Review: Halo 3: ODST

It’s been about two years since Halo 3 came out and since then Halo fans have been waiting for a new installment in the franchise. Halo Wars came out but lacked the traditional gameplay instead focusing on an RTS scheme. But now Halo 3: ODST has come out and it is everything that Halo fans have been waiting for.

ODST comes with two discs; on the first one is the campaign mode and the brand new firefight mode. The campaign follows a group of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODST’s) scattered in New Mombasa during the Covenant invasion just before Halo 3 begins. You are a nameless, faceless rookie who is attempting to figure out what happened to the squad and try to regroup. Along the way you will come across beacons where other ODST’s have been and you will find an object that will trigger a “flashback” of sorts (it is a flashback of the memories of the other ODST’s not you) then you will play as that trooper so you play as most of the squad at one point or another.

The gameplay is varied and is slightly different than Halo 1,2, and 3 because you are no longer the Master Chief. You will have to be a little more strategic and killing enemies is harder. You don’t jump as high or run as fast and this adds a terrific element to the game, it reinforces the character change. You can still board enemy vehicles and carry turrets so it keeps the popular features while adding some new weapons and equipment. You will initially have a scoped and silenced SMG and a pistol that is similar to the Halo1 pistol with the zoom mode. All of the familiar covenant weaponry is there too so Halo fans will be at home with the weaponry.

The game also features a new Visor mode that outlines enemies in red and allies in green, it also shows key locales and acts as night vision. But this does have a downside; the goggles make it hard to see if you are playing a level during the day. The “X” button toggles the goggles on and off. There are health pickups like the other games and most of the gameplay and features are the same. You will drive a variety of vehicles and fire a variety of weapons. There are weapons caches throughout the map that will show up on your map.

The game’s campaign is good but a lot of the replay value will come from the new firefight mode. This mode allows you and three friends to battle waves of covenant foes ala Horde mode in Gears 2. You get points for destroying enemies and enemy vehicles, you are given 7 lives and if you pass a wave you get an additional life. You can play this mode online or local however if you want to play online there is no matchmaking so you need to invite friends to a game and this is disappointing. The mode is great and challenging, classic Halo fun.

The second disc includes Halo 3 multiplayer modes, matchmaking, custom games, and forge mode. The disc comes with all map packs including the Mythic map pack and this allows the player to play any multiplayer game. The game is basically Halo 3 without the campaign mode. This is good for someone like me who never got around to downloading the map packs and couldn’t play certain game types.

The game is a great addition to the Halo franchise and hopefully Halo: Reach will be like this. With a fun single player campaign and awesome multiplayer modes this game is a must have for any Halo fan. I would highly recommend.

Gameplay: 10

Story: 9

Replay Value: 10

Graphics: 9

Overall: 9.5

Review: Mass Effect DLC-Pinnacle Station

The second piece of DLC for Bioware’s Mass Effect is entitled Pinnacle Station and is a nice change of pace from the main game. The basic idea is that Commander Shepard is invited to an elite training facility called “Pinnacle Station” run by Admiral Ahern of the Alliance. The station is simply a large simulator that allows you to play four different combat modes over three different maps for each mode.
The combat modes are straight forward; survival has you and your squad trying to survive as long as possible, it is time based not wave based like Horde mode in Gears 2. Capture has you and your team capturing 3 points around the map and the quicker you do it the better your score. Time Trial has you eliminating all of the enemies on the map as quickly as possible. The last mode is hunt, you gain time for every enemy you kill and you are trying to kill as many as possible before the timer runs out.
The maps are mostly based on locales from the main story of the game; there is the underground section of Liara’s dig site, a section of Virmire, a warehouse similar to the enemy bases in the main game, and the only unique map, a volcanic setting. You are competing against the best scores of the other combatants on the station but their scores are usually pretty easy to beat. There isn’t much in terms of story to the DLC but it offers a nice combat simulator that caters to replay value and you can try to topple your own best scores so it’s fun.
It has been criticized for being very different from the main game because it doesn’t add any new alien species (like Bring Down the Sky did) and it didn’t add any new worlds, just a space station, but I think that it brought a nice combat element to the game that allowed the good combat system to shine. Most RPG’s don’t have traditional shooter elements like Mass Effect does and this allows the game to pull off a piece of DLC like this. Overall it wasn’t a bad piece of DLC and it’s fun for what it is, 800 MS points isn’t a bad price so I would recommend this to Mass Effect fans.