Halo 3: ODST Single Player Campaign Review (spoiler free)

The Beginning of the Campaign
The events in the game take place somewhere between Halo 2 and Halo 3. You start off as The Rookie, an ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper), 6 hours after the deployment of your squad for your current mission. And now you wonder around this big city to piece together what happened to both the city and your squad during this alien invasion of Earth. As you find your way through this dark city, you'll find you're a part of 3 sperate stories (told seperate ways) that all eventually converge into one.

You have the Rookies story. Where his role is to piece together what happened in the city. And through this story leads to the other two. As you travel through the city, you use a new feature called VISR mode to see better at night and to better find items you'd normally miss. Unlike the other members, you really have to fend for weapons and ammo. Since his scenerio is more "open world", there's always a threat to either aviod or face straight on as enemies periodically check the landscape for rebels or survivors.

As you find clues to what happened to your squad members, these clues trigger a flashback sequence of the other characters just hours before. You play these scenerios like missions and each mission takes place closer and closer to the time you start as the Rookie. These flashbacks give better insight as to what happened in the area where you found the clue. And let the player see what the other characters are doing to survive. Or even if they survived.

The third story comes from find audio clips around the city. These audio clips are recordings of a character named Sadie and tells what was going on in the city during the invasion. There are 30 clips all together that give a deeper insight to a few aspects of the story.


The Gamplay
Most people have played Halo before, but for those that haven't, it takes a minute to get used to some of the more odd button placements. (at least in my opinion) Other than that, the game runs pretty smooth. You just have to keep in my mind that none of these characters are Spartans. So they're not as strong and don't have the same regenerative health that Master Chief has in Halo 3. So if you get badly hurt, you'll have to learn where the health packs are around the city and in the missions. On the bright side, there are a lot of check points to spawn from once you die. They're also slightly slower, don't jump as high, and don't handle weapon recoil as well as Master Chief. These aspects are there to help increase the threat in the game and force you to pick your battles. ...Unless you've played Halo before. haha.

Just about all the weapons from Halo 3 return. With the exception of the fan favorite Battle Rifle.
But with the loss of the BR, you get two new weapons. You start off with the silenced pistol that has a scope feature for head shots and a silenced scoped automatic rifle. Both are pretty decent weapons. I personally prefer the rifle once I got used to shooting in bursts so the recoil wouldn't make my aim jump all over the place. The pistol, though a killer headshot machine, jumps like CRAZY when fired. After about three consecutive shots, you're aiming at the sky. I have no idea why it shoots like that when stronger weapons don't.

All the vehicles still handle as they always did in Halo. Some people don't like it. I personally took to it pretty quick. Some vehicles handle slightly different than others, but all of them are pretty reliable.

I did find something odd in the multiplayer aspect though. If you play the campaign online, you can have up to 4 players. But if you play locally (offline), you can only have two players. Its understandable to a degree since the screen would have to be split four ways. But its very consistant.


Difficulty and Fun Factor
Like Halo 3, I really enjoyed the campaign for this game. I liked the combination of storytelling used and thought it was a smart way to keep people intrigued and want to know more about the Halo history. As for difficulty, its not really a difficult game once you know how to handle certain situations. I beat it on normal in a day. After that, I'm pretty confident Heroic and Legendary wouldn't be that difficult. But I plan on tackling Legendary with a friend because its more fun that way.

Although the game isn't that difficult and overall actually pretty short, I really did enjoy it. I liked having played as the other characters and facing a bunch of unique scenerios. I thought it was cool that in the flashback scenerios the other soldiers almost always have something to say. Wether it relates to the current story, past events, or just to give a slight nudge as to how to handle a situation. It really helped give the presence of a squad.

The achievements for the most part aren't the difficult to achieve either. So if you're into your gamerscore, this game definitely helps garner some easy points.

And did I mention that Bungie actually keeps track of your kills/deaths/and other statistics on there site? Just check http://www.bungie.net/ and put your gamertag in the search bar. See how well you rank up.


Overall?
Although I enjoyed the single player mode and the story it told, the fact is the campaign isn't long enough to warrant a $60 purchase. If you're picking up the game solely for the campaign, I'd recommend just rent it. The story didn't get too deep into the characters. Which is unfortunate because I liked the characters and the voice work brought to them by the actors from Firefly/Serenity. Hopefully, Bungie plans to add more missions via Downloadable Content.

Now, with the inclusion of Firefight and the Halo 3 mulitplayer disc with ALL the map packs, that certainly is worth $60. (but thats a review for another time. ...maybe) Oh and everyone that bought the game gets to be part of the Halo: Reach beta. Not sure what thats going to be like. But if its campaign is anything like prior Halo campaigns, it should be pretty good.

Overall: 4/5 stars