The Newest Addition (SPOILER WARNING)

Halo 3: ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) was originally billed as a simple expansion pack to the original Halo 3, but in the end came out being much more. ODST contains a solid seven hours of band new campaign material. The campaign takes place on earth during the Covenant invasion of New Mombassa, at which time in Halo 2 Spartan-117 is leaving earth in the wake of the Prophet of Regret for Installation 05.

Leaving behind the by now blood-stained HUD of the Master Chief, ODST is played from the vantage point of a human UNSC (United Nations Space Command), known fondly as Rookie. If you remember the events of Halo 2, the Prophet of Regret hits the "enter slip space button" on his vessel, causing a massive shockwave that destroys much of the city of New Mombassa. ODST takes place after that shockwave, as the Master Chief is pursuing Regret. The main plot of the story involves Rookie reuniting with his five other teammates, and after doing so, moving through the city searching for the core of the city A.I. known as the Superintendent, which holds crucial information about the reason why the Covenant is attacking New Mombassa. Sparing the ending spoilers, the campaign is nothing to scoff at, easy as it is to trim it down. Coming off Halo 3, whose campaign was less than appealing to those of us who had played Halo 2, a refreshing viewpoint in ODST will offer an exciting new vantage point for the most faithful to the Halo series.

But we all know that we don't play the Halo series for their stellar campaigns. Halo is not a series that claims to have the depth of plot of The Elder Scrolls or Mass Effect. Halo is the king of the sci-fi multiplayer, and ODST is just another form of that greatness. ODST ships with 11 original Halo 3 multiplayer maps, the Heroic map pack (Foundry, Rat's Nest, Standoff), the Legendary map pack (Avalanche, Blackout, Ghost Town), the Cold Storage map, and the Mythic map pack (Assembly, Orbital, and Sandbox) as well as three new maps (Citadel, Heretic, Longshore). An impressive collection for those who didn't drop the Microsoft Points on the packs separately, but nonetheless this means that ODST multiplayer is just a large expansion pack for Halo 3 right? Wrong! ODST contains a new multiplayer mode called Firefight, brand new for any Halo game. Firefight has been affectionately compared to (and no doubt somewhat modeled off) Horde in Gears of War 2, in which teammates face waves of varying enemies, and Firefight is much the same. Firefight contains new medals for the Halo multiplayer (everyone loves getting that Death From the Grave medal with that last grenade you threw before took the Energy Sword in the face), which is only trivial to some. Firefight plays like this: the team has a pool of lives that are added to after a set number of rounds. Upon the depletion of all those lives, the game is over. Skulls are included in Firefight for variety, and enemy spawns are completely random, meaning anticipation of the strength of the next wave is nearly impossible, adding to the confusion. Firefight contains ten maps, three of which are unlocked by playing the campaign. firefight also contains the musical score to ODST, giving each level much more atmosphere.

A completely new character, campaign, and multiplayer mode would be enough to elevate ODST to the top tier of games one would believe, but ODST has received some less than stellar ratings from across the gaming world. Arstechnica gave the game a "Rent" rating, pcmag.com dished out an anemic 7/10, Games Radar also garnered a 7/10. ODST is being knocked for shoddy graphics, a short campaign, linear campaign gameplay, and set pieces used from previous games. Does this look like sub par graphics to anyone? If anything, Bungie has improved the graphics from Halo 3 for their newest, enormously hyped brain-child. The short campaign is, to be repetitive, nowhere near a 100+ hour Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, but coming into the release of ODST we knew that. Halo has never been known for an amazing campaign, plain and simple. As for linear campaign play, I would love to raise the question "What were the previous Halo campaigns? Completely freeform?" The answer is no. Halo is about fast-paced campaigns that are part of any overall story. You don't need to have 37 different side quests to be fulfilled by the campaign. One legitimate question is over the price of ODST. Is Firefight and seven hours of campaign really worth $60? Considering you are paying for every map expansion for Halo 3, the math needs to be done. Each pack cost (at original release) 800 Microsoft Points. And Live users know the obnoxious 800-avoiding-prepaid-card-prices of 500 and 1000 points, so one must buy 1000 points for $12.50. That only amounts to $37.50. Dropping another $22 for a seven hour campaign and Firefight seems like a decent deal to me.

Overall, the preliminary ratings for ODST are positive and worth checking out. As another chapter in the Halo saga is already under production (Reach) , ODST may soon pass as just another short twist in the original story. But as a game, ODST is comes highly recommended from this author and from the majority of professional game critics in the world.