The Psychiatric Ward

Intro

Halo 3: ODST is one of the newer games in the ever expanding Halo series. The events of this game take place during the later parts of the Halo 2 game and the very early parts of the Halo 3 game. It gives a somewhat depressing story of what happened when the real hero of this series was gone.

They tried to make up new characters here instead of bringing back older ones from previous games. In fact, I didn't recognize hardly any of the characters in this game. Only time I saw a familiar face was in the cut scene near the end where they brought back our favorite Sargent Johnson.

Now, a brief summary of what one can expect to see in this game. In this first person shooter, the player plays as several ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) who have been scattered around the remains of New Mombasa after a Covenant ship made a slipspace jump, creating a massive shock wave that devastated the city. The player's character's job is to pick through the remains of the city during the middle of the night and find out what happened to his fellow ODST. With each new clue the character finds, one is able to play a bit of the other ODST's lives during the 6 hours that the main character was knocked unconscious.

Graphics

Ah, the graphics. As always, Bungie did a stunning job with them. In my opinion, there isn't much that could have been improved on in this area.

The lighting in this game was actually quite impressive. The majority of this game was played in a night time setting, meaning a small range of vision. Normally having low visibility would be a down point in a game but this one took that and used it to their advantage. The street lights, the shine from a wet surface in the night, the glare of fire off of buildings, everything was done in such detail when it came to the lighting. Even the enemies were hard to keep track of at times because they were able to hide well in the shadows. Kudos to the developers in that part of the game.

The characters for the game were well made. They moved fluently and were very well detailed. Only down point I can think of to the detail in these characters is the female ODST looking more like a man than a woman. All enemies in this game also moved and looked almost as if they were real. If one were to actually get close enough to a Brute to see the details in his armor, one would find that it was quite well done and thought out. When broken, it would shatter and fall as it would be expected to if this were real. The same can be said with the Grunts and their armor that they wear.

Something new the developers have implemented into this game is a system that the player can toggle on and off at will that changes the way one sees the graphics in this game. VISR (Visual Intelligence System, Reconnaissance) lights up the world around the player, making it easier to see the details at night and find enemies. Now, this makes things look great at times but during the day, the only thing it does is blind the player with a screen of pure white with the occasional moving figure.

The cut scenes in this game were also quite impressive in how realistic they looked. Despite there not being that many of them, it was always nice to sit back and enjoy watching these small movies that the creators of the game made for our viewing pleasure. I've only played through the game twice but I haven't found any detail out of place in these cut scenes.

I'm going to give this one a 9 out of 10. Only reason I'm taking points off is because of the blindness during the daytime while using the VISR.

Sound

Once again, the developers at Bungie have done well on another aspect of their spectacular game. The sounds in this game, to me, seem like a lot of work was put into them. Only a few flaws have become apparent to me in all the hours I've played this game.

Lets start out with the good stuff and get it out of the way. Explosions, gunfire, the yelling of grunts in the field, all are well blended and draw the player into the game. The audio actually is believably real due to the way they've combined it. Once again, the way they've adjusted sound for either dull for a distant shot or loud for a close up shot has proved to be an asset.

The dialogue used by the characters was also done well. I've yet to hear something that seems too far out of place that wasn't meant to be there. By this, I mean a character getting attacked and then immediately after saying something completely random and uncalled for at the time.

Of course, here comes the crap in the sound. I've had times where I just went around a corner in the game from an explosion and it sounds like the character is almost deaf. Yes, the game does flaw up on the sound sometimes if you're not in a direct line of sight from the center of the noise. Seems at times the game has two settings on sound; Loud and up close or soft and distant. There is no in between in parts.

I'm going to give this part an 8 our of 10 simply for the mistakes in the deafness of the character.

Gameplay

The gameplay, I've got a bit to say about this part of the game, good and bad. Sit back and enjoy.

To all the halo fans that have been used to the old controls, they'll be happy to hear that not much has changed in this new game. A few controls have been moved around for new abilities and some removed since the player doesn't have abilities they once did as the Master Chief. The player will probably be able to jump right in without much problem. If the player is new to the game, they won't have much trouble. Simple controls, really.

