On 11 September 2009 roughly fifteen games journalists headed to the Microsoft offices in Prague. I was one of those lucky fifteen in attendance for the presentation on what’s up and coming from them and to get some hands on with HALO 3: ODST. While they also showed some items from Forza 3 and Lips Number One hits, it was ODST - Orbital Drop Shock Troopers - which we all wanted to play.

Overall, it’s certainly HALO. But it’s HALO from a slightly different view point. While some purists will cry foul and that HALO cannot exist without the Master Chief, I say it is better because of that absence. The universe can now expand and grow beyond the timeline and story of one singular, yet powerful, character. It already began that process with Halo Wars which pulled back and gave us a bird’s eye view of battles in the HALO universe but now it’s zoomed back in to the first-person perspective to give us insight into what it is like to not be a Spartan.

For those of us who love a good, rich backstory, we’re now getting it thanks to an expanding variety of HALO games. Pieces are being filled in that will flesh out humanity’s epic battle for survival against overwhelming numbers, alien technology and unrelenting foes.

To maintain the HALO feeling in the game, the gameplay itself is mostly unchanged, and estimated at 4-6 hours. The environments are still mostly static, the weapons aren’t new and unexpected. But this is what we have come to expect from HALO and familiarity breeds comfort. Therefore, fans of the previous titles will certainly be right at home in this new one. There are still Warthogs to drive, grenades to throw, assault rifles, and familiar enemies. Everything that made us love HALO in the beginning. Yes, you can drive a Warthog. In fact you have three positions even - driver, shotgun and turret (as in HALO 3). The steering on the Warthog is still sub-par with a two stick version instead of a trigger and stick or just one stick. I also hear that you have a mission where you get to drive a tank through the city, but I didn’t manage to see that mission, so who knows?

The major change to the gameplay is the VISR and the openness of the city environment. HALO 3 had you on rails much of the time or running back and forth in the same area. HALO 3 ODST on the other hand gives you a larger area (New Mombasa) to wander through and find the clues you need.

ODST is bound to be the dawn of a new branch of the mythology which will expand the existing HALO universe and give us more of what we want. While the gameplay is still fairly the same they have packed the game full of content to make it worth the price.

It’s a 2-disc set to begin with. The first disc is the singe player and Co-op campaign but after you tire of that or finish it slap in the other disc and get down and dirty with some multiplayer action. Yes, an entire disc has been dedicated to the multiplayer content. That includes over 20 maps and 9 game modes. But on top of that each of the modes has between three and five variations which gives an unprecedented 35 ways to play. There are standard game modes like Slayer (deathmatch), Capture the Flag, Territories (capture land), and King of the Hill. But these are joined by others including Oddball (carry the skull to earn points), Juggernaut (meet the Juggernaut. Kill the Juggernaut),VIP (each team has a VIP, kill for points) and Infection (human vs. zombie. Die by zombie hand, become a zombie) and Assault (bomb the bejeebers out of the other guys or defend against the bomb). I didn’t have time to play a lot of the multiplayer so I don’t know all that’s new yet.

HALO 3: ODST certainly has enough content to make it worth the price. Value seems to be running high in the title with a full campaign mode and a very robust multiplayer option. It could propel HALO back into orbit to fly among the video game stars. Whether with a friend locally in co-op or competition or with strangers online via XBLA I believe there may come a day when many of us say: We are ODST.

See the latest assets in the Halo 3 ODST area.