Halo: ODST Review

Halo has always been about up front, in your face action and ODST attempts to shake up the formula a bit. It’s more or less an expansion off of Halo 3, but it does add some unique components like Firefight that make it stand out.

It may retain the Halo name but once you kick-off the campaign you’ll notice some major changes to the gameplay. For one, you control an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) who isn’t nearly as durable or strong as the Master Chief. As a matter of fact, you’re slower, can’t dual-wield weapons, take damage if you fall from high places, and don’t regenerate health by simply staying out of harm’s way. It may feel strange and it should since the typical run-and-gun style you might be so familiar with is going to change a bit.

Halo: Reach post-beta impressions and insight

The Halo: Reach beta has come to a close and with it my stalwart pessimism towards its future. Everything Reach adds refines and reconstructs the necessary shooter mechanics that have made it so overwhelmingly popular. What’s more baffling, I never imagined that the key ingredient missing from Halo’s triumphant formula was simply hiding in its competition.

If you had the opportunity to test out the beta, you may have been taken aback at how different yet conveniently familiar Reach felt. The game is still very much Halo, but with a new class system, weapon changes, and aiming mechanics that completely augment the experience. For some, these alterations could be infuriating, but the rest should find it welcome and you can thank contemporary games like Battlefield and Call of Duty for that.


Being able to change your class on the fly is single-handedly one of, if not the most significant change the series has taken. Depending on the gametype, the class you choose could come with different sets of weapons and all come with their own unique power such as sprinting, cloaking, and jet-packing. Weapons are still found around the maps, but spawning with something a little meatier than a peashooter is a nice touch. As far as abilities go, the sprint ability seemed to be the most natural fit of the bunch, but there’s nothing like flying over your opponents whilst raining death via rocket launcher either. You’ll never find a single class that’s good at absolutely everything, but it’s nice to see them excel at something very specific.

These special abilities or Armor Powers, definitely diversify the battlefield and none seem to be too overly unbalanced. If I had to choose though, the Armor Lock ability would be the one to stand out. Armor Locking throws you into a crouching position with intensified shields that can withstand any amount of damage, but you become immobile. It’s extremely useful for avoiding grenades and ricocheting pesky rockets right back at your enemy, but I feel it’s almost too powerful. Maybe it’s that you can activate the power too many times in one period, but who am I kidding? If you use this thing with none of your allies around, you’re as good as dead. Usually.

The new game types have also added a flair I didn’t think Halo could do. Invasion is the new mode that plays much like Unreal Tournament’s assault mode. It’s Elites versus Spartans and, at least in the beta, the Elites are the attackers while the humans take up defensive positions. Capturing objectives adds more strategy to a game that has only really known the tactics of running and gunning. Headhunter, though, is my personal favorite as it’s complete, unadulterated chaos. In order to score, you must collect skulls from fallen players and run them to constantly moving drop-points. The trick behind all this is anyone can see the number of skulls you’re currently carrying. It becomes hilarious in the late game when people you kill start dropping scores of skulls that roll all over the map and everyone tries frantically to pick them up. Another strategy, albeit a tough one, is to score 10 skulls at any point. If you can do that you’ll achieve a Skullamanjaro as well as an instant victory.


Weapon-wise, Reach has changed a great deal of the iconic Halo weaponry and threw out dual-wielding all together. The famed Battle Rifle is now defunct and is replaced with the Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR). The pistol, which can never seem to find the right role, is better than ever and the Needler isn’t complete trash. It’s all hard to believe, but the much larger role is the new aiming system. Instead of having three-shot massacre rifles and pin-point accuracy at any range, the new aiming system rewards those who have patience. Pull the trigger like you’re trying to start a fire and you’ll make your reticle as big as the moon and your aiming coach very unhappy. But if you time it by waiting a second in between each shot, you’ll keep your reticle in perfect shape and hit your target with ease.

