“Here we are again with another cash cow being brought out to graze.   Is it a bad thing?”

Loved:

Contrast of Night and Day - The day scenes (vehicles and turrets galore) having you partake in flashbacks to what has happened to the rest of your team, and the night scenes presenting a foreboding loneliness as you search for clues on the rest of your squad.

5 Hours - Campaign is roughly 5 hours long playing straight through on normal so this is the type of campaign you could play through in an evening.

4  Player Cooperative - (including the campaign) Firefight is another great way to play (4-player) co-op with buddies as your fight against waves of enemies on about 12 maps whilst skulls (different gameplay elements such as only regenerating stamina when bashing, or enemies throwing grenades constantly) are activated/deactivated.   Many of you are familiar with this concept by now….Resistance 2/Gears of War 2/Call of Duty World at War all had similar outings.

Halo 3 Multi-player Suite Three new multiplayer maps (including a midship remake, one medium, and one large map) on a second disk including them along with all of the halo 3 maps (all the downloadable content) with theatre/forge completely intact.

Nathan Fillion - Plays one of the main ODST squad mates, in likeness and voice

Wait, the game needs…Characters? - Being about the ODST squad as a whole, I felt it had far more life to the characters you interact with on a regular basis, in addition to a greater sense of vulnerability versus the previous iterations of Halo.   Excluding the fact that “The Rookie” you play as says absolutely nothing and is basically the same “character” as master chief after all the life comes in with the rest of your squad.

Battlefield Earth - The only type of enemies you run into are covenant, which I much prefer to fight versus the option of the flood.

“Hey Listen” - Great side story you may listen to/watch via a slideshow presentation or nab and listen to on the run as you acquire them, which encourages you to explore the city and regails you with another perspective on the events

Hated:

More Halo - Nothing truly “new” here in terms of gameplay elements, and the graphics make no further steps over Halo 3 either (although I did like the telephone spitting quarters in one scene).   I can’t even say they polished it in comparison to the prior titles…we’ve begun into the realm of EA and Capcom on this one.

Game says “Buy Halo Reach” - Ending is less than climactic, seems to be more of an interim to Halo: Reach, despite reach being a precursor in the story as far as I’m aware.   I’m thinking the real advancements if any will be had in the next game….then again I’m being sadly reminded of the Star Wars prequels, and I’m not even going to get into that.

Firefight has NO MATCHMAKING - You will have to round up the people you want to play with yourself (Definitely a drag on this whole package in my book)

Your wound is fatal…Too bad - Still missing out on the idea of support players (medic in TF2, Ammo class in Resistance 2, directly relevant respawn mechanics a ‘la Gears of War, or even the ability to carry/share medpacks in Left for Dead) or even truly cooperative gameplay elements in and of themselves leads the cooperative portions  left with something to be desired.

Cat and Mouse - Shield recharge idea still promotes the pop out and shoot/hide for a bit and recharge gameplay (Looking at the idea behind diablo 3 as enemies killed will replenish your health…not to say it hasn’t been done before, so you could keep progressing as opposed to all the cat and mouse you must play).

(My experience with the game involved playing through the campaign once on normal solo, playing a few multiplayer firefight matches, and trying out the ‘new’ multiplayer maps at least a couple of times online)

Final Verdict: While I am content with my purchase of ODST - one of the greatest reasons for that is that I am very fond of cooperative multiplayer modes, and enjoy a short campaign as I actually like to be able to finish my games….(6 to 10 hours really hits the spot for me).   Unless you are a Halo fan; would really like another cooperative game or just the new Firefight mode or simply play Halo 3 all the time and want to get all the downloadable maps you have been missing out on in multiplayer, I simply can’t justify buying this versus upcoming titles this Christmas.   As a stand-alone product, especially disregarding the fact that it is largely more of the same, you will certainly get your moneys’ worth (the halo 3 multiplayer is completely intact along with all of the maps and the three new ones…which is no small thing, as it is still a fantastic example of console-shooter-multiplayer).

Categories: Reviews, Xbox 360