Halo 3: ODST is a great, albeit short, experience. The switch to a more vulnerable squad of characters adds a fresh twist to the traditional Halo gameplay and requires you to be far more thoughtful and cautious.

The evolution of the Halo series from the first game on the original XBOX to the 2007 release of Halo 3 has not only set the standard for how a console shooter should play but also forged what can only be described as uniquely ‘Halo’ experience. The absurdly high jumps, the dual-wielding of weapons and the empowering over-shield have conditioned the player into making certain assumptions when sitting down to play a Halo game, the first being ‘I am the Master Chief’.

Halo 3: ODST  breaks many of these assumptions by stepping away from the much loved formula. It does this by removing one of the foundations of the Halo experience,  Master Chief. The iconic protagonist serves as the embodiment of the traditional Halo gameplay identity and the absence of the genetically enhanced super-soldier fundamentally changes experience.

Halo 3: ODST places the player in the boots of the ‘Rookie’, a member of the ‘Orbital Drop Shock Trooper’ Unit deployed into New Mombasa. After a shockwave from a nearby covenant dropship forces the Rookie’s pod off-course and the resulting impact renders him unconscious for 6 hours, he awakes to find himself separated from his squad in a deserted New Mombasa. Rookie’s mission becomes following a number of beacons to try to piece together the events that occurred during the time he was out of action and to reunite with his squad.

ODST battles retain the sence of scale from Halo 3

For those with a keen interest in the Halo mythology the story in Halo 3: ODST will serve as a valuable opportunity to experience some of the expanded universe and fill in a few blanks in the lore, however the story itself is pretty unremarkable with very few memorable plot points.
Despite the forgettable story it tells ODST uses an interesting ‘flashback’ approach to the narrative which allows it to tell a single story from a number of different perspectives and also creates a well paced game at the same time.

The segments of the game played as the Rookie take place in the deserted New Mombasa which serves as an overworld, after navigating the ruined streets and engaging in combat with the pockets of Covenant hostiles peppered around the different areas of the city you’ll come across a beacon which serves as an indication of what has occurred in the area while the Rookie was out cold, at this point the game flashes back to tell the story of one of the other members of the squad. These segments represent a more traditional gameplay experience, they are essentially the memorable set-piece battles from the previous games boiled down to the core action, the individual squad members each take part in a different set pieces so all the bases are covered, the game features flying, sniper battles, driving and the ‘defend this point’ battle segments. Although these segments place the player in almost too familiar territory they manage to avoid feeling like regurgitated portions of Halo 3 by instilling unfamiliar gameplay restrictions on the player.

Despite being the UNSC’s most elite squad of troopers the ODST are still just human, they don’t have the same perks that the Spartan class have and are far more vulnerable, although they have ‘stamina’ (which is similar to the Spartan’s shield) they quickly begin to take damage to their health which itself can only be recovered by finding health packs. They’re not as strong as the Spartans and consequently cannot dual-wield weapons or jump as high. In addition they aren’t equipped with a radar, but are equipped with ‘VISR’ which provides the ODST with better vision in darker areas for infiltration, highlights any key items such as the beacon and also places any enemies in the area on the map, which can be accessed using the back button. These restrictions and changes force the player to essentially unlearn the methods they have come to adopt not only in the Halo franchise but in first-person shooters generally, since many games now use the ‘recovering health’ approach the back step into ‘health pack’ territory is initially quite jarring but in the long run forces the player to make use of cover and play tactically.

The most appealing aspect of ODST is the sense of atmosphere and personality, the New Mombasa segments stand out as the games strongest moments, the perfectly pitched orchestral background score creates a somber and eerie mood and conveys the sense of isolation and abandonment that the Rookie is likely to be feeling. Audio logs scattered around the city tell the story of Sadie, a girl who is attempting to reach her father at the time of the Covenant invasion, as well as providing an interesting sub-plot these logs give the city a personality beyond that of a ruined metropolis, since it’s empty by the time the Rookie awakes from his brief coma the audio logs provide a window into a time when New Mombasa was inhabited by people and also serves as a back story for the city itself.

The night-time hub world between flashbacks

The individual members of the ODST squad also have their own personality, this is a welcome change from the stoic silence of Master Chief, as well as the comradery and general interaction in the cut-scenes the troopers also regularly trash talk and interact with each other and the enemy during combat, the sound of ‘breathing’ goes a long way in giving the characters personality, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that the voices are those of a number of Firefly and Battlestar Galactica cast members.

Complimenting the 6 hour single player campaign, which can also be played cooperatively, Halo 3: ODST also comes with a ‘Firefight’ mode, it’s hard to avoid comparisons to Gears of War 2′s Horde mode so I won’t, Firefight is essentially a Halo 3 version of Horde, waves of Covenant will unrelentingly attack in an attempt to wipe you and the rest of your team out, at various points during the battle the game will activate ‘Skulls’ which modify enemy behavior or attributes, these little touches can quickly alter the flow of battle, especially if the team isn’t working together.
Despite a mostly enjoyable experience one issue plagued my play through of ODST and on numerous occasions pushed me to the verge of quitting, this being an incredibly user-unfriendly and downright broken save system, during my time playing I was forced to play through the first two mission as well as the New Mombasa areas numerous times, upon finishing a flashback segment and selecting ‘Save and Quit’ I would reload my data to find that the game hadn’t saved my data and I would be forced to replay a mission. Despite the numerous ‘checkpoint’ messages beforehand I completed the game and upon ‘resuming’ to play the last segment again I was taken to a point 3 beacons before the last gameplay sequence. Needless to say this random issue regularly prevented my progression and broke the flow of the experience.

Halo 3: ODST is a great, albeit short, experience. The switch to a more vulnerable squad of characters adds a fresh twist to the traditional Halo gameplay and encourages a more thoughtful and cautious style, a refreshing change from the guns blazing approach Master Chief’s abilities favored.
It’s unfortunate that the story was ultimately disappointing and failed to use the interesting narrative structure to good effect, luckily the personality of the characters, the atmosphere of New Mombasa and the ‘Sadie’s Story’ sub-plot picks up some of the slack. The inclusion of Firefight gives the game lasting appeal and provides an opportunity to play a different kind of Halo multiplayer experience.

Tamoor Hussain

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