Twin Galaxies is the official supplier of video game scores to the Guinness World Records books.
Twin Galaxies is the world authority on player rankings, gaming statistics and championship tournaments, with pinball statistics dating from the 1930s and video game statistics from the early 1970s.
OUR HISTORY
In 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, then the managing director of the Guinness Brewery, realised that a book supplying the answers to this sort of question might prove popular. He was right!
Halo 3: ODST
This latest entry in Microsoft’s now-expansive Halo franchise takes the unwieldy addition of an incomprehensible acronym to differentiate it from its forebears. Rather than another world-saving mission for the Master Chief, the series’ principle hero is noticeably absent from this instalment, instead replaced by an ensemble of the game’s titular ODSTs (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. Nope, no idea either).
It’s from this main shift in character that the majority of the gameplay changes derive. While John-117 is in the enviable position of being a genetically-engineered supersoldier, the ODST squad is made up of ordinary, albeit very tough, humans. As such, the threat level from even small groups of the game’s Covenant enemies is far higher – particularly the series’ most terrible foes, the Hunters, who were challenging enough for the Master Chief, but for lone troopers they are even trickier, requiring a greater level of planning to tackle successfully.
Making the game’s central character weaker will certainly alienate some fans, but the result in gameplay terms is the creation of a more strategic, stealth-based approach to some sections of the game, with new silenced weapons enabling sentries to be killed without alerting enemy forces. While it takes some getting used to, the result in the single player game is a more diverse experience, with the gunfights and vehicle sections that Halo fans have come to expect complemented by the sneaking.
The level design is strong and varied, but experienced Halo players will notice a large amount of artwork and modelling carried over from Halo 3 – particularly in the enemies, which remain almost completely unchanged. It’s not enough to ruin the experience, but means the game ends up feeling more like a very good expansion pack rather than a stand-alone release, a feeling that is only strengthened by ODSTs relatively short 10-15 hour campaign.
The online aspect of the game also remains largely unchanged, to the extent that the game comes packaged with “the Complete Halo 3 Multiplayer Experience”, a stand-alone disc that gives gamers access to the online modes found in Halo 3, plus the downloadable content that’s been released since launch. The disc’s inclusion is a nice bonus, but it’s unclear who this is aimed at – hardcore players will already own much of the DLC, and casual ones will be massacred by sharpshooters who have had two years to learn the maps by heart.
ODST’s main addition to Halo’s multiplayer offering comes in the form of “Firefight” mode, an arena-based assault mode where up to four players co-operate against increasingly powerful waves of Covenant enemies. Aside from a few minor rule changes, anyone who has played Horde mode in last year’s Gears of War 2 will know exactly what to expect, and it is a welcome addition, if a little obvious.
While Master Chief fanboys may take exception to the change of protagonist and the use of recycled content from earlier games, it’s hard to deny the quality of ODSTs pacing or the appeal of the more varied gameplay, even if it may be too short for some gamers to justify the full-game price tag.
05 October 2009