Product Description

The year is 2552. Covenant forces control the city of New Mombasa. They are searching for something beneath its darkened streets. You are an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. Your orders: stay alive, meet up with your scattered squad, and escape the embattled city.

• Fan favourite and Halo series stalwart Sergeant Avery Junior Johnson is a tough-as-nails career Marine who has been in more life or death battles than you've had hot meals. He's survived more infectious Flood outbreaks, greased more Covenant bad guys, and earned more medals than any other twenty soldiers. And now you get to walk a mile in his shoes!
• Dropping in as "the rookie," a new member of an elite squad of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers sent into New Mombasa on a classified recon mission, you'll be armed with specialised weaponry and upgraded technology, including silenced weapons and a VISR enhanced vision mode.
• Drop feet first into a new way to play Halo with the cooperative campaign mode, Firefight. Form a squad of your friends over System Link or Xbox LIVE and put your skills to the ultimate test against the invading Covenant war machine for glory, high scores, and achievements.
• Three all-new maps make their debut for Halo 3's traditional, chart-topping multiplayer. Heretic, Longshore, and Citadel drop in alongside the original Halo 3 Multiplayer Maps, all packed in and playable from one standalone disc.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Microsoft
• Released on: 2009-09-22
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: Xbox 360
• Format: Unknown format
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
A new Halo 3 game is about to hit, but the Master Chief is nowhere to be seen. This all-new first person shooter has evolved into something much bigger than a mere standalone expansion pack and is now a fully-fledged prequel to the last game.

Discover more about the build-up to the classic Halo 3

ODST stands for Orbital Drop Shock Troopers

You no longer play as the indestructible Master Chief

Sgt Johnson is available as a pre-order bonus character

You no longer play as a Spartan super soldier, but as a sort of futuristic paratrooper with less high tech armour and abilities. Much of the game is told in flashback, as you search for your missing teammates in New Mombasa and discover more of the backstory of the Halo universe.

Of course this being Halo the multiplayer is just as important as the story campaign, with the basic modes being identical to Halo 3 and using all 24 current maps. New mode Firefight though is a four player co-op mode similar to Gears of War 2's Horde - perfect for Halo fans looking for more action.

Key Features

• Semi-super soldier: Get used to a dirty, more tactical style of warfare as you join the elite ODST in a story set two weeks prior to the events of Halo 3.
• Halo world: For the first time ever in a Halo game you can explore an open world environment, with the freedom to go anywhere and use any vehicle.
• Classic action: Fight in the revamped multiplayer mode from Halo 3, with access to all 24 maps released so far, including all downloadable map packs.
• War without end: New Firefight multiplayer modes introduces four play co-operative action against an unending wave of Covenant forces.

About the Developer: Bungie
This U.S. studio had been around for ten years before they created mega hit Halo. Ironically in their early days they were know for their Mac-only games such as Marathon, as well as strategy series Myth. They were bought by Microsoft in 2000, but in 2007 they became independent again.

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Customer Reviews

Fun first time around but pales
I'm a huge Halo fan and I did enjoy playing this game first time around. However it has a number of flaws. The basic structure is pretty good with the city-based Rookie missions leading to the larger flashback main missions. The problem is that even for Bungie this has a very repetitive feel to it. The Mombassa streets Rookie missions are virtually identical and the novelty of night vision and new etc soon wears off as you wander endlessly in the dark looking for clues to the whereabouts of your team. The hidden weapons caches behind shuttered fronts are a big help in those missions.
The main missions are a bit more varied but each one has a similar theme with almost identical large arena gladatorial shoot-out endings where you battle huge numbers of enemies and wraiths. Its all a bit frantic and although I've played through twice (normal/heroic) I dont feel driven to play again and again like with Halo 3.
I think the graphics leave something to be desired, especially when the night vision is on as everything has a 2-D cartoon quality. There is also no recognizable "Halo storyline" to this and apart from the weapons and the enemies you wouldn't know it was a Halo game.
Firefight is a good addition but nowhere near as good as GOW2 horde and is limited in a couple of ways. Firstly teamplay is limited to friends and (I could be wrong about this), there is no restart option to resume at a wave level, I could only see you can start from the beginning each time. I haven't played online (no XB Live) but again you dont get the GOW2 option of playing multiplayer locally with team and enemy AI.
All in all a reasonable game but not up to the standard of other Halo games, nor of recent competition.

