Halo 3 : ODST
Once again, BUNGIE, Microsoft’s favorite son, releases another game in the Halo saga: HALO 3:ODST. Is it a memorable mission or a reason to go AWOL?
The story in HALO 3:ODST is told mostly from the point of view of the ODST Rookie in between HALO 2 and HALO 3 shorelines. ODST stands for Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. An elite band of soldiers for specialized military operations. Translation: You’re not playing as a bio-engineered cyborg super solider, so let’s make it sound bad-ass. As “Rookie”, you join your fellow troopers “Buck” (voiced by FIREFLY’s Nathan Fillion), “Dutch” (voiced by FIREFLY’s Adam Baldwin), “Mickey” (voiced by FIREFLY’s Alan Tudyk, are we seeing a pattern here?), and Naval Intelligence agent “Dare” (voiced by BATTLESTAR GALACTICA’s Tricia Helfer).
The overall story takes place in the city of New Mombasa. After a botched orbital drop, each trooper lands in a different section of the city. Unfortunately the story is told in a series of flashbacks. This bugged me for two reasons. First, it didn’t seem like the flashbacks were in order, which makes the main story line hard to follow. Second, the flashbacks, triggered by items “Rookie” finds, are from the point of view of the other troopers. Unless, “Rookie” is psychic in some way, I’m not really sure how he/she could’ve recalled what happened sine he/she was not there.
As “Rookie” emerges from his drop-pod, the game explains the basic controls of the game. First thing experienced Halo players will notice is that you have no radar and no ability to dual-wield weapons. Essentially there are no new weapons or abilities. The pistol has a silencer and the sub-machine gun has been re-skinned. The “VISR” (Visual Intelligent System, Reconnaissance) is just a fancy acronym to describe night vision with a system that outlines objects. Red outlined things are hostile targets, allies are green and plot items are yellow. Since most of the game is at night and not very brightly lit, you will have this on for a most of the game.
The last 10% of the game becomes a long escort mission, which is not really a favorite game mode amongst veteran gamers. Mostly because the player becomes dependent on the AI of the game. An example of some of the bad AI is during the “Coastal Highway” part of the game. While “Dare” and the mission asset is in a shielded vehicle, you and “Buck” must protect them from the onslaught enemies on the highway. Perhaps it was due to the fact the game was played on the Legendary difficulty, but “Buck” seemed almost retarded. For example, if you get out of the driver seat to take the turret position in the Warthog vehicle, he spouts out dialogue making it sound like it’s a better idea that you shoot while he drives, however he kept getting in the front passenger seat instead of the driver’s seat. He also seemed to be very selective on the targets he went after, instead of shooting the immediate threats in front of you.
In order to lengthen the story, a subplot is told through “audio logs”, but due to the presentation, it felt more like a radio play. As the “logs” play, any game audio is muted. Therefore, if you’re not paying attention, you could get sniped or snuck up on while you listen. The actual highlight of the game is the music, composed by Martin O’Donnell, who’s created the wonderful themes from past Halo games. To add more reasons to buying this game, Bungie added a “multiplayer” mode called “Firefight”, an invitation to Bungie’s multiplayer beta of HALO:REACH, and 3 new maps plus all 24 DLC maps for Halo 3 on a second disc.
The main complaint with HALO 3:ODST is the length of the game. Even at the hardest difficulty, it only took roughly 5 to 6 hours for me to be finished. A good game should clock in around 10-15 hours and more when you consider multiplayer. The central-hub (fight through an area to get to a plot point) style of storytelling was probably chosen to help lengthen an already stinted title.
Herein lies the question: Is HALO 3:ODST worth the $50-$60 to buy it? Frankly, it all depends on the player. In a previous Microsoft Game Studio releases, an invite to the HALO 3 multiplayer was included as well. The inclusion of all the Halo 3 map packs plus 3 news ones is nice, but still makes it difficult to justify the cost of the game. Unless you can consider yourself a Halo fan-boy, you can probably just wait until a Platinum Hits edition is released or try to find a used copy for half the price. Remember, ODST started out as a Halo 3 expansion (originally Halo 3: Recon). The title still has the feeling of being an add-on, but with a full game price tag.
