Most addicting Halo Game since the Original, Campaign is just plain fun, and Firefight, where have you been all my life?
The Campaign is built on that same concept, traversing an open world, evading covenant patrols, and searching for your buddies. The campaign is also available in co-op mode with up to 3 friends via Xbox Live. When you play as The Rookie, who is the main protagonist in the game, you're dropped into New Mombasa, crash land, and don't wake up for 6 hours. So when you wake up and start the game, its dark, its nighttime, humans have evacuated the city, there are no traces of any living humans left in the city. New Mombasa is dominated by Covenant patrols, snipers; drop ships, scouring the city for human survivors (you). The Rookie is dropped into this open world level, you can walk almost anywhere in the city, and take any path to your next objective. Objectives are essentially beacons on your map that the Superintendant (I won't get into the story too much), has laid out for you to find. I haven't had as much fun trying to be stealthy in a Halo game, again, since the original. The original offered a small level of stealth in the 5th level "Assault on the Control Room", where you could sneak up behind Elites and take them out quietly as you passed from room to room. The Halo 3: ODST campaign improves on this concept, where during the nighttime levels playing as The Rookie, you can sneak past entire platoons of Brutes, Grunts, and you can even evade the Jackal snipers if you are slick enough. Other times, you'll sneak past one group, or wait for them to pass, and stumble upon another patrol you didn't know was there, or start taking fire from a Jackal sniper out of nowhere! The other great thing about the nighttime levels, is the integrated map, accessible by the back button, that helps you navigate the city as well as scout out covenant patrols in real-time, that's right, the game is still going on while you're looking at your map. You can watch covenant movements on the map, and plan your escape. The map is part of your VISR, which is displayed on the shield inside your helmet. VISR also has night vision mode, which is very useful at night by highlighting baddies in red, goodies in green, everything else in orange, and lighting up the landscape just enough. Night vision is only useful during the nighttime missions, and in enclosed dark areas (pretty much useless outside in the daytime missions).
So, getting to those awesome daytime missions… When The Rookie find a piece of evidence, the game does a flashback, and you get to play as one or more of your ODST buddies that dropped in along side you. Since they weren't knocked out like The Rookie, their missions happened earlier that day while it was light out. Offering a stark contrast to the quiet nighttime stealthy levels, the daytime levels are very loud, explosive, and exciting. Each one of the 10 or so missions is very different, crafted by Bungie in a perfect variety of indoor, outdoor, city, landscape, vehicle, or on-foot sections that are some of the most memorable sequences in the Halo series. Do you remember that 9-minute Halo 2 trailer back at E3 2003, where it looked like you were fighting the covenant in a giant open world city, with covenant dropping in all around you? Do you remember being disappointed when that level didn't make it into the final game? Well, Bungie finally did it, fighting through the city in the daytime missions really feels like you are defending the city against an invasion force. Somehow in both Halo 2 and Halo 3 the story managed to start on Earth, then get whisked away to some faraway place somewhere else in the Galaxy. Finally in Halo 3: ODST, you're planted firmly on Earth, trying to kick the covenant off, and it feels great.
I'd also like to add that the Campaign point system is as fun as ever, and I've had a blast just running through the various levels with skulls activated, trying to make "par", a point level set by Bungie. Killing grunts has never been so much fun, since now I can't just kill them, I have to get headshots, and kill multiple in a row to rack up score multipliers and win medals like "Double Kill", "Triple Kill", "Killtrocity", etc. I did get a Killtrocity on my birthday, which is 10 covenant kills in quick succession (did it with the tank of course)!
The new weapons are awesome, especially the new M6S Pistol. If you loved the pistol from the original Halo, you will be obsessed with the M6S. It is your favorite scope pistol, add a silencer, and the ability to shoot rapidly with little recoil, and now you're having a good time. This thing is a headshot machine, and killing grunts has never been better. The other new weapon is the Silenced SMG, this is a silenced, scoped version of your dual-wieldable SMG from Halo 2 and Halo 3. Although this time its more accurate, more deadly, and not dual wieldable. I must say, removing dual wielding from Halo 3: ODST was a great choice, I didn't miss the ability to dual wield at all, and it make me use some of the weapons the way I did back in the original Halo, the plasma pistol is good again, and the plasma rifle is badass again, the way it was meant to be. Notably absent from Halo 3: ODST is the Battle Rifle, however I agree with the decision to leave it out, since the M6S Pistol replaces its function. Other weapons are there as you'd expect, Sniper, Beam Rifle, Carbine, Rockets, Spartan Laser, Brute Plasma Rifle, Plasma Pistol, Needler, Assault Rifle, Fuel Rod Cannon.
Multiplayer:
What can I say that hasn't already been said? Halo 3 multiplayer is here in its entirely, and its as awesome and as fun as ever. The 3 new "Mythic 2" maps are great, especially Longshore, which I find people consistently hope to get after a veto (remember Hang 'em High from the original Halo). It feels like you're getting the ultimate Halo 3 Multiplayer collection, and you are, because all of the original maps are here, plus all of the downloadable maps, plus the 3 new maps exclusive to Halo3: ODST.
Closing Comments:
Although overall the campaign in shorter than the other Halo games, it does not disappoint, it feels like quality over quantity. It probably has the most covenant fighting in any Halo game, since there are no Flood levels at all in Halo 3: ODST.
Campaign: 9.0
Story: 7.0
Multiplayer: 10.0 (Firefight + Halo 3 Multiplayer)
Replay Value: 10.0
Graphics: 7.0
Sound: 10.0 (awesome music and sound effects)
OVERALL FUN LEVEL: 9.5 (not an average)
Enjoy!
Joe