Retrospective review: Halo 3: ODST

With Reach now out, I thought that I should go back and play ODST again. Please note that I have not played Reach and so this will not be a comparison review, merely a review based on ODST's own abilities.

In terms of the artistic style, ODST looks fantastic. With the new visor mode (which highlights all objects with different coloured lines, green for friendly, red for enemy etc.) the game world begins to look like a real sci-fi world.



In terms of levels, the night-time hub-like levels, where you progress around the city of New Mombasa, look incredible, and rarely feel boring, with enemy patrols being spread liberally around the environment. The city gives a great feeling of being large, both in a ground-floor and vertical sense. After a long time of having to return to the hub, it can to feel a little samey.

The flashback sequences, where you take the roles of your lost squad mates, provide the most intense, squad based action, but the style doesn't bring the same amount of depth as the city at night.

The soundtrack is one of the best around. The night levels have a jazz style over them, which really helps to build the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the flashback sequences do occasionally delve into awful rock tunes, but the action tends to be loud enough to block it out.

The combat is similar to the other Halo games, which is no bad thing. The new health/stamina system does add an extra level of depth, but you only really notice it playing on Heroic and above, which are definitely the difficulty levels to play on.

The ever-present Halo co-op is still probably the best way of playing it, especially with the characters now being much more vulnerable, which means that an extra level of tactics is required to survive. However, it doesn't stop the game from being the crazy fun that it always has been.

The new 4 player co-op mode which was added is genuinely great in split-screen or using headsets. The fast, intense action is perfect for the style of game mode.

So, the levels are mostly great, the soundtrack is usually fantastic, and co-op is still the best way to play Halo. I truly think that this is the best iteration of Halo ever, and it gives one of the best single player and co-op experiences available on the 360.