There are a lot of things I really liked about Halo 3: ODST, and there are a few things that bugged me about Halo 3: ODST. On top of being wildly incoherent, that sentence should nicely sum up my review.
This game is a Halo game. What does this mean? By now, do you even need to ask? There will be a mission where you have to destroy a large alien driven vehicle while on foot. There will be a tank driving mission involving long corridors and battles with more alien driven vehicles. There will be points where you have to hold out against waves of enemies in a seemingly hopeless situation. There will be lots and lots of grunts saying lots and lots of silly things. The final mission will include a long sequence where you drive a warthog in an extremely stressful situation. If you one of the millions of people that has partaken in a particular Halo game, this will all be very familiar to you. Is this a bad thing? No. One aspect I have always liked about the Halo series as an FPS is how different the combat feels from a typical FPS. Battles are much more tactical than your typical shooter fare. The enemy AI, as always, is good. The variety in weapons in the game is awesome, and that familiar “Which 2 weapons do I want?” question will be in your head for the entire time. (I only have 2 rounds left in the rocket launcher… but I just can’t drop it!) The large trademark Halo action set-pieces are fantastic as usual, though after defeating my 3rd scarab tank, I was looking forward to some new big baddies. Some people might complain that this is just more of the same, and while those people are correct, I think that they are making a very bad argument. A drastic change in game play would have been a bad decision, because this is a Halo game. I like my nigh-yearly Halo gaming experience. I like that I can get my floaty, takes 20 shots to kill a guy, sniper rifles are overpowered, Halo gaming experience almost every year. Think of it as a gaming “comfort food” of sorts.
