hog like they are your local Chavs! Overall I was pleased with the fresh take as it differentiates enough to make it a new experience with old toys and enemies.
Presentation – 9
Graphically, ODST had some upgrades from its namesake. Personally I couldn’t notice anything too dramatic but they seem to of made the faces on the humans SIGNIFICANTLY better (Miranda Keyes, I’m looking at you!) They’re far from the level of some other games but considering they play a relatively small part I can overlook it considering how polished the rest of the game is graphically. Halo 3 was, and still is a good looking game so with more time to polish it, I would have been surprised if they managed to mess it up!
The music in ODST, if you missed the memo, was critically acclaimed and I hear why. It really does help to add to the atmosphere the gameplay already gives. When you’re dodging between the shadows expect to have tension building music and as the action explodes so does the music. Bungie really did a superb job with the score.
Generally the performance of the game is solid too but there is the odd hiccup when you play co-op (Everyone should co-op, it’s more fun, unless you have no friends….) and there is a lot of clutter on screen. This is the exception not the rule though and doesn’t really detract from the experience when it occurs!
Value – 7
Now this is where ODST is let down somewhat in my opinion. It comes with the multiplayer mode for Halo 3 on a separate disc with a few more maps and whatnot. So for competitive people who already have Halo 3, you’re going to be missing out! This is balanced out though by what is admittedly the great fun that can be had playing Firefight mode. You face wave upon wave of Covenant who get increasingly harder, sharing a common pool of lives with your allies. Fans of Gears of War’s Horde mode will enjoy this immensely!
The single player is good fun and is basically your standard length for an FPS (10 hours ish). Barring the replay on legendary to make you feel special and that time you dust it off to play it with a random friend who just picked it up, I doubt you’ll be revisiting the story mode. Obviously the collectible audio files add a little bit more and the completionists among you may want to go back to ensure you got them all!
The obvious thing with ODST that needs to be considered as well is the Halo: Reach beta access (when it happens). It’s one of those things that really pushes new game sales compared to pre-owned, till right after the beta finishes when there’ll be more ODST copies in the pre-owned section than anyone would know what to do with! What this basically means is that you probably bought the game new, for access to the beta and unless you intend to hoard it for eternity, the trade in price will get nuked when it’s time to turn ODST into money.
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Details
Category: First Person Shooter
Age: 16 Years and above
Publisher: Microsoft
Awe (some)
- Great atmosphere (Low on C02 emissions)
- Fresh experience for the Halo Fan
- Firefight is just superb!
Shock (ing)
- Value-wise you feel a bit short changed
- Although it’s well done, it is just a Halo 3 mod in essence.
- Falls a bit short of the overall package offered by other games in the genre
Overal Then
Halo 3: ODST, a solid offering from Bungie once more.
To conclude, ODST is a fun game and easy to pick up for anyone who got Halo 3 (Apparently some people didn’t?). There is more to be gained for Halo fans but a clever and polished FPS otherwise. Worth the purchase!
- Review Written by Ben Carpenter
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