Halo 3: ODST

If I recall and comprehend properly, ODST started out as downloadable content for the core Halo 3 game. Evidence that seems to support my supposition is that the "complete Halo 3" online game experience is included on a second disc in this package. The first disc is purely ODST. I guess, if you were inclined, you could pop the second disc in and play Halo 3 online? Without buying Halo 3? Although, you kind of did buy it already because you bought this game, and they realized it wasn't enough on its own. They would be right, but when you buy it at a discounted price, it just doesn't matter. I played through the campaign, and am happy to put it back on the shelf.

I was confused: the early part of this game was overwhelming and lost and I can't help but think this is because I'm not a Halo nut. I have played the trilogy, and while entertaining, they were never big standouts for me. That being said, I played Halo 2 online a lot. In fact, this blogs origins lay concretely in stories of online Halo matches.  However, I tend to focus on the solo campaigns of games these days, unless I'm playing online with friends (playing with strangers is just bad news). So getting back to it, ODST has the campaign starting out with you playing The Speechless, Mysterious Bad Ass Rookie as he wanders through the streets of the first city to be hit by the invasion of the Covenant. Fair enough, but strange. The game has you blindly following beacons, until you get to the first memento, at which time you take control of one of your missing squadmates.

Once you complete all the stories from each of your squadmates, your brought into the present and enter the final "level" so to speak. I'll leave it up to you to find this all out for yourself. But basically until you get to the end, playing as the rookie is very boring and seemingly useless. When you come across an object and jump into the story of another squad member, the game picks up and plays like your traditional Halo games. You have your sniping level, your tank combat, your regular wave fighting scenarios, amongst others. I think one of the reasons I didn't like the city wandering parts, is because the game was dark. You turn on a type of night-vision here but it's just odd: the flashbacks get you into the regular, bright Halo worlds we're used to.

And just like that, the game is over. I thought we were over it, but the final level brought back the classic Halo repetitive halls and chambers. You have no clue where you are, but you keep fighting anyway. Just when you are about to quit because there is no end, the light shows itself and you keep going to the next repetitive section. It's how the game goes though, and we enjoy it regardless. Halo has had an odd fascination with epic story that just never felt proper to me. The scale is epic, but has lacked real substance. There are lots of cinematic but the same old gameplay feels lacking when trying to support them. The focus has always been online play, but the sheer magnitude of the story is rammed down our throats in the campaign.

Either way, the game is a great little distraction and worth the few hours it takes to blaze through it.