Ladies and gentlemen the ODST of the UNSC truly are hardcore. The heroes at the center of Halo 3 : ODST really are top of the pile and do it all without being genetically enhanced supermen.
The game itself is essentially an expansion pack for Halo 3 and takes place in the hours before events we've already seen in the main game. On a mission into the great city of New Mombasa the squad is scattered to the winds in a heretic jump into the hot zone.
Inti ally you take control of the squad's rookie (one is every bit as stoic as Master Chief when comes to communication) as he emerges from his drop pod after being out for six hours. You travel round the city streets in what serves as a hub location for the game, looking for clues to what happened to the rest of your squad.
Upon finding a clue the player is given a flashback to what happened and the asked to play through events as each of the different troopers in turn as they fight to find each other and complete a vital mission for the way effort under the noses of an entire enemy fleet.
It's a game structure that works well as it juggles the quiet of stalking the abandoned city streets at night with the frantic action of the earlier hours. Each of the flashback mission holds at least one brilliant set piece moment, from desperately holding off an assault on a vital building to hotfooting it across a building crane hundreds of feet in the air as the covenant swoop around rocking you improvised bridge violently as you go.
The game also works a great men on mission narrative aided by the work of Nathan Fillion who voices the squad commander (a character who also holds a resemblance to the former Firefly captain) with back up from Adam Baldwin and Tricia Helfer.
The campaign is quite short but makes up for it with the variety and imagination in the mission design from the Bungie team. Added value is given with the inclusion of a new Firefight mode (essentially Halo does Horde but fun none the less) and all the content for Halo 3's online mutliplayer that has been released so far.
It's not a leap forward and as the title suggests more expansion than new game but it still leaves a lot of other FPS games in it's wake in terms of sheer entertainment value.
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