Halo 3: ODST Review

Halo ODST is a solid expansion to Halo 3, but it feels like that through and through while also removing mechanics that was present in the base game like the equipment system and changing the health back to Halo CE's system and while I while I talk about the health I might as well talk about my brief experience of the game on Heroic difficulty: I am surprised playing Halo on Heroic is supposed to be the "intended" difficulty or how you should play Halo. All that difficulty does is make me dislike the regen health more than I already do. Raising the difficulty just increases the amount of time I have to hide behind cover. I thought playing it on Heroic might be fun considering you don't have regen health but all it does is remind me how much Resistance Fall of Man's health system is far superior. What annoys me so much in ODST especially on Heroic is that you can't partially regenerate your health after being in critical condition and enemies don't drop health either so if you fight more than 3 brutes, it's basically shoot, take hit, find cover, regen health, rinse repeat However play Halo ODST on Normal, and I am running out in the open, throwing grenades, actively engaging with the melee attack and actually not hiding behind cover like a wimp. Taking on 3 Brutes or more actually feels possible and not frustrating. I remember Halo 3 having a pretty balanced Heroic mainly due to the equipment system but that gets thrown out the window once the Flood shows up. Playing ODST on Heroic you can't even take more than 3 shots until you are in critical health and you have to hide behind cover. I started to enjoy the game much more when playing it on Normal due to the above mentioned reasons.

Now I'll talk about the game overall, the game feels experimental but at the same time also removes things that made Halo 3 interesting like the equipment but ODST has it's own innovations like the "open world" which I will admit nails the atmosphere with the art direction and the fantastic music but it's ultimately a gimmick, it's basically just a fully rendered level select menu and it often just gets in the way of the actual Halo missions you will be partaking in. The Halo missions are pretty good if typical, you got your vehicle sections and traditional shootouts and I do like that in this game you got to use the Spartan Laser a lot more where in Halo 3, you used it on occasion. I do enjoy Halo's combat outside of the regen health, I like how the 2 weapon limit makes you experimental with different weapons, how melee and draining shields can help you save ammo or how draining shields and using bullets can effectively make you better at fighting the Covenant. Grenades also work for crowd control as well. I feel like only regen health prevents from enjoying the game even more considering whenever you are at critical health, waiting for it to regen while hoping the AI would ignore you is not super effective especially on higher difficulties. The Banshee mission is also really bad and goes back to Halo 2's bad habbit of waiting for npcs or the game to progress the next sequence. Data Mine and Costal Highway also kind of go on for way too long for my tastes but I played this game so much that I got used to it by now. The usual Halo issues show like how the series only has four enemy types and whenever it tries to add more, the game starts to fall apart like with the Flood, the lack of bosses can be pretty disappointing but I don't mind since Halo's combat can't really allow for it.

Story is decent if nothing special. The characters interactions are okay but feel a little too Whedonesque for my tastes but I did like the way the story was told with the narrative being scattered and you and by proxy the Rookie have to connect all the dots. I do like how there is a bit more humanity in the story with Buck being torn between the safety of his men and the mission with Dare, it's not super amazing but it's engaging enough. I am still to this day not 100% sure how the narrative to this connects to Halo 3 but I do think the story is decent for a Halo and an FPS story.

Overall, Halo ODST is an interesting expansion to Halo 3 and I did enjoy my time with it, even if this game never reaches the highs of the base but at the same time, never reaches the lows of Halo 3's Flood levels.