Comments on: The Prodigal

By: Red Scharlach

Red Scharlach — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:42:00 +0000

I felt the city centre had a lot of character and was great to wander around, especially thanks to the continuous presence of the Superintendent (The cameras, car alarms, tills and dispensers being set off, the road barriers…) and all the little piecemeal details it hands you via the audio logs (which tied in thematically very well with unlocking weapons cache. It makes sense that in trying to help you out, it would also want you to pay close attention to what it’s trying to tell you), as well as the clever enemy patrols and indeed even the snipers.

By: Cold Glider

Cold Glider — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:51:20 +0000

I have since beaten the game on Heroic and wanted to follow up. It’s true what Red Scharlach said about the city opening up a little after the second mission. Fair enough. Yet once those four are done it is back to linear mode again for the final two. The last two levels needed to be played sequentially (avoiding spoilers here) but those first two didn’t, so I wish they would have opened up the city from the start. I’m sure it was a playability decision; otherwise, many kids would have spent 20 minutes wandering around in the dark not finding the missions and reconsidering how to spend their $60.

In the end, you have to be a detail-oriented player and Halo fiction fan to enjoy the city. Fortunately for me, I am. I’m still working to unlock the secrets of New Mombasa so I personally can’t complain that the game is too boring or short. But I was bored there in the middle. By the time I was able to explore the city I felt that I had already seen it all and went steamrolling through the missions anyhow if only to avoid Jackal #95 sniping me from nondescript catwalk copy #343. Things have changed a little since I’ve beaten campaign, but the jury is still out whether or not the Mombasa Streets was a clever game/story device or just some technical flash to dress up the old game for new market space.

Firefight is a blast to play with your friends, though… even if you have already spent lots of time with the competitors’ horde modes.

The real ODST topic here should be: how about those symbols? If I were allowed to join the forums, perhaps I’d contribute to that topic. ;D

By: GRIT

GRIT — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:21:46 +0000

I very much enjoyed the campaign of this game. More so than Halo 3. It was a completely different experience than any other game I’ve played. Having to adapt my Mark VI tendencies to that of an ODST was a very fulfilling experience.

Just as a side note I’d like to point out Ascendant Justice being named in the credits as a rock of the Halo community directly after the 7th column.

By: Red Scharlach

Red Scharlach — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:43:44 +0000

Glider, the first couple of missions you have to play in consecutive order. After that, it’s entirely up to you how you explore the city and which waypoints to check out next.

And the missions in question are mainly short action-oriented setpieces and should be taken as such.

By: UNSC-AI-CTN-0452-9

UNSC-AI-CTN-0452-9 — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:03:50 +0000

The boy was right.

By: Cold Glider

Cold Glider — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:25:56 +0000

I’m sad to say, perhaps not? This article alone got me pretty excited to play the ODST campaign mode which I am in now. There appears to be no way to avoid the first mission (Tayari Plaza) once you set foot in the New Mombasa streets. Furthermore, within that same mission there is an annoying one-way door toward the end preventing me from going back to scavenge weapons from fallen enemies. Ugh. I hope the entire campaign isn’t like this. The terms “open world” and “non-linear” do not apply to connect-the-dots level design in my book, no matter how much space you put between the dots.

By: SandsOfTime404

SandsOfTime404 — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:48:36 +0000

Two days before release. Figured I should check back here and read up on the news. It’s almost unfathomable that ODST was going to be a 90-minute game, and has now grown into all of this.

A7XEric, unless you’ve played ODST already I can hardly agree with anything you said in regards to it. Yes, they nerfed basically every aspect of the game starting at Halo 2. However, I’m almost certain that many of these modifications will be removed since the core of the ODST gameplay is player v. AI. That makes it unnecessary to balance weapons because of multiplayer. We’ve also lost shields. If balancing is such a big issue shouldn’t we have tougher weapons to keep us alive?

Just some thoughts. If your panties are in a twist over stuff that isn’t even guaranteed yet idk what to tell ya. The game is almost certainly going to be a fresh experience. We don’t have multiplayer to look forward to, but Bungie said that from the beginning basically.

I’m looking forward to it, and I’m sure loads of other diehards are as well. I don’t think we’ll be disappointed with this one.

By: Tom-Tom

Tom-Tom — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:26:39 +0000

When are we getting a new article?

By: Mutoid Log

Mutoid Log — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 23:18:08 +0000

A7XEric: Halo 1 has a larger field of view, meaning that things look bigger, or that the distances look less skewed. And 10 feet is insta-kill with shotgun range. For Halo 1, use the sniper scope, and for Halo 3, use local-LB-RB-LS-RS-A-DUP, where 1.0 = 10 feet.

Cocopjojo: I do enjoy the openness of both levels. They are amongst the best of the game, and the top tier of the trilogy. My point was that the other 8 were linear.

By: A7XEric

A7XEric — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:06:04 +0000

Though this article will initially get you pumped for ODST and get your hopes up that it plays more like CE and the 03 demo, there’s a lot of things you have failed to point out.

Though we can’t dual wield anymore, we still have the same nerfed plamsa pistols, plasma rifles, smgs, etc that were nerfed to balance out dual wielding. And without dual wielding in ODST, why do we still have the same nerfed weapons from Halos 2 and 3 that are useless compared to their un-dual wieldable CE counterparts?

Another huge thing that no one ever mentions is just how close range Halo has become since CE. Weapons have much longer range in CE and the e3 demo. Even unscoped close-mid range weapons from CE like the Assault Rifle and Plasma Rifle shoot much further than the more midrange offerings of Halos 2 and 3. You can be at one end of a corridor in Halo 1 and be able to, rightfully so, shoot to the end of it with an assault rifle, red reticule intact. Shooting someone with brute spikers or plasma rifle or smg? Your reticule will be blue and make anyone more than 10 feet away from you a chore. Hell even the scoped Battle Rifle doesn’t have near the range of the CE Pistol.

Or for a more equal comparison just compare the sniper rifles of CE and Halos 2/3. Go to blood gulch in Halo 1 and have a base to base sniper fight. Your rifle has the range to hit enemies over there (hence the red reticule confirming this). In Halo 2 on blood gulch try doing the same thing. Your reticule will remain blue and barely reaches beyond halfway across the map.

Hell even grenades have a muuuuuch shorter throwing arc in Halo 2/3/odst as opposed to Halo 1, and again have been nerfed once dual wielding was thrown into the mix, but at this point is unnecessary given that dual wielding is no longer in ODST.

Halo 3 ODST, disappointingly, still has the EXACT gunplay of Halo 2 and 3, just without some of the features of those games (dual wielding, ridiculous jump heights, nerfed weapons, equipment, etc.). It’s just coated in the paint of the e3 2003 demo to fool you into thinking it feels more like CE.