Halo 3: ODST, the somewhat long awaited side story to the Halo universe finally shipped out to fans last week, and after spending about a week with the campaign and firefight modes, I have to say it might be my favorite Halo experience, at least from the single player perspective, since the original Halo. The game still makes use of a lot of Halo 3 assets, there's not much in the way of appearance upgrades or new stuff being shown off, and the enemies you encounter are almost entirely ripped out of Halo 3. The Covenant come equipped with the same guys as before, so you'll be seeing all the familiar Brutes, Grunts, Chieftains, and so on that you're already familiar with. Where the game really sees some change, and shines, is the overall way the city of New Mombasa is presented, and the way your mission structure breaks down. It's not necessarily mind blowing, but it evokes a certain style of mystique and atmosphere that the Halo games aren't particularly well known for. Instead of the big, bombastic set pieces we've grown used to (but don't worry, you still get a few of these), most of the combat is up close and personal, tense, and filled with an eerie sense of foreboding.

The story itself is solid, putting you in the role of an ODST soldier only known as The Rookie, another silent protagonist in the war against the Covenant. The rest of your squad, led by Eddie Buck (who is voiced by Nathan Fillion of Firefly fame), makes up for your overall lack of dialogue, with a lot of well-worn sense of camaraderie that the Halo series tends to capture quite well. As the game progresses you start to care about the characters and their individual outcomes, and the game plays off of that connection a few times with some pretty good effect.

The rest of what really sells ODST's narrative, at least for me, comes from the way New Mombasa is laid out before you, how you explore the city as the Rookie and come across the various debris that relates to the flashback missions of your fellow squad mates, and the almost bluesy tone of the soundtrack when you're trudging through the rain soaked streets of the city attempting to avoid or take out the patrolling Covenant squads. The whole sense of being alone in a city that's been recently ravaged by invading forces comes across quite well, and while the area could do with a little more destruction to give some sense of the battle that's gone on (there's a couple areas that do stand out, but a lot of the city streets don't seem to be that worn), it certainly evokes a feeling that's pretty different from the previous Halo entries. The soundtrack, especially, is quite excellent, and worth searching out to buy alone.

Combat is similar to the other Halo games, the controls are the same as you'd suspect, but the way you fight will be a little different to most players. Whereas Master Chief is a beast of a man, and can take a fair amount of damage before needing to recharge his shields or shy away from a fight, the ODST soldiers are a little more squishy, they don't have the shields that the Chief uses, instead they have a stamina system that slowly turns the screen red, and then will eat away at their overall health in short order. The stamina effect will recharge, but the health won't, so you'll need to seek out the scattered med stations that house health packs around the city. You can't take nearly the same amount of firepower that Master Chief can, and you're limited to single weapons instead of dual wielding, so you do feel a little weaker and vulnerable by comparison. It works within the game though, and it forces you to play certain scenarios and groupings far differently than you typically would. Also, ammo and guns are harder to come by, there's not much in the way of supplies from the human side of things, so you'll find yourself switching out to Covenant weapons quickly, and often, in order to keep from running out of some type of firepower. It's nice in that it forces you to become familiar with weapons you might not normally use in something like Halo 3, and there's plenty of instances where you'll be happy to just take down a Grunt for a basic energy pistol to continue the fight with.

Along with ODST's single player campaign (which can also be played cooperatively), there's the inclusion of a new online mode called Firefight. Fans of the Horde mode in Gears 2 will find Firefight a little familiar, with the similar concept of working together to take on waves of enemies in an ever increasing level of difficulty. ODST makes use of the in-game maps for this mode, giving you some interesting spaces to move about and take down the invading Covenant forces, using a score system to tally up your progress. It's a challenging mode, and a lot of fun in a group of four, and well worth toying around with. It's a great addition to a solid online line-up from Halo 3, which is also included with ODST on a separate disc. My only real complaint about Firefight, and ODST's co-op in general, is that it's limited to Friend invites, instead of giving you an open search option like a regular multiplayer set-up. This is probably a carry over from the tech that was used for the co-op in Halo 3's campaign, but it's an annoyance for players that don't have a lot of hardcore Halo fans on their friends list already, and something that I would have liked to seen changed here.

Outside of that, I can't find much to complain about with ODST. The single player experience was fantastic, and I'll at least play through it once again on Legendary at some point, opting to go with Heroic mode for my first game. Firefight is a lot of fun, provided you have a few friends to check it out with, and it's a solid addition to the game. Of course, the online multiplayer of Halo 3 remains unchanged, and you'll already be aware of what that's all about. Having it included with all the map packs is nice for players that don't already own the content, but I can definitely see that being a little redundant for the big fans that have bought into this stuff already, and at $60 I can get how a few people might feel a bit burned on the pricing for this spin-off. Still, I think the single player game is worth it, it's a great set-up and a decent narrative, which has a fantastic sense of atmosphere that I found refreshing when compared to the rest of the series. Well worth playing and picking up, both for fans and those that have been away from the series for a bit.