Halo 3: ODST
Like with Halo 3, I find myself at a loss for words trying to say something about this title. Sure, there are things to like and things to dislike, but it is Halo – you sort of know what you are getting into when you begin playing, and ODST is no different. I guess I could complain a bit about the developers giving visionary interviews claiming to try and tell a different story through the eyes of someone a bit more human than Master Chief – the game is no different from Halo 3, other than that they have reintroduced medkits which in my opinion made the game worse.
On the other hand, the story is slightly more interesting than in the other Halo titles and it seems kind of unfair to blame someone for stretching the truth a bit in their marketing push. What can be said about ODST is that it feels a lot more toned down than the other Halo titles, not so much in terms of gameplay but in how it presents itself to the player; as a rather desperate struggle to try and find your friends and get out of a warzone rather than as being a supersoldier trying to save the world. There are a lot of subtle things, for example at the Develop conference last year Damian Isla spoke about how they used AI communication to give the player a sense of superiority, and there is a huge difference when not having your enemies covering in fear and calling you a demon as you blast through the areas.
I realize that a lot of people dislike one or several titles in the Halo series and like others. I personally think they are all pretty good entertainment if you are in the mood for that particular flavor of it so maybe I shouldn’t be saying this, but I think liking or disliking Halo is just one of those things you have to make up your own mind about and ODST is as a good game as any of the other three to do it with.