New screenshots and a hands-on preview for Halo 3: ODST is now available courtesy of E3. First up, 1UP brings us their impressions of ODST, the expansion for Halo 3 arriving later this year.
21 new screens, including the ones seen above, and a plethora of information about ODST can be found at Bungie's official ODST page.
What's our take? It's interesting, because while I haven't played the single-player yet, it looks like it still maintains that moment-to-moment feel and gameplay of Halo, but in a different way. By the way, it's "good" interesting, not "eh" interesting. My only reservation is that I want to play the single-player for myself, and see how the flashback missions feel. The Dutch one, while fun-looking in the "you can fire a Spartan laser at a lot of stuff" type of way, also looks somewhat bogged down with some glorified button-pressing/switch-pulling.
As for Firefight, it already feels pretty fun; even though Halo co-op isn't as bromantic or fundamental as, say a Gears of War or Army of Two, the random shouting and coordination of tactics are pretty solid. The fact that everyone on the team shares lives is an incentive to not screw up, and in the matches where we last to the fifth wave, there are quite a few "oh shit!" moments when you turn a corner and find a bunch of Brutes staring you down.
Essentially, I'm cautiously optimistic, in that the campaign is doing some interesting things (tweaking the feel of being human as opposed to a Spartan, the nonlinear story), and the main reason why I'm not discounting it is because it's Bungie, and it's Halo. It's also interesting to see Bungie stop using the phrase "expansion" and to just treat this like a full-on game. I didn't hear a price, but Staten comments that the campaign is a good chunk of playtime, and the ODST package comes with a second disc focused purely on Halo 3 multiplayer (a stand-alone disc that has every Halo 3 map pack, plus new map), that players shouldn't feel cheated. I'm hoping he's right.
As for Firefight, it already feels pretty fun; even though Halo co-op isn't as bromantic or fundamental as, say a Gears of War or Army of Two, the random shouting and coordination of tactics are pretty solid. The fact that everyone on the team shares lives is an incentive to not screw up, and in the matches where we last to the fifth wave, there are quite a few "oh shit!" moments when you turn a corner and find a bunch of Brutes staring you down.
Essentially, I'm cautiously optimistic, in that the campaign is doing some interesting things (tweaking the feel of being human as opposed to a Spartan, the nonlinear story), and the main reason why I'm not discounting it is because it's Bungie, and it's Halo. It's also interesting to see Bungie stop using the phrase "expansion" and to just treat this like a full-on game. I didn't hear a price, but Staten comments that the campaign is a good chunk of playtime, and the ODST package comes with a second disc focused purely on Halo 3 multiplayer (a stand-alone disc that has every Halo 3 map pack, plus new map), that players shouldn't feel cheated. I'm hoping he's right.
21 new screens, including the ones seen above, and a plethora of information about ODST can be found at Bungie's official ODST page.