Halo 3: ODST
polycounter lvl 18
Damn, that was a fun game. Gotta say the thing that struck me most was the music; from jazz to tribal to the classic Halo orchestra / rock, Bungie definitely mixed it up with this one. As varied as they were, the tunes always seemed fitting.
I somehow missed a few of the audio clips that you have to search for, but I gotta say I love any game that includes a side / back story to its design that is rewarded to the player through exploration and discovery. FEAR and FEAR 2 both did this very well with health expansions and backstory, and I like how Bungie's built it into ODST. I'm really hoping it's a big part of Reach when that comes out.
One of my only real gripes in the game was the health system; not it's inclusion, but occasionally having to hunt for a stimpack. It would have been nice to have the UI flag them, especially when you were in need of one.
I'm really looking forward to giving Firefight a run for its money; haven't had a chance to play at work during lunch yet, and I need to organize playing it with coworkers or you lot after work some time.
I somehow missed a few of the audio clips that you have to search for, but I gotta say I love any game that includes a side / back story to its design that is rewarded to the player through exploration and discovery. FEAR and FEAR 2 both did this very well with health expansions and backstory, and I like how Bungie's built it into ODST. I'm really hoping it's a big part of Reach when that comes out.
One of my only real gripes in the game was the health system; not it's inclusion, but occasionally having to hunt for a stimpack. It would have been nice to have the UI flag them, especially when you were in need of one.
I'm really looking forward to giving Firefight a run for its money; haven't had a chance to play at work during lunch yet, and I need to organize playing it with coworkers or you lot after work some time.
Replies
Campaign was nice. Not very long but still a good play through. Had about as much story as Halo3 but not as long of levels. Beautiful game. (still has weak human character faces though)
Going to go through with skulls on and co-op at some point.
Still need most of the Sadie's story clips.
Music was astounding. I am going to have to get the ODST:OST!
Firefight is pretty cool. Just finished a 3.5 hr session with my roommate on easy... it was still incredibly tough to get to set 7 when a couple of lucky Brute Chieftains with hammers took us out finally. As my roommate said, "We are true ODST now... cause that was hell we jumped into" hehe.
The inclusion of the ENTIRETY of Halo3 multiplayer is a major plus for me and my roommates. After 3 disks have become unreadable from drive scratches and then the disks cracking, it's nice to have a new copy included with all the DLC maps!
This campaign is less drawn out than Halo3 and there aren't any of the crazy hard hour long levels like half of the Halo3 campaign missions. Level design is much much better this time around. It's also not linear in which are you play in. You can go to any of the flashback locations at any point as the Rookie. The last few levels catch up to present and are linear in story/time though.
i might have got too skilled through all these years and dropped them all while running
Yeah the music was just amazing, nothing to say about that then once again, they hit it
I was talking about how the experience could become better last month with a friend, like in rpg games, you can talk to characters and get more information on whats going on in the story. They did a great job with adding those pieces, though it could have been more. Maybe the game was too short or there could have been a bit of an other story to it. I think i gathered most pieces, maybe mist one in the end, but it did not seem to make totaly sense.
The game started off amazing, i almost had a bit of this "Lost" feeling, going back and forth.
Though i must admit, that it kind of bleeded away later on in the game. You start off with the statement that the battle for new mombassa was maybe one of the most important, but you drift away from that and it becomes a hollywood lovestory about a dude who lost his girlfriend.
I was really hoping to get a view from the ODST's site on how the story went, but i somehow missed that a bit. Maybe even get dropped a second time, or more into action.
I really enjoyed how the rest of the storytelling was put together, specialy in the sidestory you get. Though after listening to that, the city's AI became very quite once again.
The weapons were tweaked nicely!
I loved how the magnum worked this time around, a bit less powerful but the speed made up for it. Not getting held back by fireing speed was a great feeling.
The SMG seemed to be my least favorit weapon in the game, accept for some plasma. Its really fun that its hard to keep steady, but it just doesnt seem to do massive damage, its more surpressing fire.
The needlers rocked.. i think i made too many kills with it, just pick up all the ammo there is and keep blasting, pump um full and move on.
Also the flamethrower was extreemly powerful! I really blasted my way through one of those levels, brutes almost instantly dropping to the flore. (played on heroic because my buddy thought legendary would be too much for him..)
The hammer... oh man, really some assbashn time with that thing. You really feel the forcefield just slamming in those guys.
Also the suicidal grunts with plasma really got me the first time, its explosion just hit me from a distance
It was great to keep in mind about how you used your weapon, if you kept blasting, you ran out of ammo really fast.
The health system was a bit.. needed sometime to figure it out.
You can still just run freely and jump into the party, but once your screen gets red, there are two things that happen to me, or i run around for 5 min with almost nothing in my healthbar, or im instantly dead.
The amount of enemies was really fun, around 80 kills each after a good mission, even ended up with 150 on the escort mission i think. Just far out.
It is really awesome you finaly got to see a Huragok, the floating engineer.
Though i must say from reading the novels, i was expecting a slightly different design.
(plus once again i miss a bit of the story around it, im too used to the novels i suppose)
One last thing, wich is the only thing that really bothered me a bit besides a bit of drifting story.
The guys you play with are fakn hollywood actors, no ODST!
ODST are diehardsonofabitches, no clean and slickhairbrushedtothesideassmadafakas.