How about a little bit about the notable weapons of the game? To start off, the handgun has been vastly improved. This is probably one of the first things any player of the game will notice. It's almost like it has a silencer on it and is deadly accurate, proving very helpful if the player is a head shot hunter. The Brute plasma rifle is also a good choice when dealing with nasty shields that the enemies just love to wear. One of these can take down a shield in no time. The shotgun is and probably always will be terrible seeing as it has so little shots and does so little damage. Skip it and go straight for a carbine if possible. The carbine in this game is great for picking off things big and small. Basic overview of this would be that the weapons have been tweaked a little from the Halo 3 game, but not entirely changed.

The vehicles in this game are pretty good. Haven't gotten a chance to test them all out yet but they seem to be almost exact copies of the ones from Halo 3. Not much improved but hey, don't fix what isn't broken. Only thing I can really complain about is the difficulty in getting an enemy vehicle when I really need one. As we all know, some of the enemy vehicles are very useful if someone is wanting to just go out on their own and murder loads of enemies. Most of this game is spent running around on foot so vehicle parts are rare and most of the time the player is just given human ones.

The game AI is, as always, a little on the soft headed side. The enemies, the friendlies, they all act like they should be in a mental institution some times. The player can actually get the enemies to kill other enemies with just a few tricks like turning on one of the skulls that make enemies throw a crap-load of grenades. You line several enemies up in a row and they'll all throw grenades at each others backs, thus blowing their own selves up in the process. When shot at, some of them will just run towards you and not take any cover at all. The Hunters and Brutes in this game seem to have brains made out of bricks and barb wire most of the time. If the player gets up close to one and makes it mad enough to swing, it's no problem avoiding the attack and getting behind the enemy. For the Brute, it's the easiest way to kill one in one hit. For the hunter, well it's one of the only ways to kill it. I do have to admit though, in this game, the enemies in vehicles or on turrets have amazing aim. They'll hit the player at almost any distance.

As for friendlies, they just don't know when to get out of the way. The player could be driving along in a warthog while the gunner on the back is shooting at some enemies. Next thing, whack, the player just ran over some backwoods redneck of a friendly that just felt he had to come running out from behind the only rock in the entire area. When the player puts them in a gunner's position, they'll just shoot at a dead body for 5 whole minutes after the thing's already died.

Now, as for the storyline of the game. This is not the game for someone seeking a constant barrage of bullets and plasma from all directions throughout the game. This game's storyline is toned down and dark. There are actually long bits to the game where the player just rummages around in the dark, trying to find one's path to the next clue. Not saying that this is a bad thing, but it can become a bit dull at times. While trying to find one's way through the dark, it can become a bit confusing seeing as the city this game is based in is so big. The developers have added a solution to this problem. By simply pressing up or down on the D-pad, a small beacon is set in the game that points out the direction to the next destination. Quite useful and I use it a lot.

For the flaws in this game, I'm going to take off 3 points and just give it a 7 out of 10. Overly generous, I know.

Lastability

Lastability? I would say not very long, as all games of this type are. Sure, this game is a way to take up about 7 hours of someone's time if they really have that much to kill but I wouldn't look into buying this game if I was one to want to spend days on something. I guess it would be comparable to most of Halo 3 in how long it was. One can't even really hunt for skulls in this game because they're already given. Only little side thing one can do is go hunt for information terminals to unlock another achievement.

I would guess most people go after these games for the multi-player. I do admit, that takes up quite a bit of time so major upside to the lastablility of the game.

Overall, I'll give it a 5 out of 10. Took so much off because the storyline of it just wasn't long like some of the previous games have been.

Overall

Overall, I would say the game deserves a 8 out of 10. Yeah, there were some downsides to it but it was an overall good game. I would recommend it to someone who has a few extra bucks and needs a game that can be fun and easy to get into. Not exactly a game that can live up to the main series but a good attempt. Hope it is as much fun for everyone else as it was for me, good luck.