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"THFC"
Regular
on 19/10/2009 at 9:48:04AM
Total Posts: 2910 |
[GAME] Halo ODST – Xbox 360
Bungie are back with their highly anticipated new Halo game, while some fans will be disappointed that the Master Chief has not returned for this outing, it really lets the games expand and show new sides to the battle to save Earth.
I was rather new to the whole Halo thing, i picked up my Xbox a lot later than most people and my only previous experience of th game as playing Halo2 round a friends for 20 minutes in multiplayer. So while Halo 3 was a really enjoyable FPS and the online was really fun, personally i never got into the story and felt the urge to know what would happen next, i got lost and was not too sure why things were happening or how they had come about. So my Halo 3 experience was hindered by no previous knowledge, Halo ODST in my opinion fixes this problem. It is a really enjoyable FPS that has a story linked with Halo but you could play it if you had not touched any of the previous 3.
Story
To those of you who do not know, ODST stand for Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. When trouble starts or something needs investigating, these guys drop straight into the action. The game starts with the various members of the squad having a laugh and joke, but duty calls and they are needed in the action. You are introduced to “The Rookie” the newest member of the squad and the character you will play as in the present (i will explain it later). So everyone gets to their pods to drop down to the city below, but while they are mid-drop, a vortex of some sort appears and send everyone off course and crashes them to the ground below. When you finally come too, you realise you are all by yourself and have no idea where your squad are. So the game pans out as the Rookie hunts around the city to find the crash sites or items the squad members have used since the crash. This then causes you to play out a mission as that squad member and learn what happened to him/her during that time. The story plays out like this until you learn about all the squad members and what happened.
This is why no previous Halo knowledge is required, the game sits as a standalone, there might be references to other Halo games that i missed but it has it’s own story and characters for you to feel part of and enjoy.
Graphics
You wouldn’t really expect less than great on a title this big, and i have to say that even on my non HD TV the graphics are really nice, i did find the game to be a bit dark in places, which adds to the atmosphere and aloneness that you are feeling. I just much prefer the missions during the day because everything looks detailed, bright and much better. Not a critiscm, just a personal preference. I do not think it is a massive jump from Halo 3 during the game, but on cut scenes i really noticed things looking much crisper than in the previous game. There have been tweaks during the game and if you put the two together you would probably notice it more, but the weapons, enemies and veichles all retain a heavy likeness to Halo 3, but this had to be done to keep it the same, if everything had been made different then it would have felt like a brand new FPS Bungie wanted to add the word Halo on to boost sales.
Gameplay & Controls
The controls are very easy to adapt to and much like any other FPS you will come across. There are a couple of new additions to the ODST’s kit, they have a new visor which allows you to see enemies more clearly and spot anything that you can interact with, i found this very useful during the darker parts of the game and spent all the time with the Visor mode on. As mentioned in the story section, you play a mission as a squad member then head to find the next clue as the Rookie, it is useful when trying to find the new clues with the use of markers to show where your next objective is, just a nice way to prevent you from going back to the map, running a bit and then going back to the map. The directional aids are optional and require you to press up on the d-pad to show them on screen. I think they are a nice addition and it is always welcome to make life easier! Like in the previous sections, i have no issues with any of these and the controls soon become second nature to any FPS fan. The game flows smoothly and allows for you to stop where you want and jump back in without any problems. All good stuff!
Multiplayer
Probably my biggest issue with the game comes in this section, and affects the final score. You play on Halo 3’s multiplayer, now as fun as it is i really think some time should have been spent on having a new multiplayer for ODST, there is firefight which i will talk about shortly but in my opinion, i would have liked a new online game, all new maps (and not on a second disc!) Plenty of people will disagree with me because they really love Halo 3 online, but for me it seems a bit of an easy way out. I was disappointed with this. Imagine if Modern Warfare 2 had the same multiplayer as Call of Duty 4, it seems like an easy way out. So for me it is a big negative on the overall, but it is still a fun online game to play, but most of you will have played it to death before!
Firefight, team up with your friends online and take out waves of enemy forces, survive and gain points, you have 6 lives to do as much as you can with and like Gear os War 2’s horde mode, it is a great idea and really fun......BUT! You can’t have random people play with you, you can’t join a game with 3 other people who do not have friend’s that own the game. Sure you could go online and find people etc, but i really think limiting it to only being able to play with friends on your Xbox live account is stupid and it is the reason i played it on my own for 5 minutes and got very bored. Another shame that looses the game points because surely it is common sense?!? Or is it Bungie trying to make you make your friends buy the game? Who knows, but on the multiplayer side of things, i am not angry, just disappointed.
Overall
As you can probably guess if you read the rest, i really like the campaign mode, it flows smoothly, it has an interesting little mystery to the story and it looks nice. Shame that my favourite aspect of most games is playing Online, and this game let me down on that. If it was just the main game and sold at less, then the game would have been a 9.5 or 10 but i have to look at everything and give the game;
8/10
Buy the game and you will really like it as a Halo fan or futuristic FPS fan. But if your like me, then the multiplayer will let you down! Thanks for reading.
