HALO 3: ODST wasn’t supposed to be this good.
Arriving eight years after Halo justified the existence of
Microsoft’s original Xbox, ODST was first announced as a mere
expansion to 2007’s Halo 3—a quick, easy way for Microsoft
and Halo developer Bungie to squeeze more money out of their
ridiculously popular franchise. But surprisingly, ODST doesn’t
feel like a cash-in—in fact, it might be the best Halo yet.
Bearing all of the series’ trademarks while also nudging its
familiar gameplay in a new direction, ODST feels a lot like
Halo, a bit like Metroid Prime, and kinda like
BioShock. Instead of playing as the series’ usual hero, Master
Chief, players take on the role of “Rookie,” an “orbital drop shock
trooper” tasked with searching a war-ruined city for his missing squad
mates. Thanks to the Rookie’s downgraded skill set (no dual-wielding,
less health), humanity’s fight against the aliens known as the Covenant
now seems significantly more dangerous, and ODST‘s moody,
noir-ish tone creates a richer, darker, and more nuanced experience
than any previous Halo. As the Rookie discovers clues from his fellow
soldiers, “flashback” levels are triggered—by letting the player
take on the roles of those squad mates, ODST provides enough
variety to keep things from ever getting boring.
Despite the fact that the Halo series is beloved for its multiplayer
mode, ODST is unquestionably a single-player
experience—tackling the campaign in co-op mode is possible, but
doing so can feel awkward and jarring. That said, ODST does come
with all of the existing Halo 3 multiplayer maps (and three new
ones), plus a new multiplayer mode, “Firefight,” which functions like
Gears of War 2‘s “horde mode”: increasingly pissy waves of
enemies swarm the players for a more arcade-y experience.
Firefight and the maps are fine, but ODST‘s sometimes
haunting, consistently thrilling campaign is the real draw here,
bolstered by solid voice work from Serenity‘s Nathan Fillion,
Adam Baldwin, and Alan Tudyk, and Battlestar Galactica‘s Tricia
Helfer. This is still Halo—Martin O’Donnell’s grandly
melodramatic score still blares, a lot of things explode, a few
thousand aliens erupt in splatters of purple blood—but by trying
something a bit new, Bungie’s created something that’s arguably the
quintessential Halo experience.
