Halo 3: ODST Review (Xbox 360)

For a lot of Xbox 360 fans, the Halo series long ago gave up its crown as king of the Xbox exclusives to Epic’s Gears of War series. There are still plenty of die-hards who will only give up their Needlers when you pry them from their cold, dead hands. But many of us—while still downloading every new multiplayer map pack for Halo 3—don’t expect a single-player Halo experience to have much appeal anymore.

Those gamers, which include me, are wrong in this case. Halo 3: ODST is not only a great experience, driven by a solidly written and cleverly presented story, but it might be my favorite single-player experience in a Halo game ever. And it does it without one appearance by Master Chief and not a glimpse of an actual “Halo.” Halo 3: ODST is the classic Halo gameplay you’re used to, presented maturely, deftly and (most importantly) satisfyingly. And that’s just the campaign.

As an overall product, Halo 3: ODST brings a ton of other amazing things to the table. Firefight mode may seem like just the latest title to mimic Gears of War 2’s Horde mode, but it’s better than that in practice. Storywise, the game is very satisfying, crafting one of the more understandable plots to grace a Halo game so far. And the extra disc that comes with the game, the complete Halo 3 multiplayer experience, may be one of the most valuable bonus discs to ever get packed in to a retail game box. Added up, it’s a hell of a package to try and resist.



For all of this, however, Halo 3: ODST does suffer from one central shortcoming: It’s not really all that different from the Halo games you’ve come to know and love. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, depending on your relative love of the series and what it has to offer. For those of us who thought this was going to be a brand-new type of experience, though, based on suggestions Bungie made when first announcing the game, there might be some disappointment to learn that the soldiers of the special ODST platoon don’t play all that much different than the Spartan Class that Master Chief occupies. While everything else may feel new—the atmosphere, the tone and structure of the story, the Firefight mode—the basic gameplay remains almost completely unchanged.

Again, this is good or bad, depending on how you look at it. Gamers whose tastes have grown beyond the first-person conventions of the series might not find Halo 3: ODST compelling enough to spend their time on. I do think that would be a mistake, but I understand nonetheless. On the whole, the game is definitely worth playing, even if you think you’ve had enough Halo for now. The story is compelling enough in its own right, thanks to being more tightly focused and character-driven than previous efforts. The best part is, it doesn’t require a Ph. D in Halo-logy to understand.


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What’s maybe even more appealing than the story itself is how it’s presented. The game begins simply enough with a cutscene, introducing us to the Orbital Drop Shock Troosquad as they prepare for a drop from orbit into a mission. The ODST are a unique group in the United Nations Space Command, different from the run-of-the-mill space marine you’ve fought alongside in prior Halo games, and definitely a different class from the near super-human Spartans, of which Master Chief is the most familiar example. The ODST are kind of like the special forces; called in to handle sensitive missions and dangerous behind-the-lines operations; they’re topnotch soldiers, but hardly infallible. They’re definitely individual human beings as we see in this opening sequence.

We’re introduced to the squad through their interactions in this opening sequence. Dutch is the gruff old veteran with a heart of gold, Romeo is his foil and number-one antagonist, though you know that, beneath the guff talk, there is deep respect. Mickey is a bit of a cipher and clearly one of the younger members of the squad. Buck is the boss man and clearly the baddest bad-ass of them all—dashing and handsome, yet all business when it’s time for action…and he looks a lot like the Captain from “Firefly.” As an aside, that makes sense since he’s voiced by the same actor, Nathan Fillion. In fact, a number of actors from “Firefly” make appearances here, including the awesome Adam Baldwin as Dutch.

Gunnery Sergeant Buck (aka “Gunny”) introduces the squad members to their ride-along for the trip, a comely lass named Captain Veronica Dare, who is not only a member of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI…the Bungie gang sure love to play with the references, don’t they?), but apparently has some kind of romantic past with Gunny Buck. It’s not crucial to the story, but it does give us a romantic thread and ties some things together at the end. A bit cliché, but you never really saw Master Chief getting any action with anything other than a hologram, right?

Platform:
Xbox 360
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Publisher:
Microsoft
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Developer:
Bungie
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Genre:
First Person Shooter
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Release Date:
9/22/2009
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Game Features:
Offline Players: 1
Online Multiplayer
EDTV 480p Support
HDTV 720p Support
Dolby 5.1 In-Game

Ratings :: 3
Average :: 9.6
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