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| Source // MobyGames |
Given the sheer dominance of the IP, it was an inevitability that there would be some sort of spin-off set in the Halo universe. As it happens, there are a couple, and we'll get to the second in a very short while, but up first is the spin-off that retains the first-person shooting you're familiar with, and a story you very much aren't.
Halo 3: ODST grew too big and bold to be a Halo 3 DLC, and I'm informed that it is set during the events of Halo 2, so good luck trying to work out where any of this fits if, like me, you're not a huge Halo fan and haven't completed any of the main games.
Still, the fact that it doesn't follow ol' Chief again allows the formula to be shaken up and made into something different. Something worth playing? Let's stop waffling and start finding out.
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
Frustrations
ODST opens with a text crawl telling us how the great secret that is the location of Earth is now not a great secret, and our home planet is absolutely covered in nasty aliens, to the point where we're losing the war with them - not by a little, but a lottle.
We, personally, are catching some Z's in the darkest corner of the darkest room on the ship while the rest of our squad are chatting amongst themselves the way bickering soldiers apparently tend to do.
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
There is one glaring oddity with ODST that I noticed here, and it's not that Nathan Fillion is playing himself. It's that in contrast to what I remember from the first three Halo titles, the characters in this game are animated as though someone is auditioning for a job at Disney or something.
It's not ridiculously cartoony, but the emphasis of any action, like a point or a change in expression, is done in this highly animated style that I now can't take my eyes off. It's made worse in that this is perhaps the best looking Halo game to this point, and while CGI cartoons can be dazzling to look at, there is something weird about these folks being so detailed, yet so inconsistent in their animation.
Every now and then it looks, for a brief moment, like TimeSplitters had an insane graphics update. Oh, what do we have to do to get TimeSplitters 4...
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
We aren't super-soldiers like Master Chief, but trained grunts in knock-off armour, an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper who gets boxed up a drop pod and shot down to the surface of a planet, no doubt into the thick of the action to get done whatever job needs doing.
Only this time, above the surface of New Mombasa, it goes a little wrong and we're sent down the hard way, waking up hours later, battered and bruised in the dark streets of an occupied city.
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, so I'm delighted to be able to make use of a fancy night-vision visor that literally outlines the level ahead of me, highlighting enemy threats in red and friendlies in green - and there are no friendlies here.
It is you versus an awful lot of aliens, many on the 'goofy little annoyance' side of things, but some on the 'will happily eat you for breakfast' side, and you are not packing anything near the arsenal or skillset of Master Chief. A piddly little submachine gun, a pistol, and a need for health packs. Indeed, ODST wants you to treat the night like the cover you desperately need to avoid the army that is hunting you. Sneaking around can be the best option - in Halo, of all games.
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| Source // MobyGames |
The cities supercomputer is helping you out in tracking down information about your squadmates, and will helpfully guide you through both a map, HUD, and huge glowing street signs, so while it all looks grey, black, or indistinct, you shouldn't have too many difficulties getting where you need to go.
Heading through one of the few interiors open to us, we work our way through the corridors to find an ODST helmet planted in a screen, and picking it up triggers a flashback as to how it got there.
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
Don't worry about how we're able to have flashbacks of the events of other people, you'll be doing it a lot in ODST, as the pattern goes like this: Skulk around the nighttime avoiding fights as much as possible, trying to find information about your squad, find a clue, flashback to an explosive encounter during the daytime where you can get your Halo on.
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| Source // MobyGames |
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| Source // MobyGames |
Well, I had a constant need for them.
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| Source // Xbox |
I heard Buck shouting that he needs to get behind them, and the environment is large enough for you to do so, walkways crisscrossing the floor below, and interior corridors allowing you to flee and emerge at another corner for a new approach, but all too often, running away from one just saw me running into another, and my problems continued.
Multiple deaths later, I had given up the fight. You can have Earth, folks. I think you've earned it.
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Final Word
Part of this is inevitably down to me. Most of it probably is. The difficulty can be knocked down, and I can learn to not pick fights I can't finish, or not do the same stupid thing over and over and expect different results. I can learn how to best play ODST and eventually, I'll remember how to control an FPS on an Xbox.
Once I change as I player, I can then experience this story about actual humans trying to survive against overwhelming odds, and sticking together as a unit so that many hands can make light work or something like that. It's about helping each other out, and the story actually finishes by us helping out a scared alien who was, in turn, helping us navigate the city.
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| Source // MobyGames |
I like the grounded take you've brought us, and the more natural colour palette compared to all the bright spacey colours of the first three games, but people who want to be cartoons and might as well be nameless stereotypes doesn't really help to convince me that ODST requires a play.
Even its short length, around 6 hours, elicits a reaction of "Well, it's not really worth the effort then, is it?" rather than "Let's try the bite-sized alternate look at the workings of the Halo universe." - another error on my part, I suppose.
What this is is a Halo game for Halo fans. It started life as DLC, so it was only ever going to be people who bought Halo 3 who would buy Halo 3: ODST. That it broadened in scope means newcomers can try it out without prior knowledge, sure, but with a story so ingrained in the wider lore, with conflicting races that don't make sense if you've not played any other Halo title, ODST finds itself in a weird place when it comes to enticing new fans.
It doesn't quite play like previous Halo titles, it doesn't quite look like previous Halo titles, and to get the most out of it you'll need to have played, or at least be quite aware of the events of previous Halo titles.
That's not really me, not until I give the trilogy another attempt. I'm pretty sure I've seen a playthrough of ODST, though, and I would be up for watching another one, should I not get back to playing it first hand, but I'm just not sure the gameplay changes are enough to justify playing what might as well be side-content or backstory to Halo 3.
It's not a poor game, just a bit of an odd one.
Fun Facts
Should have put a fact here. Uhm, let's see. Short production time meant new enemies wouldn't feature, but new AI to accommodate the change in gameplay would. Players were funnelled towards targets in the main series but could avoid them or approach from new angles in ODST, and so enemy AI needed to keep pace.
Halo 3: ODST, developed by Bungie, first released in 2009.
Version played: Xbox 360, 2009.