Really good shooter
I was playing this all yesterday from my shopto delivery and have to say the game is a great change. The plot takes the viewer to a time where the covenant are attacking Earth on a city called New Mobassa. You intially start as a rookie ODST trooper whos pod crash lands off course. From heere and through flashbacks you peice together what happened during the 6 hours you were out cold. This lets you play as the other ODST troopers untill you solve the whole mystery surrounding New Mobassa.

Graphically similar to Halo 3 but with a much different approach and with a few new parts. You have to find health as a pose to regenerating it (your just a human not Master Chief), your visor can act as a low light vision and enemy detector (appear with red outline). Your not near as quick as Master Chief and you have to take cover a lot and play each enviroment to your advantage.

The game is set into two discs (single player, multiplayer)and I haven't got round to playing the second disc, although I did play some Firefight, the new mutplayer mode. Here you have to take on waves of enemies which grow stronger each round, similar to horde on Gears of War 2, but this is more varied as different skulls are activated during each round to mix up the gameplay.

Overall Halo3:ODST is a great stop gap before Halo Reach (or any other shooter i.e. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2) and for £29.99 you get a great 360 exclusive that I recommend to any gamer.

Halo 3: ODST
There have been many great parings throughout history; Rogers and Astaire; Shearer and Sheringham; Fred and Wilma; Schwarzenegger and DeVito. Adding to this list, then, is the video gaming world's Microsoft and Bungie. Arguable neither are the best in the field, but combined they produce something beautiful.

And that's the way it has been since we first set foot into the world of Halo: Combat Evolved, way back in 2001. In 2004 we saw the release of the much anticipated sequel, Halo 2. And again in 2007 we had the third and final part of the trilogy, Halo 3. So given the fact that the trilogy already had its three parts, and given the austere presence of its forebears, is there any room in the franchise for a game that steps off the well-trodden Master Chief tracks?

Given that Bungie were keen to announce that ODST is more than an expansion, it would seem that they think so. Buying ODST you are given the "two-sided coin" that every FPS/TPS gamer has become accustomed to over the years; campaign and multiplayer. For this episode (if one can call it that) we do not see Master Chief, and we do not see a sequel (it is Halo 3: ODST after all). Instead we see a side story following the events of a Rookie as he fights his way around New Mombasa. And for multiplayer one gets access to all the same stuff as Halo 3, but with one small and hardly noticeable difference, and that is something called Firefight. Actually it's neither of the aforementioned adjectives at all, and I will cover that a bit later.

As I have already mentioned, in this game you do not get to play Master Chief Petty Officer John 117, the enhanced "SPARTAN" super-soldier we have all grown to love over the years. In this incarnation you play primarily as a lone UNSC soldier, known as the Rookie. Whilst Master Chief is off fighting the Covenant on the ring-world of Halo (in Halo 2), ODST follows the events on Earth, in New Mombasa, where the Covenant still have a stronghold. Whilst on your way to the drop zone, where you and a bunch of other marines are going to fight 'the baddies', your pod crashes and you are knocked out for six hours. You wake up alone, and the main point of the story kicks in here. You have to find your way through New Mombasa and locate your squad mates, but without the benefits one would expect playing as Master Chief. You do not have any of his cybernetic enhancements; you are not as powerful; you do not have a shield; you are not as fast; you cannot jump as high. You cannot simply blast your way through this sandbox city, because if you do then you die (at least, you are more likely to die quicker). Without a regenerating shield you have to rely of medipacks and first aid stations, and so you will find you need to adapt to the environment more. Attacks on enemies should be planned and more cautious, picking which one to target first and how to escape if necessary. Long gone are the jumping in and shooting everything that comes at you. No, this is a very different experience.

