Halo 3 ODST: Campaign Review

In case you’ve been living off world for the past year, here’s the lowdown on Bungie’s latest juggernaut. Halo 3: ODST puts you in the boots of the Rookie, the newest member of a select group of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers currently in orbit over New Mombasa during the events of Halo 2. While the rest of the military will be busy infiltrating the Prophet of Regret’s cruiser, the Rookie’s squad will be following a very attractive ONI spook on some sort of covert sub-mission. Unfortunately, Regret decides to jump into slip-space just as the ODSTs are dropping in, scattering them all over the city and knocking the Rookie unconscious. Six hours later, the player awakes in the darkened city streets of Covenant occupied New Mombasa, alone and separated from his unit with no clue what fate has befallen his comrades. Not only will the Rookie have to fight for survival on his own, but he’ll also have to piece together what has happened while he was off the grid.

Let’s start off with one of my favorite aspects of ODST; the story. Bungie has made a lot of commotion over how the game was meant to play out as a sort of film-noir mystery, with the player taking on the role of the lone detective trying to solve a dangerous case. With the fantastically scored soundtrack, neon lit streets and pouring rain, ODST often times accomplishes just that. When you’re not avoiding Covenant Phantoms or trading fire with an enemy patrol, you’ll be searching for evidence that will explain what happened to your buddies after the drop. By playing through flashbacks as your missing squad-mates, pieces of the story begin to fall into place, while elements of a much larger mystery begin to take shape.

I found myself really engaged with this type of storytelling, as it made me feel like I was driving the tale. I also have to give kudos to the writers for crafting some really great characters who I genuinely grew attached to. Instead of trying to tell some massive space-opera with a huge cast of minor players, Bungie decided to focus on a single squad of daring commandos, each with their own unique personalities, who just want to get the job done and live to tell about it. You get to see them find their way, kick some ass, and even have a little fun. There was action, suspense, humor, and even some romance, along with a few nice twists and turns which kept me engaged and playing throughout the night.

Speaking of night, I have to say that ODST is one of the darkest games I think I have ever played. Some of this is offset by effective lighting, creating an atmosphere of danger and gloom during the Rookie’s segments. Your greatest asset will definitely be your helmet’s built in VISOR, which outlines your immediate surroundings and identifies enemies, allies, and weaponry via color code. This is invaluable when completing stealth sections. It adds a heightened degree of tension in a different way to Resident Evil, or playing Online Poker Games in the dark.  The darkness encourages players to stick to the shadows and be smart about confrontations, while the daytime flashbacks mark a return to the action-packed ‘splosion-fests Halo fans all know and love.

Gameplay-wise, ODST proved to be a pretty thrilling combination of old and new. The first thing you’ll notice playing is that you are no longer the walking tank formerly known as Master Chief. You’re just an above average Marine with standard issue combat armor, a nifty visor, and some upgraded combat weaponry. You will move slower, wield weapons one at a time, and take damage a LOT faster. Shielding has been replaced by a stamina gauge which will refill as soon as you find some cover, while health no longer regenerates and requires the assistance of a first-aid kit. What all of this added up to, at least for me, was a much more challenging FPS experience that harkened back to playing the original Halo while forcing me to play the game in new and different ways.

When wandering the streets of the darkened Hub-World, I found that rushing headlong into Covenant altercations quickly led to a near-future funeral. Since I was no longer a seven foot tall super soldier, I often picked off targets from a distance, run and gunned or avoided patrols entirely. I was forced to really think about what kind of weapons I wanted to swap out and how likely it would be that I could find more ammo lying around several blocks away. And if Hunters showed up…don’t even get me started on Hunters. During flashbacks, though, you can earn achievements geared towards encouraging gamers to play to a particular character’s strengths. For Dutch, this means scoring a bunch of Spartan Laser kills, while playing as sniper Romeo will have you lining up a horde of headshots. These lead to some much needed variety while giving each play-through its own character specific flair.

Of course, ODST has a few flaws. First, I believe that it really came out at the wrong time. By revisiting events in a trilogy that has already reached its completion, the game sometimes loses its sense of urgency. We all know what is buried in the desert, why the Elites are dead and how the Chief will end the conflict once and for all. I keep getting frustrated when I think of how this would have been the perfect game to tide fans over between Halo 2 and 3 and how ODST would have raised some awesome questions if we didn’t already know how things turned out. Also, for all the refreshingly intense guerilla gameplay found in the Hub World segments, ODST still manages to devolve into a typical Halo 3 frag fest towards the final acts as Bungie abandons the tailored flashback segments and moves on to blowing through a series of recycled levels. Sure, I know military instillations are modular by design, but I hate running through the same hallway for the better part of an hour.

Halo 3 ODST definitely breaks some new ground in terms of Halo titles, but I just wish Bungie took a few more risks and really committed to the gameplay found in the Rookie segments. While the Superintendant wasn’t as dynamic as previously advertised, he was definitely a welcome change of pace, as were the approaches made to storytelling. Firefight is an addictive edition to the franchise and combat is at a polished quality that fans have come to expect from all Halo games. Overall, I actually enjoyed this game a bit more than Halo 3, and am surprised to say that I am eagerly anticipating a future adventure with these UNSC Helljumpers.