For starters, let's go over how I felt before ODST dropped (lol punny). I was not pleased with Halo. I was grudgingly going to get ODST simply because my friends were getting it, and Reach was a “Bungie has to make the Second Coming in game form” thing. This was not helped by the lack of marketing for ODST (compared to Halo 3).
But we're not here for my backstory, we're here to hear about a game. So let's hear about it.
Starting off with the graphics, it's Halo 3, with maybe a few tweaks. Nothing major to note here, we've all seen it. It is still prettier than Halo 2. I will say that Slipspace fallout is a nice effect, and the darkness in the night levels does wonders for the ambiance. More on the night levels later.
Pretty, of course, is nothing without solid gameplay. And it's here I have to say I like it. The ODSTs are, obviously, not Master Chief. They are instead Nerfed Master Chief. They can't throw grenades as far, their melee is equivalent to a little girl by comparison, run as fast as a guy who's been chewing on McDonald's for a few years (again, comparitively), and can't fall more than ten feet or so without hurting themselves. Yup, we're looking at regular people rather than Master “Jesus Christ” Chief. And I have no idea why humanity relies on him so much.
Why? Because at no point during my play did I feel like I couldn't take on the Covenant, just like Chief. This really hit home during one of the later levels, where I single-handedly took out a Scarab. Of course, pretending I'm a human tank will kill you quicker than it will Chief, it does work pretty well against most baddies. You just have to remember to take cover and realize you can't absorb as much fire as he can, and you can't use the power of your will (and your love for Cortana) to regenerate all of your health. You'll have to find medpacks scattered about to get it back, a pseudo return to Halo 1 gameplay.
In point of fact, this really does feel quite close to Halo 1. Your stamina is your shield bar and goes down real quick, and your health will fall soon after if you don't get out of there. And that will hinder you for a while if you don't locate some health PDQ. How many times does that happen on Halo 1 Legendary? For me, loads.
Another similarity is the pistol, which is as close to the M6D as Bungie will ever let Halo players get. You have your scope back and headshot capability, even though it takes more rounds to drop shields (quite a few rounds). It's supposed to take the place of the BR I think, as there's not a BR to be found in this game. There are, of course, plenty of Carbines, and I used it through most of the game. There's also the lack of dual wielding, which actually makes you consider what you pick up, and as such, we get a new (old) gun: the Brute Plasma Rifle.
The golden Hunter, the strange critter found in screenshots is the Halo 1 Hunter. They can be found working alongside our normal blue Hunters, causing a bit of panic as their shots take less time to charge. And while we're on the subject of enemies, Jackals have apparently gotten Needlers. They don't fire fast enough for it to be an explosive end, but can be really annoying alongside Grunts with Needlers. But, worst of all, Drones get ranks. Yup, there's green ones, and red ones, and yellow ones, and silver ones. A lot of them have shields. That's like giving Freddy Kruger laser eyes, or Cthulhu laser tentacles. But on the bright side, we get Engineers. The Brutes get nasty and make them suicide bombers (or floating mines).
Firefight is a good way to pass the time with good friends as waves of Brutes and their minions descend upon you like the arrows of Persia. Each map is pretty much transplanted from the campaign segments that were “Firefight Lite,” and chaos can easily erupt as skulls engage and the enemies get tougher. Listening to the panic of you and your friends as three Chieftains emerge from a Phantom with Black Eye on is priceless.
As for the storyline, I think it's very well paced. Nighttime New Mombasa is very quiet and peaceful, leaving you in a (somewhat) open world to avoid or engage Covenant as you please. And even then, the enemy volume and presence seems diminished when compared to the flashback levels. The flashback levels themselves are the action-packed Halo we are all used to, save for wisecracking marines. And after all that action, you come back to New Mombasa as the Rookie, for a nice, peaceful intermission.
The storyline itself follows an ODST squad dropping in to New Mombasa, just before Regret hightails it outta there. And then you, as the Rookie, wake up six hours later and get to piece together what happened while you were napping. And this is done in the form of flashbacks when you find a certain item relating to a character, like a treasure hunt with guns and people who want you dead.
Each of the characters is fairly distinct, so I could tell between Mickey and Buck, or Romeo and Dutch. The character interaction feels like a squad of regular troops, not a troupe of clowns, as Halo seems to portray regular marines (standard issue ineptitude aside). Oh, and I feel the need to mention the romance subplot here, but it's not dwelled on or shoved in our faces. It's just there, a thread in the tapestry.
In fact, the entire storyline seemed a bit darker than the usual Halo. Instead of “Master Chri-CHIEF, sorry, Saves the World,” we get the story of an ODST squad trying to figure out what was going on, meet up with their buddies, and live to see tomorrow. It's an interesting take on the Halo universe and a cool side story that ties in nicely to Halo 3.
Overall, ODST is an experience you should have at least once. The immersion here is well done, making me feel like I'm an ODST (even if we are Nerfed MCs), not worrying overly much WHY the Covenant are digging up New Mombasa and worrying instead about where Dare wandered off to. The nighttime has a wonderful ambiance around it, a fitting intermission stage, with solid gameplay that still felt like a Halo game despite not being a demigod. Firefight, too, is a worthwhile addition to the Halo series and will hopefully be expanded upon in Reach.
Honestly, if this is a portent of things to come from Halo, then the outlook for Reach looks good (lol irony).