During E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo) last week, Bungie Software have shown a handful of very cool presentations of Halo 3: ODST to reporters from game industry news sites.
Halo 3: ODST is sort of a prequel to Halo 3. The game’s events take place after the events of Halo 2, but before the events played out in Halo 3. You play the part of an ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) who has been seperated from your squad, and you are stranded in the the middle of a Covenant-occupied city. Bad news.
Videos:
First off there are three videos from GameSpot:
- Halo 3: ODST Video Feature 1 – showing a “Firefight” match which is basically an endless wave of Covenant which attack as long as you can survive. People keep comparing this to “Horde” mode in Gears of War 2, except I haven’t played GoW2 at all so I can’t vouch for that. :P
- Halo 3: ODST Video Feature 2 – first part of a gameplay demo of the single player campaign. This shows you the first ever footage of the game’s introduction cinematic!
- Halo 3: ODST Video Feature 3 – continuation of the previous video. Explains a bit about the “City Superintendent” which is the city-managing AI of New Mombasa who provides you with info and hints etc.
Next up we have a high quality set of three videos from GameTrailers.com, each of which shows approximately the same footage, but in much much higher quality:
- E3 09: Firefight Developer Walkthrough HD – Shows another presentation of the Firefight mode gameplay. You get a good idea of the similarity between the original H3 HUD and the H3:ODST HUD watching this video, due to the high quality.
- E3 09: Campaign Developer Walkthrough Pt. 1 HD – Introduces the single player campaign. Unfortunately started filming a little late so it misses the introductory cinematic.
- E3 09: Campaign Developer Walkthrough Pt. 2 HD – Again, continues from the previous video. Shows a bit of transitional cinematic for the daytime gameplay. Cool!
Comments on videos:
These videos give some major insight to how the game is shaping up, and frankly I think it’s going to more or less own. I was a bit skeptical at first, since it’s easy to feel that the Halo franchise is being “milked” in a sense. However, the universe and canon have so much depth that Bungie and Microsoft could probably still make another 10 games exploring the various stories and background regarding the history. I’d still love to see a game which really delves into the story behind the Forerunners, and, well, I think Halo: Reach is going to be great for getting to learn about what happened with the Covenant’s invasion of Reach (and related history).
Marathon similarities in ODST:
Accessing terminal in H3: ODST
Now, I’m really doubting it would happen, but I would be totally stoked if we encounter some rampant AI in the game! I guess it’s not likely, but I’d love to see that kind of phenomenon revisited in a modern game – especially in a game from Bungie, of course!
Anyway, Halo 3: ODST is out in Fall 2009, so be sure to preorder it up if you’re interested! As well, the Collector’s Edition comes with an exclusive H3:ODST-themed Xbox 360 controller. Very cool.
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