The epic quest of playing through all the halo games almost came to a halt. Halo 3 ODST is the reason for that. This game… well let’s just get into it.

n

n

n

Reviewed on Xcloud

n

n

n

On paper Halo 3 ODST is exactly what I have been asking for, in practice, it’s boring and just frustrating.

nn

The story is passable as a Halo story and relatively easy to follow. It has you playing detective to find your team and experiencing what happened to all your team members. Finding your team members is where my biggest problem with the game lie. n

I have been screaming for a waypoint in every Halo review I have done so far and finally it’s here. A compass and a waypoint to get you to your objective. Too bad it’s a misleading piece of trash.

n

The map design here is atrocious. You are wandering the streets of New Mombasa. Every street looks identical and every building appears to be the same. If I thought getting lost in the other games was a chore I don’t even know how to describe this, and this time you have a compass, but as I said it’s a piece of trash. The reason it is trash is that it will often lead you down dead ends and locked doors because it’s just pointing you in the straightest route. When this would happen and I would have to backtrack I would instantly be lost since everything looks the same.

n

When you finally make it to the waypoint it leads you to an open area where again everything looks the same and you have to look for some kind of clue to progress the story. You don’t know what the clue is so you are blindly looking and once you are at this point the waypoint does not help you in any way. Once you find it, you then are treated with a cut scene that will go into a gameplay segment that plays out all the events that landed that clue where it is.

n

These gameplay segments were hit and miss. None of them had the Halo charm to it. It was all a very generic first person shooter with familiar looking character models and weapons. Each one of these felt a little longer than it needed to be and when I finished a let out a sigh of relief being thankful it’s over. However, once it’s over you are back on the hunt for the next clue. This was a gameplay loop that was not intriguing and it almost made me quit the game and my journey to play all the Halo games. n

I stuck with it and made it to the end. The final mission is when it finally felt like a Halo game and it was more enjoyable than the rest. It was definitely too little too late and even this mission felt to drag on well past its welcome.

n

n

n

Verdictn

n

Halo 3 ODST was almost my breaking point for the Halo Franchise. A terrible waypoint system, bland missions, and uninspired environments make this the worst Halo to date in the franchise for me. Although the final mission did show some signs of a good game even this was not enough to save it.

n

n

n

Final score 2/10

n

n

n

Halo rankings so far:

n

Halo Spartan Assault 8.5/10

n

Halo 2 6/10

n

Halo 3 5.5/10

n

Halo CE 5/10

n

Halo Reach 3/10

n

Halo 3 ODST 2/10