So, Halo 3: ODST isn’t a complete waste. When I first got it, I was rather unimpressed. I’m still rather unimpressed, but it’s a decent although rather mediocre attempt at pushing the Halo universe into episodic gameplay (in multiple respects). I don’t think that I’ll sway any Halo fanboys who have already decided that ODST is the greatest thing ever, but I’d like to ruminate a bit over some of the aspects that were done well and a few that have grown overly stale. ODST is Halo 3. This is, in my opinion, a bad thing. Halo 3 was easily the worst title of the Halo trilogy. Halo 1 was never really revolutionary, but it took all of the fun aspects of first person shooters, refined and polished them, and then put them in a slick package. We’d pretty much seen variants on it before, but never so well done, with perfect controls, and in one package. Sure, the open space stuff was a breath of fresh air following all of those corridor shooters, so there’s that. Halo 2 took the gameplay mechanics and fine-tuned it further. The fighting, the weapons, and the vehicles were enhanced to near perfection. Sure, the story was crap, but we got to play as The Arbiter, who was basically the same as Master Chief but with a cloaking device that subtly (but meaningfully) changed the gameplay. Halo 3 was eye-candy and no story. Everyone wanted to “finish the fight” and know what was happening. Instead, the story was so convoluted as to not make any damn sense. The levels seemed more and more corridor-ish, the weapons didn’t feel as tight, and even The Arbiter lost the cloaking ability. Halo 3 seemed to be the poster child for “bigger, badder, worse.” Where was all of the polish? It went into the visuals and not into the game.

Now, a couple of years later, we get ODST, which is based on the Halo 3 engine. To be fair, the story-telling is markedly improved (it’d be hard pressed to get any worse), but it’s still missing that je ne sais quoi that made Halo 2 so endearing (despite the abrupt cut to the story). The ODST does play a little differently from the Spartan soldier, but it’s still pretty much the same game. I don’t jump as high, but I still have a floaty jump that gets me places I probably shouldn’t be. I don’t throw with the high arc that Master Chief had, but I feel like I throw about as far. Sure, I don’t take the punishment that Master Chief did, but I can still Rambo through sections that I probably shouldn’t.

Halo 2 made a distinction between the two character types with environmental changes (The Arbiter had a different level set and different weapons available) as well as a small difference in gameplay (the Spartan flashlight became the cloaking button). Playing as The Arbiter felt pretty much like playing as Master Chief, but these small differences actually brought out a few different gameplay mechanics. Playing as the ODST just feels like playing as a nerfed Master Chief. Perhaps Bungie could have put a few more mid-to-long range weapons in there. As it is, plasma pistols+automatic rifle, needlers, and shotgun+fists are still the quickest and easiest way to knock down brutes. Anything else feels like a waste of ammo. We’re still encouraged by the game’s weapons to get in close rather than hang back and try to stealthily take groups down.

I think that’s one of the bigger disappointments. The “stealth” mechanics seems to merely be to stay away from patrols during the nighttime “hub” sections of the game. If you stay far enough away, you can walk passed patrols and avoid confrontations. This is rather disappointing. There’s nothing really new here. And you can’t really exploit the stealth. If you shoot someone from a distance, then everyone knows exactly where you are at. It’d be nice to find a silenced rifle and take down a patrol or two from the shadows. Or even an unsilenced one and each shot alerts them to my general direction. I’d have to move in the shadows to new locations and nests to avoid being caught. Instead, you make one shot and immediately everyone turns to unload into you. I’m a nerfed Master Chief and I have to play as one. I run in, kill a guy, and then run out for my stamina to recharge. Too often, I walk into a section and get sniped by two guys that I never saw and died before I had any chance to get away. It’s frustrating to get shot and not know who did it. There were many times where I’d get almost done with a really tough section and then sniped to death and have to do it all over again.

Although ODST didn’t make any substantive changes to the gameplay that made it better, it does feature some good improvements on the overall design of the game. One of my favorite changes is in the way the levels are arranged. In previous Halo installments, there would be segments of levels that were vehicle-based, some that were corridor-based, and others that were large, open firefights. In ODST, each mission focuses on doing one thing. There’s one that’s nearly all air combat and one that’s nearly all tank. There are those that have you running around on foot and another that lets you run wild with the Warthog. By focusing each mission so directly on one aspect of the game, the designers were able to really tweak that section and gear it to the brand of combat involved. The missions are relatively short, but I appreciate that each one is so focused on one aspect of Halo.

I also liked the hub world that lead to each mission. I didn’t actually like walking through New Mombassa itself, but I was increasingly pulled in to the side mission of collecting audio diaries. It seems like ever since Bioshock made collecting audio diaries so integral to the game, other games have tried to follow suit. Bioshock still does it better, but I appreciate how ODST takes the idea and runs with it. There are plenty of signs for where each audio diary is located if you just learn the signals. As you get more audio diaries, the city gets progressively darker and dead as there aren’t as many billboards subtly pointing you in a particular direction or audio effects to grab your attention. It’s a good step and I started to enjoy the hub much more as its own mission rather than the annoying interim between other missions once I figured it out.

ODST is, unfortunately, the sum of its parts. You are lacking several weapons and vehicles from the Halo universe and the new ones that you get are merely retreads of guns dropped from previous installments. The game is still the run-and-gun fest that it always was but since you’re not Master Chief, all of your fights are punctuated more by hiding and recharging rather than all-out action. Worse, the graphics and animations are stale. I wasn’t expecting Gears of War 2 graphics on this engine, but I missed that visceral “wow” factor that I had when I first played Halo 3. The animations also seemed a bit off, more cartoony than in previous installments.

In the end, ODST has something of a story that pertains to Halo but it in no way affects or is relevant to the main trilogy story arc. It has some good ideas and runs with them in places, but it never fails to either live up to the best of the Halo experience nor break away from the mold. If you loved Halo, you’ll at least enjoy ODST. If you weren’t already infatuated with Halo, there isn’t anything really here that’d change your mind. You could do worse than ODST, but you could also do better. If you haven’t already played through Bioshock, Left 4 Dead, or some of the other more innovative shooters, go play them instead. If you like Halo 3’s multiplayer and haven’t bought any of the expansions, consider ODST. If you love Halo unequivocally, then you’ve already beaten this game.