Halo 3: ODST

Halo, baby

Halo 3: ODST starts with a rather fetching vista of 26th century Earth. You, affectionately dubbed the Rookie, are being dropped from orbit into the smouldering ruins of New Mombasa. Originally planned as a petite single-player side-mission in the Halo archives, ODST has progressively spiralled into a series iteration in its own right. Microsoft certainly seem to think so, anyway, and have elected to release the game with a forty quid price tag. As the Rookie steps out of his pod he's about to stumble upon what has inadvertently become one of 2009's most high profile and significant releases. That's got to be a lot to take in for the new guy.

It takes little time to adjust to playing as an ODST. Unfortunate enough to lack genetic enhancements, their limited speed means they're unable to make the same kind of hasty escapes as their SPARTAN allies, and without regenerating health bars (although they do have a flimsy stamina bar which acts as a shield) they've always got to be on the lookout for health containers scattered around the city. Saying that, the tried-and-tested tactic of weakening enemies with gunfire and finishing them off with a smack in the chops is still as essential as ever. The other pieces of a Halo ensemble quickly make their return, too: sticky grenades, a two-weapon inventory, a constant need for scavenging and plenty of sweet vehicular sequences. This isn't Halo trying to masquerade as a stealthy squad shooter, this is just Halo where you can't jump as high.

There's an emphasis on your squad at all times, and Bungie have rolled out some top-tier voice actors to help foster camaraderie. In what will definitely be a moment of deja vu for fans of Joss Whedon's Firefly, you've got Nathan Fillion playing Buck, the chisel-jawed team captain whose sassy grump hides his heart of gold: he never leaves a man behind. There's also Alan Tyduk as Mickey, a leaf on the wind with a crazy passion for his technical expertise and a penchant for making quips. To round it off, Alec Baldwin plays Dutch. He's all grumpy and tough and probably likes getting into bar fights, although that's pure speculation on my part. There's no time for brawls when you're fighting the Covenant. They've not so much borrowed Whedon's characters as shamelessly pinched them.

And no game can be complete without a customary appearance from Nolan North, who clearly has the best agent in business.

The extended character portfolio gives Bungie the opportunity to fiddle with their traditional formula. As the Rookie, New Mombasa is an open-world environment. Regaining consciousness after the drop, he discovers the team has scattered in the time he's been out cold. The Rookie's purpose is to frame the narrative by exploring New Mombasa at night to track down his missing squad.

Assisting him is the Superintendent - the AI that regulates the city. He often plays with traffic lights and notice boards to point you in the right direction, which helps New Mombasa feel less like a maze, and his rounded emoticon quickly becomes a charming addition to the game. You can also tap your d-pad to have the Superintendent show you where to go, his face popping up on your HUD. Many cut-scenes are even framed from his perspective, and it's a delight to watch his emoticon's expressions during many of the game's more explosive sequences.

When the Rookie stumbles upon various key locations, the game throws the player into a flashback of another character. These set pieces enable Bungie to break with their previous style of attempting to create a naturalistic sense of progression and just come up with a plethora of flashy, colourful and artistic environments. These levels are also crafted around the particular forte of whichever character you're playing as; a convenient, if a little contrived, method of guiding the player through a sniping level, vehicle level, heavy weapon level, and so on.

There's not much more to it, really. If you've played the Halo series, and the chances are that you probably have, then the whole campaign will feel very familiar. Slick, yes, but familiar. The set pieces are lavish, the environments are lush and the age-old Bungie design mentality - conflict in constant small bursts - is in full effect.

It is disappointing, however, that the end of the game limps towards an unspectacular conclusion. The last two levels feel generic and repetitive, full of copy-and-paste corridors, and the quintessential inclusion of a vehicular finale ends up feeling drab and lifeless. The game's more decadent experiences seem to be stuffed in at the beginning, ultimately leaving the campaign feeling lopsided. When you consider that it's not too much of a challenge to finish it off in one sitting - it took me slightly under five hours on Heroic - it leaves you wondering if Bungie weren't forced to pad it out after they realised just how important the game was going to become.

There's little in the way of additions to the Halo formula. There's a pistol that's not complete gubbins, for a change, and a new silenced sub-machine gun that tends to fire bullets all over the place if you're not careful. Both weapons are effective killing machines, but seeing as Halo has always required you to shuffle your inventory every five minutes it's hard to become too attached. ODST does, however, lose the controversial Battle Rifle in the single-player campaign and Firefight mode. Bungie considered the weapon inexorably linked to Halo 3, apparently. Its absence is noticeable, but it won't be missed.

But the single-player campaign only amounts to a third of the goodies on show. There's a second disc with the entire multiplayer component from Halo 3, extensive DLC additions and all. For anyone that's dabbled with Halo online but never invested in any of the extra maps, this is about as good an opportunity as you're ever going to get.

More important is the oft-vaunted Firefight mode, which plonks a team of up to four players into Bungie's take on the ever-popular Horde mode. Firefight separates itself from Horde by being able to work on a greater scale: maps are big enough, and enemies are bountiful enough, to ensure that you can't possibly bottleneck enemies through confined spaces. You're also forced to keep yourself moving to replenish ammo and health supplies.

Then there's the ingenious addition of skulls, previously optional difficultly enhancers from Halo 3, which activate randomly at various stages and increase the potency of the enemies you'll be facing. Sometimes you'll have to melee enemies to recharge your stamina, or dodge an insane amount of scarily accurate grenades. Sometimes enemies will just be harder to kill. More skulls activate the longer your group stays alive, forcing players to shimmy around on tiptoes at all times.

Whilst Bungie remain noncommittal about DLC map packs for Firefight, there are quite a few included on the disc, with more getting unlocked as you progress through the campaign. It's enough to keep you busy for a long while, and is easily the best incarnation of the ever-popular mode.

So it's all par for the course, then. Despite initial concerns about the price tag, Halo 3: ODST offers up a surprising glut of content for your money. Bungie aren't making a concentrated effort to reinvent the formula they've so successfully championed, and for that reason they're likely to come across their fair share of detractors. Halo 3: ODST is never going to be considered game of the year, but Firefight in particular will likely be played for a long time to come.

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By Martin Gaston