Anyone else buy this? I'll post thoughts and stuff later, but for now:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3_ODSTHalo 3: ODST (originally known as Halo 3: Recon) is a first-person shooter video game, developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft. It was released on the Xbox 360 video game console exclusively on September 22, 2009, nearly two years after the initial release of Halo 3. Players assume the roles of elite human United Nations Space Command soldiers known as Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs) during the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3. After the alliance of alien races known as the Covenant attack Earth, the player explores the ruined city of New Mombasa to discover what happened to their missing teammates, separated from each other as they entered the city.
My biggest gripe is that this costs 69.99 in Canada and the singleplayer is, no joke, like 4 hours TOPS. And I'm a pretty slow player. That's really disappointing, especially because I found things only really picked up towards the end. At first, the characters and story are pretty bland and I almost just stopped playing entirely. It's only when your squad starts to reassemble and you learn a bit more about everyone that it starts getting fun... and then it's over. Just like that. It's basically just an expansion pack to Halo 3 - but to sell it at full price is sort of silly.
Also, considering that the ODST's that you play are much weaker than Master Chief, it's a little disappointing that they didn't include more changes to the gameplay. There's no cover system, no way to issue commands to allies. It's just Halo 3 with a new HUD and no shields, but even then you have the 'stamina' system which is basically just a shield in reverse (no stamina bar onscreen, when you take too much damage to your 'stamina' you start losing actual health).
I can't help but wish they had expanded on the ODST idea a bit more by havining you "drop" in more than just once at the start of the game. Hell, even something radically different like being able to pick multiple drop points or customize a squad to drop with you or something.
On the plus side: I sort of liked the story when it got going. Tracking what happened to your team mates as the "rookie" is sort of neat, as you go about the city alone, fighting Covenant and looking for clues. it's pretty linear despite their claims of an "open world" environment. Also, the music, for the most part, is really good. The voice work is great too, featuring a whopping three cast members from the canned Joss Whedon show Firefly (including Nathan Fillion), as well as Nolan North (who voices Drake in Uncharted) and Tricia Helfer who played Caprica Six in BSG. Unfortunately, the amount of actual voice work they needed to provide was woefully small, continuing a Bethesda tradition of hiring big actors to voice like less than an hour of dialogue.
Overall I'm not amazed with it, but there's some fun to be had. I'm wondering if anyone on GW got it and if they want to try some co-op or Firefight (a new Survival/Horde style co-operative mode)
