Tag Archives: FPS

Halo Fest 2020 – Reach

Even more than with Halo 3: ODST, I was hyped-up for the release of Halo: Reach. By this time we knew that Reach was going to be Bungie’s last Halo game and between previews and Bungie’s own PR, it sounded like they had every intention of sending the series off with a bang. While I was a bit disappointed that early rumors of Reach being a more squad tactics oriented game were never realized, the game we ended up with was still my favorite entry in the series up to that point (at least, when I’m not nostalgically giving that credit to Halo: CE.) As with ODST, I only really played through Reach’s campaign once, just after its release, and I was looking forward to playing through it again. I wasn’t disappointed.

“Everyone to the cave for a team meeting!”

Despite my praise, Halo: Reach ended up being controversial to much of the hardcore fanbase for various reasons, from its lore departures from most people’s introduction to Halo fiction, The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund, to a plethora of mechanical adjustments that, while seemingly small on the surface, drastically changed the landscape of multiplayer – from overpowered and gimmicky armor abilities such as armor lock, jetpacks, and sprint, to reticle bloom and the overreliance on Forge-built maps, just to mention the highlights. Even today Reach is blamed for killing the Halo competitive scene, beginning a downward spiral as Halo headed into the 343 Industries years. Thankfully, being relatively casual multiplayer players, me and my friends didn’t have too many complaints on this front. The game felt a little different, sure, but each iteration does, and hey, fucking jetpacks!

Halo: Reach was added as part of the Master Chief Collection almost 10 years after its original release, and of course, that’s how I played it on my Xbox Series X for this playthrough. Like MCC’s Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST, Reach didn’t receive a remaster as much as a straight port with requisite improvements to its resolution, textures, and framerate. That’s okay, as Reach was certainly a major technical leap from Halo 3 if not one of the Xbox 360’s best looking games, period. It’s just an amazingly beautiful game all around, and it still holds up rather well today thanks to the abundance of care and polish Bungie put into it. Save for some occasionally stiff looking character animations and some odd looking facial and hair texture and lightning issues, it even manages to look fairly modern.

“MY gravity hammer!”

Iterative technical improvements aren’t anything new for the series, of course, but one major departure from the rest of the Halo games is the story. While still conjuring the typical themes of heroism against overwhelming odds, sacrifice, like, real loss of life sacrifice, is a huge theme in Reach. As such, the game has a much darker, more mature story than any other Halo game. Characters die, the heroes of the story aren’t conventionally victorious, and as such, Reach is utterly lost to the Covenant. Hopefully none of that was too spoilery. In fact, since this is a side story taking place out of chronological order from the main series anyway, I’ll recap the plot now. While I’m fairly vague in these plot summaries they absolutely do still contain spoilers, so skip the next two paragraphs if you want to avoid them.

The Story: NOBLE Team, a SPARTAN special operations fireteam assigned to the colony world Reach, is dispatched to investigate a blackout at a major communication hub. NOBLE quickly discovers a Covenant advanced team in the area, triggering a planet-wide emergency declaration. A short time later NOBLE participates in a reconnaissance mission that leads to the discovery of a large invasion force gathering on the planet’s surface. In response, the UNSC launches a massive preemptive strike, taking down a number of Covenant teleportation spires and anti-air batteries before progress comes to a devastating halt when the Covenant supercarrier Long Night of Solace appears. Lacking sufficient weapons to take down the supercarrier, NOBLE is dispatched on a mission to commandeer the slipspace drive from a UNSC frigate, infiltrate a Covenant corvette, and then detonate the drive close enough to the supercarrier to cripple it. Manually detonating the drive, NOBLE-5 successfully destroys the ship, though sacrificing himself in the effort. Victory is extremely short lived as an enormous Covenant fleet jumps into orbit only a short time later. NOBLE team is assigned to assist evacuation efforts in the city of New Alexandria during which NOBLE-2 is killed in action and the city is completely annihilated. With a full withdrawal now underway, NOBLE is dispatched to ONI Sword Base on a demolition mission. Fighting their way into the base, the team is led into a secret research facility built around a large underground Forerunner ruin where they meet Dr. Halsey, the head scientist behind the Spartan program. Halsey tasks the team with carrying new information that she believes will be vital to the war effort safely off world. NOBLE-3 accompanies Halsey while the remainder of the team head to the shipyard where the UNSC cruiser Pillar of Autumn is waiting to depart. NOBLE-1 sacrifices himself clearing the way for NOBLE-4 and NOBLE-6, who manage to clear the shipyard, repelling multiple waves of Covenant attackers before NOBLE-4 is killed. NOBLE-6 delivers the package to Captain Keyes but elects to stay behind to man an anti-air battery, helping the Pillar of Autumn to escape. NOBLE-6 is eventually overcome while the Pillar of Autumn jumps to safety where it is revealed that Dr. Halsey’s information is contained in the AI Cortana and that the Pillar of Autumn has just jumped to Halo Installation 04.