As you travel through this respectably large sandbox environment you pick up clues left by your squad members. There are also flashbacks, where you take control of other squad members, in which you will have to complete side missions and collect more information. And so the mystery of your missing six hours, and indeed the truth behind your mission to New Mombasa, is gradually revealed. After about 6 hours of gaming you will have completed ODST, and that is one of the complaints I have about this game. For a franchise this rich in story and characters I feel it could have been longer and more engaging. Don't get me wrong, it is an enjoyable 6 hours of playing, but ODST does not really add anything to Halo or the genre. It is using the same graphics engine as Halo 3, the characters are shallow, and to be honest I didn't really care for the story much either. If that was it, I would not recommend you buy this game.

But let's have a few home truths here. Most shooters these days do not rely on a great story. You do not always need awesome and mind blowing graphics. You do not need realistic physics and inch perfect collision detection. These need to be of a standard where by they do not impact gameplay. The point is that you need to get something right with the game itself. And the one thing that Bungie and Microsoft have combined to create is arguably the best FPS multiplayer experience money can buy. And this is ODST's raison d'être.

Halo 3: ODST has a second disc. This disc contains all of the maps you can buy for Halo 3. It also contains a few new maps to boot. And it also has something called Firefight, and whilst the concept may sound familiar this certainly should not detract from the amount of fun to be had playing it.

Firefight is a four player co-op mode that sees you and your three counterparts defending yourselves against waves of random enemies. As you defeat wave then another one comes, and so on, in increasing difficulty each time until your team runs out of lives. Technicalities aside (it is four players instead of five), the premise is pretty much the same as Gears of War 2's Horde Mode. Except in theory there are an infinite number of levels, and that the only thing stopping you are the limited number of lives your team has got. Get someone who is a bit careless and/or rubbish on your team and Horse is a bit more forgiving. In Firefight after so many deaths your team is out and you have to start again. Harsh, I know, but that's the reality. And believe me it adds to the tension. You will literally be wetting your pants with excitement and nerves.

Plus you get all the old stuff from Halo 3. It is a bargain, right?

Well here is the problem. Fans of the Halo series will have seen much of this stuff before. The campaign is a slight deviation, but really offers very little that is new and exciting. A couple of new guns and characters (none of which are Master Chief, who in the FPS world is cooler than Coolio on a block of ice in the middle of the North pole) doesn't quite add up to being more than an expansion. Fans will have bought the DLC and will have played on a majority of the multiplayer stuff ODST is offering. What they will be getting is three new maps and a new mode (as awesome as that might just be). This is hardly value for money, and in my opinion does not justify the full RRP.

If you have not played Halo before, on the other hand, this seems a lot more appealing. You are getting a bit of an introduction into the Halo universe, whilst getting your hands on a load of extra maps for one of the best online experiences around. But then again, you are not getting Master Chief, and you are not getting the Halo story, and in that respect doesn't give you access into the franchise proper.

I am really in two minds about this game. It is more than just an expansion, but does not quite justify being released as a full title. If you have bought this game already I daresay it was because of the trail that has already been blazed by Halo: CE, Halo 2 and Halo 3. Fans of Halo will have bought it for exactly that reason. Newbies to Halo will have bought it because it is a well known franchise and is good value for money if you don't own any of the DLC already. And for those of you who are stuck in the middle? I would say wait for a price drop in a month or two's time. The campaign is fun, but what you really want is the multiplayer content... especially Firefight co-op mode. You will have a lot of fun with this I can guarantee, and this is the reason you should buy this game.

I am going give this game two scores, as I think it really depends on the experience of Halo. For people who are familiar with Halo I would score this game 75%. It is still a strong FPS, but I think it will disappoint fans a little. It is different, but does not offer enough that is new. If you have been living in a box and are new to Halo I would award a score of 90%. You will be buying into a well grounded franchise, and this will give you a good introduction into Halo (but not Master Chief). The second disc will also give you just about everything you need at the moment for the best online experince available.