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Developer(s): Bungie
Publisher(s): Microsoft Game Studios Composer(s) Martin O'Donnell
Michael Salvatori
Series: Halo
Platform(s): Xbox 360
Release date(s): September 22, 2009
Genre(s): First-person shooter
Mode(s): Single player, co-op, multiplayer
Rating(s): BBFC: 12+
ESRB: M
PEGI: 16+
Media: DVD-9
Input methods: Gamepad

Halo 3: ODST (originally Halo 3: Recon) is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft. It was released on the Xbox 360 video game console on September 22, 2009. Players assume the roles of elite human United Nations Space Command soldiers known as "Orbital Drop Shock Troopers" or ODSTs during the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3. There are two modes of play: in the game's campaign mode, players explore the ruined city of New Mombasa to discover what happened to their missing teammates in the midst of an alien invasion. In the "Firefight" multiplayer option, players battle increasingly difficult waves of enemies to score points and survive as long as possible; the Halo 3 multiplayer experience is contained on a separate disc packaged with ODST. New copies of the game also contain access keys to the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta release, which activated May 3, 2010.

Trailer:



Bungie initially conceived ODST as a small side project to produce in the lull between Halo 3's completion and Halo: Reach. Instead of featuring recognizable characters such as armored protagonist Master Chief, the developers focused on the ODSTs. Story director Joseph Staten penned a detective story utilizing film noir designs, settings, and characters. Composer Martin O'Donnell abandoned his previous Halo themes to create a quieter, jazz-influenced sound. During development, the planned expansion grew in scope to that of a full-sized game. Release marketing for the game included a tie-in comic, live-action trailers, and print and web advertisements.

Upon release, ODST became the top-selling Xbox 360 game worldwide. The title received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the atmosphere, music, and story approach. Reviewers were divided on whether the relatively short campaign and included extras were enough to justify the game's US$60 price tag. The game was the top-selling title in the United States in September 2009, and sold more than 3 million copies worldwide. Softpedia, Time and Wired were among the publications that declared the game one of the year's best.

Gameplay:

Halo 3: ODST is a shooter video game with most gameplay taking place from a first-person perspective. The game features an open world environment in the fictional African city of New Mombasa. Although the gameplay of ODST bears a strong resemblance to that of previous Halo titles, the player does not assume the role of the enhanced human supersoldier Master Chief, protagonist of Halo 3. Instead, the player controls human soldiers known as "Orbital Drop Shock Troopers" or ODSTs. Since ODSTs do not possess the Master Chief's advanced armor and reflexes, they cannot jump as high, move as fast, survive large falls or wield two weapons at once.Instead of the Master Chief's damage-absorbing energy shield, the game uses a recharging stamina mechanic. After the player sustains damage, the screen flashes red and the stamina score decreases. If the player receives additional damage before the stamina can recover, the player's health is reduced.Loss of all health causes the player character to die and restart at the last saved checkpoint. Medical packs scattered around the game environment can restore the player's health. The player's head-up display (HUD) includes a "VISR" mode that outlines enemies in red, allies in green, and important items in yellow.

The game's campaign mode may be played alone or cooperatively with a maximum of three additional players. As a lone human soldier known as "the Rookie,"[6] the player's goal is to discover what happened to his missing teammates. After having found a piece of evidence left behind, such as a sniper rifle hanging on a lamp post, a flashback mission is triggered where the player assumes the role of the missing soldier six hours earlier. After the player has found the first piece of evidence, the choice of where to go next is left open; campaign levels may be played in any order.
Multiplayer

In lieu of a complete multiplayer option, ODST includes Halo 3's multiplayer game modes contained on a separate disc.[ The offering contains 21 multiplayer maps released for Halo 3 as well as 3 additional maps titled Citadel, Heretic, and Longshore.[ The maps are tied into Halo 3's achievements. Along with the Halo 3 maps, ODST includes a version of the Forge map editor[ utility that allows player customizations of multiplayer levels.

ODST contains a cooperative game mode called Firefight, where players take on increasingly difficult waves of enemies in a timed survival game. Firefight can be played cooperatively with up to three other players via networked consoles (System Link) or Microsoft multiplayer service Xbox Live. Players start Firefight with only the Rookie as a playable character; completing the campaign mode unlocks other characters and maps. Players are awarded medals for making special kills, and individual and team scores are tracked throughout the games. Inside Firefight, players have a shared pool of seven lives, which are replenished after completing five rounds. Adding to the difficulty are modifiers called "skulls", which give enemies new abilities or a handicap to the player – the "Catch" skull, for example, causes enemies to throw greater numbers of grenades. Each of the first three rounds in a set activates a different skull. On the fourth set, all skulls are activated and the players must survive 60 seconds

Synopsis


ODST takes place in the 26th century, when humans under the command of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) are locked in a war with a theocratic alliance of alien races known as the Covenant. During the events of the 2004 video game Halo 2, the Covenant discover the location of Earth and launch an assault on the city of New Mombasa in Africa. Though the UNSC manages to repel most of the fleet, a large ship hovers over the city, depositing an invasion force. The ship eventually retreats via a slipspace jump, creating a massive shockwave.While the rest of Halo 2's storyline follows the ship to an ancient installation called Halo, ODST focuses on the aftermath of the shockwave, while the Covenant still occupy the city

During the game the player can unlock audio files to an additional narrative called Sadie's Story, which tells the story of a civilian girl caught in the initial stages of the Covenant invasion and her quest to find her father. The tale can also provide useful information for the player during the game, such as helping to locate hidden caches.

