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ODST has its share of flaws, but it's a noteworthy creation simply for the way in which it unites the two different faces of the franchise -- campaign and multiplayer -- into something that should appeal to both sets of fans. It doesn't really do anything new (quite the contrary, really), yet its take on these familiar ideas is at once incredibly polished and extremely addictive.

ODST takes you out Master Chief's first-person viewpoint and drops you into the relatively weaker armor (and non-surgically-enhanced physique) of a squad of "Helljumpers," the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers who lend the game its title. They'e tougher than your average meat balloon marine, but still clock in a few notches below Master Chief in terms of durability. The change in protagonist makes an appreciable difference to the action: your ODSTs are shorter, slower, and weaker than you're accustomed to. They can't dual-wield, they can't sprint, and your melee attack won't kill a Brute in a single shot, even if you kosh them unawares.

This doesn't impede the gameplay; on the contrary, it enhances it. Encounters that have grown rote and predictable over the past three games are suddenly challenging and intimidating again. You'll sweat out battles that would've been a simple matter for the Chief. A pair of Hunters is no longer a minor obstacle but rather a dangerous threat that needs to be dealt with immediately. Drones can be utterly overwhelming. And those Brute captains with the gravity hammers and the Overshield? Yeah, you can't outrun those guys to wait out their invincibility this time: They're faster than you, stronger than you, meaner than you, and making a beeline straight for you.

The Campiagn hub level is unlike anything ever seen in the series, or in just about any modern shooter, for that matter. The Rookie has the full run of the city, and how it plays out is completely at your discretion. You can dart from hotspot to hotspot to find traces of your comrades as quickly as possible, or you can work against the grain to explore the city's darkened recesses. You can face patrols head-on, or you can sneak past them. Where Halo is famous for its aggressive, backtracking-proof level design, ODST's hub is completely nonlinear and can be approached in any number of ways. And unlike the typical Halo mission, New Mombasa completely changes when played cooperatively.

ODST does suffer for the lack of genuinely new elements it adds to the Halo universe, and the campaign mode is a bit brief. Yet between the enormous scope of New Mombasa, the unique atmosphere, and the brilliance of Firefight mode, I can easily see myself pouring more time into ODST than any other Halo to date. As a student of the "quality over quantity" school of entertainment, I'll take a compact but meaty experience that keeps me coming back over a long, drawn-out exercise in tedium any day. ODST may be a side diversion in the Halo universe, but it's an awfully good one.

I highly recommend picking up this game if you're a die-hard Halo fan, or even someone new to the series.

My rating: A-

Sorry if this was too long. :]

I'm already working on getting halo ODST haha. I am a halo ADDICT and I know it but I don't care. By the way Fatal error if you got halo 3 and wanna play send kirby684read a friend request on live. Trust me I play alot better than my rank says.