Customer Ratings & Reviews

Made a great gift for grandson. Pre-ordering was an added bonus for us.

My boys loves video games had to add to there collections

I haven't stopped play this game since I got it. You will enjoy it.

Pros: -This game is pretty good. Bringing the ODST's into halo gives the player a different experience. - They also bring firefight which is cool because it's like playing horde from gears of way 2, but better in my opinion. - For fans of Recon Armor they have the three new vidmasters challenges Vidmaster Challenge: Classic - complete any level on legendary without firing a weapon or throwing grenades Vidmaster Challenge: Endure: On any mission pass the 4th set of firefight on 4 player heroic live coop Vidmaster Challenge: Deja Vu - complete coastal highway on 4 player legendary live coop with no hog or scorpion and iron turned on. Once you have all these hopefully you have all the ones on Halo 3. Once you unlock recon armor you can go online and show it off. Cons: - Firefight gets boring fast because of its repetitiveness - The campaign will eventually get old - recon is beginning to get overrated One good thing about the game that is not mentioned yet is that the second disk comes with the 3 new mythic maps: Heretic longshore and citadel + all the original maps from halo plus the DLC for all for free

If you enjoy FPS or Halo then you must play this game.

Halo 3:ODST is NOT an expansion, despite the many accusations and the common audience vernacular that really hampers this game's reputation. It's presentation is obviously one of Halo-caliber, realizing itself to be a fully revamped version of the Halo franchise. Yet despite the many differences in the HUD display and its game play execution, the Halo formula still feels, controls, and experiences like any other Halo game out there. Although, there is only a few minor changes in the game play itself. First we have the shields and stamina taken away from the common Spartan suit, because now the player experiences the game through an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper who is not as "strong" as his Spartan counterpart. Many people see this as a hamper in the game play, and yet I feel as if it is a new refresher and an overall unique perspective on how a Halo game should be played. It encourages strategic placing, location, and overall just a bit of intelligence while playing. It treats the shooter-genre much more seriously, while those who will not be enjoying this new change are those who believe that rushing headlong into battle and recovering from every bullet taken is, in and of itself, the way to play. Although, it really makes no difference at all. The stamina is just a simpler representation of the previous shield system that just runs out a bit faster, and health reminiscent of Halo:Combat Evolved's HUD also returns. Overall, this new game play variation brings upon the player a new and refreshing take on the Halo experience. Now, here it comes to the story, which is about 6 hours in average length. It is also something quite different from the usual Halo format as it does not follow the protagonist Master Chief any longer, but a new ODST recruit who embarks on a journey through New Mombasa. Yet, as he and his team depart, an explosion of the enemy covenant ship through slip-space tears the city apart, and ends up separating the team. You, the rookie, is trapped din the city isolated from the rest of the team, and must go throughout the city on search for beacons and clues about your team members. Activating these beacons stats up memory flashback sequences that allow you to play through your teammate's experience through the city. In the end, all of these memories tie together and end up to be quite the expected and action-filled Halo game everyone expects. Although it is not one straightforward story anymore, there are contrast game play levels in which you travel through. As the rookie, you wander around the open-world city in the pitch-black night, looking for clues. Here, you turn on the new nightvision HUD mode which outlines surface and reveals the night scene to be a bit brighter. This trek through the night is atmospheric and mood, which is accompanied by a fantastic score composed by Martin O Donnell. And the environments change to war-torn and brighter levels in the flashbacks. Now, we have firefight mode, which is similar to Gears of War's horde mode where you face battering waves of enemies that increase as time goes on. Here, you attempt to live out as long as you can and vie fort he top score. It is a blast to play, and yet it is quite disappointing that there is no matchmaking for the mode, which means to MUST have a friend on in order to play it with others. When it comes to graphics, they aren't photo-realistic but remain true to the style and physique of Halo 3. Yet, one may notice improvements with textures and lighting, as well as a change in color palettes. The palette was once a more blue and purple as you would travel on spaceships a lot, yet not there is a lot of brown and orange as the contrast shifts into the daytime scenes. Don't get me wrong, it isn't bad at all and also presents a different take on the Halo look. There is a modified SMG with a scope and a silencer, and a pistol replacement to be reminiscent of the Halo:Combat Evolved, which was a fan favorite. There is also the absence of dual-wielding which may be an issue to some, but it is really not necessary at all. This brings it closer to the Halo:Combat Evolved game play which everyone loves so dearly, which also marks the return of the HEALTH PACK which many people may not love. But for me, yet again, it is a strategic factor in the game play. As for the second disk, it is basically a repackaging of Halo 3's multi player along with ALL of the downloadable maps that have been released so far, along with an exclusive three to this package. Some may argue that this is a cheap repackaging, but for me, I never bought the regular maps, and by buying this it seems I have saved over 20 dollars. Yet again, it is the Halo 3 multi player that no one should really complain about because it is still great, along with the other parts of the package such as Theater and Forge. Overall, Halo 3 ODST is a fantastic game and package which should be worth checking out by anyone.

