Halo: ODST Retro Review
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The Short Version: It’s sad that when the time comes to look back at the Halo franchise, ODST will be seen as an Excellent Well-developed Expansion turned to Full-Priced Game in order to Exploit its large fan base. Sad but True.
The Review:
What you’ll Like:
• A Welcome Highly Polished Extension of the Halo Experience!
• Great Voice Acting!
• Excellent Level Design Work.
What you’ll Hate:
• Wallet Rape. This IS an Expansion turned into a Full Game to Exploit the Halo Fanbase.
• A 4-Hour Campaign? (or less) w/ one new Multiplayer mode for $60??!??! Unacceptable.
• Most of the Game is played in the ODST Vision mode which takes away some of the visual flair.
• The “open-world” element ultimately felt pointless, you’ll be backtracking and avoiding conflict before long
Final Verdict:
6/10
Issue your own Final Score Above!

















90 thoughts on “Halo: ODST Retro Review”
Although I’ve never played it I’ve seen a demo of it band it looks promising even though it might have some technicalities, like for one not being Master Chief, it probably have a chance for a sequel.
Also a message to Microsoft game studios make more T for TEEN Halo games! I’m sick of not being able to play most of the Halo games!
How selfish are you? Grow up. You don’t have to BE 17 and up to PLAY the game, just to BUY it. If your parents don’t let you play rated M games, that’s YOUR problem. I remember playing Halo 1 when I was 11 years old.
You know, Joe sounded really hurt here. He seems to be a pretty big Halo fan, and any good fan of anything must learn to view the problems with the things they love. I understand. I personally loved the experience in ODST, and the fact that I held out on buying the map packs gave me more bang for my buck, but still, the game was far too short. Sure it has a good amount of replay value, but nowhere near as much as previous games. Thank you Joe, for giving your honest opinion. I hope that Reach will make that bad taste that ODST left behind in many people go away, as it seems to be shaping up to be a much higher quality title than ODST. Come to think of it, ODST actually had a very good amount of content when compared to regular games, but the Halo series has made us expect far more content than what was offered. I will personally give it a 7.5/10 because of my personal experience, but it was somewhat dissappointing when compared to the rest of the Halo series.
ohh I almost forget it, the characters in odst are not balanced because odst soldiers can do almost everything like the chief or maybe better for example they can destroy tanks with punches like the chief and c’mon who knows a soldier that can do that, the proportion of the weapons is bad in fact some of the weapons wouldn’t be used by humans because of the size and power but they still using them in odst so is bullshit, the graphics are good but not excellent as bioshock or Gears and that is like if nintendo don’t take advantage of his console with zelda or mario, halo is the mario of microsoft so we expected the best graphics the really thing is that halo was epic only in the first one
I agree with joe the game feels really short most of the time you walk in the city and that is really boring but also many of us buy it for the maps because I dont have HD and Im not surprised about how bad is this title because the best campaign is in halo CE all the new titles of halo are not so good as the first one in fact nowadays the really good thing of halo is the multiplayer, the coop become bullshit because now only 2 players can play in one console halo 2 had 4 players coop so this gen of consoles is dissapointing me a little bit
way to short
halo 3 odst was a good game and you are right about it being to short but you forgot one thing. Firefight didnt have matchmaking.
i think its a 3/10 when i played this after 8 days i was so mad i couldnt get my money back it WAS WALLET RAPE TOTAL BS i dont know if ill buy reach now i liked halo till odlc came out
Funny the way games seem to be anihilating the campaign aspect of games in favor of pouring everything they have into multiplayer. Until around late 2008 my best gaming system (until I upgraded my PC) was an X-box with no live so I was always playing campaigns. Multiplayer’s fun but I really do love to see a full fledged, fleshed out campaign in my games!