“There are so many beautifully framed cutscenes but this one was especially poignant.”

The focus on Master Chief as the hero of the series has mythologized the idea that Spartans are practically demi-gods so actually seeing them dying left and right in a Bungie developed Halo game was, hopefully, a bit of a wake up call, even if most of them being SPARTAN-IIIs provides something of an out for diehard fanboys. The events of Reach also send home how overwhelmed humanity was by the Covenant. They had the technical and numerical superiority and a fanatical cause driving them, and humanity was being systematically wiped out. Finally, I love how the end of the game brings the series full circle, with the last moments of the campaign being precisely where Halo: Combat Evolved starts. Knowing that NOBLE’s sacrifice directly led to and enabled the events of the main trilogy made it all the more effective, putting a positive spin on an otherwise somber story. It also managed to conjure up some unexpected but powerful nostalgic emotion in me, even the second time through.

Appropriately, Bungie seemed to go back to the original game for a lot of inspiration. Based on original designs, the Covenant species feel more alien and more menacing. Even those adorable little grunts are less overtly silly and are all-around tougher than they’ve ever been before. In fact, playing through Reach on “Heroic” felt a lot more like the difficulty of Halo: CE or even Halo 2 than Halo 3 or ODST. While I don’t remember being utterly stuck at any point, I definitely feel like I had a lot more back to back deaths this time around. Part of that was due to Reach’s reliance on Firefight arena style map sections where you’d need to defeat wave after wave of enemies before moving on. I know ODST is the game with the reputation for overusing this mechanic, but I honestly felt it more with Reach.

“Kat and I taking our new Revenant out for a spin.”

There were plenty of departures too. The aforementioned “armor abilities” were probably the biggest single change to the Halo formula. Replacing Halo 3’s equipment system, armor abilities allow the player to activate a single on-demand power, most governed by a recharging energy pool. These abilities are all over the place, from classics like active camouflage and the bubble shield, to seemingly simple ones like the ability to sprint or dodge roll. The biggest two additions are the jetpack, which is a little controversial but I’m personally a fan of hopping around all over the place like an idiot, and armor lock. Armor lock essentially makes the player totally invulnerable while on, while an EMP pulse charges and is unleashed once the lock is over. The player’s health and shields will also recharge as normal during the lock. In the campaign this could be useful for preventing big damage or doing an emergency recharge (although the enemy AI tends to simply stop and wait around for the armor lock to end, with feels a little stupid) but in multiplayer the ability to be invulnerable on-demand combined with the situationally usefulness of the EMP pulse altered the flow of fights in a way that many people thought was devastatingly overpowered.

Halo Reach only includes one new enemy, the barely noteworthy Skirmishers which come in several varieties, although all of the classic Covenant enemies have been re-tuned and come in several varieties themselves. Weapons wise, we have a lovely new battle rifle stand-in called the designated marksman rifle (DMR) and its Covenant equivalent, the needler rifle. There’s also a new grenade launcher and its rough match, the Covenant concussion rifle. There’s a few other new items, like Covenant focus rifle, plasma repeater, and plasma launcher, but as usual, nearly every weapon in the game has been adjusted. Reach’s additions to the vehicle inventory are even more conservative, with the new Covenant Revenant which is something like a mix between a Wraith and a Ghost, a fun new UNSC aircraft similar to the Hornet called the Falcon, and the new UNSC Sabre and Covenant Seraph fighters.

“Now do a barrel roll!”

