Today we are confronted with a dilemma faced by all gamers alike; we are in the highstreet frantically going into shop left and right and so on and decide that no price for your desired game is worth it and then we retreat to the benevolence that is the pricing team at online stores such as amazon and play.com. With outstanding sequels holding brands to keep us assured that it will be worth the cost such as the sequels to CALL OF DUTY, MASS EFFECT, BIOSHOCK and ASSASSINS CREED are released whilst leaving the innocent gamer on the side with featherweight pockets and an attachment to your xbox like no other coming out of your trance like state of gaming with a true gamers tan, pastey with a chance of square eyes.

So when a game like ODST comes onto our screens bearing the almighty Bungie and Halo brands automatically everyone is glued to websites signalling a release date or a leak of some gameplay footage. But ofcourse we can all rely on the gamers paradise that is E3 showing us the famous games such as all the sequels previously shown and many many more, but leaving halo fans somewhat empty until an exec from BUNGIE valiantly steps on stage and astounds the audience with an announcement to end all announcements, 2 new releases for the HALO campaign.

A GET RICH QUICK SCHEME FROM THE MOST WELL RENOWN DEVELOPERS?

So we know that the game revolves around a lone wolf in the burning city of NEW MOMBASSA, a trained killer, the best of the best. We also know that this character has less health (no shield)(less abilities dual wielding,hijacking certain vehicles etc) and it ponders the question; how can this make it more enjoyable, wouldnt a halo 4 be more enjoyable? A comparison that comes to mind is that of making a sonic game but taking away his speed, wheres the fun in that?

Now BUNGIE explained that these drastic removals of master chief qualities are to make the game less RAMBO styley and more... strategic and challenging, to make the true gamer think more tactically about taking on a brute and his two minion grunts instead of going in with all guns blazing and throwing grenades like there is no tomorrow. In this game we experience that unlike previous halo's that bullets are available at a surplus and must treat ammo as a privelage, my tip for killing most enemies in game on Legendary or below are as follows:
Grunts: Headshot with pistol, battle rifle or carbine (no need to waste big weapons on a single grunt)
Jackals: Without a shield do as above, but with a shield with the same weapons aim for the gap in the shields on the side where their guns are pointing out and quickly aim to their heads and shoot whilst they are flinching.
Brute: A rocket or fuel rod will suffice but a charged plasma pistol to take the armor and a quick change to the guns listed for the grunts above will quite sweetly give you a satisfying one shot kill to the head once the armor has been eradicated.
Hunter: With Hunters there is no right way particlarly but th best is to survive and waste as little ammo shooting at those damned shields. So rocket launchers and other big guns but what i find ammo preserving is to have a shotgun present, get close to the hunters, let them try to melee you, you move out of the way come back round the back of it, shoot in the weak orange part of the back and melee and get as many of the melee, shooting combos done as possible before it turns round for the behind melee. Repeat process until dead.
Vehicles: Naturally as we learned in HALO 3 that lasers and rockets are helpful in any vehicle takedown but a charged plasma pistol can proove almost invaluable to your struggle. Once you have used the plasma pistol throwing a handfull of grenades, particularly sticky can destroy most vehicles in ODST.

Now back to the topic, whether the game should be bought or not, we know that a new map pack has come out and in fact i must say the maps are not as great as first thought but 75G from skulls is sweeet. There are also two map packs available to purchase on marketplace and a free one but buying the game will give you all of them if you havnt already bought them. So this can save you almost £15 for some HALO-ees, but even if you have bought them you and your friends can get together get the game each and play on the quite frankly best wave game i have ever played. Better than HORDE MODE or NAZI ZOMBIES showing that perhaps BUNGIE means business, but a dissapointment for me is that you have to play with friends and cannot search for a firefight game online unlike the other wave games listed previously.

Personally i believe that £30 is justified but it depends what kind of gamer you are as explored previously, shooter fan who loves to think about the game and get immersed into the action. This game if you have a few bob left it is worht it but if you are looking for a game to fill the void between the huge gap of good games recently then i suggest you wait up and download an arcade game or too instead because it is not long enough to hold the title of a large game.

A dilemma resolved perhaps?