High five me if you weren?t hyped when you first saw the ODST trailer, if you saw it at all. I want, in fact, I HAVE to know how many high fives I get by the end of today. All I can say is, you?re not getting a high five from me. No sir, you can go put that filthy hand wherever feels less comfortable. I?d lie if I said my adrenaline meter reached a top when I was watching the video. The more than interesting first premise we got from this was that, of course, we?re no longer Master Chief, but instead just some soldier (armor suit included, mind) that gets space-dropped into the city of New Mombasa, location of part of the Halo 2 game. The second premise is that ODST picks up from when Master Chief leaves Earth, leaving you and the rest of the army to fight back the usual alien baddies. The set premises seem interesting, and we?re all ready to be hyped.
And not completely undeserved hyped at that. We all know how it goes with previews, demos, snapshots, etc? I?m not going to say anything that Yahtzee hasn?t said before. Furthermore, I can almost guarantee he will review it this week out of pure spite. However, the hype you get for this is the sort of hype a drug addict gets. And yes, why not use the incredibly over exploited drugs-games analogy once more. Certainly, here we?re just in for more, and that?s what ODST is. Just MORE. And of course, if you didn?t have enough of Halo 3 (which, campaign-wise, I certainly didn?t), then Halo ODST is probably symbolizing the dessert of the meal here. God, I love analogies.
Going into the game, the first thing that was niggling on my mind was the enervating thought ?Hey, hold on a sec. I?M NO LONGER INVINCIBLE!? Sure, the game does want you to think that you?re not invincible anymore. However, we got an issue here, since this falls on the first hurdle and smacks his face against the next. Soon enough, you realize that instead of shield, you have stamina, which, for all intents and purposes, works exactly the same as the armour shields you had on other games, where this has to be taken down before you can take real damage that can actually kill you. However, in Halo Combat Evolved (this being the first installment of the game), once your shields were down, the amount of health you lost was kept permanent until you found a health pack. Essentially, what this meant was that you could run in and start beating the royal crap out of every living and non living thing present, but once your shield was down, you had to start thinking about strategic fallback. And if you take too much damage in one run, the game is essentially forcing you to be more cautious next time, not only to avoid losing more health, but avoiding health altogether. The system worked, and it made for interesting survival tactics. On Halo 2 however, this system was dismissed in favour of another one. In this case, every time your shields were downed, but were recovered again, any damage you had previously taken to your health is recovered with your shields. In fact, in Halo CE, you could keep track of your health, whereas in Halo 2 you only have an approximate estimate of how much you could take after your shields were down before paying a visit to Mr. Satan.
I?m very happy to say that in ODST, the system originally used in CE is recovered, making the whole experience of being a more regular human not only much more appealing but also much more realistic and entertaining, as far as combat tactics go. In fact, other things have been recovered, like the pistol, which by some divine designation once again has a scope, normal clip size and fires like a normal pistol should, not as if it was being fired by some amnesiac that forgot what is it he had it in his hand or what it?s useful for anyways. So altogether, the experience has a rather retro feel, something that most Halo fans, specially those that haven?t played the originals will love to bits.
The storyline, in contrast with other Halo games (Yes, I know, over-referencing, but hey, it?s not even a sequel, it?s an expansion, so it has to be compared to its predecessors.) throws the linearity of the progression out the window for a more free progression. Instead of going level by level, the game puts you in the skin of The Rookie, an ODST recently transferred to the squad you will be controlling in the game. During the drop, the Rookie?s capsule is hit and gets separated from his squad mates. Waking up several hours after the rest, he finds himself in a war torn New Mombasa, with Covenant patrolling the streets, and some soothing jazz arrangement to accompany his gunfire (sorry, I just loved that). So of he (you) goes to find his squad. Instead of the squad, however, he finds different clues as to where his squad is and has been doing. Whenever you find a clue, you go into a playable flashback that lets you play the events the character/s have gone through. So essentially, you could go to any flashback in any order, and in case you don?t do them in the correct order, it?s up to you to reconstruct the story. It works pretty well, and it also means that, as the Rookie, you have to navigate New Mombasa, and actually explore your surroundings for a change. For all of you grinders, yes, there are collectables, in fact, this time, we get the skulls right from the beginning, but the game requires us to find and activate up to 30 terminals that contain audio files that narrate the events happening in the city just before the alien invasion, and the underlying cause of the invasion altogether (already more than known if you?ve played Halo 3). I haven?t found them all, I?ll admit, but it?s on my to-do list, for certain, since I?m genuinely interested in knowing if Mr. Kebab shows up again (and hopefully I?ve managed to pique your interest too).
