Kick some Covenant butt with Halo's Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. by Chris Buffa
2009 will be a wonderful year for Halo fans. In addition to the impressive real time strategy game, Halo Wars, Microsoft will release Halo 3: ODST, a first person shooter that chronicles the Covenant invasion of Earth -- set between Halo 2 and 3. In a strange twist, Master Chief is nowhere to be found, but despite his absence, controlling new characters and experience the horrors that occurred during the invasion are enough to get us excited for its release.
Meet "the rookie," Halo 3: ODST's unlikely hero. Halo 3: ODST casts you as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (also known as "the rookie") who is separated from four of his squad mates as their HEVs (Human Entry Vehicles) arrive from orbit into New Mombasa, Kenya. Armed with standard issue USNC weaponry, the ODST sets off (with the help of the city's artificial intelligence, known as the Superintendent) to find his comrades — Romeo, Buck, Dutch, Mickey -- and kill any Covenant that gets in his way. Throughout the course of the adventure, he'll locate beacons that offer valuable clues to each soldier's disappearance. Doing so triggers flashbacks that enable you to play as these missing characters, the goal to discover what happened to them.
Since the main character lacks Master Chief's armor, he's more susceptible to damage. Although he lacks protective shielding, he can still recharge health, and while he cannot dual wield, he carries a silenced SMG and a PDA. He's also much smaller and slower than Master Chief, so enemies will appear taller and quicker.
At this point, Bungie remains tight-lipped on the rest of the game's features, including overall length of the single-player campaign, new weapons, enemies, vehicles and the announced co-op mode. In fact, we've yet to dig up in-game screens (these renders and snapshots were yanked from Bungie's website. However, we do know that it'll provide plenty of fan service for gamers interested in finding out what happened on Earth. Even better, you won't need to own the original Halo 3 in order to play ODST, although it'll come with new Halo 3 multiplayer maps including Assembly and Orbital.
Although you lack Master Chief's technology, "the rookie" has some of his own toys. In the meantime, Halo Wars should keep us busy until this summer's Electronic Entertainment Expo, the event that'll probably serve as the backdrop for Halo 3: ODST, already one of the most anticipated games this fall.
Posted By: Game Vibe
Tuesday, February 10th 2009 at 9:50AM
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