Overall, I think a 6, maybe a 7 is an accurate score keeping in mind that I only played it on my little brother’s 360 and didn’t actually spend the 60 myself. Gotta admit that it had pretty sweet graphics though.
its right when you turn halo in to codm2 it gets higher scores this game sucks it kill halo there a new charter involed when i just want to have halo have a lnger story but they add a new charter and gun that have perks
like codm2
Sums up what I thought of ODST, i am sooooooooooo glad I got mine half priced as part of a Xmas deal, plus I don’t have any of the map packs, so i got it as good as I possible could
This is the reason I like to look at small game reviewers, big companys like IGN Gamespot don’t know the meaning of Value since chances are they got there copies free.
You didn’t mention firefight. I think firefight contributes to logevity sginificantly.
I am a Halo fan but I never purchased the extra maps mostly because I don’t even have Live Gold right now. I take this puppy over to a buddy’s house to play it online.
Also I played through the single player of Halo3:ODST at around 8 hours the first time probably because I was doing a lot of exploring and moving carefully instead of just blazing through it because I knew where everything is and was used to using the map.
I only payed $40 (net) because I bought it at Toys R Us and they were offering a $20 Gift card and a crappy action figure(which I have no use for). I only payed $40 for COD:MW2 because AMAZON WAS OFFERING $20 IN CREDIT. MW2 also has a pretty short campaign. I spent the $20 credit on Assassin’s Creed 2 and found a $5 off coupon code so I got that game for $35 shipped. I just bought Bayonetta and Darksiders at Toys R Us and got a $40 gift card. I bought several of the “new” games this last holiday season on Buy2 get 1 free offers. I have Mass Effect 2 preordered at Amazon for $36. ‘Left 4 Dead 2′ had a common street price of $40 in most stores through out the holiday. Just because somethign has a $60 sticker on it doesn’t mean that you’ll be paying $60.
According to Gamepro, Capcom’s new ‘Dark Void’ release is only six hours long. A lot of games have minimal single player campaigns or worse are just multiplayer games that have some bots for their single player experience. The ingle player for MW2 wasn’t that long either.
So to sum up, I think that maybe there was a just a tad too much drama in the 6/10 review because:
You didn’t discuss all the features. You suggest that the game is short but you go from 7 hours to 4 at one point. Which is it? What difficluty did you play at?
You mention wallet rape but there were some pretty easy ways around that like coupons and deals.
It’s no longer really an uncommon practice to charge $60 for a short game anyway.
Jesus, Microsoft is like a blackhole. They suck in all these small companies to ring them dry of all talent then they throw them away like trash when they are done. Just look what they did to Ensemble Studios. The place goes on a slight bad streak with the average Age of Empires 3 and the flab Halo Wars then Microsoft decides to close them down. Microsoft will do the same to Bungie when given the chance. I wish they would let Bungie go because I bet we will get quality games from Bungie if that happened instead of flashy, half-done garbage like Halo 3 ODST
Angry Joe, I respect your opinion and I saw this vid when it was first uploaded here, but I have to disagree with you.
I mean sure they priced an expansion as if it were a retail game but if you were a REAL Halo fan and not some 12 year old bitch forum nerd (not you, I’m talking about the annoying noobs that just now picked up the franchise and think they know everything and comment their stupidities on youtube or here), you would know or come to understand why they did so. I’ve been a fan since when Halo 1 was announced, Now lately we all know what the Micro$oft company is all about, greed and power, and knowing this, we all know what they have done. Bungie had started a franchise that would not only affect the gaming industry for years but also aid Micro$oft Studios to become the powerhouse video game industry they are now. I was pissed as hell when I found out the bullshit M$ had pulled on Bungie, which later thrived Bungie to separate from M$. Not only did they lose money that was RIGHTFULLY theirs, but they lost the rights to the Franchise they revolutionized. As a TRUE, REAL, Hardcore fan of Bungie and Halo, I was MORE than happy to pay the 60 dollars since the majority of it was going to Bungie’s pockets, it was the least a true fan can do, since that bullshit happen between M$ and them. Up until now if you noticed what is happening with the Halo franchise, 343 industries ALREADY FUCKED IT UP, WITH THAT BULLSHIT HALO LEGENDS CRAP, I DON’T WANT TO WATCH ONE OF MY FAVORITE PAST TIMES TURN INTO A GENERIC ANIME BULLSHIT, not only IS Halo Legends stupid but the other future plans 343 industries have in store are STUPID AS FUCK as well. Halo Reach would be probably not only be Bungie’s last HUGE title for the Halo franchise but it will also be the LAST Halo title I will be purchasing unless something happens. Fuck M$ and Fuck 343 Industries they are the real suspects here not Bungie.