This accuracy thing will definitely urk the more hardcore crowd but with time it’s pretty easy to get used to and not every weapon suffers from it. The new grenade launcher definitely doesn’t suffer from accuracy issues as you’re the one in sole control. One of the great perks of utilizing the grenade launcher is the ability to manually detonate the grenade. I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to scatter groups of enemies who think they’re out of your range. It’s perhaps my favorite new weapon, right next to the absolutely ridiculous plasma grenade thrower. I mean, how could you not like a weapon that shoots out homing plasma grenades? Seriously.


There’s a great deal more I haven’t touched on like the new interface, credits, and the Spartan/Elite idiosyncrasies, but it’s fairly obvious everything is done particularly well. The greatest feat of Reach though, is its ability to be so different while remaining very much the same. Bringing back mechanics that work, like health and the power of the pistol, are very much welcome but so are the obvious influences from present games. It all comes together in a way that makes Halo feel like it was always meant to be played this way. Now the wait for September truly sets in.


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Why Halo needed Reach

Whether you game or not everybody knows about Halo. Besides being one of the most popular franchises of all-time, it’s the reason console shooters took off in the first place. Sure there’ve been plenty of quality shooters before Halo’s day, but after Halo 2 blew the competition away, with internet functionality among other things, Halo’s place would be firmly cemented into gaming history. What came after would be controversial, but I don’t think anyone can deny the stale smell emanating from the series’ tried and true mechanics. With Bungie’s departure from Microsoft and my clear displeasure with the third game and its contrived spin-offs, I pretty much wrote the series off as having done all it could. Then, Reach hit me. 

Reach, is exactly what the Halo series needed. It’s a boost to a franchise that has long followed the “if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it” approach. While that’s the safe way to play with game design, after the third game Halo desperately needed something to put that infallible sheen back on its armor plating. I’m not saying that traditional FPS style isn’t a good time, but as technology advances so does design and Halo needed new ideas. Reach provides an augmentation to the series by modernizing and organizing the game into something that feels fresh yet still familiar. There are surely some hurdles to cross, but if this game can do it I feel confident in saying it will be the definitive Halo experience. 

With all this talk of Halo being different, fans shouldn’t feel immediately alienated because the core of the game hasn’t changed. You’re still running and gunning with your shields and trusty plasma grenades at your side. What I’m most excited about are nuances like spawning in on your wingman, which if you ask me is anything but a slight change. You’ve been able to do this in a slew of other games, like Battlefield, but implementing this in Halo calls for extra strategy and adds some needed depth. More than that, Reach is also borrowing the Battlefield class system. No longer will you be dependent on reaching location A where weapon B always spawns. I’ve become embittered with that system over the years but now choosing your class suddenly clears up the battlefield and makes for your initial spawn to have a few extra seconds of life. I can’t explain how important that difference is.

The class system and Battlefield-esque borrowing seems to be the most controversial item Reach offers. Truthfully, I think Halo will be better off now that more of its random nature has been toned down. You know, spawning in the midst of a massive gunfight, getting gunned down by the very man you just killed not two seconds ago, never being able to get the damned sniper rifle. Surely some of these things will still happen, but more of the control has been put into your hands. There was nothing worse than being camped when a team controlled all the effective weaponry on a map. Now that you can control what you spawn with and where you spawn, this frustration should be relaxed. 

Giving an identity to both the Spartan and Elite is further evidence of Bungie trying to tweak everything about the series. Elites are gigantic compared to Spartans who should be easily concealed, they’re also stronger, and can regenerate health. Both sides also have unique armor functionality that will be instrumental on the battlefield. Spartans can sprint, like in Call of Duty, Elites can cloak, and both sides have the option of using a jet-pack. There’s so much more apparent and this customization adds yet another layer of strategy while ridding Halo of the identical combat we’ve all become accustomed to. Surely this is the way the game should have always been played.

There are the many more changes and obvious inclusions to a brand new game like Reach, but what we should all be excited about is how the gameplay has changed so dramatically yet in such a subtle manner. Halo has finally evolved with the rest of modern day gaming and I can’t wait to see how it all pans out.

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