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"Shoryuken!"
Moderator
on 16/10/2009 at 5:41:56PM
Total Posts: 10341 |
The Fools!
Oh how I laughed at Microsoft and Bungie. They’d come up with an idea to repackage Halo 3 by taking away the well known and fan favourite character of Master Chief and putting unknown soldiers in his place. They’d even separated the multiplayer out on to another disc and not even bothered upping the visuals. Surely this wouldn’t sell and everyone would see through their evil money-grabbing plans?
The Troopers
Er. Well. Fast forward to present day and I’m ploughing through the Halo:ODST single player game, fully engrossed in the well put-together storyline that takes place around the time of Halo 2, but set on Earth (New Mombassa to be precise). I’m enjoying the challenge of these Orbital Drop Shock Troopers and their limited armour, inability to dual wield and lack of health recharge, the thrill of the fight against bigger and better Covenant foes and the nagging thought that you enjoyed something similar a long time ago.
That would probably be because this feels more like the original Halo than Halo 3, the lower powered soldiers and tighter story telling (criss-crossing between the troopers as the story unfolds) and yet it adds all the character of the more recent Halo game on to this, not to mention the game engine.
The Famous Voices
And if you’re sitting there thinking that the voices sound familiar, then you’ve probably seen Firefly (Nathan Fillion) or Chuck (Adam Baldwin) or Dollhouse (Alan Wray Tudyk), in fact all of them were in Firefly and Serenity and have been brought in, in-part, due to Bungie’s love of the show.
Then the single player ends, pretty sharpish too. It’s a pity and it may be the end of the story, but it isn’t the end of the game.
The Firefight
Firefight mode is basically Bungie taking a look at Horde Mode from Gears of War 2 and saying “Yeah, we can do that too!”. Well, it’s similar in principle, but there’s something ultimately more satisfying to a Halo fan in facing wave after wave of cuddly Covenant types rushing at you and a few mates as you frantically look for new ammo to arm yourself. Ok, in places it doesn’t work quite as well as Horde, most notably in the ease of starting up a match with strangers, you’re going to need your XLB friends list handy here, but it’s still damned fun to play.
The content you might have seen somewhere before
The second disc houses all the content from the Halo 3 multiplayer, useful if you loved the game online but couldn’t be bothered to get all the new maps and modes via download, but even better if you’re new to the whole thing.
It’s all been seen before, of course, but having it all on one place and one disc is so much more convenient and it’s still as good an online game as it ever was. Expect multiple trade-in copies of Halo 3 to come flying in to stores though (yes, I got shot of mine to get ODST, I’ll admit it!).
The ‘Oh we’re finally at the end of the review’ Conclusion
So, ultimate question; Is Halo ODST worth buying? If you like Halo and haven’t got the maps for Halo 3 yet then it’s a big fat Yes! If you own all the maps already and haven’t gone back to play the single player since first completing Halo 3 then maybe you’ll need to try Firefight mode out first. But with a well put together story and the online aspect, not to mention a promise to Beta Test Halo Reach come February, I still think it’s well worth your time.
8/10
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pb
"Shoryuken!"
Moderator
on 16/10/2009 at 5:41:56PM
Total Posts: 10341
|
|
The Fools!
Oh how I laughed at Microsoft and Bungie. They’d come up with an idea to repackage Halo 3 by taking away the well known and fan favourite character of Master Chief and putting unknown soldiers in his place. They’d even separated the multiplayer out on to another disc and not even bothered upping the visuals. Surely this wouldn’t sell and everyone would see through their evil money-grabbing plans?
The Troopers
Er. Well. Fast forward to present day and I’m ploughing through the Halo:ODST single player game, fully engrossed in the well put-together storyline that takes place around the time of Halo 2, but set on Earth (New Mombassa to be precise). I’m enjoying the challenge of these Orbital Drop Shock Troopers and their limited armour, inability to dual wield and lack of health recharge, the thrill of the fight against bigger and better Covenant foes and the nagging thought that you enjoyed something similar a long time ago.
That would probably be because this feels more like the original Halo than Halo 3, the lower powered soldiers and tighter story telling (criss-crossing between the troopers as the story unfolds) and yet it adds all the character of the more recent Halo game on to this, not to mention the game engine.
The Famous Voices
And if you’re sitting there thinking that the voices sound familiar, then you’ve probably seen Firefly (Nathan Fillion) or Chuck (Adam Baldwin) or Dollhouse (Alan Wray Tudyk), in fact all of them were in Firefly and Serenity and have been brought in, in-part, due to Bungie’s love of the show.
Then the single player ends, pretty sharpish too. It’s a pity and it may be the end of the story, but it isn’t the end of the game.
The Firefight
Firefight mode is basically Bungie taking a look at Horde Mode from Gears of War 2 and saying “Yeah, we can do that too!”. Well, it’s similar in principle, but there’s something ultimately more satisfying to a Halo fan in facing wave after wave of cuddly Covenant types rushing at you and a few mates as you frantically look for new ammo to arm yourself. Ok, in places it doesn’t work quite as well as Horde, most notably in the ease of starting up a match with strangers, you’re going to need your XLB friends list handy here, but it’s still damned fun to play.
The content you might have seen somewhere before
The second disc houses all the content from the Halo 3 multiplayer, useful if you loved the game online but couldn’t be bothered to get all the new maps and modes via download, but even better if you’re new to the whole thing.
It’s all been seen before, of course, but having it all on one place and one disc is so much more convenient and it’s still as good an online game as it ever was. Expect multiple trade-in copies of Halo 3 to come flying in to stores though (yes, I got shot of mine to get ODST, I’ll admit it!).
The ‘Oh we’re finally at the end of the review’ Conclusion
So, ultimate question; Is Halo ODST worth buying? If you like Halo and haven’t got the maps for Halo 3 yet then it’s a big fat Yes! If you own all the maps already and haven’t gone back to play the single player since first completing Halo 3 then maybe you’ll need to try Firefight mode out first. But with a well put together story and the online aspect, not to mention a promise to Beta Test Halo Reach come February, I still think it’s well worth your time.
8/10
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