Review - Halo 3: ODST

What is it?The latest Halo game swaps all-out first-person firefights for more stealthy options.

What we like:There are plenty of the epic action moments typical of the much-loved Halo series. The map system doesn't pause the game, which adds tension. Combat – particularly enemy behaviour – is as excellent as ever. The vision-enhancing visor system looks beautiful and works well.

What we don't like:Some fairly dull sections sneaking through the main New Mombasa area. Stealth elements haven't been integrated brilliantly, with little incentive on all but the toughest difficulty levels to avoid fights. Some sections retread old Halo ideas.

Judgment:High-quality first-person combat. ODST is classic Halo, but the series seems to be slowly running out of ideas.

Review:Game franchises don't come much bigger than Halo, which has delivered cinematic, first-person action across three legendary games already. But with the trilogy complete, can the brand expansions match the original games?

Not quite, on the evidence so far. Halo Wars successfully beefed-up real-time strategy gaming. Halo 3: ODST attempts to mix stealth elements into Halo action with slightly less success.

Halo 3: ODST is set between Halo 2 and 3, acting as a side story to the main events unfolding in the original trilogy. It ditches previous hero Master Chief's nigh-on invulnerability for a crew of human squaddies, or "Orbital Drop Shock Troopers".

When your ODST squad's drop from space into the city warzone of New Mombasa goes off course, you, "the rookie", are separated from your fellow troopers. Accordingly, you start the game solo, with the rookie sneaking through New Mombasa's ruined streets, now overrun by Covenant forces (alien enemies), trying to track down your teammates.

Flashback storytelling

Each time you make it across the city to uncover a new clue, you then play through a flashback section where you find out a bit more about what's been happening to your missing buddies. Play alternates throughout between flashback and solo stealth.

The flashback sections feel pretty much like the previous Halo shooters: they're heavy on run, gun and cover combat and big on pretty, epic setpieces: blowing up bridges, driving tanks through city streets awash with Covenant and racing jeeps down enemy-infested highways while the city burns.

It's the rookie's sections, exploring New Mombasa alone, that represent a new move for Halo. With the power out and only what ammo you can scrounge off bodies, the game is much slower than other Halo games.

You spend much time trying to sneak through areas without kicking off another ammunition-depleting, health-battering firefight and only rarely resorting to quick bursts of run-and-gun. That is, if you're playing the game as intended.

Unless you're playing on the highest difficulty settings, most competent action gamers should be able to tackle every enemy by simply going in with guns blazing, ignoring the sneaking option completely. There's enough ammunition, health packs and weaponry left lying around to do so.

Flawed stealth

In many other ways, the stealth elements of Halo 3: ODST feel almost an intrusion to the game. Sneaking success is a bit random – and there's no indication of when you're hidden in shadows or successfully out of sight. The game's answer seems to be to set enemy awareness level to "dozy" for most difficulties. It doesn't make sneaking feel tense and skilful, though.

It's almost as if Halo 3: ODST would ultimately prefer you to just stand up and fight everyone. And when you do, while it slows the game down somewhat, at least things are back to the familiarly brilliant first-person combat Halo is so good at.

What does work well from the stealth side of things is the new night-vision visor: it not only boosts light levels, but also beautifully picks out switches, enemies and other interactive elements.

The interactive map you can pull up, although cluttered at times, works brilliantly because it doesn't pause the game. You can see enemy units moving about it as you hunker down behind cover, but you can also be ambushed while you're trying to work out which way to go. It's a neat way of upping the tension.

Ultimately though, the most tension comes from the straight-out firefights – as ever, Halo's strong point. But when you're not knee-deep in Covenant, ducking, switching weapons, lobbing off a grenade and running, New Mombasa often feels dull. Sneaking from one end of the map to the other to find the next blast of teammate action can be a trudge.

Solid firefights

ODST feels a bit like someone trying to force a square peg into a round hole. What's good about Halo isn't sneaking, but run-and-gun combat. And it's those sections that really shine.

Unfortunately, some of the biggest setpieces from the game are reminiscent of old bits from previous Halos. Some of the New Mombasa streets feel very repetitive too – like a gigantic burnt-out estate, all painted in the same colour.

However, there's still plenty of absolutely cracking combat and great big shiny explosions in between the slow, dull bits. Besides, the duller bits here are better than the duller bits in most games.

Plus, there's Firefight, a new multi-player mode, which echoes Gears Of War's Horde mode, in that teams of players fight it out against waves of tougher and tougher enemies for a high score. For Halo fans, Firefight multi-player alone may be worth the price of admission. 

And ODST’s single-player campaign sees plenty of classic Halo action. But as a stealth game? Or for a sense of where the Halo franchise goes next? ODST is running on empty.

Halo: ODST is out 22 September for Xbox 360