The game play? is just Halo. Ok, I know it?s shallow, but seriously, if there?s something that hasn?t changed much in the Halo universe is the way you get around things. As a matter of fact, the game introduces no new weaponry and few new enemies. Actually, some are missed out. I, for one, haven?t seen a single exemplar of my trustworthy battle rifle. So in short, innovation in game mechanics is very little. In fact, the only weapons that get changed are the SMG and the Pistol, and the changes they receive are not significant enough to make an actual impression. What there is from other games, however, is absolutely great. Some game franchises will take several games, several expansions and several tries before they actually get the perfect balance. Halo got it pretty much right from the beginning, and the polish it received from it sequels was so brightening you can?t help but feel that there is no perfect weapon in Halo, but that there is a perfect weapon for certain occasions, and not having it could result in failure. And it does induce the ?But I might need it later? syndrome so well and so many times it?s almost enervating. Almost.
Altogether, and without polish, the game functions perfectly, there is no situation were you won?t succeed, even on Legendary, the hardest difficulty of the game, if you?re simply cautious, make good use of weaponry (or overuse the needler) and have a lot of patience. The game keeps you interested enough to keep going until you beat it, and there are several points in the game that are true highlights, such as were you?re fighting wave, after wave after wave of enemy airbourne forces with limited anti-air resources, or when you?re steamrolling through New Mombasa on one of the indestructible Scorpion tanks. As an aside note, I have to say I miss the Flood, regardless of the fact that supposedly they could one hit kill you in this game, and I?m talking about the small ones here. Specially in Firefight they would have been very interesting, which links me to my next paragraph.
Sure the promise of a new multiplayer is made true. This multiplayer, however, is no longer death matching. Remember all those horde games we?ve been having recently? Horde on GoW 2? Nazi Zombies on CoD 5? Well, make room for one more, here comes Firefight on ODST! The thought behind this idea is as clear as day. The developers saw just how successful it was on the other games and thought ?hey, why not?? so on they went.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.135025
As for Firefight, there are several things to be said. Once again, and being the great fan of horde game play that I am (evidence on link above), I was really into finding out how this went. Turns out, it is good! For instance, and in contrast with the other horde games, this one looks more like a tennis match, and instead of being round by round, it goes round by round, where each round is divided into three sets of increasing difficulty, and of five raids, each with increasing difficulty too, each set of five concluding in an epic fight against several Brute Chieftains armed with some of the most powerful weapons in the game, a chance I usually take to use the friendmaker, A.K.A, the gravity hammer, and make some friends. They don?t show up in my friends list though?
Difficulty in Firefight is defined by different factors, and the fact that you?re not simply fighting stronger, faster baddies every time is very pleasing. Instead, once you?ve already chosen the base difficulty, the game will make constant changes in difficulty by adding more monsters to every raid or activating skulls, which are essentially in-game modifiers that vary in effect, ranging from making enemies a bunch of grenade spamming bastards (God I hate that) to giving them double health, or even both at the same time, and other several combinations (imagine over-resistant, grenade dodging, grenade spamming, enemies, then imagine fighting them with low ammo. Certainly, the game wants you to adapt, something I really appreciate). It is also notable that this time, instead of having to depend on the douchebags you have for team mates, you respawn immediately, which also means you don?t have to bore yourself to death wondering if you?ll ever get to respawn in severely crippled conditions or your team of uncooperative twats will finally meet their maker. Here, you respawn immediately, and get immediately kicked back into the fight with the standard equipment (which includes the pistol (*Overstated Joy*)). However, don?t get too confident on your new respawning powers, since you have a limited amount of lives to pull from to actually be able to respawn, making survivability much more crucial, since on other cases, as long as you have a competent team, you can count on them reviving you constantly with (barely) any penalties. On Firefight however, you have to be much more careful, because the life total is also shared, hence making a frequent dyer hated by everyone. The whole redesigning of the concept is very much welcome, and I?m going to be playing it for quite a while. Just in case you want to join (LOOK UP MY PROFILE)
Another pleasant surprise about firefight is that the array of maps to choose from is great. You get so many environments to fight in that I can almost guarantee you won?t get bored. In fact, since you progress through rounds pretty fast, failure shouldn?t be a problem altogether. On the other hand, it has a major crippling flaw, that being the lack of a matchmaking system, meaning that you can only play it with your friends, or people you?ve invited to join. In fact, when put against Halo 3, you can?t even go hunting online for people to join you. Instead, you have to put in the multiplayer disc, go hunting, find someone that will actually want to play with such a social reject, then invite them to an Xbox Live Party, then change the disc back, then invite them, then play. That considering that they can connect to you without problem. GOD I hate Telefonica.
