ODST has a new look on single player and a new co op mode, but it that enough to make it a good game?
The story style in Halo 3 ODST is different than most FPS stories, and is actually quite refreshing. You play as a member of an ODST squad that is dropped into New Mombasa. When you character drops, he loses conscious and wakes up hours later. His mission is to explore the city and find clues as to what happened to you squad and where they are now. As you find items that help you find your squad, you play through flashbacks of your squad members. The story is set up like a mystery and is really interesting.
The core gameplay may feel the same, but it is a little different. You are not a Spartan, so you can't take tons of damage. You will need to find health packs to keep your health up. There are much more opportunities to use stealth and a much more tactical approach to combat. Two of the weapons from previous Halo games now have silencers, the SMG and the pistol. Besides that, there are no new weapons.
When you are exploring New Mombasa, it presents itself as a big of an open world game, as you look for clues about you squad mates. When you enter a flashback, it changes to a more typical Halo style level.
Problems with ODST come in the form of co op. It is the standard Halo style co op, with the "you can't respawn because there are enemies nearby." This resulted in times where I missed out on almost an entire level, because I couldn't respawn.
Graphically Halo 3 ODST isn't an impressive looking game. The city looks ok, but the character models look like updated original xbox game graphics. They look bad. Besides that, the game just looks average.
Sound wise, the game sounds amazing. Everything from the sounds of gunfire to the sounds of the city sounds great. The music is what steals the show though. It sounds amazing like in all Halo games.
Halo 3 ODST does have a new co op mode called Fire Fight. This mode places you and your buddies against hordes and hordes of Covenant. This mode offers something new to the Halo universe, and it is a lot of fun. The only problem with it is that you can't join random games online. You have to play split screen or with you friends.
The multiplayer is just Halo 3's multiplayer on a separate disk with all the map packs and a few new maps. If you wanted something new for the multiplayer portion of ODST, then you won't get it here.
Overall, Halo 3 ODST is a great game that adds something new to the single player and co op aspects of the Halo series. If you want something a little new with a shooter, then you may want to give ODST a try.