Those new fighters are specific to what is probably the biggest new feature of the game, the space sections of the mission “Long Night of Solace”. In these sections you pilot the new Sabre fighter in what feels a little like the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron games or the more freeform Star Fox levels. While I thought those sections were an interesting addition to the already good amount of gameplay variety available in Halo campaigns, some people absolutely hated it. As a personal anecdote, every time Reach comes up in conversation with my brother, he always complains about this particular mission, claiming to have been stuck on this part of the campaign since 2010. Ha! The new Falcon also gets some dedicated time in “New Alexandria”. Beyond these sections, Reach features the typical selection of levels from on-foot corridor-running CQB sections, more open on-foot areas, sections reliant on running Warthogs and Scorpion tanks, and of course, most missions mix up all of these. There’s a lot of variety in the environmental aesthetics of these sections too. It all feels appropriately very Halo and about the only thing Halo: Reach is missing is another “Warthog Run” section.

There’s a lot more I could go into about Reach: the weird AI-centered sidestory found on the datapad pickups in the campaign, the numerous changes to multiplayer including an overhauled progression system and the new epic Invasion mode, bringing back Firefight for more co-op shenanigans, greatly expanded Forge and Theater modes, etc. It’s overall one a hell of a package, and a wonderful way for Bungie to wave goodbye to the series. Most importantly, the love Bungie put into it is obvious, and while it might not have the staying power as the mainline Master Chief installments of the series, it’s story was at least uniquely impactful.

“Kat is having a bad day.”

As with my last few entries, I’ll end by touching a bit on the awesome live action promotional content developed around Halo: Reach. There’s “Birth of a Spartan” which is a short that shows Carter-A259 being transformed from a young trainee into a SPARTAN-III and “Remember Reach” which depicts numerous citizens of Reach as they go about their normal lives, oblivious to the impending Covenant invasion. Neat but not essential. “Deliver Hope” on the other hand is absolutely essential! This live-action trailer shows NOBLE team in a battle to defend the colony Fumirole as they attempt to get a fusion bomb onto a Covenant battlecruiser to destroy it. Go watch it if you haven’t seen it!

I got so many amazing screenshots this time around, it really was quite an effort to not just replace all of this rambling with a huge image galley and drop the mic!

Halo Fest 2020 – Legends

It’s around this time that Halo really started to feel like a franchise. Sure, the games were huge, and we had all the usual swag that comes along with that: action figures, t-shirts, posters, etc. We’d also had a fair number of novels and comic books to further flesh out the Halo universe. There were even confirmed whispers of a Neill Blomkamp directed big Hollywood movie that Peter Jackson was to be heavily involved with producing circulating for a while. In terms of video games though, 2009 wasn’t only the year that gave us Halo Wars, but also the first spin-off game by Bungie themselves, Halo 3: ODST.

This was also the year that 343 Industries started releasing work related to its future takeover of the franchise (with Bungie set to leave after it fulfilled its contractual obligations with its next major title, Halo Reach.) Co-developed with long-time Halo contributors Certain Affinity, Halo Waypoint was (and despite changing a lot over the years, still is) the official community hub for the Halo franchise as a whole. While it wouldn’t immediately have all of the features we associate with it these days, like stat tracking and file sharing, it did launch with the now tradition of hosting some exclusive Halo content. In this case, some parts of the next 343 Industries project, Halo Legends, were dribbled out leading up to its home video release.

“Cal-141, always keeping an eye out…”

Halo Legends is a feature length anime anthology movie. The choice for this to be legitimate Japanese animation (produced by some very notable studios and directors) is definitely a little odd as Halo always felt very “western” to me, and, in aggregate, the Xbox has always done rather terribly in Japan. Perhaps Halo Legends was an attempt to win a few more Japanese fans, or maybe it was just aimed at the neckbeardiest of Halo fans who’d see their favorite video game franchise combined with anime as the absolute pinnacle of media. Personally, while I rarely watch any of it these days, I was a huge anime fan in the 90s, so the marriage of Halo and anime carried some appeal, even if I was already starting to tire of it by that point.

