The Charge:
Prepare to Drop!

Opening Statement:
What began life as some manner of downloadable expansion pack has evolved considerably on its trip to retail. Instead of an affordable add-on for the venerable (yet still loved by millions) Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST drops as a full priced stand-alone product. With a new single player campaign, and all of the additional content from Halo 3’s now classic multiplayer suite carried over on a dedicated disc, and nary a sign of Master Chief, is ODST worth your scratch?

Facts of the Case:
Set just before the events of Halo 2, Halo 3: ODST tosses us into the boots of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST), or “Helljumper”. The Covenant has found Earth, and the city of New Mombassa is the first to feel the wrath of the Prophet of Regret. When your insertion into the city goes awry, it’s up to you to track down the missing members of your unit, piece together the events of the last few hours, and let the Covenant know that every step they take on Earth is going to cost them in precious blue and purple blood.

The Evidence:
There seem to be two types of Halo players in this world, divided by their style of play. You have the “Halo-geeks”, guys who’ve been with the series since day one, who’ve poured over every ounce of Halo fiction and swarmed forums before the release of Halo 2, discussing the Halo universe’s deep mythology, and trying to decipher the riddle of ilovebees.com. Then there are the “mainstream” Halo fans, those who waste waking hours lost in Halo’s deep multiplayer game, logged into Xbox Live, their wireless controllers are their 2.4ghz lifeline to their social circle, single player is an afterthought. While both tribes do meet in the middle to some extent, Halo 3: ODST is more for the former than the latter, and whether it’s worth the coin is entirely dependant on your devotion to the Haloverse.

Halo 3: ODST exists primarily as a single player experience (I’ll get to the multiplayer in a bit), and Bungie has clearly put a lot of care into telling a story that’s engaging and true to the Halo mythology, while also creating something a little different from the norm. While you play a new recruit with The Helljumpers, the majority of the game occurs in flashback, as you fill the boots of several members of your squad. You basically wander around the open city hub of New Mombassa, dodging covenant patrols and following objective markers which lead you to objectives. Each objective triggers a flashback, and each flashback helps you piece together the series of events that came between your botched orbital drop and your regaining consciousness.

ODST uses these flashbacks to mix up the gameplay considerably, when you’re in the shoes of squad leader, Buck, the experience is a more traditional Halo run-n-gun with pockets of intense firefighting, while Dutch and Mickey provide your vehicle segments. It all flows pretty well, and the chaos and carnage of the flashbacks contrasts sharply with the more moody and somber hub scenes. Much has been made of the fact that the ODSTs are not Spartans, but truthfully, the game mechanics haven’t changed all that much, and I was constantly reminded of Halo: Combat Evolved, which I still feel has the strongest single player component of the series. It’s just a shame it’s over so fast.

On the multiplayer side of things, Halo 3: ODST’s biggest selling point is the much hyped “Firefight” mode. It’s clear to see that the guys at Bungie were into Gears of War 2’s “Horde” mode, and the idea of a team of players standing against wave after wave of AI opponents. It was fun in Gears of War 2, and its fun here as well. Beyond that, what you get with ODST is a second disc which features Halo 3’s multiplayer mode. It’s the exact same game you’ve been playing for the last two years. No changes have been made outside of the inclusion of the downloadable map packs and three new exclusive maps. Does one new gameplay mode really justify the price to you? If “Firefight” and the three exclusive maps don’t eventually pop up as DLC for Halo 3’s core players, you just might be justified in taking the plunge. You have to ask yourself, is this worth the cost of a full-priced retail product?

Much ballyhoo has been made about Halo 3: ODST’s voice actors, and with the cast attached I can see why. Several geek-culture heroes pop up, including Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, and Adam Baldwin (half the crew of Serenity) and Battlestar Galactica’s Tricia Helfer. Buck, the Helljumper’s surly squad leader, also borrows Fillion’s likeness to go along with his voice, and Tricia Helfer’s face is grafted onto ONI agent Dare. Marty O’Donnell’s music is as engaging and iconic as ever, and every sound is expertly rendered in classic Halo fashion. There’s certainly nothing wrong with ODST’s exceptional audio package.

Rebuttal Witness:

As awesome as the audio experience is, Halo’s engine is really starting to show its age. ODST is marred by low resolution textures, pixilated bump-mapping, and the character animation during cutscenes is laughably bad. Watching Nathan Fillion’s low resolution head bob around on a body that’s moving like a marionette out of Thunderbirds is quite disconcerting. There’s some great design on display, and there’s no doubting the skills of Bungie’s artists, but the now archaic engine just doesn’t do their efforts justice. Those non-plussed by Halo 3’s visuals two years ago (and there were many) will be even less impressed now. Here’s hoping that the rumors about Halo: Reach using an all new graphical engine, complete with all the trimmings, turns into a reality.

The other question is one of value. I can’t help but feel that full retail pricing for such a short single-player campaign and what is essentially a repack of a two year old multiplayer suite is just too high a price. Some have argued that the exclusive maps and Firefight mode combined add enough value to put it over the top. That fact is debatable, particularly if this content winds up on Xbox Live in 3 months, or you prefer to stick to Halo’s narrative-driven single player campaign.

So yes, it’s an expensive package for what it offers in my mind, and the visuals are definitely below the standard we expect in a shooter these days. In spite of this, the gameplay is still pure, golden Halo, and the narrative is every bit as engaging and mythology heavy as past entries in the series.

Closing Statement:
Your enjoyment of Halo 3: ODST will depend on two things: How much you like Halo 3’s multiplayer, and how much you enjoyed Halo: Combat Evolved as a single player outing. Sure, the game hasn’t changed all that much in the last 8 years, but Halo is still Halo, and ODST is a fine addition to the franchise. The price tag is a bit of a sting for me personally, not being much of a multiplayer junkie, but for fans, this is an awesome package that will replace your well worn Halo 3 disc.

The Verdict:

Platform: Microsoft Xbox360
Developer: Bungie
Publisher: Microsoft
Release Date: September 22nd, 2009
Rated: M(17+) for Mature.

By Steve Power

Tags: halo 3, Halo: ODST, Reviews, Xbox360

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 11:46 am and is filed under Reviews, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.