This review is from my blog found here: http://t0ny89.wordpress.com
Halo 3 ODST
Platform: X Box 360
Developer: Bungie Software
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
ESRB: M for Mature
Halo 3 ODST was fueled by a huge hype engine from gaming magazines and people as well. Two people in my town had to convince me that the hype was worth it. Well was it? Not really. In fact, its the worst release Bungie has done, especially to a game that isn't worth the sixty dollar price tag.
Lets break it down, you play a character only known as the Rookie (aka insert your name here) and you have five teammates, Buck, Dutch, Romeo, Mickey, and Dare, an ONI in charge of the mission, though she never does anything special and neither do your teammates. They are so useless to the storyline that they don't even impact the Halo universe as a whole, making this game a waste of story. The ODST are sent into New Bombasa, a city in Africa to secure the data of the Superintendent, a huge super computer that also happens to be a smart-ass as you play through the game. After that, the story becomes so mundane that it isn't even worth talking about anymore. Hell, Jeph Loeb, responsible for one of the worst comics in our lifetime (Ultimatum), could have probably written something more engaging and better than this. Then again, a game that was supposed to be DLC in the first place probably won't have that good of a story anyways.
The game's single player is very weak compared to even the first game or hell, even Halo 2, or even better yet, Halo 3. Its you in a wide open area killing covenant and it gets very boring and repetitive. To proceed you have to go to one side of the map to another location to find an item, which even on Legendary makes it a safe haven of sorts, like a panic room but in the open. After you beat that segment, you go to another location to find yet another item, making the game a very boring exploration through the city, which strangely reminded me of the Metroid Prime games, going around finding items. Its six hour game play span is in a way thankful, yet horrendous, because your going to get very bored playing this unless you are playing on Legendary, and even then you'll feel nothing but frustration at how the game is designed. The enemies show you very little mercy on Legendary, and without anyway to sprint like in Call of Duty, you'll have to kill every enemy through trial and error which takes away the fun out of blasting enemies like you should be from an FPS. I'm not saying that strategy shouldn't be involved in someway, but when you go through the same room over and over again simply because you can't kill someone with a turret unless you bum-rush the entire room, something has clearly gone wrong.
The emphasis is on more human feeling game play, but even then ODST doesn't live up to that. After the first thirty or so minutes of game play, you'll feel like a spartan, taking away the human aspect of the game they were aiming for. The human weapons are still way better than the Covenant weapons, because no matter what I use, the human weapons are almost always better, mainly because they seem to kill faster, which is ironic in a way.
Though the game looks pretty in terms of its environments, its character models leave a lot to be desired. Most of the models look like copy pasted enemies from one another, and the Brutes have barely differentiating armor save for the chieftains. Its almost silly how lazy Bungie got in terms of armor design. Your parners are wearing the same armor, execpt that only the helmets and armor colors (the stripes) look different, and only multiplayer whores will really give a care honestly.
As for its other modes, the only thing worth while from buying the game is the multiplayer disk that comes with the game, because as fun as Firefight is, it will get old and no one will play that mode anymore. ODST is more of a cash-in if anything. Its extremely shallow and a huge waste of your money.
Verict: Don't buy this. Period. Even used copies. You can skip this game. Wait until Reach comes out (if its any good).
Halo 3 ODST
Platform: X Box 360
Developer: Bungie Software
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
ESRB: M for Mature
Halo 3 ODST was fueled by a huge hype engine from gaming magazines and people as well. Two people in my town had to convince me that the hype was worth it. Well was it? Not really. In fact, its the worst release Bungie has done, especially to a game that isn't worth the sixty dollar price tag.
Lets break it down, you play a character only known as the Rookie (aka insert your name here) and you have five teammates, Buck, Dutch, Romeo, Mickey, and Dare, an ONI in charge of the mission, though she never does anything special and neither do your teammates. They are so useless to the storyline that they don't even impact the Halo universe as a whole, making this game a waste of story. The ODST are sent into New Bombasa, a city in Africa to secure the data of the Superintendent, a huge super computer that also happens to be a smart-ass as you play through the game. After that, the story becomes so mundane that it isn't even worth talking about anymore. Hell, Jeph Loeb, responsible for one of the worst comics in our lifetime (Ultimatum), could have probably written something more engaging and better than this. Then again, a game that was supposed to be DLC in the first place probably won't have that good of a story anyways.
The game's single player is very weak compared to even the first game or hell, even Halo 2, or even better yet, Halo 3. Its you in a wide open area killing covenant and it gets very boring and repetitive. To proceed you have to go to one side of the map to another location to find an item, which even on Legendary makes it a safe haven of sorts, like a panic room but in the open. After you beat that segment, you go to another location to find yet another item, making the game a very boring exploration through the city, which strangely reminded me of the Metroid Prime games, going around finding items. Its six hour game play span is in a way thankful, yet horrendous, because your going to get very bored playing this unless you are playing on Legendary, and even then you'll feel nothing but frustration at how the game is designed. The enemies show you very little mercy on Legendary, and without anyway to sprint like in Call of Duty, you'll have to kill every enemy through trial and error which takes away the fun out of blasting enemies like you should be from an FPS. I'm not saying that strategy shouldn't be involved in someway, but when you go through the same room over and over again simply because you can't kill someone with a turret unless you bum-rush the entire room, something has clearly gone wrong.
The emphasis is on more human feeling game play, but even then ODST doesn't live up to that. After the first thirty or so minutes of game play, you'll feel like a spartan, taking away the human aspect of the game they were aiming for. The human weapons are still way better than the Covenant weapons, because no matter what I use, the human weapons are almost always better, mainly because they seem to kill faster, which is ironic in a way.
Though the game looks pretty in terms of its environments, its character models leave a lot to be desired. Most of the models look like copy pasted enemies from one another, and the Brutes have barely differentiating armor save for the chieftains. Its almost silly how lazy Bungie got in terms of armor design. Your parners are wearing the same armor, execpt that only the helmets and armor colors (the stripes) look different, and only multiplayer whores will really give a care honestly.
As for its other modes, the only thing worth while from buying the game is the multiplayer disk that comes with the game, because as fun as Firefight is, it will get old and no one will play that mode anymore. ODST is more of a cash-in if anything. Its extremely shallow and a huge waste of your money.
Verict: Don't buy this. Period. Even used copies. You can skip this game. Wait until Reach comes out (if its any good).