As an anthology, I think we need to look a little closer at each of the individual parts. I’ll try to make this quick and avoid any direct spoilers:

Origins I: Taking place after the events of Halo 3, Cortana tells a nice high-level summation of the background of the universe, focusing particularly on the Forerunners and the Flood. The animation of this part is some of the weakest in the entire anthology, which isn’t an amazing first impression, but as a Halo fan I really like how concisely the lore is presented here, especially considering that up until this point the Forerunners were always presented in the most enigmatic way possible. In comparison, this is practically an infodump. It was early into this episode that the music caught my attention, with some awesome use of familiar pieces from the series here and throughout the rest of Legends.

“The Duel can definitely be visually striking.”

Origins II: Cortana continues her narration, although her descent into rampancy is starting to show as she gets just a little ranty about humankind’s obsession with war as she describes it settling offworld and the colonial uprising, and its struggle against the Covenant and the Flood from the first three Halo games. Despite being by the same studio, suddenly the animation in this part is totally kicked up a notch into some beautiful old school anime goodness. In fact, I love the presentation of this entire part. That said, in a 180 from the first part, it’s the way the story is told that didn’t do as much for me, and I can’t be the only one who was caught off guard by the description of the UNSC and the Covenant making peace in order to defeat the Flood. Whaaaa…?

The Duel: The Duel tells the story of Fal, a Arbiter who rejects the Great Journey and is branded a heretic, culminating in a duel with a rival high ranking Elite. The animation style in this one is bizarre and, while not always easy to watch, is intriguing from an artistic point of view. My main beef with this part is how the Sangheili are straight-up depicted as feudal Japanese. While I’m sure it’s absolutely intentional, it’s so heavy handed that I can’t help but roll my eyes, with the portrayal of Fal’s wife being particularly cringy. As if that weren’t odd enough, the plot feels like it’s ripped straight from a classic samurai movie. Even still, the action is cool and I like the whole angle of the Prophets, dicks that they are, changing the Arbiter from a position of honor to a mark of shame just to spite the Sangheili.

“I’d definitely watch more of Spartan-1337’s antics.”

Homecoming: Spartan Daisy-023 has flashbacks to her time in the SPARTAN-II program while helping to evacuate UNSC forces from Harvest. The animation here is a bit more modern anime style; some great backgrounds while the rest is so-so. I’m not a fan of Daisy’s anime trope filled portrayal and the action scenes feel just a little generic, owing in large part to the animation, though I did find the theme of the trauma Daisy and her fellow Spartan trainees endured and its lingering connections to the present to be fairly compelling. Overall, it had potential, but ended up being kind of mediocre in execution.

Odd One Out: The only officially non-canon part of Legends, Odd One Out tells the story of Spartan-1337 getting stranded on a planet where he meets a handful of super powered children and is constantly harassed by dinosaurs, all before having to fight against The Covenant’s new secret super weapon, a giant ape creature (presumably some kind of super Brute) named Pluton. Man, this is some ridiculous anime bullshit… but wait! It’s intentionally ridiculous anime bullshit… and I love it! This episode is obviously a parody done for a bit of fun, and as such, can’t really be held to the same standards as the rest of Legends. Besides, how can you not love the braggadocious yet semi-incompetent Spartan-1337? Well, I guess some people don’t because this episode widely despised by fans who seem to be triggered by its very existence. Whatever. As a side note, I love the depiction of the use of Bubble Shields in this part.

“The Prototype: who doesn’t love some mecha action?!”

Prototype: A UNSC marine sergeant steals a heavily armed prototype armored suit to buy his men time to evacuate. This one feels very old school anime to me, from the animation and dark tone to all of the sweet mech suit action. The mech suit itself might seem a little silly, but if you think about what’s already established in lore (such as the Colossus from Halo Wars or even the Spartan’s Mjolnir power armor) and some of the things added in later games (most notably the Mantis) then I suppose it fits fine. This part is fun! Really, just an excuse to show a ton of Covenant getting mowed down. Certainly one of the most enjoyable parts of Legends, especially if you ignore the sloppy “Ghost” redemption part of the plot and focus on the action.

