Review: Halo 3: ODST

Part of Handsome Slapdashery, a column by Jon Dutko.

The Halo series has a legacy of revolutionizing the video gaming industry. The original Halo single-handedly made the Xbox a serious console. Ther arrival of Halo 2 heralded a new era in online console-to-console gaming. Halo 3 swiftly became one of the most popular offerings on the Xbox 360, and today over one billion matches of Halo 3 have been played online.

I will begin this review by saying that Halo 3: ODST is not a revolutionary game. Anyone looking for a unique gameplay experience, something excitingly new, should be forewarned that this is not the game for them.

ODST, on the surface, seems to be a relatively small package. The campaign pales in comparison to those of its predecessors; the only multiplayer mode is the new Firefight mode, and even this allows only two players to play cooperatively on the same console. An initial sense of outrage — “I paid $60 for this?” — seems to be standard when cracking the game open for the first time.

Let’s not talk about the price or the campaign, though. Let’s talk about the Firefight mode, easily my favorite part of the entire package. In Firefight mode, you’re flung onto an isolated section of up to ten battlefields, sent by some anonymous (an, ultimately, sadistic) commander in order to fend off a seemingly endless wave of aliens with guns who, for some reason, have a bone to pick with specifically you.

Don’t ask how one wins Firefight mode. On any reasonable level of difficulty (Easy mode is for hypocrites and fools), the struggle for survival is nigh impossible. Each successive wave of gun-toting aggressors is heartier, more tenacious and far more cunning than the one the precedes it. Modifiers are added every round, subtly changing the attitudes and habits of one’s opponents. Lives and ammunition are limited, eliminating the machisimo “running-and-gunning” of past Halo fame.

Surprisingly, though, the entire experience is oddly cathartic. Shooting Grunts in the face from fifty yards is always satisfying, of course, but the entire “lone gun” feeling hasn’t been paralleled by any other game I’ve played to date. Taking down hundreds of alien scum as Master Chief, the indestructible superman of Halo canon, is fun of course, but seldom exciting; how can one platoon of fanatical aliens take down the pinnacle of humanity? As the faceless Rookie of ODST, however, the paradigm shifts entirely. The player knows that he is vulnerable, weak and ill-equipped in comparison to the hordes who await him. ODST proves that a scenario requiring skill and precision can be far more enthralling than one in which the odds are stacked heavily in the player’s favor.

I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’ve been writing college essays for the past week, but Halo 3: ODST came at the perfect time for me. Had it been priced at, say, $30, it would have been revolutionary. At $60, however, it is merely a different perspective on the Halo series that, while satisfying, lacks the epic feel of its cousins. Try it if you need a stress release (as I’m sure many of you do), but if you’re looking for the cinematics that the Halo series has made itself famous by, wait for the next one.

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