GamesBeat

With Halo 3: ODST for the Xbox 360, Microsoft and developer Bungie are testing the waters beyond the story of Master Chief that occupied center stage in the Halo video game trilogy.

In doing so, they may actually catch up with the insatiable thirst among Halo fans for more content. Bungie takes its time with Halo games, which have debuted in 2001, 2004, and 2007. The last game, Halo 3, was a smashing success; its 15 millionth online player recently signed up. Halo: Reach, the next major game in the series, will come out in 2010. But ODST is a nice snack for the voracious fans in the meantime.

The game has a decent story, great action, and mildly interesting new places to kill aliens. The only trouble is that the single-player campaign game is too short. Even so, after a dull summer on the Xbox 360, Halo 3: ODST is a welcome action shooter with a lot of extra value from online multiplayer combat. The game does a good job of holding up the tradition of the original Halo, which is my favorite game. The combination of haunting and elevated music, great sounds, fast action, and game play demands that keep gamers on their toes is what the original delivered like no other game, in my opinion. So I’m predisposed to like anything Halo, except the weak Halo Wars real-time strategy game from earlier this year. For people like me, buying this game is a no brainer. The question will be how far it reaches into the mainstream gamer market.

Bungie’s decision to do the game was a calculated risk. There’s plenty of material to mine in the Halo universe, when humanity stands on the brink as an alien race invades Earth. To date, the Halo story has filled six novels, a graphic novel, three major video games, and potentially much more. This game came about because Peter Jackson’s Halo Chronicles games were canceled and Bungie had a team that was under-utilized. So the studio chiefs directed the team to complete ODST in a mere 14 months. They did a stand-up job under the circumstances. The risk of doing a short game is damage to the overall brand — a brand that’s sold tens of millions of $60 games.

But the game is more than a mere expansion pack for Halo 3. Some gamers have questioned whether it’s worth a full $60, the going price for most new video games. Expansion packs are typically cheaper, but for Halo fans, it will be worth the price.

The story revolves around a bunch of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, who are armored space marines who can drop to a planet from low orbit. They’re tough fighters, but not as resistant to enemy fire or as physically enhanced as the Master Chief. The events take place at the end of Halo 2, when Master Chief fights at New Mumbasa and then fights again on the ringworld Halo. The voice acting by actors such as Tricia Helfer (star of Battlestar Galactica), who plays Captain Dare, is excellent. There are five main characters, and, in contrast to previous Halo games, you get to play in the shoes of all of them, though your main role is as the Rookie.

In contrast to prior Halo games, you have to get over the fact that you’re not a super soldier anymore. You’ll find your ODST soldiers can’t run, can’t kill an ape-like enemy known as a Brute with a single blow, and can’t wield two guns at once — which is really annoying since they have two hands. For those of you who like to be super soldiers, this is more than disappointing. But it means you have to approach the battles in a different way.

Thankfully, there are plenty of weapons to use against the enemies to level the odds. Variety of game play is what keeps Halo fans coming back more. If there isn’t enough variety among the human-created weapons, you can always get the satisfaction of stealing the enemies’ weapons. The sticky plasma grenades are still the surest way to take out a big Brute.

The fighting takes place in New Mumbasa, a vast futuristic city that is pretty boring as far as Halo environments go. While the environment of the original Halo was fascinating — it was a ringworld planet with waterfalls and other cool outdoor landscapes — this city is repetitive and dreary. One of the great things about the game is the combination of the visor mode (night vision) where you can see all sorts of objects around you at night, as well as the map. You cannot play the game without looking at the map often because it’s too easy to get lost in the city.

But the story keeps you involved with the game. The tale is told in fragments and flashbacks. You jump from soldier to soldier, each a member of an ODST squad that has a disastrous landing on the war-ravaged city, which has already been overrun by the enemy. As a member of the team known only as the Rookie, you have to piece together what happened. That makes you want to get to the next level so that you can see the cinematic sequence that unveils the next clue. As the Covenant make advance after advance, you get the feeling that your chances of finding your comrades and your ability to defend the city are doomed. You can make valiant stands under siege-like conditions, as wave after wave of Covenant enemies attack. But you’re stuck in an inexhorable retreat, and the only victories that you can find are to rescue the things that you really can’t leave behind. That’s where the spooky cinematic sequences and the doleful music come in. The theatrical effect hammers home the message of the first screen of the game: We are losing. By the end of the game, you know that whatever you do, the human race is still going to have a hard time surviving.

But there are some interesting diversions along the way. I was intrigued by the side story included in the game — Sadie’s Story — an audio story that unfolds piece by piece whenever you stop at a phone booth within the game. Bungie hired Fourth Wall Studios, a startup maker of alternate reality games, to create this side story. The drama reveals more about New Mumbasa as the Covenant take over the city.

Sadie’s Story extends the game somewhat, but the main single-player campaign is still short at six hours or so. The ending is intense, as Halo endings always are, but it didn’t drag on forever.

The saving grace for those who want more is the fightfight mode and the multiplayer gaming. With the firefight version of multiplayer, you can gather with up to three friends in a closed area and fight off wave after wave of attackers. Instead of player vs. player, you work cooperatively to fight off the enemy hordes. You get a number of lives and you see just how many points you can rack up before you die your last death.

With multiplayer, you get a bunch of maps packs from Halo 3 and three new ones as well. The Halo 3-style multiplayer is loads of fun, even if it’s hard to stay alive in a universe of Halo sharpshooters. I knew how to play instantly because I played a lot of Halo 3 multiplayer. You pick the type of game you want to play, wait for the connection, and you are thrown into the arena of your choice.

I played last night with a group of gamers for a bunch of rounds. They all had microphones so we could talk to each other and plan out the battles. The players included xxx2mike2xxx, Jester5023, gOdfat3r2, xNHxWinger, and Drunkie13. We plotted what we wanted to do in each round on maps such as Sandtrap. We rode together in purple tanks, Warthogs, and motor bikes. We rained death from above with Banshees. I leveled up quickly to second rank in one evening. But after more than an hour of joint play, our group hadn’t won a single match. It wasn’t that we sucked that bad. We had players with ranks as high as level 6. But the other players are just animals. So even if you can master Halo 3: ODST in a matter of hours; it can take months to become an online champ.

The endless hours of multiplayer fun can add to the value of the game, helping to justify the retail price. It remains to be seen how much of my fall game playing will be consumed by playing Halo 3: ODST multiplayer. After all, there’s a lot of good stuff coming down the road. See Bungie’s own documentary on the making of the game below.

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