Oh, didn?t I mention? The game is divided into two discs. The first one, the one we?ve been talking about for ages on end now, is the one that has the campaign, the firefight mode, and the theater mode (but you?ve already seen that one). The second disc, however, was quite a clever move by Bungie, and it simply consists of the multiplayer aspect of Halo 3, but with all the downloadable content maps in one disk. Considering that each map pack was already pretty expensive, and that the three of them together would make close to 30 euros (remember, Microsoft points are a *****), it looks like a pretty interesting add on, specially considering that the whole game cost me 45. Altogether, it?s one of the few times I haven?t felt tricked when buying games. But hey, I?m an addict, I?ll go through anything. At any rate, as mentioned, the disc only includes the multiplayer aspect of Halo 3. This has some major advantages going for it, but it also seems like a pretty bad marketing decision. The good thing about is, obviously, that everyone who has either Halo 3 or Halo ODST will be able to play together. Try picturing how many people that is. The amount of traffic Bungie is going to generate in the internet is going to be massive. On the other hand, and considering that the whole map set comes with the extra disc and that Bungie is restricting most of the online playlists to the people who have all the map packs, or basically the ones you still have to pay for, what is really going on is that Bungie is saying ?Buy or Die!?.
It?s not hard to see that if you have to buy all the ad-ons for a game instead of them being free, people who can?t will not be able to access the whole online experience, which I remind you is the original dilemma with the Xbox Live subscriptions. If after paying ten monthly euros for the subscription you are still ready to pay for the map packs, then you are probably mad or very rich. I bought them when it was an option, not an obligation, and therefore I feel sorry for those that have to buy them as obligation (my friend Brendan amongst them). Another bad thing about this is the fact that, in first instance, I supposed that the multiplayer was going to use the ODST system, humans against humans, instead of genetically engineered superhumans versus genetically engineered superhumans and an alien. When face with the obvious chance to make give their multiplayer a twist, Bungie decides to, instead, grind it a little bit more. Sure, it?s what they do, but Halo 3?s multiplayer was very innovative, and smack my face against a fence if you weren?t expecting, if not the same as me, at least some change in the multiplayer gameplay aspect. In short, Bungie has been very naughty on this one, and I hope they don?t try to pull it off again. Sure, maybe they?re just trying to give their multiplayer a longer life, but, is it really necessary? I mean, how many people is there that will never get tired of Halo? Way too many I might say. I mean, not even a game quite as mythic as Counter Strike could?ve gone on for so long without either regular updates or major innovations. Not only did it get both, but it also got user created content, which I think is a major reason why Valve?s multiplayers go on for so long. And no, Forge is not user created content, it is user modified content. Completely different.
Altogether, though, the expansion that wants to be a full game does so quite nicely. The campaign is certainly solid, with some major, warmly welcome innovations, and the firefight mode is the most entertaining horde mode I?ve played in ages, running up very close with Nazi Zombies. The multiplayer disc, however, falls too short for me, which is VERY disappointing in a Halo game. On reflection, the game has reached such a state of polish that any more could make it start concentrating light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation beams (bet you didn?t know that?s what laser stands for
), thus being extremely dangerous. Altogether, the game is nothing short of good, and it will at least serve for an aperitif before the heavy Christmas releases.
