Preview of Halo 3 ODST

During this short presentation in Paris, we were able to participate in the first mission of Halo 3: ODST before getting our hands on the Firefight mode which is a lot more intense and stressful. Lars Bakken (senior designer at Bungie) and Ryan Crosby (Global Group Product Manager at Microsoft Game Studios) were present with us to shed some light on their latest release.

The game is very similar to Halo 3, taking place not long after the last release by Master Chief. But instead of taking on a living legend, you instead change between five members of an elite unit in the UNSC. Called the ODST (or Orbital Drop Shock Trooper), this group specializes in infiltration and reconnaissance.

Unlike the Apartan 101, these soldiers come with different armor, offering better visibility to the detriment of physical force. This is naturally noticed in the gameplay, as not only are you no longer equipped with rechargeable shields, but you can no longer carry two weapons simultaneously.

Gone are the blazing shoot outs and hand to hand combat. This is even more so in the Legendary mode which still lives up to its name. To heal your wounds, you will need to collect first aid kits which are sparsely laid around the maps, or make your way to the medical stations. So as to avoid being noticed, two new weapons are on offer.

These are of course two silent weapons (a pistol and assault rifle) which have a long range zoom on them. In theory, they should allow you to get around unnoticed, but unfortunately we didn’t have the possibility to see the infiltration missions in practice. To make up for the missing aspect, the developers have integrated two viewing modes into the player’s sights: one being used for the night missions, while the other will highlight the enemy and other interactive objects.

The Hollywood like characteristics seen on the screen in the series seem to gone despite a certain amount of effort by the producers. The absence of Master Chef certainly seems to have had an impact. The story isn’t lacking though, as you will systematically see flashbacks to be able to pick up all of the important aspects of the scenario. It can be noted that it will be possible to finish the single player game along side of three other human players in the same way as in Halo 3.