The Babysitter: A Spartan is attached to a group of ODST for a mission to covertly drop on a planet and assassinate a visiting Covenant Prophet. This is probably my favorite part of the bunch. Sure, I have some nitpicks, like the slow plodding movement of the Spartan when not gracefully backflipping around, and the usual anime tropes (the whiny-ass ODST O’Brien, who acts more like an angsty teenager than a professional soldier, even one with an out of check ego and a chip on his shoulder, is especially annoying) but overall, the animation and overall direction was quite good, the action was cool, the story was simple but effective, and I enjoyed its grittier elements and all of the little details. I also like that, unlike Daisy-023 in Homecoming, Cal-141 is a total brick shithouse of a badass Spartan. Oh, and yes, that is supposed to be the same Dutch from Halo 3: ODST!

“Master Chief and Kelly-087 running and gunning.”

The Package: A squad of SPARTAN-IIs is dispatched on a special mission to infiltrate a Covenant ship and retrieve “the package”. Where to start with this one? First of all, the animation style of this episode is total 2000s CGI. It’s stiff in places but, I have to say, all in all has aged pretty decently, owing largely to some extra attention to detail and polish given to it. It’s fine. The story, however, feels a bit like bad fan fiction. First, while some of the other parts included cameos from Master Chief, this is the first one to feature him. Add in that some of the action here is way over the top: Darting around space in their silly “booster frames”, rockets snaking all over the place Macross style, successfully infiltrating multiple Covenant ships, backflipping around while dual wielding SMGs, etc. A squad of 5 Spartans is nothing to sneeze at, I grant you, but taking on an entire fleet? It’s a total power fantasy, although I will at least grant them that it wasn’t done without sustaining a cost which, speaking of power fantasies, is one of the main reasons I’ve seen online that other Halo fans bash this part. Come on guys, Spartans aren’t supposed to be invincible! Oh, and Dr. Halsey’s depiction is eye rolling too. That said, while this part isn’t my favorite, it’s plenty of fun if you don’t think about it too hard.

There were no doubt some good parts and amazing moments in Halo Legends. Overall though, Legends doesn’t quite impress me as a single, cohesive package. I get the impression that a lot of fans and critics alike felt the same way. It wasn’t some massive flop, but it also isn’t widely considered an essential piece of the franchise either. I think it being such an overt “anthology” with relatively little connecting each part outside of the general theme of “Halo” has a lot to do with that. That is, the topic of which parts are best and worst and why is incredibly divisive across the fanbase. Some people hate anything that deviates from the headcanon they’ve assembled while others nitpick specific scenes and portrayals, just as I’ve done here. Regardless of how it ultimately sits with you, I have little doubt that it’s worth watching if you’re a Halo fan who hasn’t seen it, and sadly, I get the impression that a lot of the younger Halo fans around these days have never even heard of Halo Legends.

For completion’s sake I also wanted to quickly mentioned “Apt. 117” which was a comedic animated series released on Waypoint later on in 2010 and cancelled after only one episode. It has nothing to do with the Halo canon but is instead about a Halo obsessed gamer and his perpetually annoyed roommate. Bizarre!

Halo Fest 2020 – ODST

When Halo 3: ODST was shown at E3 2009 I wasted no time preordering it, though I did have some minor reservations. I mean, the game was essentially a standalone expansion pack for Halo 3, a game which reasonably wrapped up the trilogy, and this game wouldn’t even feature the iconic Master Chief! Halo 3 was also 2 years old at this point, despite the undeniable staying power of its excellent multiplayer. Still, the reviews ended up being absolutely glowing, with the biggest criticism being the sticker price. Today ODST is still as celebrated for the interesting deviations it made from the core series as it was at release. On top of everything I’ll go into below, I also fondly look back on it for first introducing the “Firefight” gamemode, a “Horde mode” like cooperative wave survival mode that my brother became particularly enamored with.

Over 10 years later, I was able to easily play Halo 3: ODST again as part of the Master Chief Collection on my Xbox Series X. As with Halo 3’s MCC port, ODST didn’t receive the ridiculously thorough remaster treatment of the Halo: CE and Halo 2 anniversary editions, but the fact that it still looks so stunning today with little more than some upscaling speaks volumes about Bungie’s expertise. They were clearly at the top of their game with Halo 3: ODST, and it ages even better than Halo 3 as a result.

“The boys!”

