Thought you’d finished the fight? Think again!

Platform: X360

Developer: Bungie

Millions of pubescent Americans creamed themselves in ecstasy at the news that Halo 3was not going to be the last game in the series. You know the ones…the irritating fourteen year olds that are a little too good with a battle rifle and have Gamertags consisting almost entirely of leetspeak. Things looked bleak for Master Chief and pals for a little while: there were reports of acrimonious bickering between Bungie and Microsoft, and whilst Halo Wars proved to be an accessibly fun-if-shallow exercise in Covenant battling real time strategy many fans were left wondering if there would ever be another opportunity to clad themselves in MJOLNIR armour and bust the balls of many a Brute. But then suddenly joyous news broke: Microsoft and Bungie were friends again and they were making not one ’sequel’ but TWO….there were tears; millions of Xbox fanboys slept stickily happy once again, and millions of PS3 advocates cried, hunched in dark corners. As many will already know (having jumped on all the latest news quicker than a fat kid on a cupcake), Halo 3: ODST was originally intended to merely be an expansion pack – cheap, downloadable, and probably largely forgettable. Instead it’s full price, comes with two discs, and in spite of Mr. Chief being completely absent, it might just be better than its big brother.

The first thing that ODSTnails is the single player. The campaign, six to eight hours long depending on difficulty, is a bit on the short side perhaps, but it is probably the best single player experience of the entire series. ‘Whoa there Broseph!’ I hear you say. But it’s not such a tall claim, and I’m literally talking about the just the single-player experience. ‘The Halo franchise has always been that much more fun with a friend, sometimes to the detriment of the single player experience – much of Halo 3 for example anticipates a buddy at your side pretty much most of the time. But ODST’s single player campaign is just that: an actual single player campaign. The story is excellent – focusing on a squad of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (the titular ODSTs) all scattered after their drop in and around the large African megacity of New Mombasa. You start behind the visor of The Rookie, six hours after the drop, stealthily moving through the midnight metropolis looking for clues as to your squadmates whereabouts. With every clue you find comes a flashback where you get to slip into the shoes of each ODST – a simple but well implemented device that allows for variation in locales, setpieces and weaponry. Whether you’re a dab hand with the sniper rifle or Missile Pod, prefer romping about in a Banshee or are looking for some scorching Scorpion tank action, it’s all here and it’s all good. There are some differences, being normal human beings rather than a genetically bred super soldier means a few things have changed: there’s no dual wielding and no Battle Rifle, but the epic Magnum from Halo: Combat Evolved makes a nice revamped return, and the new silenced, scoped SMG is a very useful weapon indeed. Additionally, no crazy armour means no crazy shields: health packs are back baby, and you will need them; but there are self-service medical kiosks dotted around New Mombasa so that’s ok. You have a small level of shielding (or stamina as the game calls it), but don’t expect to go charging headlong into Covenant fire with expectations of walking away.

Perhaps the best little addition for the main campaign is the new VISR (read: night-vision) interface. Perfect for those tense firefights in the shadowy depths of the city, it proves both visually arresting and rather useful – outlining hostiles in red, friendlies in green, and objects of interest in bright swathes of yellow. In amongst those objects of interest you’ll discover audio logs that tell the story of a young woman and her father desperately trying to make sense of the attack and raising questions about the Covenant attack and the nature of The Superintendent – the massive computer network that runs New Mombasa. They’re interesting, certainly; but to be honest they became a bit too much of a distraction from the moody saxophone tinged noir soundtrack that invaded my head as I navigated the city streets as The Rookie. The atmosphere in ODST is excellent, and aside from the impressive visuals, it is helped by a magnificent score. Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori’s new score is less Hans Zimmer Gladiator-esque this time round and much more atmospheric. The drums kick in when you’d expect them to at suitably epic moments but the real revelation is just how well the mood is maintained during those noirish moments when playing as The Rookie, occasionally recalling another Ridley Scott classic: Blade Runner.

Most importantly, and this is why ODST might lay claim to having the best single player campaign of the series, there is no duff level. At no point do you find yourself bored or irritated: Bungie might have made a slightly short game, but it’s certainly a case of quality over quantity. Part of this is down to the lack of the Flood, and thankfully at no point do you have to trawl through the Gravemind’s colon listening to him reeling off endless reams of crap poetry. Halo always seems to get mentioned in sentences along with the word ‘cinematic’, but it is in this little gem of a game that this most perfectly realised. Now admittedly, the thought of a Firefly voiceover circle-jerk thrills me, but all of the voice acting is incredibly well done (Molyneux take note!) and the script itself is incredibly well written; it’s surprising just how much that one area can raise a game. Everything is so tightly executed and perfectly paced that the single player experience proves not just fun – the series has always been fun – but more immersive than it has ever been.

But yeah, it is a bit on the short side. That said, Bungie – aside from bundling in all of the Halo 3 multiplayer maps including Mythic (which won’t get reviewed here) on a second disc – have also designed a killer new multiplayer mode: Firefight. Put simply you and a bunch of mates hunker down as waves upon waves of Covenant try and splatter your brains out. Sound familiar? Well it’s basically a carbon copy of Gears of War 2’s horde mode, but with a gaggle of Brute Chieftains every five rounds. There’s the odd vehicle level that provides a very nice change of pace indeed, but for the most part it’s all a case of trigger happy, intense, ‘last bastion of humanity’, claustrophobic fun. It does a terrific job of putting you in the shoes of Mankind’s last hope and then throwing the kitchen sink at you, and is suitably draining and exhausting. And awesome. Enjoy with several mates over Live and have some beers while you’re at it. The co-operative nature of Firefight should help to coax back many casual Halo fans who jumped ship as the online multiplayer became overrun by pimply-faced, jargon-spouting cocks, and teamwork is utterly necessary so get prepared to crack out that headset.

It is here that the casual gamer will find his or her most satisfaction, although plans to play five minutes usually end up extending to an hour or two. But the casual gamer should make ODST their first port of call into the world of Halo precisely because it’s the most fully realised and complete package. The famous multiplayer is virtually unchanged, but the single player and new Firefight modes are so well crafted that you owe it to yourself to check this game out on its own merits regardless of the Halo tag. Ignore the naysayers moaning about the price point, if you’re a Halo fan then you need this game, if only to see what Bungie are like at their most focused and concentrated; and if you’re a newbie, this is probably now the best place to start. There are flaws, but most of them start and end with how you can get away with bundling two-year-old material in with a new game. But Halo 3’s multiplayer is still arguably the best FPS multiplayer experience out there, and Firefight just made it better. Don’t get me wrong, it might be nice to see some actual squad-based gameplay in the future, and Bungie could certainly have pushed a little further afield if they’d wanted to; but in the end ODST ticks all the right boxes, does exactly what it says on the tin, and proves to be great fun. Move over Master Chief, the boys are back in town.

The Short Version: Bungie finally nails the single player in a campaign that’s moody, perfectly paced and wonderfully presented. With an all-inclusive, if largely unchanged, multiplayer boosted by the new Firefight mode backing it up, Halo 3: ODST should be a must-have game for any Halo fan, casual or otherwise. Cue multiplayer marathons and the consumption of many, many beers.

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