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The Best That 2009 Had to Offer! ODST Edition

crafted by: Paul

I don't think that many game critics put Halo 3: ODST on their 2009 year end lists, but it was certainly one of the biggest releases of the year. Alex and I recently had a chance to sit down and play through the co-op campaign for a few hours. Here are my thoughts (after you re-watch the excellent ODST commercial):

Like a lot of males under the age of 30, I was heavy into Halo and Halo 2 on the original Xbox. Yes, their multi-player defined my high school years in more ways than I would care to admit, but I actually liked the first Halo's story and brief portrait of the Halo universe. Halo 2's single player took all that in terrible directions, with Master Chief becoming a Jesus-character-thing. And the Flood is the worst, laziest video game enemy in the history of the medium. Halo 3 was entirely forgettable, but I was actually excited when I first heard about a Halo spin-off where you controlled a non-Spartan, regular human soldier in a fight against (and only against) the Covenant.

The actual product got mixed reviews and I didn't consider picking it up, but having so much history with the franchise (and being intrigued by the Halo Reach beta) I was excited to be given a copy of the game.

The opening cinemas were a big turn off - not only is the Halo engine severely dated, but the characters were just so terrible. When we finally got out of our drop-pods and onto the streets of New Mombassa, I have to admit I was impressed with the atmosphere. A night-time, post-traumatic city is an interesting local to battle aliens (even if the city has nothing really going on in it). The music was a far cry different from typical Halo and FPS fare, with some ambient electronics and dissonant jazz thrown in. ODST felt distinct from the mainline Halo games, and I was really enjoying myself until we "flash backed" to the experience of one of the other ODST soldiers and it became Halo 3 all over again, with the same, stale "HALO" set-pieces. Drive the Warthog! Blow up the Wraith! Hit those two big boss dudes in the back! Accidentally pick up a Needler!

Despite being a "regular solider", I noticed very little actual difference between my ODST guy and Master Chief (he doesn't talk and can still flip trucks with no sweat). The VISR combat scanner was a nice addition, especially during the night missions, but felt more like an afterthought to make those portions of the game easier.

We stopped a few hours short of beating it, but ODST left JUST enough of an impression with me that I will be picking it up in the next few weeks to see how it all wraps up. I hope that Halo Reach brings out more of the impressionistic, sad side of the Halo universe that was on display here.