Leveling Down

cmfl3x has spent more time than me on the Firefight mode so he posted his impressions on it yesterday. This leaves me with sharing my impressions on the campaign mode for all of you today.  Having gone through the game solo on Legendary, as well as grabbed all possible solo play Achievements for it, I can pretty much say I have experienced what Halo 3 ODST’s campaign fully has to offer.

Either I’m slowly getting on board with the Halo train, or the campaigns are just getting more enjoyable and better designed. Again I will reiterate that I have never been a big Halo fan, as I found the first two games’ storylines and campaigns boring. I even found Halo 3′s storyline and campaign to be somewhat bland, but decent enough to play through it. Unlike my minor enjoyment with Halo 3′s campaign, I actually enjoyed Halo 3: ODST’s campaign a lot.

The storyline for Halo 3: ODST is nothing to write home about, as it’s pretty non-sensical (the forced romance definitely had me groaning). What I do like about the storyline is that it gives the game more of a premise to play lots of varied scenarios through the  role of the non-speaking “Rookie”, an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper tasked with traveling around the deserted city of New Mombasa looking for clues on the rest of his crew. When you find a clue, it calls forth a flashback to the squad member associated with the clue and you get to engage in a “past mission” that the squad member participated in. Each squad member has a different type of expertise, resulting in varied and enjoyable missions.

The Rookie travels through New Mombasa at night, so he tends to play a bit more stealth-oriented (with the help of a “night vision”-ish mode), knocking out enemies that are sleeping or sneaking by powerful foes that are not necessary to engage. Other squad members may specialize in sniping, driving a Scorpion tank, etc., so you really get to experience a wide variety in Halo style gameplay through the playing of each squad member. To be honest, maybe it’s because I played through both Halo 3 and Halo 3 ODST on Legendary mode, but I couldn’t quite tell the difference between Master Chief and the ODST “Rookie”. Both had regenerating shields, but the “Rookie” also has a life-bar under his shield. On Legendary in either game you practically die by charging straight in anyway, whether you’re a Spartan or an ODST and thus I had a hard time noting the difference.

I enjoyed Halo 3: ODST’s campaign more than any other Halo game’s campaign. That may make me sound crazy, but the way that Halo 3: ODST’s campaign flowed from start to finish was pretty tight and varied enough that I never got bored. Its difficulty is also just right – I would say that ODST’s Legendary campaign is about as difficult as Halo 3′s campaign on Heroic. It may be personal preference, but I liked ODST’s smaller level design and more personal encounters. In Halo 3′s campaign you were simply running too long to get from one place to another and every few yards you would be thrown a dozen or so enemies to plow through in large open areas. Some complain that ODST’s campaign is short at 5-6 hours, but I enjoyed it more than Halo 3′s expansive and monotonous campaign.

For those that are just getting Halo 3 ODST for the Firefight mode and Halo 3 maps, don’t overlook the campaign. It’s certainly worth playing through, and stands tall as one of the three main pillars in the package. While you can play it co-op with 3 other buddies, I reommend playing through it solo since that really should be how the game is experienced. I can’t think of anything I’d want to change about it, except perhaps extending its length. Unfortunately, a short campaign seems to be the trend of most FPS games these days.

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