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Halo 3: ODST Single-player Campaign
September 18, 2009 | 5:25 PM PST
Desperate times call for desperate measures. The Covenant armada is parked on Earth's doorstep with nasty intentions and the only person with half a chance of turning them back, a quiet fellow covered in green armor that goes by the name of Master Chief, just hopped on the first slip-stream jump out of the galaxy. The only thing keeping the human race from getting wiped off the pages of history by the time the Chief gets back is the UNSC's regiment of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers or ODSTs, elite infantry units that are trained and equipped for only the most intense combat zones and the craziest of suicide missions. I recently had the chance to fight my way through a collection of such suicide missions in the single-player campaign for Halo 3: ODST, and came away with two major reactions. Master Chief is a huge wuss, and I miss my battle-rifle.
Ok, maybe 'huge wuss' is a little out of line since Master Chief routinely faces down overwhelming odds in a stoic and selfless fashion, not to mention saved the world a few times. That being said, I'd like to see him try and take on even a fraction of those odds without his nice, cozy MJOLNIR armor. None of the shock troopers that you'll play as in ODST get to hide behind the safety blanket of infinitely recharging shields, a motion-sensor imbedded into their HUD or a battle-suit that soaks up massive amounts of the damage being thrown at them. My first thought playing ODST (on Herioc, my preferred setting for every Halo) was 'Damn, this is ****ing hard!' I was getting gunned down by groups of grunts and their single Brute escorts in the opening minutes of the game. I had an internal clock that came from my previous Halo experience, a sense of how long I could last under fire before I had to retreat, how much firepower I have to put into a grunt before a melee will put it down, and it constantly betrayed me here.
If you play Halo 3: ODST like you played through Halo 3, a thoughtful but forceful push forward through every combat scenario, you will die quickly and repeatedly. The steady march forward, tossing grenades from afar to damage a group, picking off the weakened enemies with assault-rifle fire as I closed in to finish the fight with the bigger, meaner enemies with my battle-rifle or shotgun, it was useless here. Now I had to be sneaky. I had to save my grenades for when my cover was already blown, I had to pick off the weak quietly from the dark with my new silenced weapons as I circled like a shark. I had to bypass groups of enemies entirely, cut through a building and ambush them from behind where a well placed sticky grenade would take-out their leader and leave me to clean of the dregs, hopefully without alerting any other nearby patrols. If I did manage to alert the other patrols to my shenanigans, retreating and reacquiring the enemies from another direction was always the best option. As the game progresses the battles gradually get bigger and the combat falls more in line with that in Halo 3, but by that point you'll be fighting with a few friends alongside you, and if you're the social type they can even be player-controlled.
My only issue with the combat in ODST is the lack of a few items. The first one is the battle-rifle. Its exclusion from ODST feels like an attempt to validate the new pistol and SMG, both of which feature a 2x zoom. The problem is, neither of those weapons is particularly effective at taking out Brute units, especially the more dangerous, armored variety. So while the game mechanics encourage you to keep your distance, pick off members of the attack party and stay in the shadows, the weapons offered for mid-range attacks don't feel as up to the task as the good old battle-rifle. The fact that it's not silenced would have been more than enough to differentiate it from the new weapons and give it a place, since players would have to be smart about deciding when to let that loud, chunky three-shot-burst ring out into the city streets. More perplexing is the lack of equipment, the presence of which would make perfect sense from both a gameplay and narrative perspective. The ODSTS are more vulnerable than Master Chief, so it makes sense that they would be forced to utilize items to even the playing field. Instead, the Brutes that already outpower you get to use them, but you don't. Adding those items into play would make the street-level guerrilla combat in ODST even more tactical and nail-biting than it already is. It's not as though the 360 controller is hurting for buttons. Yes, the X button is now used for the ODST's nifty VISR, but the left bumper is now basically useless since ODSTs cant dual-wield weapons.
ODST doesn't just separate itself from Halo 3 proper with its combat mechanics though, it's also Bungie's first stab at open-ended world design, with the futuristic city of New Mombasa serving as a giant HUB city for players to explore. The same futuristic Earth location that players did battle in and around during portions of Halo 2 and Halo 3, New Mombasa finally feels like the significant, poignant location that Bungie has been trying to position it as for years. In the last two Halo titles the city felt soulless and non-descript, like I could have been fighting in front of any city on any planet in any future setting. Now New Mombasa feels like it has character, like it has a soul, like people have lived in its streets and made it their home. Now the fact that the city is ruined -- with wreckage and fire littering the streets along with the graffiti from terrified citizens – actually gives pause. Now exploring this place actually feels fun. You'll explore most of the giant city at night while you're filling 'The Rookie's boots, the pitch-darkness punctured by stabs of neon-light from street signs and billboards, many of which are used by an AI program called the Superintendent to point you to the next objective. Between the dark hues, the neon light and the misty weather, New Mombasa gives off a decidedly Blade Runner vibe. The new saxophone-infused soundtrack doesn't hurt either.
As you explore the city you'll encounter clues to the location and activities of the jump-mates you lost touch with during the game's opening cinema, each of which will transport you into the VISR of one of those characters for a mission's worth of mayhem. I won't ruin any of storyline or objectives for you, I'll simply say that Halo 3: ODST is easily the best and most human storyline Bungie has ever written. By distancing themselves from the grandiose narrative of Master Chief saving the universe from ancient technology and religious aliens, and focusing instead on the horrors and camaraderie experienced by the men on the ground, they crafted the most intimate and human storyline in the entire Halo series. The way it unravels, through flashbacks that you uncover, is just icing on the cake. Even multiplayer-focused Halo fans should be able to appreciate what it brings to the table…and if not, well, there's always Firefight. The cooperative multiplayer mode hasn't changed much since its appearance at E3, and it's still poised to destroying hundreds of thousands of hours worth of productivity over the next few months. It's already biting into Ken's work schedule, but he should still be able to get the review up sometime in the next few days, before falling out of contact for good. In the mean-time, practice your headshots.