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Emmie87
"THFC"
Regular
on 19/10/2009 at 9:48:04AM
Total Posts: 2910
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[GAME] Halo ODST – Xbox 360
Bungie are back with their highly anticipated new Halo game, while some fans will be disappointed that the Master Chief has not returned for this outing, it really lets the games expand and show new sides to the battle to save Earth.
I was rather new to the whole Halo thing, i picked up my Xbox a lot later than most people and my only previous experience of th game as playing Halo2 round a friends for 20 minutes in multiplayer. So while Halo 3 was a really enjoyable FPS and the online was really fun, personally i never got into the story and felt the urge to know what would happen next, i got lost and was not too sure why things were happening or how they had come about. So my Halo 3 experience was hindered by no previous knowledge, Halo ODST in my opinion fixes this problem. It is a really enjoyable FPS that has a story linked with Halo but you could play it if you had not touched any of the previous 3.
Story
To those of you who do not know, ODST stand for Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. When trouble starts or something needs investigating, these guys drop straight into the action. The game starts with the various members of the squad having a laugh and joke, but duty calls and they are needed in the action. You are introduced to “The Rookie” the newest member of the squad and the character you will play as in the present (i will explain it later). So everyone gets to their pods to drop down to the city below, but while they are mid-drop, a vortex of some sort appears and send everyone off course and crashes them to the ground below. When you finally come too, you realise you are all by yourself and have no idea where your squad are. So the game pans out as the Rookie hunts around the city to find the crash sites or items the squad members have used since the crash. This then causes you to play out a mission as that squad member and learn what happened to him/her during that time. The story plays out like this until you learn about all the squad members and what happened.
This is why no previous Halo knowledge is required, the game sits as a standalone, there might be references to other Halo games that i missed but it has it’s own story and characters for you to feel part of and enjoy.
Graphics
You wouldn’t really expect less than great on a title this big, and i have to say that even on my non HD TV the graphics are really nice, i did find the game to be a bit dark in places, which adds to the atmosphere and aloneness that you are feeling. I just much prefer the missions during the day because everything looks detailed, bright and much better. Not a critiscm, just a personal preference. I do not think it is a massive jump from Halo 3 during the game, but on cut scenes i really noticed things looking much crisper than in the previous game. There have been tweaks during the game and if you put the two together you would probably notice it more, but the weapons, enemies and veichles all retain a heavy likeness to Halo 3, but this had to be done to keep it the same, if everything had been made different then it would have felt like a brand new FPS Bungie wanted to add the word Halo on to boost sales.
Gameplay & Controls
The controls are very easy to adapt to and much like any other FPS you will come across. There are a couple of new additions to the ODST’s kit, they have a new visor which allows you to see enemies more clearly and spot anything that you can interact with, i found this very useful during the darker parts of the game and spent all the time with the Visor mode on. As mentioned in the story section, you play a mission as a squad member then head to find the next clue as the Rookie, it is useful when trying to find the new clues with the use of markers to show where your next objective is, just a nice way to prevent you from going back to the map, running a bit and then going back to the map. The directional aids are optional and require you to press up on the d-pad to show them on screen. I think they are a nice addition and it is always welcome to make life easier! Like in the previous sections, i have no issues with any of these and the controls soon become second nature to any FPS fan. The game flows smoothly and allows for you to stop where you want and jump back in without any problems. All good stuff!
Multiplayer
Probably my biggest issue with the game comes in this section, and affects the final score. You play on Halo 3’s multiplayer, now as fun as it is i really think some time should have been spent on having a new multiplayer for ODST, there is firefight which i will talk about shortly but in my opinion, i would have liked a new online game, all new maps (and not on a second disc!) Plenty of people will disagree with me because they really love Halo 3 online, but for me it seems a bit of an easy way out. I was disappointed with this. Imagine if Modern Warfare 2 had the same multiplayer as Call of Duty 4, it seems like an easy way out. So for me it is a big negative on the overall, but it is still a fun online game to play, but most of you will have played it to death before!
Firefight, team up with your friends online and take out waves of enemy forces, survive and gain points, you have 6 lives to do as much as you can with and like Gear os War 2’s horde mode, it is a great idea and really fun......BUT! You can’t have random people play with you, you can’t join a game with 3 other people who do not have friend’s that own the game. Sure you could go online and find people etc, but i really think limiting it to only being able to play with friends on your Xbox live account is stupid and it is the reason i played it on my own for 5 minutes and got very bored. Another shame that looses the game points because surely it is common sense?!? Or is it Bungie trying to make you make your friends buy the game? Who knows, but on the multiplayer side of things, i am not angry, just disappointed.
Overall
As you can probably guess if you read the rest, i really like the campaign mode, it flows smoothly, it has an interesting little mystery to the story and it looks nice. Shame that my favourite aspect of most games is playing Online, and this game let me down on that. If it was just the main game and sold at less, then the game would have been a 9.5 or 10 but i have to look at everything and give the game;
8/10
Buy the game and you will really like it as a Halo fan or futuristic FPS fan. But if your like me, then the multiplayer will let you down! Thanks for reading.
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