With that said Angry Joe, I am a fan of yours and I would like to hear from you.
Happy Gaming
the grenade part was funny
What’s strange is that in europe, or at least where I live and that is in Poland, it’s not a full priced game. It cost 139 złotys and it’s about 40$. Maybe the halo is not as popular in europe so they thought that this 60$ bullshit won’t work in here.
Joe, I’ve got a question for what would you give it without the “wallet rape” aspect?
I played this game in multiplayer on a game-convention. I am not a Halo fan and I never played HALO, I was never good in console FPS (cuz I’m not an experienced gamer, PC rules!), and the controls were great, in a minute I got used to them.
So I liked it, its easy to get used to, there’s lots of action…
i think odst is all hype and no game yes its got a nice graphics but youre paying for somthing youve allready played and the campian got toooooo repetive after abou leval 4 so i got bored and left it firefight is a good bit but could of just been an expansoin for halo 3 bungie is going down hill with the halo series it has been dragged on tooo long and should stop after halo reach but noooo they decid to make a halo movie and after that the halo movie game its just not going to end i would only give it 4
Well, for everyone who’s giving Joe crap about how he beat it in less than 5 hours, saying how he used co-op or skipped parts, let me say this: First of all, you can’t really skip parts, I had to go back and find every last flashback before even being able to finish the story, but I did notice how you can go ahead and skip the rookie parts if you did campaign once, and want to beat it on legendary for the achievement, then you could go and use the level select and use the rookie once. Second, I was by myself on legendary and beat it under 3 hrs 45 min, I was giving myself a time limit to compare myself to my friends, so it really is a short game. Third, I did feel disappointed that there’s no mention of firefight… But I still found that it wouldn’t be $60 with it since you can’t use more than 4 people in the ENTIRE game itself, which sucks. Fourth, firefight may in fact be my favorite part of all the Halo series, except Halo Wars, only because it does what Gears of War failed to do, make survival mode fun AND hard. I found me and my friends fearing the chieftains every time they showed, but we’d later joke or find interesting ways to “Kill ‘em dead!” like splattering them with choppers, and I still liked the game despite it’s high price. Finally, I personally found the campaign on every Halo except Halo 1 to be pathetic and way to short, Halo 3 was 10 levels long, I managed to beat that in 5 hours too and that was on legendary, I started 6:15 am, ended 11:13 pm, but multiplayer barley made up for that. Say what you will, but it still stands, ODST is a good game, most of it’s problems were from the time constraints that Microsoft is infamous for, plus, how could you be mad at the game that brought back the Brute Plasma Rifle? Huh? Huh?
i loved halo 3 and this odst is a real let down . i mean have you seen the grafics on it there terrible and considerind it is a new game it needs harder and better eniems even though i played it on herioc
you have to blame microsoft not bungie for the price tag. bungie didnt want it a 60 dollar price tag but microsoft made them have it at 60 bucks. to me its still worth it. legendary took me 3-4 days to beat 100%. firefight is perfect and never gets boring unlike *cough* left for dead and gears of war 2 ‘s horde. i give this game a 9.0 out of 10 due to the fact too that its different. and extreamly challenging
Don’t play on normal or easy. If you play Legendary (like you should for all Halo games) on Co-op it’s at least 8 or more hours especially with audio log hunting, by yourself it would be even longer.
This review highlights what is probably my favourite thing about your reviews; you take the price of the game/expansion into account. I don’t know of another reviewer who does that regularly, that is a good job by you of connecting with your audience.
I that you finaly did it. corporacions finaly see you as a thret!
