Since you're all alone, linking up with your unit, or even whatever's left in orbit from your strikeforce, is the most important thing. We only had limited time with the campaign, but it looks like the game operates on a hub model - the central part of Mombasa is where you start, and there are various areas, with attendant missions, radiating off of the central area.
One thing I asked Curtis about was the game's engine, and if it is basically the same as Halo 3 or more heavily modified. There are some tweaks, he said, "but the real advantage is that the designers now really understand the tools. So the environments are much more open and far less linear, and we make a lot of good use of lighting and environmental effects."
The hub-based nature of the game isn't the only gameplay change, either. As you progress through the city, you'll find evidence of what your squad has been up to, and these happen as in-game events to fill in the missing six hours. So, you might find a demo-charge, and that opens up a sequence where you control the squad's heavy weapon specialist as he blows a bridge - and this is set two hours after the drop.
"All the game's action is far more human, and more human in scale," said Curtis, "so we wanted to enforce that you really aren't alone. You're not like the Master Chief at all, and you are a part of something greater." Essentially, whereas Halo's central relationship was between a super-soldier and an advanced AI, ODST's is about the simpler bonds between fellow grunts.
Elite grunts, but grunts nonetheless.
Multiplayer: welcome to the FirefightOur time in the single-player game was limited, but we did get to spend about an hour blasting away in the new Firefight multiplayer mode. It's a co-operative set up, which places you and your squadmates in a level with ever increasing waves of Covenant baddies. It's kind of like Left 4 Dead's Survival mode.
You have a limited pool of lives that you all share, too, so teamwork and shepherding of resources is paramount. Grenades are a real equalizer here, but then so are the skills of the Covenant on harder settings. With each new wave they learn new skills, like always dodging grenade blasts. Each wave in each iteration of the game is different, too. The action rarely lets up, and the ever-changing mix of weapons and enemies makes for countless tactical challenges.
Halo 3:ODST will sip with a second disk that has all of the so-far released multiplayer maps, as well as three brand new maps.
The game ships on the 22nd of September. Keep an eye out for our interview with Curtis Creamer (and these are the Console forum's questions, too), and a gallery of Weta's too cool Warthog later this week.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012