Halo has always been about up front, in your face action and ODST attempts to shake up the formula a bit. It’s more or less an expansion off of Halo 3, but it does add some unique components like Firefight that make it stand out. It may retain the Halo name but once you kick-off the campaign you’ll notice some major changes to the gameplay. For one, you control an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) who isn’t nearly as durable or strong as the Master Chief. As a matter of fact, you’re slower, can’t dual-wield weapons, take damage if you fall from high places, and don’t regenerate health by simply staying out of harm’s way. It may feel strange and it should since the typical run-and-gun style you might be so familiar with is going to change a bit. The story this time around takes place after a cataclysmic event in the Halo 2 storyline. New Mombasa, a mega-city on Earth, is completely leveled after a Covenant ship jumps into slipspace within the atmosphere. You and your squad were attempting to hit the cruiser and just so happen to be caught in the massive explosion which has strewn everyone about the city. This is where you take control of the Rookie - a speechless, standard ODST who runs about New Mombasa playing the role of detective as he tries to find out what happened to his squad. ODST’s premise sounds intriguing and it certainly is setup nicely; you’re alone and against the world as the mystery of your team’s whereabouts is slowly unveiled. Unfortunately, I couldn’t help but question the way the game was put together throughout my play sessions. You see, the Rookie acts as a catalyst to initiate the story. Whenever he finds certain item locations scattered around the deadend city, it starts a flashback. Depending on whose flashback it is, you’ll play that particular ODST squad member. These scenarios are pretty short, but they tend to be action packed and are pretty standard when it comes to Halo combat. The problem I have is how you get to these scenarios. As the Rookie you’re traveling in a pitch-black city with absolutely nothing going on around you. There’s the occasional Covenant patrol, but you literally walk from one end of the city to the other just to get to the blip on your map. It’s like an overworld for Halo and that’s an issue. Halo may have always been a linear game, but each area you passed through was laden with entertainment. In ODST it’s just corridors of darkness and debris. I understand that this adds more to the tense atmosphere, but you aren’t rewarded for exploring the far and away places. You can collect random audio logs, but along with the rest of present day games that incorporate this, it feels extremely contrived. The logs usually are nothing but gunfire, noise, and desperate attempts to make it seem like there’s more going on than you think; there’s not. It’s obvious that there’s much more of a stealth element in this game and, believe it or not, you can sneak up behind Brutes and assassinate them quite efficiently. This all goes back to the new/old play style as a normal human and it’s pretty refreshing. You’ll have to watch your flanks, choose your shots wisely, and really harbor those grenades. ODSTs come equipped with a VISR mode and two sorta new weapons, the revamped, now scoped pistol and a silenced, two-handed SMG. The VISR can be activated at any time and serves as a night-vision device. It even color-codes everything on your screen, highlighting inanimate objects and ammo as well. It’s a neat addition but I couldn’t help but feel like I was playing lite-brite with guns. I also found that the specific ODST weapon set is pretty ineffective against anything that has shields. The new pistol is definitely nice, but like the silenced SMG, unless you’re willing to pump all your ammo into a few opponents it’s not very reliable. Actually, you’ll be running out of ammo all the time, so expect to be fighting with Covenant weapons constantly. Shields also don’t exist, instead it’s a system called stamina. Once this stamina runs out you’ll start taking permanent health damage which can only be replenished by a med-kit, just like in the first Halo. So while you don’t have a shield like the Master Chief, your pure physical constitution absorbs bullets, doubling as a shield. Yeah, that makes sense. Firefight is the completely new mode ODST brings to the forefront. You and three friends are thrown into a stage against waves of relentless opponents. At this point you can definitely see what Gears of War 2’s Horde mode has done to inspire developers. Firefight, however, is actually better than Horde on many different levels. For one, you’ll be fighting against practically the entire Covenant species and it’s random who will come out and how they’ll hit you. Even vehicles like Ghosts and Wraiths make appearances, ramping up the challenge factor tenfold. You also share lives and are awarded ammunition and extra lives depending on how well you do. Unfortunately, the game with one of the best matchmaking systems available decided not to include any matchmaking with Firefight thus forcing you to play with friends. And if no one is on? Well, you could jump into Halo 3 games and ask if people want to play. I guess that’s my biggest argument about ODST – it just doesn’t feel like a full game and what we got is lackluster at best. Hell, you’re given a separate disc that includes Halo 3’s multiplayer. Granted, it does come with some new maps, but the campaign can be completed in just about four to five hours. Cut that time in half if you’re doing it with friends. ODST is more of the same with some differences. Unless you’re a Halo fanatic, or you just like buying games twice, there’s nothing to see here.

