Mike Bantick
Monday, 28 September 2009 13:02
Entertainment
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Halo 3: ODST is a comic book size story set in the pulp universe left by the Halo trilogy. It is exactly what the designers were aiming for, a much more intimate single player experience, obviously intended to be an expansion pack. That is until the marketing department got wind of the project.
When
iTWire spoke to Halo 3: ODST Lead Designer Curtis Creamer recently, it was evident Bungie had a clear vision about where ODST sat in the Halo canon.
Halo 3: ODST
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Bungie
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Microsoft
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Rating
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M
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| Xbox 360 |
“We wanted to approach the story for ODST a lot differently to the Halo trilogy. So in the trilogy, it is a very big story, this huge space opera that spans many locations, you are gallivanting across the universe, you are a super solder larger than life, it’s very grandiose.” Creamer said.
“So in ODST we were attracted to the notion of telling a much smaller, tighter story over a much smaller time-line, and then throw some twists into that, by mixing that up with playing as one of your ODST squad-mates and then back as the Rookie trying to piece together this mystery.” He concluded.
And having played through this story, I can report that Bungie have been largely successful in pulling this off.
Playing as the ’Rookie’, you wake from unconsciousness some six hours after crashing to Earth. Literally that is, for the first time the Halo action takes place solely on good old Terra, in and around the city of New Mombasa. Halo 3: ODST is a prequel story to the original Halo trilogy.
Unlike the exploits of Master Chief, this story of a squad of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers is told in its own time frame and scale. ‘Rookie’ is a much less powerful character, lacking the Spartan power armour of the Chief, and also gone is the ability to duel-wield pistols.
Jumping into the middle of a pack of Covenent is not a great ‘Rookie’ plan, and you will spend a large amount of time running, hiding and avoiding the fight making your way around New Mombasa. This is exacerbated by a lack of ammo as well as the lack of street lighting in the city, making the chance of an unseen Covernent ambush a reality.
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