August 23, 2009

New Games To Watch For pt. 5 - Halo 3: ODST

Originally titled Halo 3: Recon, the next installment in the lucrative Halo franchise is set to be released on September 22 to a good reception. Halo 3: ODST continues the Halo story as a sort of prequel, by allowing play as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (or ODST) instead of the Master Chief, as he searches through the ruins of New Mombassa for his missing team mates. At the same time, there will undoubtedly be lots of Covenant baddies to blast away. Seen as more of an expansion to Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST will be followed by another prequel in Halo: Reach later on in 2010.

Halo 3: ODST aims to leave behind the shackles of the previous games in the series and reinvent itself with new characters, a new era and an open-world environment that will undoubtedly shake things up a bit. The question is will it be for the best? Leaving the Master Chief out could be a franchise killer, with the new character being more susceptible to attacks and obviously not as kick-ass as we're accustomed to with the Chief. Having an open-world environment will obviously change the game completely, while making the game a prequel may give the feel of retreading covered ground.

Multiplayer is very similar to Halo 3, with 24 shipped maps including the Heroic, Legendary and all 6 Mythic maps. A new addition will be the Firefight mode, which runs along the same line as The Horde in Gears Of War 2 and Survival Mode in Left 4 Dead, and was a sure-bet for inclusion after its' highly rated reception in other game series. In my opinion however, it's a slightly tired game mode - let's hope this time round it includes some new twist. Owners will also get a chance to test out the Beta multiplayer mode for Halo: Reach. Other than a few tweaks to the HUD (including some night-vision), weapons (fans of the original, unadulterated pistol rejoice!) and play, ODST looks like more of the same from Bungie. Lets' just hope that its' more of the same in a good way and that the game doesn't reach too far away from what fans loved in the original series.



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