Since so many of ODST’s gameplay elements are related to its story, and this is a side story taking place out of chronological order from the main series anyway, I’ll start by recapping the plot. Unlike Halo Wars, which took place before the events depicted in the main Halo games and has little direct relation to their plots, Halo 3: ODST actually takes place during events depicted in Halo 2. Aside from that, it is still very much its own story, however, and while I’m fairly vague in these plot summaries they absolutely do still contain spoilers, so skip the next paragraph if you want to avoid spoilage.

The Story: Breaching Earth’s defenses, the Prophet of Regret’s carrier has taken up position over New Mombasa while Covenant forces terrorize the city streets below. In a desperate move that could help turn the tide of the war, multiple squads of the UNSC’s elite Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs) are ordered to drop onto the ship and capture the Covenant leader. ODST fireteam Alpha-9, led by Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck, is attached to Office of Naval Intelligence officer Captain Veronica Dare for the assault. As the fireteam prepares to drop, Capt. Dare unexpectedly orders them to adjust their drop locations to land in the city instead. As they drop, Regret’s ship performs a surprise low orbit slipspace jump, resulting in a destructive shockwave that sends the fireteam’s drop pods wildly off course. The members of Alpha-9, now completely scattered, individually make their ways through the wreckage of the Covenant occupied mega-city to regroup. One of the members of the fireteam, picking up Dare’s radio signal and subtly guided by Vergil, the city’s Superintendent AI, locates Capt. Dare as she attempts to infiltrate the city’s underground data center. Upon reaching the data center’s core, Dare reveals the true purpose of her mission: to secure the Superintendent AI. The pair quickly discover that the Superintendent AI has been taken over by a Covenant defector. This Huragok, a rarely encountered species of alien dubbed “Engineers” which the Covenant use as biological supercomputers, could be extremely valuable in learning the purpose of Regret’s attack. Escorting this renegade Engineer back up to the surface and fending off multiple Covenant attacks along the way, they eventually meet up with Buck and the rest of his fireteam and make a hasty escape from the city.

“Holding out against a ton of Covenant air with nothing but a huge pile of heavy weapons.”

Structurally, ODST plays unlike any other Halo game. You initially assume the role of the new member of the fireteam referred to as “the Rookie”. By the time the Rookie wakes up after his violent landing quite a few hours have passed and you’re tasked with wandering the dark, deserted streets of New Mombasa searching for signs of what happened to the rest of Alpha-9. Each of the clues you find results in a flashback mission switching you from your silent protagonist to one of his much more developed (and talkative) squadmates. These missions are structured more like your typical Halo mission and, taking place in different areas and at different times, allow Bungie to really mix up the scenery and the action. Once a mission is complete, you’re sent back to rejoin the Rookie in New Mombasa, with these sections ultimately functioning as something of an abstracted hub area. Very cool.

“The Rookie surveying the New Mombasa streets.”

The New Mombasa streets area has a couple of other interesting tricks up its sleeve. First, the expansive map is more or less wide open. While you’re guided to the location of each subsequent clue, it’s only by a waypoint, and there will be multiple ways to reach it. You’ll probably end up taking different routes whether you want to or not, as navigating the maze-like city streets isn’t easy, often requiring the use of the in-game map. Along the way you can choose whether to engage the Covenant patrols you encounter or attempt to sneak around them entirely. You can even find the aforementioned clues and play their associated missions totally out of order if you want to.

More importantly, these New Mombasa sections have an absolutely unique tone. As the Rookie, you’re all alone in the dark, rainy city streets. Remnants of the day’s earlier conflict surround you: ruined buildings, destroyed vehicles, and dead UNSC and Covenant soldiers alike. It conjures a lonely, bleak feeling. The Superintendent AI’s poltergeist-like attempts to guide you only add a further creepy layer to this. There’s also something of a light survival feel to these sections, as ammo is scarce; your UNSC weapons will probably be depleted after your first few encounters, forcing you to scrounge for Covenant weapons and ammo. The pacing is altered by all of this too. In the proceeding Halo games you’re shuffled from mission to mission with an urgency that is, I suppose, appropriate to the epic task at hand. You know, saving the planet and whatnot. In the New Mombasa streets, however, there is no such urgency. You’re just one person, completely isolated. It all feels very grounded and very personal.

“A squadron of Banshees fly by the remains of the space elevator.”

