Worst Halo Yet – Halo 3 ODST Review
Background:
Halo 3 ODST is a spin-off to the extremely successful Halo franchise. It has you play the roll of an elite group of soldiers known as ODST or Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. Gameplay wise playing as ODST is almost the same as playing as Spartans but there are a few changes here and there.
Story:
ODST’s Campaign has you playing as two different groups, the first group you play as is basically following the second groups footsteps. Your objective is to find out what happened and how. Other than that there isn’t too much going on (at least nothing I noticed as a casual gamer playing through the game), I didn’t make it too far through the campaign while testing the game out so I’m not sure if it got any more serious or in-depth. Moving on.
Gameplay:
Controls-wise ODST doesn’t play any different than Halo 3 which isn’t a problem thanks to the game featuring amazing controls. Playing as ODST’s on the other hand has its ups and downs. For starters your health doesn’t regenerate, so if your under heavy fire ducking under some barriers won’t do any good for your health. Instead there are health packs laid throughout the game maps. On the plus side though ODST’s are given a “VISR” camera which can be toggled with the X-Button. What it does is it outlines terrain and game objects making it easy to spot enemies, weapons, and various other items, as well as the ability to see in dark areas. Another downside would be ODST’s cannot dual-wield weapons.
Graphics:
Halo’s dev-team has never really done a good job with character design and that is something I would have hoped would have improved in ODST but alas it was the same. The idea was to give the soldiers more in-depth stories but I wish they would have put more effort into character models too.
For the most part though ODST is identical to Halo 3 in the graphics department. The only difference I noticed was that lighting was tweaked for a more “HD” look, as well as bloom effects. I don’t know why developers think bloom makes HD, but it sure does look pretty so I’m not complaining.
Soundtrack:
This games soundtrack is surprisingly great, I really enjoyed all the original music on it. It sounds nothing like Halo has before and as far as I know it is completely original. Background themes sound great and a personal favorite theme of mine would be the music that plays at night in Mombasa City.
Overall:
In the end ODST is not much of an upgrade from Halo 3 as Halo 3 was not much of an upgrade from Halo 2. However when it comes to a game as good as Halo 2, or 3 there isn’t much you can do to make it better besides graphical tweaks here and there and control changes. Which is why I’m not going to give ODST a perfect score because to me all it is; is an additional campaign to Halo 3. This should have been released as an expansion rather than it’s own game. I’m a big fan of Halo but this game was not entertaining at all.
I mean it when I say Halo 3 ODST is the worst Halo I have ever played, in fact it’s on my list of huge disappointments and over-hyped games as well. For shame Bungie, for shame.