Ok, maybe 'huge wuss' is a little out of line since Master Chief routinely faces down overwhelming odds in a stoic and selfless fashion, not to mention saved the world a few times. That being said, I'd like to see him try and take on even a fraction of those odds without his nice, cozy MJOLNIR armor. None of the shock troopers that you'll play as in ODST get to hide behind the safety blanket of infinitely recharging shields, a motion-sensor imbedded into their HUD or a battle-suit that soaks up massive amounts of the damage being thrown at them. My first thought playing ODST (on Herioc, my preferred setting for every Halo) was 'Damn, this is ****ing hard!' I was getting gunned down by groups of grunts and their single Brute escorts in the opening minutes of the game. I had an internal clock that came from my previous Halo experience, a sense of how long I could last under fire before I had to retreat, how much firepower I have to put into a grunt before a melee will put it down, and it constantly betrayed me here.
If you play Halo 3: ODST like you played through Halo 3, a thoughtful but forceful push forward through every combat scenario, you will die quickly and repeatedly. The steady march forward, tossing grenades from afar to damage a group, picking off the weakened enemies with assault-rifle fire as I closed in to finish the fight with the bigger, meaner enemies with my battle-rifle or shotgun, it was useless here. Now I had to be sneaky. I had to save my grenades for when my cover was already blown, I had to pick off the weak quietly from the dark with my new silenced weapons as I circled like a shark. I had to bypass groups of enemies entirely, cut through a building and ambush them from behind where a well placed sticky grenade would take-out their leader and leave me to clean of the dregs, hopefully without alerting any other nearby patrols. If I did manage to alert the other patrols to my shenanigans, retreating and reacquiring the enemies from another direction was always the best option. As the game progresses the battles gradually get bigger and the combat falls more in line with that in Halo 3, but by that point you'll be fighting with a few friends alongside you, and if you're the social type they can even be player-controlled.
My only issue with the combat in ODST is the lack of a few items. The first one is the battle-rifle. Its exclusion from ODST feels like an attempt to validate the new pistol and SMG, both of which feature a 2x zoom. The problem is, neither of those weapons is particularly effective at taking out Brute units, especially the more dangerous, armored variety. So while the game mechanics encourage you to keep your distance, pick off members of the attack party and stay in the shadows, the weapons offered for mid-range attacks don't feel as up to the task as the good old battle-rifle. The fact that it's not silenced would have been more than enough to differentiate it from the new weapons and give it a place, since players would have to be smart about deciding when to let that loud, chunky three-shot-burst ring out into the city streets. More perplexing is the lack of equipment, the presence of which would make perfect sense from both a gameplay and narrative perspective. The ODSTS are more vulnerable than Master Chief, so it makes sense that they would be forced to utilize items to even the playing field. Instead, the Brutes that already outpower you get to use them, but you don't. Adding those items into play would make the street-level guerrilla combat in ODST even more tactical and nail-biting than it already is. It's not as though the 360 controller is hurting for buttons. Yes, the X button is now used for the ODST's nifty VISR, but the left bumper is now basically useless since ODSTs cant dual-wield weapons.
ODST doesn't just separate itself from Halo 3 proper with its combat mechanics though, it's also Bungie's first stab at open-ended world design, with the futuristic city of New Mombasa serving as a giant HUB city for players to explore. The same futuristic Earth location that players did battle in and around during portions of Halo 2 and Halo 3, New Mombasa finally feels like the significant, poignant location that Bungie has been trying to position it as for years. In the last two Halo titles the city felt soulless and non-descript, like I could have been fighting in front of any city on any planet in any future setting. Now New Mombasa feels like it has character, like it has a soul, like people have lived in its streets and made it their home. Now the fact that the city is ruined -- with wreckage and fire littering the streets along with the graffiti from terrified citizens – actually gives pause. Now exploring this place actually feels fun. You'll explore most of the giant city at night while you're filling 'The Rookie's boots, the pitch-darkness punctured by stabs of neon-light from street signs and billboards, many of which are used by an AI program called the Superintendent to point you to the next objective. Between the dark hues, the neon light and the misty weather, New Mombasa gives off a decidedly Blade Runner vibe. The new saxophone-infused soundtrack doesn't hurt either.
As you explore the city you'll encounter clues to the location and activities of the jump-mates you lost touch with during the game's opening cinema, each of which will transport you into the VISR of one of those characters for a mission's worth of mayhem. I won't ruin any of storyline or objectives for you, I'll simply say that Halo 3: ODST is easily the best and most human storyline Bungie has ever written. By distancing themselves from the grandiose narrative of Master Chief saving the universe from ancient technology and religious aliens, and focusing instead on the horrors and camaraderie experienced by the men on the ground, they crafted the most intimate and human storyline in the entire Halo series. The way it unravels, through flashbacks that you uncover, is just icing on the cake. Even multiplayer-focused Halo fans should be able to appreciate what it brings to the table…and if not, well, there's always Firefight. The cooperative multiplayer mode hasn't changed much since its appearance at E3, and it's still poised to destroying hundreds of thousands of hours worth of productivity over the next few months. It's already biting into Ken's work schedule, but he should still be able to get the review up sometime in the next few days, before falling out of contact for good. In the mean-time, practice your headshots.
November 20, 2009
