ODST Review

So ODST was released today I picked it up on my way home from college and played through the campaign and now I can talk about it. It's worth noting that I'm completely bias with this franchise so don't expect too much bad stuff :P

I advise anyone who hasn't played through the game that plans to should stop reading now because I'll be spoiling some things.

The story of the game revolves around "The Rookie" who gets drafted into a super secret mission for a secret organization of the UNSC called Oni, or Naval Intelligence that all goes completely wrong. You get separated by your team thanks to events which happen in Halo 2 and you've got to find them again. The story isn't going to make any sense unless you've played through Halo 2 and 3 because ODST is set half way through the events of 2 and right up to the beginning of 3. If you've read the novels for Halo it's going to be that much sweeter because there are quite a few little easter eggs that will be recognisable but for complete noobs to the series you should really start at Halo 1 and move on up.

Unlike the other games in the franchise this one has an overworld map as such where you can wander around and find hidden items, easter eggs and weapons, once you get bored you can then go and do a mission to progress the story. The entire time you spend on the overworld is at night, approximately 6 hours after your original mission goes to shit. You find items around the map which cuts to back to different periods in those 6 hours from the perspective of your other squad members which total 5.

Personally I found the story fantastic, it doesn't really interfere with the other games but still adds to the overall storyline. It's short and to the point.

A lot of reviews have noted that the music and sound effects used in the game was spectacular and I couldn't agree more. Marty O'Donnell has done some seriously great work scoring the game. It's a completely different tone to the main series and is just great to listen to. It reminded me a lot of some Battlestar Galactica music in terms of rhythm and beat so sometimes I didn't want to leave an encounter just so I could keep listening. The sound effects are top notch too, the sound of your character wheezing when he's damaged or footsteps as he sneaks around the ruins of New Mombasa sound so realistic you just get dragged into the experience with them.

Graphically the game is nearly identical to Halo 3 since it's built on the same engine and is technically a stand alone expansion to that game. There were a few areas you can tell them improved, most notably was facial expressions of the characters. I think they allocated a bit more of their budget to facial rigging so they could pull off decent looking conversations in cinematic sections.

I've already mentioned on twitter and on the blog that 3 of the main cast of Firefly are the main cast of this game. I think Bungie decided they were making one huge tribute to Firefly because each of them play the exact same character they did on that show. Fillion is the smart ass leader who gets caught with his pants down too often, Baldwin is the big guns expert and Tudyk is the pilot. There is even a level where they pilot a spaceship together which was very reminiscent of the show. The actual quality of their work was also fantastic, was a joy to watch and listen.

Now on to Firefight. Anyone who has played Gears of War 2's Horde Mode or World at Wars Nazi Zombie mini games know what this is. You are put in a blocked off area with a certain amount of weapons and a certain amount of lives where wave after wave of enemies come at you. I've only played it by myself for a few minutes and I enjoyed it because I knew if I had 3 friends to play with it would be absolutely brilliant. Playing by yourself though does get boring after a while but as long as you stay in a group you'll be good.

Now the bad stuff...

They added 2 new weapons, the silenced SMG and a new handgun, both of them are awesome but during the campaign ammo is far and few between so you never really get to use it. Bungie have gone on record saying they wanted to give the feeling of desperation for ammo but it only seems to be for those 2 weapons as ammo is readily available for everyone other gun.

Firefight doesn't have a matchmaking option so you can only invite friends which may limit peoples enjoyment since they might not have so many friends who play the game.

Bungie were awesome enough to include a multiplayer disc which has the complete Halo 3 muliplayer client with all maps including the DLC map packs but it's on another disc. It's not really a huge problem but having to switch discs to go from classic multiplayer to firefight is going to be a pain.

Some people might be disappointed that the campaign is so short.

Overall I am immensely happy with the game, money well spent. Halo fans need to go out and buy this simply because it expands on the universe and there are 3 new maps for classic multiplayer on the disc but anyone who didn't enjoy Halo 2 and 3 aren't going to find anything new here and should stay away.

I'd give the game a 10/10 but I'd be called out for being a fanboi so to be fair I'll give it a 9.99998/10

See ya in Firefight!