Review: Halo 3 ODST

In the interest of full disclosure, I feel the need to begin this review with a confession; I love Halo. I love Master Chief, I love the Covenant, I love it all. I’m the asshole that pre-ordered the super mega special edition of Halo 3 with the cat helmet pack-in and I don’t regret it for a second. I use it as a business card holder that says both ‘integrity’ and ‘no, I’m not busy Friday night’. I’ve been a loyal devotee since Halo: CE back in the UGA dorms and haven’t stopped playing since. Anyone that might comment on this accusing me of obvious bias can now consider themselves preempted.

So it comes as no surprise to me that I loved Halo 3: ODST- the expansion disc turned full retail game available for the blah blah blah. If you don’t know what ODST is, you’re at the wrong website. Perhaps IGN would better suit your needs?
What seems strange to me is that everyone else purportedly liked the game, too. ODST’s current metacritic score is 84 and I’ve yet to read a truly negative review- however I get the impression that I’m in the minority in giving a thumbs up. Apparently there’s some question about the value of the $60 retail game. ODST’s campaign is about 6-8 hours depending on your previous fake military experience and, for me, that seems about right. Most gamers I know finish a standard console FPS campaign at ~10 hours, so I guess those taking exception in the case of ODST are used to eking out a complete game of Party Babyz at around 25 hours. The game is by no means the longest I’ve ever encountered but, considering the mission specific achievements and hidden audio logs that brought me in for my second play through, I didn’t finish feeling ripped off.

babyz
Stuck up assholes didn’t invite me.

Another point of contention regarding the price is the included Halo 3 Mythic multiplayer disc. Again, I don’t see this as a problem. Early on in the development of ODST the guys at Bungie were very clear that this expansion would include every map released for Halo 3 multiplayer. Upon hearing this, my internal Mr. Miyagi kicked into gear reminding me to be patient and not buy the map packs upon release like my douchebag buddies. Bungie gave the internets fair warning, and anyone that got stuck paying an extra $30 needs to spend some time watching The Karate Kid. Take notes.

miyagi
Patience, Travis-san. You’re really only missing out on Sandbox, anyway.

Fanboy rant aside, I genuinely enjoyed the campaign. The music is moody and strangely reminiscent of the Traverse Town theme from Kingdom Hearts, the episodic pacing totally works, and the plot fits very well in the context of the Halo universe. Some people were freaked out about the lack of Master Chief in the game and that turned out to be needless. ODSTs play exactly the same, have the exact same perfect, cyborg aim, can punch just as hard, and their armor even looks similar. The absolute only difference is the need for health packs; they might as well be called HMO Spartans which, coincidentally, would be an awesome name for a band.

The HMO Spartans. Fresh off their tour of the CVS parking lot.

Aside from the campaign mode and Halo 3 mutliplayer compendium, you get another online mode known as Firefight. Several reviewers have said this mode is like Gears of War 2’s Horde mode. I’m of the opinion they can drop the ‘like’. Firefight is fun and hectic but comes with the only major snag of the game- no matchmaking. I don’t get it. Bungie has had an excellent matchmaking system in place since Halo 2, so including this in all new online modes should be a no brainer. In a couple months the average gamer will be back to their strict diet of Call of Duty and no one on my friends list will be down for Firefight. Maybe Bungie can address this in a future update… that turns into a DLC pack… that turns into the retail game Halo 3: ODST: Multiplayer Update: Mythic Mode: Legendary Edition with Gamestop exclusive content that allows you to finally use the damn Fuel Rod Cannon online.

fuel rod cannon
It’s the green sparklies. Servers hate green sparklies.

In conclusion, if you liked Halo, Halo 2, or Halo 3 and were smart enough not to buy every map pack as it was released then this is a no-brainer. The campaign tells an interesting story, you might as well be Master Chief from a gameplay standpoint, and Firefight is fun if you’ve got friends to play it with. I fully recommend Halo 3: ODST if only as something to tide you over until the release of Party Babyz 2: Cancun. Make it happen, Ubisoft.

Tags: Halo 3: ODST, Imagine: Party Babyz

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Bryan Glynn

October 04, 2009

Ha, nice review, Travis. You make a good point about the very fair warning Bungie gave to the community regarding all of the new maps being free with ODST. I, too, forced myself to hold off on the maps until now, and am glad for doing so. Why [i]hasn't[/i] the fuel rod cannon ever been in the multi-player? Legitimate question you have there.

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Travis McReynolds

I think Bungie addressed it back in the Halo 2 days by saying the Xbox wasn't powerful enough to deal with the flashy explosions generated by the FRC so it had to be omitted. Haven't heard an excuse for Halo 3 and I'm sure the 360 can handle it. Additionally, isn't the bomb the Banshee drops essentially the same thing? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

Jeffrey Sandlin

Hrm. as a long time halo fan the understanding i've always had for the FRG not being in multiplayer is that it doesn't have a place in the multiplayer balance and sandbox if you keep it consistent with all it's iterations in previous games. Either you make it kill in one hit and it ends up being too powerful because it's a rocket launcher with twice the ammo or you make it kill in two hits or more and the brute shot ends up being roughly as useful as it. basically the reason you never see it in multiplayer is they haven't really seen any reason to put it in a map setup when they could have a rocket launcher, spartan laser, or brute shot instead. All of which are better suited for the things they designed the multiplayer to do. To be fair i'm pretty certain that it IS included as one of the weapons you can drop in forge. They just dont consider it balanced enough to include in the standard map layouts and matchmaking, sort of like how you never see flame grenades unless you make a map with them on it.

Lance Darnell

I don't remember if the fuel rod gun is in Forge or not. But it should be. I did not realize that this game only had a 84 average on Metacritic. That is truly due to the sequel tax, for could you imagine this game coming out without any prior Halo games having been released? :o Firefight sounds cool, but I want to know if you can edit it in Forge and hopefully Bungie will fix the matchmaking problem. Great Post!

October 05, 2009

You can't do anything with firefight and forge. The reason why for now seems to be that firefight is a variant of campaign mode's code rather then multiplayer mode's code. It also means that videos of firefight can't be cut into clips or rewound which is fairly limiting. Here's hoping that they roll firefight over into halo Reach with a more finished feature set. (matchmaking, more flexible videos, forge support) because it's a very fun multiplayer mode that could be even better if they put more time into it.