The new story and Firefight mode are fun, but there's many dissapointing promises Bungie couldn't keep this time around.
The story here takes two weeks before Halo 3, and you control a team of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. They call themselves Hell-Jumpers but they known to us as ODST's. Their missions are incredibly dangerous, and they are the only ones who are capable of the doing the UNSC's dirty jobs, lesser than a Spartan's, but beyond a normal marine's call of duty. You control multiple ODST's, but for the most part, you play as a soldier simply known as "The Rookie", a faceless, mute soldier that would live to stare Master Cheif in the eye and say their equal. Your drop into New Mombasa has gone horrbly awry and you must link up with your squadmates to get back home. The story is even shorter than Halo 3's story mode. 3-5 hours long and you still must pay a full $60? You think Bungie would've learned to extend a story.
The gameplay is largely untouched, which is both good and bad. It's good for pro Halo veterans and newcomers into the francise. What's bad is that you are basically the Cheif, just in a different skin. You still flip over vehicles with ease and are able to pick up weapons like he can, even a 1,500 pound missle launcher. Bungie was advertising that this was a different Halo experience, when it wasn't. Nighttime was largely dissapointing, because the night vision was like looking through a green light filter that highlighted your objectives and enemies for you. As another fun twist, they also said it would be a free-roaming environment, and that is another bold lie. The "free-roaming" elements of this are basically just moving from one mission to the next in this city, which doesn't take long at all.
The graphics are used from Halo 3, and they look a little washed out in this one. The environments look nice, but the characters and their faces looks terrabad. They could've have done something, especially to Buck (played by Nathan Fillion of Firefly). This one depends on you, whether you like Halo 3's graphics or not.
This isn't to say that I didn't like Firefight mode. That is a blast to play, especially when you have two or more friends with you. This is Halo's version of Survival mode, like from Call of Duty's Nazi Zombies and Uncharted 2's Survival. This one in particular is very hard, even with friends. I for one like the challenge Bungie has given, and this makes the game hold some value. Sadly, that's the only multiplayer here. There's no deathmatch between ODST's, just Firefight. On the other hand, the game's second disc comes with a complete version of Halo 3's multiplayer, map packs and all. I got this game because that's all I enjoyed about Halo 3.
This game can be fun for a while, but when Microsoft's budget runs low and Bungie runs out of smoke and mirrors, there really nothing special to this game. I would only recommend it if it were $30.