Review – Halo 3: ODST (X360)

Firefight

Firefight is the major meat we’re getting in ODST.  It’s a co-op mode at heart, which unfortunately means there’s no support for matchmaking over Xbox LIVE.  In order to play a four player game, there’ll have to be communication between friends to set up a date and time.  Which is all a little disappointing, given how much of a blast Firefight mode can be.

There are eight major levels in Campaign mode.  From each of these levels, one area has been culled out and presented in Firefight.  Two of these levels have alternate night versions, for a total of ten levels.

The mode is going to get compared to survival modes from other games, including Horde mode in Gears of War 2.  Players are on a team of up to four players and the goal is to survive as long as possible.  There’s no way to win a Firefight level.  It’s purely a matter of getting as many points until the inevitable hits.  The team shares a pool of lives, so that guy who insists on charging with the Fuel Rod Cannon doesn’t make for a good teammate.

Instead of a straight run of a number of levels, Firefight breaks up the action into Waves, Rounds and Sets.  Every Wave is a series of dudes who stream into the level in some way.  Usually through dropships, although sometimes there are side entrances they can use.  It’ll be Grunts at first, then Jackals, then various ranks of Brutes, sometimes with Engineers.  Different levels play out in different ways, which is nice.  A Round is five Waves.  After a Round is completed, there’s a replenishing of the map’s built-in weapons and health packs, a couple extra lives added, and the whole thing starts over again.  A Set is three Rounds.  After a Set is completed, there’s a Bonus round.  Perform well as a team, and you get a whole ton of extra lives.

There’s a catch.  Every Round and every Set adds a new Skull.  The first Round uses Tough Luck (enemies dodge projectiles unusually well).  The second Round adds Catch (enemies throw grenades constantly) and the third adds Blackeye (stamina only recharges after a melee attack).  The Sets add Tilt (shields aren’t damaged by bullets), Famine (weapons drop with half ammo) and Mythic (enemies have double health).  Bonus Rounds always have Iron (no respawns) on.

So as the game progresses, it gets steadily more and more insane.  Thankfully, ODSTs are no pushovers and can defend themselves pretty well in a fight.  They’re a little less durable than Spartans, requiring health packs to heal up fully after their stamina gets drained.  They don’t jump as high and they can’t dual wield, but they can hold more grenades, three each of frag, plasma, spike and fire.  They also spawn with the new, silenced SMG (on most maps) and the new Automag off-hand.  Although, really, it’s not all that new.  It’s pretty much the pistol from Halo 1.  It is a complete and absolute bomb.  I never once felt under equipped when I had one with ammo in it.

Firefight illustrated how much the combat has changed from Halo 3.  With no Battle Rifle to fall back on, and ammo for everything being pretty scarce, I found myself making do with what was lying around.  The Needler saw a lot more use than I remember, and the Plasma Rifle is still the insane shield-stripper it always was.

The game’s one new unit, the Engineer, is a non-aggressive floating squid that gives everything around it what seems to be nearly infinite shields.  They take a billion regular shots, or anything that knocks down a shield will tick them off and get them to explode.  It really changed the mechanic of a fight to suddenly realize I had to figure out a way to take out a support unit behind enemy lines.

For me, Firefight is the reason to load up ODST, now that I’ve paid my dues to Campaign.  Bungie has said that they’re not planning any DLC for the game, so we get what we see, and nothing more.  But honestly, that’s not too bad.  Halo fights have always been pretty dynamic and exciting, so making a mode that’s focused around the best the engine has to offer seems like a no-brainer.

Halo 3 Multiplayer

The Halo 3: Mythic disc is just the versus multiplayer mode from Halo 3 plus the final three maps, which are currently only available on this disc.

The three new maps, Citadel, Heretic, and Longshore, bring the map count up to twenty-four.  The disc considers itself to be Halo 3, with all 1750 gamerscore (79 achievements) available.  It even loads any old Halo 3 configuration, so it’s just a matter of popping in the disc and loading up Matchmaking for old Halo 3 salts. Because the disc is Halo 3 for all intents and purposes, it does not benefit from any of the engine updates ODST got.  So, for those with extra hard drive space, don’t install the Halo 3 disc.  It still runs faster in the drive.

The majority of those who’ll be interested in ODST probably already have Halo 3, so the inclusion of this extra disc is more for convenience than anything else.  Plus with the three final maps, it’s now possible for us regular humans to make a stab at unlocking Recon armour for ourselves (those of us who use the Spartan model, at least).

Halo 3: ODST is a great game, easily worth its full retail price.  But it does come with a few caveats.  The Campaign is short, Firefight requires a dedicated crew to actually enjoy, and the versus multiplayer is just Halo 3 with three new maps.  Halo fans have already rushed out, purchased this game and are fighting for top place on the Firefight leaderboards.  For those who weren’t thrilled with what Halo 3 had to offer, either in terms of single or multiplayer, there’ll be no great revelations in ODST.

For me, it’s an easy choice.  It looks great, sounds great, and plays awesome.  It took me ages to get the review done, simply because I couldn’t stop playing the game.  And is there any higher praise than that?

PS:  See you all in the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta in 2010!

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