Halo 3 ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) was originally called Halo Recon and it was said to be an expansion to Halo 3. It was something to keep Halo fans happy while they waited for the next Halo game. The game though would end up being its very own full game and not just a DLC add on like was originally intended.
Story & Presentation
The story of Halo 3 ODST is set during the events of Halo 2 and before what happened in Halo 3. You play as a rookie ODST who is trying to figure out what happened to the missing members of his team. What makes the game interesting is that for the first time in the series you do not play as Master Chief. As you play the story you will find clues as to what happened to your team members and once you do you enter into a flash back of a few hours earlier and get to play as them. It is a very good idea and you can play these missions in pretty much anyway you want. What I liked about the story was the way that as you knew a Covenant invasion was going to happen you always have this sense of dread. The story while not bad I found kind of uninteresting if I am honest and most of the time I just wished I was playing as Master Chief.
The game looks pretty nice. It looks pretty much just like Halo 3 to be honest, but everything is kind of dark and dreary. So as a result of this you do not always get to appreciate some of the fine little details each area of the game has. As this game was intended though as an expansion you cannot really criticize it for not improving the visuals from Halo 3.
Gameplay
While the game does have the same core game play that you would expect from a Halo title. Playing as a ODST does feel very different to playing as Master Chief. Playing as Master Chief there are many times when you feel invincible, but playing as an ODST does on many occasions make you feel somewhat vulnerable. This is actually pretty good and a nice change of pace, but at the same time on many occasion I wished I was still Master Chief. The core game play though does still have that amazing Halo feel to it.
The campaign is the shortest in the Halo series and as much as I wanted to love it I found it the least interesting. Some people say that the Halo series is too linear, but ODST does take the reins off and let you free roam for a bit. In theory this sounds great, but I found it actually pretty tedious if I am honest.
Halo 3 ODST has all the Halo 3 multi player modes and it adds the DLC and even a few new modes as well. What is really cool about the multi player aspect of ODST is that Bungie actually put all the multi player modes on a separate disk. This was something that I thought was really cool.
Final Thoughts
I would probably say that this is my least favorite game in the Halo series. It’s not bad at all, but there is just something off about the game and it’s really hard to say exactly what that is. There are some great ideas here, but they never quite pull it off. If you are a Halo fan then you need this in your collection, but apart from fans of the Halo series I would say this is one game you should not go out of your way to try and look for.