The game's protagonist is the unnamed Rookie, a new member of the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. Troopers, known as ODSTs or Helljumpers, often deploy in small, one-man Human Entry Vehicles (HEVs), launched from spaceships in the upper atmosphere. The Rookie is assisted in finding his teammates by Mombasa's city maintenance artificial intelligence, known as the Superintendent.The Rookie's teammates are Buck, Dutch, Romeo, Mickey, and Dare. The latter is a UNSC Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) agent in charge of the squad's operation.
Plot

The game begins with Dutch, Romeo, and Mickey discussing plans for assaulting the Covenant ship above New Mombasa. Buck arrives and introduces Dare. The team enter their HEVs and drop through the atmosphere; at the last minute, Dare changes their trajectory to miss the ship. The Covenant ship enters slipspace, sending a shockwave toward the ODSTs; the Rookie's pod collides with another and crashes to the ground, knocking him unconscious for six hours.He awakens and proceeds to find clues as to what happened to his squadmates.

Buck makes a rough landing after the drop and fights through Covenant forces to find Dare. He finds Romeo instead, and the two resolve to find the others and get out of the city.[26] Dutch drops near a nature preserve and helps Marines fighting there. Mickey commandeers a tank and fights his way along a Mombasa boulevard. Meeting up with Dutch, the two defend an ONI base from the Covenant, destroying the facility to keep it from being captured. They are evacuated by a transport and make contact with Buck, arranging a rendezvous at police headquarters, but are shot down. Buck and Romeo rescue Dutch and Mickey, but Romeo is seriously wounded. The squad hijacks a Covenant transport ship, but instead of leaving the city, Buck decides to turn back and find Dare.

Back in the city, the Rookie is assisted by the Superintendent, which leads him to Dare's position. She and the Rookie reach the Superintendent's data core, which possesses information on something the Covenant is looking for underneath the city. Inside the core they find a Covenant Engineer. Dare explains that the Engineers are "biological supercomputers" that have been enslaved by the Covenant, and the one they found wishes to defect to the humans; with the Engineer's information on the Covenant combined with the Superintendent's data,[28] Dare's mission changes from downloading the Superintendant's data to escorting the alien to safety. The Rookie, Dare, and the Engineer reunite with Buck and fight their way out of the city. As they fly away in the transport, the squad watches as the Covenant destroys New Mombasa.

In the epilogue, one month has passed, and the ODSTs keep guard over the Engineer. Sergeant Avery Johnson arrives, informing the Engineer that he intends to ask it everything it knows about the Covenant and what they are looking for. If the game is completed on the Legendary difficulty level, a scene shows the Covenant leader Truth overseeing the excavation of a Forerunner artifact buried beneath the Superintendent's data core.

Audio

Bungie's audio director Martin O'Donnell and his partner Michael Salvatori composed the music for ODST. In contrast to Halo' signature gregorian chant, there is no choral music in ODST, and no previous Halo themes make a return appearance.Two out of the game's three hours of music were packaged in a two-disc soundtrack released September 22, 2009. Due to ODST's shift to a new protagonist, O'Donnell wanted to create new music that was evocative of Halo but branched in a different direction.Because the game tells a "human story, not a cyborg story", O'Donnell said, the score was more "intimate and personal"For the Rookie's rain-slicked investigations, O'Donnell felt that a jazz-influenced approach worked best in echoing the noir atmosphere. Other characters did not have any themes written specifically for them but became paired with motifs that suited them.

O'Donnell began writing the game's music while Bungie was crafting the ODST announcement trailer. O'Donnell based the trailer's music on a small segment from the first ODST piece he wrote, titled "Rain".Salvatori joined the project in February 2009 and helped complete the music chores in two months. Once O'Donnell felt they had enough material, the Chicago-based Salvatori flew to Seattle, Washington, finishing arrangements and recording live musicians. Most of the music was recorded during early 2009. Additional composition chores were handled by Bungie sound designer C. Paul Johnson and orchestrator Stan LePard. The Northwest Sinfonia, which recorded the music for Halo 3, performed orchestral sections at Studio X in Washington.

Members of Bungie were fans of the television series Firefly, and in Halo 3's development brought in several of the actors to fill Marine voice roles. Three of them voiced the four main characters of the ODST squad: Nathan Fillion (a Halo fan himself),Adam Baldwin, and Alan Tudyk.Tricia Helfer provided the voice for the ONI agent Dare; Helfer and Fillion recorded their cinematic dialog together in the same room, a rarity in voice acting. Staten said that "their performances were stronger having them together at the same time".While Staten wrote much of the cinematic dialogue, combat lines could be improvised by the voice actors.Adding Sadie's Story to the game doubled the amount of voice work in the game. After the voice roles were filled, Bungie licensed Fillion and Helfer's likenesses for their respective characters.

Awards

Lev Grossman and Peter Ha ranked ODST as the eighth best game of the year for Time, lauding the game as "a dark, slow, jazzy, hard-boiled take on the Halo world". Softpedia branded ODST the best first-person shooter of the year; games editor Andrei Dumitrescu wrote that while the game occasionally felt formulaic, it was bolstered by a good plot, great music, and supporting characters that players could care about. Chris Kohler from Wired ranked ODST as the third best Xbox 360 title of the year, writing that the game "injected a fresh breath into the staid corridors of Bungie's shooter franchise". Halo 3: ODST also won "Best Original Score" at the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards. "The Life" was a finalist in the "Outstanding Visual Effects in a Video Game Trailer" category by the Visual Effects Society in the group's eighth annual awards.