Serrant wonders if his friend Brendan might stumble across this. And if not, he?ll make him read it.
As an aside, Serrant is currently applying to contribute as columnist in The Escapist, so if you like his style, dig in for him!
And not completely undeserved hyped at that. We all know how it goes with previews, demos, snapshots, etc? I?m not going to say anything that Yahtzee hasn?t said before. Furthermore, I can almost guarantee he will review it this week out of pure spite. However, the hype you get for this is the sort of hype a drug addict gets. And yes, why not use the incredibly over exploited drugs-games analogy once more. Certainly, here we?re just in for more, and that?s what ODST is. Just MORE. And of course, if you didn?t have enough of Halo 3 (which, campaign-wise, I certainly didn?t), then Halo ODST is probably symbolizing the dessert of the meal here. God, I love analogies.
Going into the game, the first thing that was niggling on my mind was the enervating thought ?Hey, hold on a sec. I?M NO LONGER INVINCIBLE!? Sure, the game does want you to think that you?re not invincible anymore. However, we got an issue here, since this falls on the first hurdle and smacks his face against the next. Soon enough, you realize that instead of shield, you have stamina, which, for all intents and purposes, works exactly the same as the armour shields you had on other games, where this has to be taken down before you can take real damage that can actually kill you. However, in Halo Combat Evolved (this being the first installment of the game), once your shields were down, the amount of health you lost was kept permanent until you found a health pack. Essentially, what this meant was that you could run in and start beating the royal crap out of every living and non living thing present, but once your shield was down, you had to start thinking about strategic fallback. And if you take too much damage in one run, the game is essentially forcing you to be more cautious next time, not only to avoid losing more health, but avoiding health altogether. The system worked, and it made for interesting survival tactics. On Halo 2 however, this system was dismissed in favour of another one. In this case, every time your shields were downed, but were recovered again, any damage you had previously taken to your health is recovered with your shields. In fact, in Halo CE, you could keep track of your health, whereas in Halo 2 you only have an approximate estimate of how much you could take after your shields were down before paying a visit to Mr. Satan.
I?m very happy to say that in ODST, the system originally used in CE is recovered, making the whole experience of being a more regular human not only much more appealing but also much more realistic and entertaining, as far as combat tactics go. In fact, other things have been recovered, like the pistol, which by some divine designation once again has a scope, normal clip size and fires like a normal pistol should, not as if it was being fired by some amnesiac that forgot what is it he had it in his hand or what it?s useful for anyways. So altogether, the experience has a rather retro feel, something that most Halo fans, specially those that haven?t played the originals will love to bits.
The storyline, in contrast with other Halo games (Yes, I know, over-referencing, but hey, it?s not even a sequel, it?s an expansion, so it has to be compared to its predecessors.) throws the linearity of the progression out the window for a more free progression. Instead of going level by level, the game puts you in the skin of The Rookie, an ODST recently transferred to the squad you will be controlling in the game. During the drop, the Rookie?s capsule is hit and gets separated from his squad mates. Waking up several hours after the rest, he finds himself in a war torn New Mombasa, with Covenant patrolling the streets, and some soothing jazz arrangement to accompany his gunfire (sorry, I just loved that). So of he (you) goes to find his squad. Instead of the squad, however, he finds different clues as to where his squad is and has been doing. Whenever you find a clue, you go into a playable flashback that lets you play the events the character/s have gone through. So essentially, you could go to any flashback in any order, and in case you don?t do them in the correct order, it?s up to you to reconstruct the story. It works pretty well, and it also means that, as the Rookie, you have to navigate New Mombasa, and actually explore your surroundings for a change. For all of you grinders, yes, there are collectables, in fact, this time, we get the skulls right from the beginning, but the game requires us to find and activate up to 30 terminals that contain audio files that narrate the events happening in the city just before the alien invasion, and the underlying cause of the invasion altogether (already more than known if you?ve played Halo 3). I haven?t found them all, I?ll admit, but it?s on my to-do list, for certain, since I?m genuinely interested in knowing if Mr. Kebab shows up again (and hopefully I?ve managed to pique your interest too).