They looked a bit too .. social, and needed more gears of war thoughness i suppose.
Dont get me wrong here, im in love, but its good to stay realistic and have an opinion.
Besides just calling out some points that sounded slightly negative, the whole experience to me was extreemly positive.
Once again a good piece to add to the collection
ps. I got the game for 60usd(translated) here, while a normal xbox game would go for around 90usd.
Haha, I had this "wait a minute" moment, and realized what they were, whereafter I proceeded with high-fiveing myself.
Anyone who judges a game buy what the developers say at the announcement and not from there actually experience can suck a d.
I'm just kidding... I just think gamers should realize that there is a lot of gameplay to be had in it.
$25 = Campaign
$20 = Firefight
$15+ = All the halo 3 MP DLC
That is my break down...
My thoughts exactly.
Want an example of how to avoid dick suckery?
-10-12 hours of gameplay, dialogue, scripted sequences and full-frontal male nudity
-new weapons
-new vehicles
-new multiplayer modes
-new gameplay elements
$20, Lost & Damned
And, by the end of this year, I'll have paid $40 total for all those points I just said x2 once Gay Tony comes out.
Anyway, you've already spent the money on the expansion pack so I'll just save you the effort now.
So far the game's a lot of fun, I'm not really sure how the "expansion" argument even holds up; it feels like a complete game to me. Add free stand alone halo 3 multiplayer (great since I never owned 3 since I was visiting home when I beat it with my brother) and I think its pretty kick ass.
Snap!
Also, how many of you had already purchased the DLC that is included with the full price expansion pack?
I havent bought ODST and probably wont, but leaving out the halo 3 content --
8-10 hours of sp, and a... what, six-seven map multiplayer? Isnt that the same if not more content than a lot of games i buy?
Also, are 85% of the levels the same artfully worked on but gameplaywise completely dead tileset from GTA4 just with motorcycles added in?
Eh? No no. I understand the tone of my post. I'm allowed to get like that once in a while. :poly136:
Just saying, $69.99 for that had me giggle when I first read it, with my reasons why posted above
Suprore, not sure what you're on about. I never mentioned new maps??
I guess my overall point was Lost & Damned made me feel like I was ripping off TakeTwo with the fee I paid, and if I got ODST I'd feel like I was ripped off by MS. I'd gladly feel the former before the latter.
Really enjoying the campaign so far, too bad my live has run out I want to play firefight online.
AstroZombie, I'm one of those people that doesn't buy expansion maps for multiplayer so I got even more for my money by getting all the extra DLC stuff on the 2nd disc!
least, thats what i heard.
either way, i havent hooked up my xbox in months, so ill pass.
I'm not a huge fan of the series, so it isn't a day one purchase for me regardless. I'll probably pick it up on the cheap at some point, but with the plethora of awesome titles coming out this fall *cough*shamelessplug*cough*Borderlands*cough* I'll be saving my money for something else.
either way, if anyone wants a copy I think I'll be selling mine soon, gonna finish up the campaign and call it quits. I don't like being charged extra for a second disc of stuff I already paid for.
bah.
/bitter
that said it's a sweet game so far, but I'm not really fond of the detective parts. Halo is about action. I do like the way they are telling the story though!
Glad to see people are enjoying it, I hope that Halo Reach beta will pull me back into the Halo universe.
Yep I had purchased the maps previously as DLC... so?
You wanted me to wait TWO YEARS to play the game online so I could save a few bucks?
Considering my roommates and I have put nearly 30hrs into the game since receiving the game at noon on Tuesday.... yeah it's been worth the $60.
It's in the title, you will like it or you won't. You already knew.
Haven't rented it myself but yea, MW2 > ODST, at least for me. I'll wait for my addiction to wear off and the price to drop a bit, but I'll eventually get around to ODST.
people will pay it though.
also, whiny gits will never be satisfied until they get shit for free. then they'll just bitch about bugs. look at these L4D2 boycott fuckers.
I think the term 'expansion' is misleading, even if it was used by Bungie earlier in development. It's an expansion in that they're not making it with a new engine (like they have with all previous installments). It's a stand alone game that's not quite the size of their previous installments and is therefore priced accordingly. Oh, and it includes a new multiplayer mode (firefight), three new Halo 3 multiplayer maps (not including the already existing Halo 3 maps and access to the Reach Beta.
It's good value for me!
As for the campaign and game in general...meh. I'll just give some bullet points:
- Graphics > Wtf are you thinking, Bungie? The game is so dark you have to use the visor, yet with that turned on, it's bright as all hell! And this is on a calibrated HDTV! On the plus side, the outlines are nifty.
- ODST toughness > Again, WTF?! This is a human being, not master chief! Why can an ODST take out a Brute with 2-3 melee strikes on legendary? Why the hell can they take as much damage as master cheif? If humans were this tough, why the hell are we losing the war?
- Movement > These ODST's can still run ridiculously fast and jump 6ft vertically. Ugh.
- Cover > How is it that a game that's supposedly focused on vulnerable characters and stealthy gameplay has absolutely no cover/evade system in place? Even the ridiculous snap-to cover of Gears of War would be preferable to this.
but remember, the helljumpers are the best of the best, next to only masterchief.
I'm still puzzled though that they're not far off the artificially enhanced, exoskeleton enhanced, shielded, Ai-assisted spartans.
changing the gameplay too much from halo might have lost them some buyers though.