Halo 3: ODST IMO

First things first, I have never liked Halo. I guess for some reason I always hated Microsoft for just buying their way into the video game world. Halo: Combat Evolved was the flagship for the Xbox and I resented it. Just because you're bigger and have millions of millions of dollars you can't just push your way to the top of an industry. Oh wait, they did. Not only did Microsoft do it, they did it well. Halo was well received and even coveted by the self proclaimed "Halo Nation." Trying not to be ignorant I gave Halo it's chance to "wow" me and surprise surprise it didn't. Halo has a storyline. It's not a great storyline but it's also not terrible. What Halo does have though is a well rounded multiplayer. Ever since James Bond: Goldeneye came out for the N64 developers have been trying to raise the bar in multiplayer FPS's. Bungie has definitely raised the bar and Halo holds the new standard for multiplayer FPS's. Unfortunately for the Halo games I no longer get absorbed in multiplayer games and have come to judge their campaign.

When I first heard that a new Halo game was being released I simply shrugged my shoulders and passed the notion off as another kick to a long dead horse. This was my attitude until one day while at work I lazily watched TV as a commercial came on, the live action trailer for Halo 3: ODST blew my mind. Now THAT is how you sell me on a new Halo game! After work that day I went home and brushed up on my Halo history to see if this new game would have any potential for a great game. The Halo story follows it's hero Master Chief who is by all means a bad ass main character. Master Chief is a great main character only because of Halo's multiplayer aspect. What I mean by this is he's emotionless, faceless, and he takes care of bidness. It doesn't leave room for any emotional weight in the game. Because Halo 3: ODST stars an actual human soldier who is involved in a separate story arc from the original games I had a glimmer of hope for this new game.

Halo 3: ODST takes place moments after Earth is attacked by the Covenant. The Covenant has surprisingly attacked only one city, New Mombasa. Luckily I managed to read the game's instruction booklet and found out that the Covenant had discovered something buried underneath the city and the ODST squad was pulled from the front line for a special top secret mission. I was pretty excited to start the game so when I started it up I hardly noticed the fact that it never explained why my ODST squad was coming back to Earth and not fighting on the front lines. I waved that small oversight off as the opening video started, I watched as three soldiers talked about the attack on New Mombasa and then all of a sudden in walks Captain Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly, also popularly known as Captain Hammer from Dr.Horrible's Sing Along Blog. My jaw dropped to the floor as he argued with ONI agent Dare. Firefly is a favourite TV series of mine and Captain Malcolm Reynolds is a favourite character from the show, this game was developing nicely. The video explains that the ODST squad will be landing in the city and there will be combat. Not a lot of motivation for my character but I was pretty pumped about Nathan Fillion so I moved on.

The video ends with the squad hurdling towards the Earths surface in their HEVs but before they could land, an assault carrier makes some sort of "hyper jump" and sends all the pods scattered over the city. You play as the rookie of the squad who unimaginatively is named "rookie." As the game takes over from the initial video you find yourself stuck in your pod, where you partake in a little tutorial. The rest of the game flips between segments where you play as the rookie searching the ruins of New Mombasa for the rest of his ODST squad and segments where you play as other squad members doing very Halo things. The rookie segments have a great erie nervousness as you search for clues that lead you closer to the truth of why your squad is there in the first place. I really enjoyed the rookie segments. They have this sense of mystery and had the start to an emotionally rich game.

Here's where the game fell terribly short of my heightened anticipation. Our hero, the rookie, is a voiceless, faceless, emotionless soldier who we move through levels kicking ass and taking names completely relying on his supporting characters to bring any life to the game. I have never liked Halo and ODST had some serious potential to be something different and incredible, but the longer I played ODST the more I realized that I was just playing another Halo. Another episode in a series I don't enjoy.

Here's my final thoughts on Halo 3: ODST. For those of you who consider yourselves a part of the "Halo Nation" you'll love this game. That being said I'm sure you'll love anything Bungie slaps the Halo logo onto. Halo 3: ODST was well marketed, had great potential, powerful build up, Captain Hammer and still couldn't pull off a decent campaign. To bad Bungie, you lose again. Unless you're just trying to make money, in which case you win.

Thanks for your time my friends.

Oh and P.S. Alan Tudyk and Adam Baldwin also star as Mickey and Dutch respectively. AMAZING