ODST was an excuse for a game. It was built up like you were finally going to play as a marine, and then it turned out you were spartan JR. Your sheild still exists, and health is still there, of course. The "9-10 levels," of which there are actually eight including the overworld, talked about are little more then footnotes as they are rediculously short scenarios that ammount to less playing time then halo 1 on easy.
The AI left something to be desired, as always, and the game compensates by throwing tougher versions of the enemies you face at you in more difficult levels.
Question: If humans were so badass as to be able to punchout galatic space horrors in one to two hits, WHY THE HELL DID THEY WASTE RESOURCES ON THE SPARTANS? You should be violently opposed to being shot at, with a cover mechanic, like real humans use in war, of some sort instead of being a spartan with armor that isn't as effective as damage to it accrues.
I had high hopes for the game, for a personal story delivered to us about a man in a town that has already been lost to the enemy, who is just trying to find his way out alive. Instead we pilot a silent, emotionless robot with the psychic power of being able to read objects' pasts and relieve some part of them.