On reflection given that Bungie’s involvement with the Halo is now over having being rounded off with the epic Halo: Reach the design of this game seems a little cynically motivated. Rather than taking the franchise in a radical new direction graphically, narratively or any other ly you can name it merely serves as a stop gap between Halo 3 and Halo: Reach, a little something to keep the fans ticking over until Bungie’s last hoorah. This is even more apparent as everyone who bought a copy of Halo ODST instantly qualified for the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta, rather than standing alone as an interesting episode of interactive storytelling ODST merely serves as a light orderve to something meatier. However despite this despicable marketing altruism this is still a Halo game and still some of the most fun you can have with a FPS.
Stepping out of John 117 cybernetic Spartan boots you play as blank canvas protagonist and eponymous ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) “Rookie” a man so devoid of character his only distinguishing feature being his military inexperience. However you are not alone, you join a veteran squad of ODSTs each one of them a two-dimensional cliché, which isn’t any less apparent despite the acting talents of the male cast of Joss Whedon’s Firefly. There’s Buck, the charismatic leader Dutch, who yep you guessed it is the straight and narrow tough guy, Mickey providing “comic relief” and cowardice in equal measure and finally Romeo, professional sniper and twat. Our mission? To do something non-specific for Buck’s old flame, surprisingly in this case a woman, given his Captain Jack square hair and fruity accent.
Having hopped into our drop pods, which even with the benefit of futuristic fictional technology seem like the fastest way to an early death, we plummet to planet earth under assault from the Alien Covenant. The team is inevitably scattered all over Hell D-Day style leaving us alone to awake in the dead of night in the city of New Mombasa wondering what on earth to do. Despite my insinuation that this is a lazy game, there is nevertheless enough going on here to warrant some praise. For starters the abandoned streets of the city are suitably eerie, especially when rendered clearer by your in helmet night vision. Recharging health is out the window, and you’re weapons are even weaker against Covenant shields than usual. All this culminates in a rather affecting atmosphere of impotence and vulnerability. This is quickly shattered when you realise that the silenced pistol is incredibly powerful when used properly and a simple combo of a charged plasma and headshot will have you dropping Brutes and Grunts like you’re Jason Bourne.
These night-tine segments play out more like combat meets detective work as you wander around, picking up clues as to what may have happened to the rest of your team. This noir-like take on proceedings is accentuated by a haunting soundtrack that brings to mind 30’s Detective films and Lethal Weapon melodrama. To provide variety from the endless, and often aimless wandering, mainly down to the somewhat unintuitive map, each time you discover a clue you play out as another member of the squad. While this gives us opportunity to play out signature halo action set-pieces it also further relegates “The Rookie” to little more than a cog in the narrative machine, acting more like an editorial fade in and fade out than a fully fleshed out character.
There’s nothing more to say about the story which is as forgettable as the characters. Also the decision to include what sounds like a terribly acted Radio 4 afternoon play, about a young woman trying to look for her father in the midst of an alien invasion only further highlights the fact that Bungie can’t really do empathetic human characters. While the mother-son, lover dynamic between the A.I Cortana and the Master Chief in previous Halo games had real nuance. The notion that Buck and his ex-Veronica have anything close to real chemistry is laughable, their love-hate interactions appallingly contrived.
So as per usual I’ve got hung up on all the things that nobody else seems to care about, story, characterisation and all that pretentious jazz and can’t see the woods for the trees. This an FPS, is it fun to slaughter all the Covenant has to offer from the whimpiest grunt to the most savage brute chieftain? The answer of course is a resounding yes. Taking their cues from Gears of War 2 Horde Mode in which you fight waves of increasingly more challenging foes, Halo ODST includes Firefight. This simple premise is easily the best aspect of the game, devoid of unsatisfying story telling it boils down to what makes Halo game’s truly great, it’s you and some friends taking out enemies with an arsenal of imaginative and balanced weaponry.
It seems apt that in a review for a “standalone” game that I end with talking about the very game which Halo ODST acts as one big interactive advert for. I’d be lying if I said I was very excited to play Halo: Reach, given as this is likely to be the most refined halo experience yet (no fucking Flood for one thing). Saying that I think it’s about time that Bungie passed the baton on to someone else, and see if once again Halo will be synonymous with the evolution of combat.