The game play? is just Halo. Ok, I know it?s shallow, but seriously, if there?s something that hasn?t changed much in the Halo universe is the way you get around things. As a matter of fact, the game introduces no new weaponry and few new enemies. Actually, some are missed out. I, for one, haven?t seen a single exemplar of my trustworthy battle rifle. So in short, innovation in game mechanics is very little. In fact, the only weapons that get changed are the SMG and the Pistol, and the changes they receive are not significant enough to make an actual impression. What there is from other games, however, is absolutely great. Some game franchises will take several games, several expansions and several tries before they actually get the perfect balance. Halo got it pretty much right from the beginning, and the polish it received from it sequels was so brightening you can?t help but feel that there is no perfect weapon in Halo, but that there is a perfect weapon for certain occasions, and not having it could result in failure. And it does induce the ?But I might need it later? syndrome so well and so many times it?s almost enervating. Almost.
Altogether, and without polish, the game functions perfectly, there is no situation were you won?t succeed, even on Legendary, the hardest difficulty of the game, if you?re simply cautious, make good use of weaponry (or overuse the needler) and have a lot of patience. The game keeps you interested enough to keep going until you beat it, and there are several points in the game that are true highlights, such as were you?re fighting wave, after wave after wave of enemy airbourne forces with limited anti-air resources, or when you?re steamrolling through New Mombasa on one of the indestructible Scorpion tanks. As an aside note, I have to say I miss the Flood, regardless of the fact that supposedly they could one hit kill you in this game, and I?m talking about the small ones here. Specially in Firefight they would have been very interesting, which links me to my next paragraph.
Sure the promise of a new multiplayer is made true. This multiplayer, however, is no longer death matching. Remember all those horde games we?ve been having recently? Horde on GoW 2? Nazi Zombies on CoD 5? Well, make room for one more, here comes Firefight on ODST! The thought behind this idea is as clear as day. The developers saw just how successful it was on the other games and thought ?hey, why not?? so on they went.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.135025
As for Firefight, there are several things to be said. Once again, and being the great fan of horde game play that I am (evidence on link above), I was really into finding out how this went. Turns out, it is good! For instance, and in contrast with the other horde games, this one looks more like a tennis match, and instead of being round by round, it goes round by round, where each round is divided into three sets of increasing difficulty, and of five raids, each with increasing difficulty too, each set of five concluding in an epic fight against several Brute Chieftains armed with some of the most powerful weapons in the game, a chance I usually take to use the friendmaker, A.K.A, the gravity hammer, and make some friends. They don?t show up in my friends list though?
Difficulty in Firefight is defined by different factors, and the fact that you?re not simply fighting stronger, faster baddies every time is very pleasing. Instead, once you?ve already chosen the base difficulty, the game will make constant changes in difficulty by adding more monsters to every raid or activating skulls, which are essentially in-game modifiers that vary in effect, ranging from making enemies a bunch of grenade spamming bastards (God I hate that) to giving them double health, or even both at the same time, and other several combinations (imagine over-resistant, grenade dodging, grenade spamming, enemies, then imagine fighting them with low ammo. Certainly, the game wants you to adapt, something I really appreciate). It is also notable that this time, instead of having to depend on the douchebags you have for team mates, you respawn immediately, which also means you don?t have to bore yourself to death wondering if you?ll ever get to respawn in severely crippled conditions or your team of uncooperative twats will finally meet their maker. Here, you respawn immediately, and get immediately kicked back into the fight with the standard equipment (which includes the pistol (*Overstated Joy*)). However, don?t get too confident on your new respawning powers, since you have a limited amount of lives to pull from to actually be able to respawn, making survivability much more crucial, since on other cases, as long as you have a competent team, you can count on them reviving you constantly with (barely) any penalties. On Firefight however, you have to be much more careful, because the life total is also shared, hence making a frequent dyer hated by everyone. The whole redesigning of the concept is very much welcome, and I?m going to be playing it for quite a while. Just in case you want to join (LOOK UP MY PROFILE)
Another pleasant surprise about firefight is that the array of maps to choose from is great. You get so many environments to fight in that I can almost guarantee you won?t get bored. In fact, since you progress through rounds pretty fast, failure shouldn?t be a problem altogether. On the other hand, it has a major crippling flaw, that being the lack of a matchmaking system, meaning that you can only play it with your friends, or people you?ve invited to join. In fact, when put against Halo 3, you can?t even go hunting online for people to join you. Instead, you have to put in the multiplayer disc, go hunting, find someone that will actually want to play with such a social reject, then invite them to an Xbox Live Party, then change the disc back, then invite them, then play. That considering that they can connect to you without problem. GOD I hate Telefonica.
