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There aren’t many surprises for me when it comes to videogames. However, every now and then, a developer comes up with a real gem that should fail. I honestly thought that Mass Effect was going to be rubbish, and then it had me hooked after a two day long marathon, which probably says a lot about my social life.

This year’s diamond in the rough is Halo: ODST. For me, Halo is the worst example of a deeply average game that keeps making money. Then again, the developers are concentrating on the humans in this instalment. ODST follows the story of a team of drop troopers, specifically the Rookie after a miss-drop into New Mombasa during the Covenant’s invasion. To sum up the plot without ruining it, the Rookie has to make his way through the city and find his troop, as well as not getting killed by the swarms of covenant soldiers in his path.
Three big things set this apart from the other games in the series. Firstly, the game isn’t a linear slog through pre-determined mission after pre-determined mission. Instead, New Mombasa is a free roaming sand box full of enemies and secrets to find. Secondly, you can no longer jump into gunfights Rambo style. In this game, your human and therefore don’t have a Spartan rebounding health meter. You have to plan attacks carefully and be even more clinical with their execution which should scare away all those Americans who have ruined the rest of the series.
Finally, it’s a more human orientated game. Now, ODST looks at the fight from the human perspective and you know what, it was an inspired decision because it wholly improves the atmosphere. New Mombasa is a truly intimidating place at night and the audio logs that make up Sadie’s Story emphasises the civilian element in Halo which has never been explored. My worry, though, is that this will be a one-off game in the series and the fallout of fans who will, not might, complain at the new game play mechanics will force them to renew the Spartan soldiers.
All in all, this is an annoyingly decent game. I don’t like Halo, but ODST does well to deviate from the norm. I haven’t even mentioned the new multiplayer features, but the single player, for once, is enough to elevate this game above all the other games coming out this autumn...except when Modern Warfare 2 arrives, then it’ll be forgotten in second.
By the way, as this is the first game review on the site for an age, please don’t comment on how videogames aren’t art. I was told to put it here. Don’t blame me!

By Thomas Vaughan, 22/10/09