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Art 3160 - What’s the Story?
The game I’ve been playing for the past few weeks is Halo 3: ODST. The game takes place before the events of Halo 3, in the year 2552, and focuses on a set of soldiers who arrive at Earth in order to save it from the invasion of the alien alliance known as The Covenant, who have arrived at Earth with a mysterious agenda. You play as a total of four characters, who are members of a special assault group of the military know as OSDTs. ODST stands for Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. The literally get shot to the surface from high orbit, in pods, and engage the situation. The game starts with our characters being shot down to Earth to carry on a mysterious mission, when one of the Covenant ships escapes via a slip-space jump, causing the pods to get knocked out of trajectory. Each pod lands in a different area of the Mega City of New Mombasa, Kenya. The game’s setup came to me as a bit of a pleasant surprise. The Halo franchise, needless to say, has been struggling on the story department, ever since they realized their potential on the multiplayer side of things. ODST comes out of left field, with a surprisingly atmospheric, engaged, and deep storyline. You start as the main character known only as The Rookie. You land in the middle of an abandoned and war-torn massive mega city and must try to find your other teammates. The story unfolds whenever you come across a “clue.” They range from a helmet to a destroyed rifle. Every time you find a clue, the game takes you to the perspective of the respective teammate, and you play as them for a couple hours. There are four other characters in total that you play as, other than The Rookie. Each one unveiling a bit more about the plot of the story. The story culminates with you meeting up with your team to execute your mission deep underneath New Mombasa.
The City’s AI is called “The Superintendent.” The Superintendent helps you throughout the game as you hunt for the various clues. There are also certain stations where you can listen to voice logs, which follow a scientists daughter as the invasion is taking place. It is an effective story device, because you can listen to these logs as you traverse the aftermath of what your listening to.
The element that I’m most impressed with is the set design of the ruined city of New Mombasa. The production value and design of the environment is through the roof. You really feel the atmosphere of the city, with skyscrapers in the background, and sounds of war in the distance. Flickering lights and turned cars add to the authenticity of the story and situation. This is all capped off with a somber and low-tempo’d orchestral soundtrack. It is one of the best single-player story campaigns I’ve played ever. At 6-8 hrs of gameplay. I only wish it was a bit longer. Although i suppose it isn’t bad for something that originated as an expansion pack.