Oh, didn?t I mention? The game is divided into two discs. The first one, the one we?ve been talking about for ages on end now, is the one that has the campaign, the firefight mode, and the theater mode (but you?ve already seen that one). The second disc, however, was quite a clever move by Bungie, and it simply consists of the multiplayer aspect of Halo 3, but with all the downloadable content maps in one disk. Considering that each map pack was already pretty expensive, and that the three of them together would make close to 30 euros (remember, Microsoft points are a *****), it looks like a pretty interesting add on, specially considering that the whole game cost me 45. Altogether, it?s one of the few times I haven?t felt tricked when buying games. But hey, I?m an addict, I?ll go through anything. At any rate, as mentioned, the disc only includes the multiplayer aspect of Halo 3. This has some major advantages going for it, but it also seems like a pretty bad marketing decision. The good thing about is, obviously, that everyone who has either Halo 3 or Halo ODST will be able to play together. Try picturing how many people that is. The amount of traffic Bungie is going to generate in the internet is going to be massive. On the other hand, and considering that the whole map set comes with the extra disc and that Bungie is restricting most of the online playlists to the people who have all the map packs, or basically the ones you still have to pay for, what is really going on is that Bungie is saying ?Buy or Die!?.
It?s not hard to see that if you have to buy all the ad-ons for a game instead of them being free, people who can?t will not be able to access the whole online experience, which I remind you is the original dilemma with the Xbox Live subscriptions. If after paying ten monthly euros for the subscription you are still ready to pay for the map packs, then you are probably mad or very rich. I bought them when it was an option, not an obligation, and therefore I feel sorry for those that have to buy them as obligation (my friend Brendan amongst them). Another bad thing about this is the fact that, in first instance, I supposed that the multiplayer was going to use the ODST system, humans against humans, instead of genetically engineered superhumans versus genetically engineered superhumans and an alien. When face with the obvious chance to make give their multiplayer a twist, Bungie decides to, instead, grind it a little bit more. Sure, it?s what they do, but Halo 3?s multiplayer was very innovative, and smack my face against a fence if you weren?t expecting, if not the same as me, at least some change in the multiplayer gameplay aspect. In short, Bungie has been very naughty on this one, and I hope they don?t try to pull it off again. Sure, maybe they?re just trying to give their multiplayer a longer life, but, is it really necessary? I mean, how many people is there that will never get tired of Halo? Way too many I might say. I mean, not even a game quite as mythic as Counter Strike could?ve gone on for so long without either regular updates or major innovations. Not only did it get both, but it also got user created content, which I think is a major reason why Valve?s multiplayers go on for so long. And no, Forge is not user created content, it is user modified content. Completely different.
Altogether, though, the expansion that wants to be a full game does so quite nicely. The campaign is certainly solid, with some major, warmly welcome innovations, and the firefight mode is the most entertaining horde mode I?ve played in ages, running up very close with Nazi Zombies. The multiplayer disc, however, falls too short for me, which is VERY disappointing in a Halo game. On reflection, the game has reached such a state of polish that any more could make it start concentrating light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation beams (bet you didn?t know that?s what laser stands for
), thus being extremely dangerous. Altogether, the game is nothing short of good, and it will at least serve for an aperitif before the heavy Christmas releases. Serrant wonders if his friend Brendan might stumble across this. And if not, he?ll make him read it.
As an aside, Serrant is currently applying to contribute as columnist in The Escapist, so if you like his style, dig in for him!
