HALO 3 - ODST

Pretty much anyone who knows me will confirm that I am completely obsessed by the HALO universe. We're not just talking about the games, but the entire mythos behind it. It's safe to say that when you talk to me you're talking to someone who would quite happily talk for hours about 343 Guilty Spark's motivations and past...it's all speculation, not all of it's fact...but I'm just trying to let you understand how big a geek I am about this series.

This post is meant to be about HALO 3 - ODST, and a review of sorts, but I wanna set the scene so you can see what sort of person you're dealing with here.

Where it all began
Aberystwyth University, 2002, HALO - Combat Evolved comes out on the PC (I never played it on the Xbox until after it came out on the PC). I become obsessed, it's not only a great game but has an incredible storyline. Not since the release of HALF-LIFE have I enjoyed a game so much. I become intrigued with certain plot elements and begin posting on forums where like-minded geeks converge to discuss storyline and rampant speculation.

I leave university and settle back at home. At the end of 2004 HALO 2 comes out...I don't have an Xbox at the time so I am forced to borrow my sister's boyfriend's and play through the entire campaign in a night. It's not as amazing as the first game, but it's still good, seeing more of the Covenant's story is a welcome change. I eventually get my own Xbox and play through the game again, it raises many more questions that intrigue me and again I see that the game ends on a cliff hanger so frustrating I hurl my controller across the room.

Finally, in 2008, HALO 3 graces the scene. I think it's an amazing game. I really love it. It ties up all the loose questions (most of them) and feels like an epic final battle. The sheer brilliance of the game leads me into a spiral geekiness as yet untapped. I buy the game in a bundle with a Special Edition Halo 3 version of the console...my biggest ever mistake...the console works well for ages...then dies...but all they can do is repair, not replace the piece of poop!

Halo Wars came and went, a bold move backwards - originally HALO was to be a RTS - and it was pretty good, not great, fun, but not that fun. Clever, but not too clever, with a pretty decent story, something us fans needed to get some juicy chat going...and it was a good placeholder to keep us going until HALO 3 - ODST came out.

I now have the good sense to realise the errors of my ways and two days ago purchased an Xbox 360 Elite with Halo 3 - ODST in a bundle for only £200 of your english pounds...I also got the new Tiger Woods game and that wicked Lips game in the bundle. Not back for 200 spoons!

And here...we...go...
Remember that bit in HALO 2 were you find the second HALO? That bit where you jump from the ship in a pod with other soldiers dressed in black jump suits? Those guys were ODSTs or Orbital Drop Shock Troopers to be totally geeky. Well, in this you play one of those guys...a new member of a rather macho squad of Helljumpers, and you are affectionately referred to as 'The Rookie' - and you're a silent protagonist, so you never say diddly-squat about anything...but boy can your shrugs and silence tell a story.

HALO 3 - ODST is set in the aftermath of the attack on the city of New Mombassa from HALO 2, you and your squad are sent in just as the Prophet of Regret slips out scattering your squad to the wind. You yourself get blown into a building and knocked out. The game from there sees you as 'The Rookie' trying to regroup with your squad in a war torn, Covenant infested city. You are aided in your search by the city's AI who uses road signs and the city itself to guide you on your way.

You spend a lot of your time as 'The Rookie' searching through the city for clues as to where your squad are, and hopefully to try and regroup with them and get out of the city alive. Whenever you find one of these clues, be that their discarded pod, or a busted up sniper rifle, you relive their journey...and this is where ODST really shines. It's that the flashbacks all come together to tell a story. You as 'The Rookie' feel very alone in the dark, and finding the clues and reliving the stories of your squadmates gives you a break from the opressive nature of the dark city and lets you see the battles that unfolded while you were knocked out.

The brilliance of the story is that you really feel as if you're always several steps behind your squad. You get this palpable sense that maybe the next clue will see you catch up to them...it's incredibly well done.

Your combat is effectively the same as HALO 3, but being a mere human and not a Spartan anymore means you're a tad more delicate, so you have to be more clever. Enemy and allied AI is pretty much the same as HALO 3, although I have noticed that enemies jump out the way of grenades a lot more often which only goes to make combat more intense! Plus, the sheer amount of snipers in the darkened city and flashbacks make progress all the more challenging.

Multiplayer has a very welcome addition in the shape of the game mode called Firefight. Basically it's you and your buddies facing wave after increasingly more difficult wave of enemies and boy is it fast and frenetic. It's a superb addition and the maps are well done. If you like multiplayer, you'll be on it! And you'll love it...I need another fix pretty soon.

Still on multiplayer, the game comes with a second disk which is all of the HALO 3 multiplayer maps released so far on a single disk you can play from which is pretty handy...means that if you have system link nights you only really need to take the ODST package itself for a bit of Firefight and the standard HALO 3 goodness.

The results are in...
Overall, I would rate HALO 3 - ODST very highly. If you're a fan of the series, you're probably playing it right now...if you're a new comer and never played a HALO game, I would still recommend this game to you, it's very well done and the combination of action and story is incredibly well balanced.

I would rate this game 8.5 out of 10. It would only lose marks because it's pretty short, and I wanted more...more...more...so maybe I should give it a 9. That would mean it's pretty perfect...but not completely, there's always room for improvement. How benevolent am I? Not very...I see. Yeah, you're right.

Final thought
The HALO series has captivated me more than any other series of games. So the insane sounding ramble above is from the brain of someone who genuinely loves the games and the mythos. By the game as soon as you can, if you like tense shooters set in a brilliantly laid out universe and a story told in a unique way, you can't go far wrong with HALO 3 - ODST.