The graphics and sound are a large component of why this all works. The lighting and shading certainly conjure a particular mood, but with ODST’s soundtrack they’ve incorporated a greatly expanded variety of different musical influences, from the more traditional Halo sounding orchestral tracks and electronic ambiance to smoky jazz-inspired, piano and saxophone laden pieces that sell the game’s intentionally film noir vibe. Halo has always had extremely strong soundwork, but ODST is really something else entirely. Anyone who thinks Marty O’Donnell is a one trick pony really needs to stop what they’re doing and go give the ODST soundtrack a listen. Right now!

Gameplay wise, Halo 3: ODST is built directly on top of Halo 3 and plays more or less the same, but it’s hard to mark the game down for that. I mean, that is one damn fine foundation. Some of the few differences between the two games relate to the fact that you’re not playing a literal supersoldier like Master Chief. I recall Bungie making statements before ODST’s release that perhaps oversold that just a little; that as a normal human, you’d be weaker and less capable and that suddenly even the previously laughable grunts would be fearsome opponents. That sort of thing. Instead, there is another new health system, this one feeling similar to Halo: CE’s with a shield-like recharging “stamina” layer and a core health pool that is only refilled with health packs. Unlike Halo: CE, however, these health packs are relatively plentiful. There’s also no hijacking vehicles, no dual wielding, no use of Halo 3’s special equipment, and no radar.

“New Mombasa Streets: VISR off.”

“New Mombasa Streets: VISR on.”

Bungie giveth as well. As an ODST your standard armaments are a new silenced version of the submachine gun and, something of a throwback to Halo: CE, a lovely new silenced magnum pistol. There’s also the VISR mode which serves as both a sort of night vision and also highlights friendlies, enemies, and certain objects with a thin colored outline on your HUD. The only negative to VSIR mode is that there’s no real reason to ever turn it off, and leaving it on means seeing only one, lesser version of the game’s lighting.

The VISR mode’s ability to highlight objects is key to ODST’s single collectible system: audio logs. Similar to the terminals of previous games, these logs are hidden throughout the New Mombasa streets. Interestingly, rather than typical voice memo type recordings, these are audio and still images recorded from security systems scattered around the city and tell the story of a single character, Sadie, and her attempt to meet up with her father as the fighting erupts. This story links directly into ODST’s overall plot, giving some insight into the Vergil AI and its fate. While I remember liking these audio logs, I could barely stand them this time around. The script feels unnatural and the voice acting and sound effects come across like a old time radio play. Sadie’s main nemesis in the story, the city’s police commissioner, is a particularly ridiculous mustache twirling villain stereotype that I just couldn’t take seriously.

At least that’s not an issue the campaign has! The voice cast is excellent, with notable TV actors including several of the core cast of Firefly with Nathan Fillion, who Buck is both voiced by and modeled after, and Battlestar Galactica’s Number Six, Tricia Helfer, voicing Veronica Dare. Say what you will about Buck’s sarcastic attitude or he and Dare’s relationship issues, but in the brief time we spend with these characters they express a lot more personality than we ever got from Master Chief, and the strong cast only helps that.

“Dutch’s level is a total throwback to previous games.”

I beat the game on “Heroic” difficulty, and even with the aforementioned lack of ammo and other constraints I found it to be one of the easiest campaigns so far. That’s not to say there weren’t some intense moments. The first time I ran into a Hunter I struggled like hell to take him down, depleting all of my grenades and most of my ammo in the process, only to have his buddy saunter into the room just as I was catching my breath. Sheer panic. There was also a lot more variety in the action than I’d remembered, with missions featuring a tank section, a wide open Warthog-centric level, some Banshee flying including a unique Scarab fight, and even yet another Warthog run-like level towards the end of the game. Even with its relatively short length, there’s definitely enough to make it feel like a full Halo game. While a part of me does have to wonder if you had to have played the previous games in the franchise to really appreciate it to its full extent, I personally think Halo 3: ODST is something of a masterpiece and is easily one of the strongest games in the series.

“We are ODST!”

Just a quick footnote, but similar to Halo 3’s “Landfall”, ODST’s considerable promotion efforts included the absolutely awesome The Life. This live-action short shows the journey of an ODST from a young recruit to a battle hardened veteran. Compelling and absolutely worth a quick watch if you’re a Halo fan and haven’t seen it!