The lights are on
Halo 3 had an lackluster campaign but ODST completely nullifies anything that Halo 3 did wrong. The story set up is awesome. You are a nameless ODST who is hot dropped into New Mombasa just as a Covenant cruiser goes into slip-space. A massive emp wave hits the city and seems to wipe out every ODST drop pod. This is one of the coolest opening sequences in any game I have ever played. You awake hours later, and eject from your crashed drop pod. As you explore the dark streets of New Mombasa you try to find clues about what happened to your squadmates, these clues take you into a flashback of what happened earlier but you play from the shoes of your squadmates. Once you complete the misson you step back into the Rookies shoes, and trek to the next area in which a clue could be located. These missions are great and are so much better than Halo 3's campaign missions. The story may be a bit of a disapointment, it seems to be lacking a focus other than finding out what happened to your squadmates, but of course the way Bungie set it up is almost perfect. The gameplay is just as good as you would expect it to be. Minor tweaks to make the ODST seem weaker than Chief don't harm gameplay an any way. Awesome battles, like in any Halo game, are the main highlights, from dodging the blasts of a Scarab to fighting off grunts and brutes trying to cross a bridge, this game is as action packed as it gets. New features like pressing up on the D-pad to find your next objective and an especially cool feature called VISR. An advanced night-vision scope that can see the sneaky camoflauged brutes and outlines enemies in the night is an awesome addition to Halo. The change from Master Chief is a bit hard to get used to, you won't be making easy jumps anymore, you actually need health packs to survive, Brutes seem much taller than you, and falls from heights actually hurt you. Bungie handles this transition amazingly. New weapons include the Silenced SMG and the Automag (A Silenced Pistol) and these are some Kick-Ass new weapons, that rank up there with my favorite game weapons of all time (See Singularity Bomb and Master Sword). The SMG can take on the biggest of the Brutes while the Auto-Mag can headshot a grunt with ease. The omission of the battle rifle is a bit upsetting, but theses new weapons offset any disapointments. The graphics are solid as any Halo game, even thought they are a bit cartoony, but you know Bungie, they deliver when it comes to epic explosions and almost beautiful battles. Now for the sound. The sounds of battle have never been better, the weapons have very distinguished sounds, like always which is great but the real deal is the score. The composers have outdone themselves again. The beautiful but haunting score really highlights the feel of the deserted streets of New Mombasa and you really feel like you are a part of the fight. Imagine fighting off units the the Requiem For a Dream theme or the Kill Bill theme. It just blows me away. And as for firefight, it was as well crafted and amazing as any Bungie multiplayer component. The maps are varied and well designed, usually peices taken from the actual campaign, and they are very unique. One map you find you self fighting off brute choppers, another map you are fighting banshees who do strafing runs as you fight brutes and hunters and other maps you have wraiths bombarding you from far away. Skulls make it harder as you go further and it gets better and better. The one thing that keeps this from being perfect is the lack of matchmaking. While it does prevent you from being matched up with mike-less idiots, it makes it time consuming to find someone to play with. As for the lasting appeal, the campaign took me about 4-5 hours, ever though they were amazing, it was way to short for me. Firefight would be an everyday thing for me, if it had a sutible matchmaking. Overall it was amazing but is hindered by its length, lack of firefight matchmaking, and lack of character development. It still remains a great game, and no one should have any plans of selling it. (Review for three new maps) After playing significant time with the new maps, I will post my opinion. Citadel- Tons of corners for shotgun whores to camp, and it is very big for a 2-6 player recommended map. It has trick mirrors, rockets that will be fought for furiously and a sniper rifle, it is solid but my least favorite new map. 8.5/10 Heretic- A sword in the middle is fought for constantly, and players start with plasma grenades. Brs are scarce and I find myself battling with AR and shotgun constantly. It is a great map and a classic in my opinion. 9.5/10 Longshore- This is an excellent objective map with a variety of weapons. Snipers and swords and even a ghost are present. There is also an extendable bridge which can add for objective stratagies. 9.6/10 All in all the maps are definitly worth it, even though I like the previously released maps a bit better, I feel these maps are a very solid addition to Halo's already deep map selection.
Take a franchise as successful as the lauded Grand Theft Auto franchise, and destruction and the ability to completely level buildings, and you've got a game. This game, like any other game has its pros and cons. The level of destruction is incredible, but leaves you wanting more. Think of this game set in a futuristic San Fransisco or Chicago. Leveling massive suspension bridges or the tallest skyscrapers in the worl could add up to limitless fun. That is a con of this game, its on Mars. Sure Mars is cool, but this version isn't as industrialized as it should be for a main source of Earths income, maybe commercialized too. But instead I was treated with a bland-ish enviornments with even blander names like Dust and Parker. I read other reviews from readers and was treated with comments like "There is like 6 differnt types of cars", and I thought "What the hell do you want, its Mars, do you want to see a fucking Ferrari and a Corrola?" Even if this was a valid complaint, it still doesn't take away from the experience at all. Now for some good things. The desruction was fantastic, level bridges and tall buildings with sweet weapons or even your very own vehicle. The Story was decent, containing a twist or two, it doesn't hold up with the plots of games like Bioshock, but it isn't bad. The cutscnenes, despite how few there are, are good, with good charater models and good voice work. Destruction aside, the gunplay was fun, not much strategy involved, and unfortunatly is hindered by a lack luster cover system. It still is a great expereince to drive a car through a building, charging up a staircase smashing people with your hammer, freeing hostages and bolting off in your truck, only to see the building topple behind you. Multiplayer is fairly weak, containing some interesting modes, and a really cool wrecking crew mode. If you're looking for a core multiplayer experince, this may not be the game for you. All Minor problems aside, you get a great single player game, and a sub-par multiplayer and bad ass destruction physics as you tear through Mars. Also this game boasts one of favorite video game weapons of all time that ranks up there with the Master Sword from Ocarina of Time and the Battle Rifle from Halo. It is a sinularity bomb, and it crates a miniature warp rift that sucks anything around it up (including you if you're too close) and blows up, propelling rubble everywhere. It is hard to find though. Single Player- 9.2/10 Multiplayer- 8.5/10 Overall Score- 9.0/10