I am a HUGE fan of Halo series and therefore I also have great expectations from it. Compare to games (shooters mainly) that come out these days, Halo ODST was a pretty good game; however, IT DIDNOT LIVE UP TO THE EXPECTATIONS. PROS: -INTERESTING MODE ON CAMPAIGN: Campaign is different than what you have experienced in Halo 1-3. As you know master chief is not the main character, but instead it is the ODST special squad troop(s). The way they have conveyed the story provides you with a unique experience. Unfortunately, I can't describe it more without spoiling it so I will stop here. -ONLINE FIREFLIGHT MODE: This to me was the biggest reason to buy the game. However, you can only make full use of it if you have friends on Xbox live. You and your friends competing against hordes of enemies can be really fun. And enemies in Halo games as we know have the BEST AI. Love it just love it. -GREAT GRAPHICS: Like Halo 3 it has pretty awesome graphics so not much to talk about here. -FEW NEW WEAPONS: Loved the missle launcher. Keep them coming. CONS: -VERY WEAK STORY: The story frankly was very unsatisfying (EVEN AFTER UNLOCKING ALL THE MESSAGES). Again, can't describe without spoiling the content. The ending was simply HORRIBLE (Both the last fight and the story ending) -VERY WEAK CHARACTERS: I am not talking weak as if they are not Spartans like Master Chief and so they are weak. The voice acting was horrible. Master Chief speaks less, but he makes his words count. These human characters just felt stupid and their dialogues were very POORLY WRITTEN. Terrible voice acting didn't help either.. -NO DUAL WEAPONS: WHAT THE HELL???? -ONLINE MODE SAME AS HALO3: This actually leads me to my concluding remark. I truly think ODST was initially designed as an expansion pack for Halo 3, but I think they wanted to milk the Halo franchise so they sold it for $60 by adding few useless stuff. Each installment of Halo came with awesome new stuff, ODST on the other hand was A SMALL STEP BACK. I would give it less stars, but got it for $30 on a special deal which I think is a good price for this HALO 3 INSTALLMENT.

