So here we go.
I played the game for about 2,5 hours. I started with 2 games of the old Halo 3 multiplayer to get a warm up. Then I switched to firefight. Almost nobody on my friends list is playing this, so I played with my neighbour on one console via splitscreen. You can also play splitscreen on one console together with two other people from anywhere in the world. Just one gold account needed.
So my neighbour is not the best Halo player out there but even then we had a lot of fun. Things like nightvision-stuff is new, new weapons and new maps (of course) so we tried as much as we can. But I can tell you, this with 4 player online will be insane. If you like Halo and there are quite a lot of people out there who do, you will love this one. The silenced weapon we have seen in lots of videos is very powerful against grunts, but very weak against enemies with heavy armor. So you will need the noob-combo of Halo 2, or grenades etc.
The melee attacks aren't that good. Well, you are playing a ODST and not masterchief. Just from the one firefight game I played, I can tell you, this will take a lot of my time in the coming weeks. It is really that good. The concept of firefight is really inspired by Horde mode in Gears of War 2, but it feels different. You really need to back each other up for a successful game on the hardest difficulty. Teamplay is definatley required. Of course, playing this on easy is like shooting ducks.
My neighbour had to leave then, so I played the campaign for two hours. If you like the campaign / story of Halo, you will like this one as well. It seems to be very deep with a lot of turnarounds. The city the campaign takes place in, is very big and very dark. It is a different kind of Halo playing as the rookie really feels like the one guy searching for his team. The flashbacks to your other members are much brighter. This is like the Halo 3 - style. Being outside, fighting Wraiths, ghosts, shopper etc.
The sound is superb. That is something Halo games are known for and this one is no different. The music speeds up when action is incoming, searching dark houses and the music turns down a little bit.
The graphics seem to be a little bit better than Halo 3, but not a huge step. Well Halo 3 was not an ugly game, so this is okay, but we have seen better than that with Gears of war 2, not talking about coming graphical power-houses like Alan Wake or Splinter Cell Conviction.
One other cool thing is that you can actually see ingame how far you are away from earning you next achievement. It sais 1/10 headshots when you do a headshot, when you are at 10/10 you hear this well known sound "achievement unlocked".
In a word:
Halo ODST is what it is, an expansion to Halo 3. It has a good campaign, with a nice story in it. Halo ODST Firefight will be pure fun. If you have 4 friends on Xbox Live, prepare to play some saturday nights with them. You will need a lot of time beating this on "legendary". So I would say, since this is 40€ in Europe, you HAVE to get this if you liked Halo 3. For full price, it is still worth it.
Of course, when you hated Halo 3, you won't fall in love with Halo ODST. I would recommend Halo ODST to every Halo fan. For an expansion, it is HUGE. If you don't play online and you can't play firefight or the complete Halo3 multiplayer, you still have a very good singleplayer featuring a very good story. I still have to play a little bit to see how long the campaign really is. So far, it is a fun game.
9.5 / 10
Imagine not having GamePass on your console...
