For years now, Microsoft has been riding high on the money-train that is Master Chief’s successful career in gaming. It’s hard to believe that the world-renowned, best-selling first person shooter which revolutionized the world of online console gaming itself was initially planned as an RTS for the PC. Close to a decade following Halo: Combat Evolved’s release, the series is still going strong despite the plot reaching closure.

With such a strong legacy to build upon, Halo 3: ODST was in a precarious position from the start, as it too began intended to be much different than the beast is has evolved into. Initially planned to be a downloadable release, ODST has amassed more support both within Bungie and Microsoft and from Halo’s die-hard fanbase than most titles planned to be full-blown games. No pressure, right?

What matters is not the expectations for ODST or the quality of its predecessor and big brother, the original Halo 3. What is more important is whether or not the latest installment in the franchise is worth your hard-earned cash. Disappointingly, what you’ll find is that despite its strong campaign and entertaining new addition, Firefight Mode, ODST just cannot withstand the scrutiny necessary when considering the sixty-dollar price point. However, what the game does have to offer will undoubtedly appease to series veterans who have not purchased the game’s other downloadable content and newcomers with money to burn.

You’ll take the role of the Rookie, ODST’s protagonist and Master Chief’s polar opposite. Whereas Master Chief is relatively vocal, and spends more time causing mayhem than analyzing it, the Rookie finds himself always late to the party, and left to put the pieces together in order to figure out what exactly went down. It’s a huge change of pace for the Halo franchise as a whole, and fits snuggly with the style of the gameplay, which is critical to why the campaign is so successful at what it does.

An ODST (which stands for Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) is by no means a Spartan, which is a group of genetically engineered super soldiers who can withstand much more than the average human (it’s also what Master Chief is). To accommodate this small loophole in the Halo formula, which usually relies on regenerating health, Bungie has taken the formula they used with the original Halo and updated it to meet modern day standards. In ODST, if you’re shot it takes away from your shield, which regenerates, but once that’s gone (and it goes away fairly quickly) damage will be deducted from your health bar, which does not regenerate.

If the description leads you to believe that your days of rushing into a group of brutes fearlessly are over, it should. The Rookie is basically an average human; he can’t punch brutes out with two or three jabs, hijack banshees or jump ten feet into the air. Okay, take away the cool visor, combat training and high-powered weaponry and then he’s basically an average human.

The visor, or VISR more accurately, is the key difference between the Rookie and the Chief, and what really throws the finishing touch on a pretty unique experience. After an unsuccessful drop into the African city of New Mombassa, the Rookie finds he’s been unconscious for six hours and must reunite with his team despite the loss of communications. Night has fallen and visibility is low, so the necessity of the specially-designed VISR is paramount.
Built into the helmet of an ODST, the VISR sheds light on any situation in the most literal sense. Everything becomes brighter, and outlines are placed on anything not growing from the earth itself. A green outline indicates an ally, red indicates an enemy, and yellow and blue are for ordinary objects. The visor is a definite help indoors, where it’s extremely dark, but if its not nighttime outside, which most of the levels in ODST are not, it becomes a useless feature.

In what seems like a failed attempt at forcing players to use the visor ninety percent of the time while playing, Bungie darkened shadows and dimmed the lights on every level which isn’t outside in the open sunlight. As a result, most of the time its too dark to see without the visor but too bright to see with it on. It’s really hard on the eyes and frustrating when you have to keep switching it off and on just to accommodate for the poor lighting. The VISR may be a unique tool and provide for an innovative way to play an FPS, but it just did not work out well this time around.

You’ll also find the new firefight mode to be a bit of a let down. While incredibly fun and not very different from the horde mode of Gears of War 2 or the Nazi Zombies in Call of Duty: World at War, it’s still a blast to play with friends and extremely challenging. Each round has an initial wave and then a certain amount of waves that will follow, as well as a new skull that will be activated at the start. As you progress through each round, enemies get stronger and larger in number.

The major shortcomings with firefight I’m sure you’ll find are pretty surprising, though. Unlike Gears of War or Call of Duty, ODST’s firefight mode lacks any form of matchmaking. As a result, the fun is always limited to the people on your friends list or the people who happen to be at your house, which is really annoying considering the potential that was there. There’s also the fact that there is no four-player co-op locally in firefight mode, though this is the case in campaign as well. You can have up to two people locally in co-op as well as two others via Xbox Live, but it yet again cuts short the potential that firefight mode had.

Those issues aside, the competative multiplayer, which the Halo series is probably more well known for, is unsurprisingly up to snuff. Unfortunately, that’s only the case because nothing has changed. Literally. The second disc of the ODST package contains the Halo 3 multiplayer experience complete with every downloadable map and three new ones. If you haven’t done the math in your head just yet, anyone who purchased every map pack at release would have spent upwards of sixty dollars, yet ODST comes priced at sixty.

Though Bungie isn’t new to the idea of stepping on the toes of its fans, this is probably as low as it gets in terms of flipping the bird to past customers. Though each map pack now is much cheaper than it was at release, it still doesn’t make much sense that a halo fan who has purchased and downloaded all of these maps should have to buy ODST and pay for the maps a second time.  That in mind, I hope you’ll understand the decision to call ODST a package which isn’t sensible in any way. Fans who own Halo 3 would pay less by purchasing the maps seperately now at their reduced price, so in the end it leads to an inflation in the cost of the campaign and firefight mode, which just isn’t fitting.

Despite any of its issues, the Rookie’s story affirms itself as a perfect fit in the Halo canon. For six to eight hours of enjoyment in an FPS, it’s hard to recommend a better game. That said, the price hinders any sort of saving grace this title could’ve had. Paying for the map packs twice is a task reserved for only the most die-hard of Halo fans. Fool me once and all that good stuff. With both the amazing qualities and game-breaking qualities mingling in this one, Halo 3: ODST can’t escape a B-.

Grade: B-