The Halo Series carries a such a strong pedigree that people will snatch up anything that carries the name expecting the gaming experience of a lifetime. Halo will always be good, but each title seems to lack a bit of distinction from its predecessor. For those of who are getting sick of seeing the same old thing time and time again with the halo series, will Halo 3: ODST be just what the doctor ordered? Or should you just wait until it hits the bargain bin before you pick this one up?

What is unique about the ODST campaign is the characters and scale. You play the “Rookie” who has just woken up 6 hours after the catastrophic events that unfolded in the city of “New Mombasa.” You spend a good chunk of your time searching for clues about your missing team, as each clue is discovered, you get to play through a particular flashback leading up to that clue.

Halo ODST is the first installment in the series that does not attempt to tell an “epic” tale of heroics and avoiding total annihilation. It is simply about a group of troopers stranded on a planet under massive assault and their tale as they escape this war-torn world. In the end, you’ll see how this tell fills in some gaps in Halo 3, but overall it was a very simplistic and complete story.

The music and voice acting were top notch in this installment, it was the first time the music REALLY stood out to me in this series. Especially as the rookie explores the almost haunted streets of New Mombasa, it really set the tone. Nathan Fillion is all you really need to know about the voice acting, his character “Buck” was pretty much developed to look and act exactly like him. The banter between the characters was witty and entertaining as well, the light quips during the heat of battle would usually generate a giggle or two out of me.

Look Familiar?

The graphics are pretty much recycled from halo 3. OSDT appears only slightly sharper then its predecessor. Most of the NPC’s are recycled and only the ODST’s themselves appear as fresh and new to this installment. There are two new weapons, a silenced machine gun type weapon, that works great when you’re not trying to draw too much attention towards yourself. And most notable, the return of the pistol in all its snipe-tastic glory, while not as powerful as its former self, it frequently took its place as my preferred weapon to sneak in headshots on grunts while not drawing any attention to myself.

you know that shooting it with a pistol is only going to piss it off right?

You also lose access to master chiefs uber radar of doom, and instead get access to a special low light visual mode that you can toggle. This low light mode will actually outline your enemies red, and allies green, while also making it much easier to see in the dark, turn this thing on in daylight and you’ll pretty much go blind however.

Firefight looks like it could be a lot of fun, however, it completely lacks matchmaking so you better have some friends to play with or you’ll be stuck trying this one yourself. I tried taking it on solo, but those endless waves of aliens seems designed for a team of 4 as I often found myself completely overrun in no time flat. I really cannot provide an accurate review of this mode until I’ve tried this mode with 3 other people, it looks like it could be a lot of fun with a group, but frankly sucks if you try it solo.

Is ODST worth the purchase? The best feature so far is the campaign, and it only lasts about 5 hours. So for 5 hours of decent campaigning I find 60 bucks a little steep. However, the game might be worth the money if you have friends to play firefight with. And it also helps to note that this game also includes a disk with the complete halo 3 multiplayer collection. So if you love halo 3 multiplayer, but didn’t want to pay for all the extras over x-box live, you may value getting this as well. I enjoyed my time with it, but in some ways wished I’d waited for the price drop first. This may however, all change once I get a decent crack at firefight.