Halo 3:ODST

Halo: ODST is Bungie’s attempt to bring players back into the universe of Halo without its central character. But can a Halo game be fun without the Master Chief?

While we haven’t had the chance to play any of the campaign yet, ODST’s new multiplayer mode, Firefight, was at E3 for some serious play testing.

Originally named Halo 3: Recon, ODST puts you in the shoes of a UNSC Orbital Drop Shock Trooper during the events leading up to Halo 3. This first-person shooter takes place in New Mombasa. At the beginning of the game the player gets separated from the rest team during a drop.

Halo: ODST is due out Sept. 22, and after playing several rounds of multiplayer Firefight, which has a team of gamers taking on increasingly difficult waves of enemies, the matches seemed very polished.

Damage Control is well done in ODST. As you’re no Master Chief, you’ve got no shields and once more dependent on health packs. Nothing changes the flavor of Halo more than having to start scrounging for health.

While you may not get Master Chief’s height, shield or ability to dual-wield, you do get a spiffy new night vision visor that you can toggle whenever you’d like. The visor also highlights enemies in a red outline, making it a bit easier to take on a wave of bad guys in the middle of a fire fight.

What Bungie’s done a good job at is everything from the perspective (remember you’re no 7-footer) to the fact that falls will hurt you, reminds us that you’re just human, not a super hero. It’s nice, after years of playing the guy on the horse, to finally be the one down in the dirt having to get by.

Team Play makes it kind of cool to be fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with 4 other Drop Shock Troopers as you’re taking on the full spectrum of Halo bad guys, including teams of Chieftans.

And yes, there are new weapons introduced in Halo 3:ODST. The silenced submachine gun is a fun, but mostly ineffective weapon. But the good news is the pistol! The Pistol returns to the Halo universe in all of its glory. Firing off headshots with this bad boy has never been easier.

Final Thoughts
We loved Firefight in Halo: ODST,it’s a fantastic multiplayer co-op mode that force gamers to work together to survive. Adding skulls, achievements and leaderboards make it all the more fun. Can’t wait for the full game to come out.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 11:36 am and is filed under Halo News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.