This game was very fun and had a great story line to it. Going from one character to the others to meet up in the end was kind of neat. Although it's the same Halo that we've been playing for a while now. All of the other reviews that said it was basically an expansion game was almost true. I played this game on the second most hardest difficulty and didn't find if over challenging. I have not played the firefight part of this game yet. However I hear that it is basically like a Horde type game play, that of Gears of War. So it is a pretty short campaign, but not to short. It was still very enjoyable and fun to play. I didn't really want to put it down. But I have almost had enough of the Halo brand. Nothing's new and it hasn't changed.

This game wont get much good reviews because there is not a new multiplayer. The story is probably better then past Halo games. Infact in my opinion it ranks in my top 5. The story is hard, and you actually feel like a hero. Also a big plus, they brought back use of scorpions, banshees, and warthogs. Something Halo 3 did not feature. The achievements that come to the game are interesting and will keep you playing. It's recommended that you have xbox live, the 3 hardest achievements can only be achieved on live. But they are fun and you and your friends will spend days trying to get. Something i think Bungie tried to attempt to compete with Gears of War and Call of Duty is the Firefight Mode. You go through waves of enemies and each time it gets harder. This is fun if your playing on heroic mode, mainly because the enemies arnt impossible and not so easy you wanna quit playing. One major loss people will rant about is the lack of online multiplayer. Yes it comes with a Halo 3 multiplayer disc but Bungie could of just made users buy the new maps with microsoft points. Is this game worth $60 if your looking for a good story mode? Yes, it's a long game (if your actually playing harder modes). Is it worth $60 if you want to just play the extra maps, honestly no. Either wait till Halo Reach or play MW2. Overall Id give it 7/10.

This game is the second best halo game to come out, second only to Halo:Combat Evolved(the first one). Campaign is a lot of fun and a brilliant way to keep you playing. I've played the campaign 3-4 times now(story is decent), when you travel the streets you can choose your own way(to a limit, there's only a limited amount of ways through any city). Plays more like the first game like a said which imo is better than 2 and 3. Firefight is a great addition to the game and my friends and I have spent hours playing it. The game is a lot of fun when you have three other friends with you, and makes Firefight a lot easier when you know what people on other screens play like. What I wish there was in the game: A multi-player versus. I know a lot of people would say that Halo:3 matchmaking is good enough but I don't really like it. I'm thinking that a large scale game on New Mombasa would be a good add. Matchmaking for Firefight with a ranking system(don't want to play with people who suck) I want the pistol from ODST added to Halo:3 because it's that good.

This is the perfect halo game for someone who doesnt have xbox live because after you beat the one player story mode you have firefight which is a lot of fun. And firefight is basically what halo 3 was missing in my opinion because it allows you to continue to play and advance skillwise without having to play the campaign over and over. it is a lot of fun and its also challenging. Firefight should be an essential part to all of the upcoming halo games. I do admit if you have xbox live firefight doesnt compare to the online gameplay. But the odst story and gameplay is similar to halo but yet interesting and fresh. So i recommend owning the game if u dont have xbox live but renting it if you do!

This is going to be one of the most intensive games out there on September to make it simple you should have it. I have been playing the halo series since halo 1 appear and the story of halo 1 was epic halo 2 very interesting and halo 3 was worth it just for the first time playing it. in this game you will be playing as an odst and thats going to be very fun to play because you are not a super strong spartan you are gonna play as a human for the first time. and for the first time you will have to find health packs to recover yourself and that makes it unique you will have to be careful big time on this game. The firefight mode is going to be the same as the horde of gears of war 2 but in the epic halo style that is amazing i love to play gow2 but doing that on halo it was surprising to me. in firefight mode the scenario is going to be kinda destructible now we haven't saw that on any of the halo games (halo wars doesnt count because it was not created by bungie) and i think this just add more to the halo experience. You will have the full set of halo maps on the other disc thats cool because you are going to be able to get recon this time but that not so cool at the same time because the armor its not going to be on public and thats sucks because now everyone its going to have it and theres not gonna be a single person that you can make jealous. Halo reach multilayer beta is not gonna be playable until bungie announces that we can do so and this suck because i dont want to wait again i personally hate companies that do that can they announced a week before the actual games comes out ? You should buy this game regardless if you are a true CoD fan or another game fan this is worth the price and your time ! i have play CoD 4 and 5 and i am waiting for the other one and yeah they are amazing and i guess they are better than halo but halo has something that makes it addicted and it makes you come back again. the people who are reading this just pre order the game please

