When details were first announced of this Halo spin-off title it was clear that the single-player campaign would not only be devoid of Master Chief himself, but also of his Spartan comrades. More recently, Bungie also added that you won’t be fighting against the Elite forces either, as the timeline of the overall Halo story wouldn’t allow it. However, recent comments from the developer would seem to confirm that Spartans and Elite soldiers will once again collide in the game’s multiplayer.
It seems like the multiplayer will work in much the same way as Halo 3, complete with the Forge editing system, screenshots and videos. Modes such as Slayer and Capture the Flag have already been mentioned and, whilst all-new maps are promised, ODST will also accommodate those included in the upcoming Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack, due out shortly after Halo Wars hits the shelves. The multiplayer element of ODST could prove something of a comfort blanket to those used to fighting as a near immortal in Master Chief’s gleaming boots, because in the single-player campaign you’re going to have tread a lot more carefully.
If you’re not already aware, you take on the role of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (hence the title) known only as The Rookie. The action is set on Earth in the midst of Halo 2 as the Covenant launches a catastrophic attack on Mombasa. You’re fired into the city along with four other members of the squad in small pods but things don’t go as planned. When you regain consciousness from your crashed capsule you have to track down the rest of your squad by finding beacons hidden in the city. Once you’ve found the first one the game opens up into a free-roaming environment, something new to the Halo series, where you can explore the city and track down the beacons in any order. When you find a beacon it triggers a flashback sequence where you get to play a short, and far more linear, section – estimated to be around 30 minutes or so – as the relevant squad member to find out what happened to them.
The action is typical Halo first-person fodder and ODST uses the same engine as Halo 3. However, unlike the Chief, you don’t have powerful Mjolnir armour to boost your skills which in turn means no shields (although health is still replenishable), no dual wielding, no motion tracker, no huge jumps and you’re both shorter and slower than previous Halo titles. It’s clear that in Halo 3: ODST you’ll have to think a lot more and plan out tactics that go beyond the traditional ‘run and gun’.
You do have a few new toys to help you out, though. You have a ‘visual’ mode you can access on your HUD which locates and identifies enemies and allies with a red or green outline, as well as highlighting “clues” to the locations of those beacons. You also get a PDA to help with directions, objectives and information, as well as a new silenced M7S Submachine gun. Although an entirely standalone project, Halo 3: ODST is unlikely to be a standard-priced release with Bungie themselves quoting the single-player campaign at being only three to five hours long. That campaign is playable in up to four-player co-op both on and offline, but clearly it would be asking a lot of the most ardent of Halo fans for fork out another GBP 50.
That said, we still have high hopes that it will be a pretty damned awesome three to five hours and the multiplayer will most certainly be worth a spin.