Halo 3 ODST: An underdog in size, but not even slightly in fun.
This time around is significantly different for a typical Halo game. You are an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) who has been dropped into the ruined city, trying to find your other squad mates.
It seems apparent that after Halo 3's huge success, Bungie have taken a step back while examining what to do next. In the meantime, we have Halo 3: ODST.
Up until very recently before the game was released it was known as Halo 3: Recon, mainly because the coveted Halo 3 armour set that was for Bungie employees and select celebrities only (Recon) is now available to anyone crazy enough to complete the challenges that unlock it. However, the story is about a ragtag group of ODST's, so the name change does make sense.
Speaking of which, this group is comprised of a completely new set of characters, not one of them has appeared in a previous halo game. A good portion of them are voiced by actors that appeared in the TV series "Firefly" together though. I've never seen Firefly, but I have seen Serenity (The movie of the series) and the characters work together in that much as they do in ODST. Gunnery Sergeant Buck (Nathan Fillion) leads his group on a secret mission (that somebody he may or may not have almost been married to at some point) has set him up to do. Dare is the previously mentioned "maybe spouse" that reveals very little and leaves you anxious to find out exactly what the campaign is all about.
The new additions just keep appearing throughout the first level, which is a half cut-scene and half quick time event. Although, being dropped onto a planet in a tiny pod as a quick time event is both terrifyingly realistic, and awesome.
The whole campaign centres on the Rookie, the main protagonist that the player controls. I say main protagonist because you can control every ODST in the squad at some point in the game.
The squad all crash at different times during the course of 24 hours, the Rookie being the last to wake. He must find clues to discover what happened to his team in order to link up with them again.
This is both interesting and strange for Bungie, known mostly for their FPS straight up fire fights rather than sneaky stealth fighting. Being a strange move does not make it a bad one, however. When you're equipped with the VISR and the city super computer as a map, the stealth and sneakiness is seamless and pulled off very well.
The gameplay does not differ at all from previous Halo titles other than the stealth element and the fact that, being an ODST, you have no shields and you are only half as strong and fast as The Master Chief. Your life is measured by the old style Health system from Combat Evolved, and health packs are scattered around the city.
The weapons in ODST are pretty much a selection of the trilogy weapons, with a few new surprises tossed in to keep it fresh. The new additions include the Silenced SMG and the Rapid-Fire Pistol. Yes, it is rapid fire, meaning that it will fire as fast as you can pull the trigger. Having this gun will mean that 90% of the time you will not require another weapon, simply because with rapid fire and a x5 scope, headshots are an easy deal to pickup and become severely skilled at. The silenced SMG isn't quite as exciting, being the SMG from previous titles, but silenced. However, this model has a scope attached and doesn't jerk around from massive recoil after being fired for two seconds, which is very handy.
The Covenant is back, but with a few slight changes. There are still Brutes, Grunts, Jackals and Drones, but there is a new faction only previously found in the books up until now: Engineers. These floating spider eggs with tentacles and heads will generally be found with explosives strapped to them, so killing them will result in a large explosion and an equally large lightshow. There are Elites in the game too; all corpses though. This is a reference to the dissent in Covenant Hierarchy during Halo 2.
Halo 3: ODST is aptly named because it doesn't offer enough new content to be anything more than an expansion, however it does add possibly the best feature to any Halo game so far: Firefight.
Since the online multiplayer is actually just a revamped Halo 3 stage with a few new maps, Bungie has added a Survival game mode where you and up to three buddies can fight off endless waves of enemies until your pool of lives is depleted and the last man dies. This is extremely fun with friends because alongside the integration on the Bungie website, you can cooperate and compete on the global leader-board for each map, replaying as many times as you wish to try and claim the top spot.
While forge mode did not return for ODST, Theatre mode did, allowing players with an Xbox 360 Hard Drive to save any and all of their campaign and Firefight exploits for posterity and bragging rights. Since you could potentially survive forever in Firefight, it would be useful to have the film as proof of your legendary achievements to show to your mates.
On the subject of achievements, much like the Halo 3 campaign scoring set, in ODST there is one achievement for each Firefight level to finish with a at least a certain number of points. Races, classes and medals all affect the point scoring, so staying alive and being strategic will be essential to earning these. There are also three achievements that finish off the "Vidmaster Challenges", the most interesting of these is the "Endure" achievement, which will be a true relationship tester for whoever you choose to accompany you for the 4+ hours that it will take to obtain.
Halo 3: ODST may seem like a penny pincher for Bungie while they figure out what they want to do next, but it certainly isn't the case. With a whole new selection of maps, music, characters and game types, ODST is just as fun as any previous Halo game, and uniquely styled to keep fans and newcomers interested and satisfied.