![]() Switch it on and the environment is defined by crisp green outlines while enemies are traced in red, offering a glimpse of the Halo universe as if seen through a Vectrex filter. Without it the courtyards, alleyways and boulevards of the city are shrouded in the deep black of night and only sparingly illuminated by the light of flash-fires and flickering neon. While it serves as an open world hub it's predominantly nocturnal, meaning the player has to rely on one of the game's other new additions - the visor. While the surroundings are superficially familiar from Halo 2's standout urban skirmishes, the New Mombasa that forms the hub of ODST is a very different place. Waking six hours later with an almighty headache, he sets out alone to discover the fate of his comrades. ![]() It's this hostile environment that the rookie is violently dropped into, his drop knocked off-kilter as the enemy armada snaps into Slipspace and sends him crashing to earth. Devastated by the attack that was fleetingly covered in Halo 2, it's a crumbling metropolis that's teeming with Covenant forces. Tricia Helfer and Nathan Fillion provide some of the voices and some romance. Ultimately, however, the rookie's a throwaway cipher for what's the real star of Halo 3: ODST - the city of New Mombasa. In his absence you play the rookie – who, in the style of every decent mute protagonist from Link to Gordon Freeman is 'the strong but silent type' – part of a rag-tag group that is the ODST. Ditching Master Chief is a bold step but, amidst ODST's other tinkering with the key formula, it's arguably a minor one. But while ODST has got one eye firmly on the past, it also manages to break the mould laid out by the Halo trilogy. Deadly from range and firing as fast as your trigger finger allows, it's a beast of a weapon that makes you feel like it's 2001 all over again. But it's the reappearance of the scoped pistol that's sure to receive the most cheers from series traditionalists and, having been absent since the first Halo game, it's a homecoming that's long overdue. The Master Chief's recharging shield is replaced by a health bar that's exposed after repeated punishment and crouching behind a box during a heated gunfight is no longer a viable option, as the frantic search for med-packs returns. Rejoice! It's not just the reductions that give ODST its retrospective flavour - having worked so hard to eliminate the health pack from videogaming, Bungie highlights the vulnerability of the shock troopers by re-introducing them. For the first time in a Halo game, the Flood are nowhere to be seen. ![]() Nearly all of the introductions the series has made in the eight years since have been stripped – dual-wielding is absent, as is the Battle Rifle that's been the weapon of choice since its arrival in Halo 2, and gone too is the Equipment that debuted in Halo 3. Master Chief might be entirely absent from the campaign - replaced by the titular Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, a squad of likable marines whose stories are told in a daringly structured episodic tale – but it's his first incarnation that informs so much of Halo 3: ODST.
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