Halo 3: ODST

[Chikt]

Being the Halo geek I am you can imagine that I am very much looking forward to ODST. The more I'm hearing about the game the more I'm looking forward to it (Film Noir themed Halo? Yes please).

I'll use this thread for a review and my thoughts on what needs to change with Halo, what needs to be stay the same, and why people have a love/hate relationship with the series. Consider it a discussion of everything Halo, I guess.

As far as ODST goes, I'm looking forward to playing a game where I'm not on some gigantic quest to save the galaxy or even a city, just myself and my team. That's something I can believe in.

One of my favorite things about the Halo games is the music that Marty O'Donnel makes for it, and from the sounds of it he's really outdone himself with ODST (http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=ODST_OST_SneakPeek). Space jazz, mmm.

[Swerto]

The adds online are completely boss.

[Chikt]

So I finished ODST already (I love Microsoft and Australian release dates) and I've gotta say.

The more I think about it, the more ODST is my favorite Halo game.

It mashes together the Halo 1 Mechanics with the Halo 3 engine, adds a spectacular moodiness to it and then throws in these very human characters.

A favorite part for me was the sense of actually being in a war. Being alone and having only yourself to depend upon. Scavenging what you could to keep yourself alive, and then using what you had on hand to get through - rather than what you liked best and being able to keep it the whole game.

I played through on Heroic and I found that - unlike playing as the Chief - I had to think strategically. Ducking out of cover to shoot enemies actually felt dangerous - taking a few hits quickly meant death if you didn't duck back into cover or kill them first. You can't rambo through the game. There are points where rushing the enemy becomes a viable strategy when you can flank them from behind as a result - but running straight up into a pack of brutes usually means being two-shot when they melee you, or use their far more powerful weapons.

To really beat your enemy you've got to use what you have on hand. For me, that was throwing a grenade at a car that a group of enemies was around. Or running off when I was low on ammo to flank around a building and take a foe from behind while he was searching about for me.

Possibly my favorite part in the game was when I was fighting about 10 Covenant. I'd managed to kill 5 when I ran out of ammo, grenades, and was at half health. Rushing off to recover, I managed to find a health pack - but after 15 minutes of searching, I found no ammo save for 2 hand grenades.

I snuck back to the last 5 Covenant. Managed to take one out with a stealth kill, quickly looted his weapon, and started spraying plasma fire as I backed off, tossed my only two grenades, and took refuge behind cover again. I used what ammo I had left to take down the shields on another, melee finished him, and grabbed his gun before ducking back out of sight. I waited for them to lose track of me, dashed back out and got another stealth kill before finishing off the last two.

This isn't Halo 3 - cover is your best friend and you'd do well to stick to it. Comparing ODST to Halo 3, in ODST you take cover behind the remains of a tank. In Halo 3, you feel like you have the tank strapped to your chest.

Also more interesting is just how much more intimidating everything feels when you're not 7 feet tall. A group of grunts actually pose a very real threat. And don't even get me started on a swarm of buggers. Indeed, perhaps the most difficult spots in the game are when you are pitted up against Hunters - whom the Chief would often overcome easily with his sheer speed - you can't just flank around behind them or jump over their heads. You've got to find other ways to beat them. And there's no perfect way to do it.

On the story end, it's really interesting to see the Engineers make it into the games finally after such a long time being just characters in the books - and their character is portrayed perfectly. They act just like they do in the books, and become a massive part of the story too.

Ignoring my gushing, I don't say lightly that ODST is my favorite Halo game. I loved halo 1, and I loved the city areas in Halo 2 and Halo 3 and would constantly replay them. I hated the Flood areas. And I always found it difficult to put myself in the shoes of this gigantic 7 foot tall spartan.

ODST is everything I love about Halo without all the things I hated. No flood (thank GOD), all on Earth (Awesome), in the shoes of a character that you can really imagine being your own (It's easy to put yourself in the glasses of Gordon freeman when he doesn't speak. The Rookie is exactly the same). It lacks the 'epic' feeling moments of Halo 3, and rightfully so - you're not a hero. You're a man. And you're just trying to get out of this city alive.

The thing I do dislike is that the game still suffers from some of that typical Bungie level design. Landmarks in the Rookie area are hard to come by, and you often find yourself wondering if you've come through an area before - making exploration difficult. There's also a point in the game that suffers from "Library" syndrome. If you've played Halo 1, you'll know what that means.

Overall, however, I see myself playing ODST over and over again for a long time to come. If you want to play Firefight with me some time, I'm up for it.

[Swerto]

The flood level in Halo3 is still my least favorite Xbox360 experience, it has yet to be topped.


I.
Fucking.
Hate.
That.
Level.

[Chikt]

The flood level in Halo3 is still my least favorite Xbox360 experience, it has yet to be topped.


I.
Fucking.
Hate.
That.
Level.

Cortana? Agreed. Traipsing about infected High Charity and going through sphincter doors is my least favorite experience in Halo 3.

However up until recently, my favorite experience in any game was taking out the two scarabs on The Ark.

[Xiphus]

Nobody likes Flood. Period! They always...rush you! Every single time! Well, except in Halo 3 where you get more variety, but fighting them is exactly like fighting zombies. Unlike fighting Covenant who will duck in and out of cover, fighting Flood gets old fast.

[Tillna]

Flood = Zerg/Alien/Tyranid Zerging bastards

[Xiphus]

Flood = Zerg/Alien/Tyranid Zerging bastards

Flood = Zombie....in Space!

[Swerto]

I hate that level because you get forced to run too much, I don't want to run away from fights I want to blow shit up.

Also half the fucking versions of the flood take too much damage before they go down compared to the numbers they have. For the ammount of them on screen at once (and with the new ranged ones which made me break a controller with frustration at their stupidly powerful attacks) I should be able to either kill them with one or two bursts of my assault rifle, except the occasional huge guy who rushes to the front and is a difficult fight.

Flame thrower on the way in was also pointles to grab because it left you too fucking vulnerable to the ranged guys.


I suck at halo really, I'm playing it through on the normal setting after doing the easy setting, and I'm stuck on the way out of high charity, my shooter skills on a controller are pretty much nil. I've been stuck at this place since the start of summer when I finally broke down and grabbed Halo3 from my cousin after I bought him RE5 (I got a new copy of GTA4 out of the deal too, so it was all good).



My favorite levels of halo were always the vehicle (SCORPION) and big covenant crazy shit everywhere fights.

In halo 1 this was most of the game, I like Halo 1 and it is still my favorite of the series, I do consider it a rather good game and the game that was there before the community killed it for me. I also have it for PC which is a plus because I can actually aim.

Halo 2 they cut a lot of this out in favor of flashy fights and a second annoying flood level... and arbiter missions which I never liked. But at least we got the sword and dual wielding, which was a saving grace and kept me playing through to the end.

Halo 3 looked great, and near the start it really seemed like it was going to be Halo 1 all over with the awesome, and it really seemed that way until the first of the two flood levels, when I realized they were going to piss me off a lot with the ranged flood.

[Xiphus]

Firefights against Covenant are usually tense because these guys do have tactics beyond rushing you. The only other shooter with scenes more tense that I can think of was the Gears of War series, and that's only because of an even higher emphasis on ducking behind covers.

Flood? They are annoying and the levels they are in tend to get repetitive. One very good example is the Library level from Halo 1.

[Swerto]

Funny chapter names were all that kept me going through library.