At work today we were all talking about what games we all played when we were in High School and I fondly remember the co op legendary playthroughs of Halo 3 and Halo 3 ODST. Shit was lit. I feel like ODST does not get a ton of nostalgia all these years later. Lets talk about it.
The Story
In one of many ways this had differentiated from other Halo games at the time was its narrative. The set up is that a ODST team is dropped into New Mombasa (The place where the covenant find the portal to the Ark in Halo 3) to aquire an asset who can shed light on what the Covenant is doing in New Mombasa and tell them what the Covenant is planning next. The drop down however does not go as a planned and the team is scattered with the nameless Rookie to pick up clues to his team's whereabouts in the dead of night.
The Gameplay Set Up
The gameplay is set up into two parts. First, we have the story missions where the player takes control of various members of the scattered team in bombastic action heavy missions. The other part is the connecting tissue between the story missions where you play as the Rookie moving around a quieter nighttime New Mombasa where you are stealthing around picking off enemies as you hunt for the next clue that will trigger the next story mission. The brilliance of these two different parts is that the game has excellent pacing. The quieter moment to moment gameplay of the Rookie allows the player to breath and reflect on the events of the last mission and think about what is coming next. I remember Furi tried to do something similar with its walking segments between boss fights but this succeeds because the Rookie sections do have genuine player agency. The Rookie segments let you use stealth or run around guns blazing. One of these may be easier than the other but the game deserves credit for letting the player approach the situation in their own way. As the game progresses, these two sections do converge towards the end prior to the finale.
The Gameplay Changes
In Halo ODST, you don't play as a Spartan but instead as an ODST trooper who is just human. No shields and no regenerating health. There are medpacs through out the level that do replenish the player's health. This requires the player to be more cautious and defensive. You aren't the unstoppable badass like Master Chief. You can't just jump in and tank hits. You also have a silenced SMG and a silenced pistol which are helpful in quietly dispatching enemies. You also have night vision which is quite helpful when you play as the Rookie during the nighttime segments.
The Music
Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori return again to do the music. None of the themes or musical motifs from the previous three games make a return here. Instead we get music that ranges to soulful and contemplative or epic and bombastic. All of it is excellent and complements the tone of where they are used very well.
Deference for Darkness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a70h0cX8AMM
Skyline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q-HxbVbuMA
More Than His Share https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKCz9tDZes8
Asphalt And Ablution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luzfzTy_bso
Firefight
ODST didn't have a traditional multiplayer mode and instead came with the final maps for Halo 3. What it did have however Firefight which was amazing. Firefight was Horde mode from Gears of War except it was better in every way and wasn't Gears of War. In Firefight, sections from the Single Player mode are invaded by various waves of enemies that get more and more difficult with each wave. My friends and I played hundreds of hours in this mode and always had an absolute blast.
I need to replay this. I'll probably grab a 360 version cheap somewhere. I don't own an Xbox One or Xbox One X but the idea of playing this at 60fps sounds very tempting.