As stated above this game play is the best of much of the same. Bungie could have gone away from what made Halo so successful but they didn't and I for one love it. The game play feels slow but it is purposeful allowing the player to interact with the board and it gave a more human feel, honestly most of us got a bit tired a sprinting the Masterchief everywhere. The confrontations were pretty good requiring a bit more cover. And how could you not enjoy firefight. Oh, and of course there was matchmaking. I did feel like the enemies were a bit weaker in this game. I am glad they got rid of the shield for the troopers and I thought it would make a big difference until I ran into a gun fight with my pistol and wasted the lot of them. Ran to go and get some health and couldn't pick it up, I realized I hadn't been hit. The videos weren't as clean as anticipated. At the opening scene all I could think about was how broken up the detail was. Even still, this is a great game. I have my complaints but I couldn't do better. I love the Halo storyline and never want it to go away, I guess so long as Bungie keeps putting out this kind of product. It was an amazing game and am itching to get off so I can go and play. So much to say about this game in summary it is an amazing addition. Truely impressed with where games have come. Does anybody remember pong and atari joysticks.

This is an outstanding FPS and a great addition to the HALO Universe. This game takes place in the city of New Mombassa and follows a team of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODST) as they try to regroup and to survive the Covenant invasion. You play as several different characters as the story progresses and even get a new perspective on the invasion. There's all the exciting action, great gameplay and brilliant graphics you expect from HALO. Whether on foot or piloting a Warthog or a Scorpion tank, the controls are fluid and responsive. As with the rest of the HALO series, this game has a very well developed story. HALO has one of the ebst concieved stories of any game franchise and this is no exception. HALO 3: ODST has actually become one of my favorite HALO games and I would certainly like to see more side-story games like this one. Highly recommended.

I think compared to the halo 3 campaign it was way better .but for the price you get a very short campaign and the multiplayer disc most people have already bought all of the maps so it is not worth the price for that.Firefight is fun but to me it gets really old fast.all in all you get a pretty standard halo game which means fun.

Halo 3 ODST was a big let down for me the firefight was fun but after about 5 days it got boring the campaign didnt add to any story and it was dull and multiplayer was fun but if you already have all the map packs dont bother picking this up

Get this game because you really get your moneys worth, halo 3 Multiplayer disc alone is a great buy because the map packs are included which would cost 10 bucks each on xbox live for people that have halo 3 or want to buy halo 3 instead of ODST, plus campaign disc rocks! firefight is amazing 10 levels, campaign is like any other halo game (the best) don't listen to the hype of modern warfare 2 they are both great games but halo is better and always will be. BTW Free multiplayer version of Halo Reach is available to those who own a copy of halo ODST sometime in may.

Nice graphics.Campaign really sucks . other than that multiplayer is awsome even though is basically is Halo 3.firefight is nice. i like MW2 and bad company 2 way better.i'll play this when i'm bored.

I haven't tried the campaign yet, but Firefight is phenominal.. Plus you get the complete HALO 3 multiplayer experience, You get ALL of the HALO 3 multiplayer maps that were released which makes this game worth the money itself.. Firefight is similar to Gears Of War's hoarde mode but firefight is better in my opinion.. I can't really say anything about the campaign yet since i havent tried it, but i heard its about 5 hours long.. All in all i would say this is a GREAT deal. Don't pass this up and BUY IT!!