Yeah, this game was short. My wife and I took it down in about 5 hours. Still, I liked the game for the most part, my only complaint being the somewhat cartoony look of the characters in the cut scenes. Was I the only one who thought that they looked similar to the characters from Time Splitters: Future Perfect? When I say that I’m talking about the animation style, not any similarities in physical appearance. Anyway, as fun as this game was, I really regretted paying $60 for it. I would agree that it deserves no more than a 6/10.
I played FF and the campaign both solo and coop with my buddy at his house on Legendary…
Campaign: Solo I did it within about 5-8 hours BSing it. Coop me and my buddy took roughly 4-6 hours… That was dicking around and BSing it most of the time.
FF: Yeah it was fun, but it wasn’t that great after attempting it for the 2nd time even on lower difficulties.
Overall I would subjectively agree with 6/10.
Dead on joe, I’m glad someone has the courage to make an honest review, without caring how close it is to IGN/Gamespot.
I have no idea why everyone is in love with Firefight so much.. I love the Halo games but firefight was nothing new at all.. in fact it was very boring for me. I’m not a huge fan of another overrated game named “Uncharted 2″ but I played the beta and the co-op goldrush mode (same concept) was far better designed and alot more fun. Oh and it was actually a full game
Keep it real
- Ali G
oh i also want to add that saying this is a expansion is like saying halo 2 and 3 are expansions for halo 1
ok i hate the fact that people say its a expansion how the hell is it one first if all a expansion adds new content missions and mmo expansions even more stuff but this is a totaly differant story has nothing to do with master chief and a expansion on a console would be downloadable content just like fable 2 knothole island. So this is a totaly differant game and my rating would be 9.5/10 only thing i didnt like would be that it didnt have enough firefight maps.
Another great review Joe. Probably your best. Halo 3: ODST sucked. I thought the campaign was short and not that good. You should of mentioned something about Firefight in your review. The mode is fun, but there is NO ONLINE MATCHMAKING! So you have to go online to a board, find someone you want to play with, exchange names, add them as a friend, and then start a game with them. It is unbelievable that Bungie did not put online matchmaking in with firefight. It automatically voids any worth firefight actually might of had and therefore, the game is really a short boring campaign for $60. 6/10 is exactly what I would give the game. Good job Joe. Keep up the great work and post MORE VIDEOS MORE OFTEN.
Big fan,
Adam
I don’t know why people here think it was his best review . Sure he was calm and collected, but he focused on only a few aspects and didn’t go over many of the other aspects. I’m pretty a good review would involve going over the majority and not just a couple of negative aspects…
What other aspects are you talking about exactly? He hit the campane and the price tag, which are very important to us proletariat gamers who have to pick and choose our games carfully to maximize value.
Oh, I don’t know, maybe the MULTIPLAYER aspects?
what multiplayer? yeah he didn’t mention anything about firefight which i would have loved for him to talk about, but if you already had halo 3 and all of the DLC the multiplayer disk doesn’t add anything worthwhile to the game. 3 new maps isn’t enough to make a $30 game worth the price of $60. He even said that if you don’t already have all the DLC for halo, it would be a much better deal, but to any avid halo player the extra disk was fairly irrelevent.
man i’m glad i didn’t buy it maybe when the inevitable price drop occurs but until then
I lucked out on this one. I was suspicious of the game since it was originally an expansion and, when it came out, I was low on cash so I decided to wait it out and consider the reviews. After hearing all these “really short” statements, I rented it from blockbuster when the moment arouse (there was no copies to rent for a month). It was fun, but the reviews didn’t lie (well, at least about it being short), modern warfare 2 was longer than this and I beat that in one sitting. If you want my score on this game, 7 out of 10, using the joe system of game rating of course. I only spent less than 10 dollars to rent it, so I didn’t have the kind of rage you get when you spend 60 dollars on a game only to finish it 5 hours later.
I heard that some retailers already dropped the price on this game because of its shortness. Until its somewhere between 30 to 20 dollars, its not gonna be worth it. I think you can get it used for that amount though.
I actually have not played ODST. I’m not that big into the Halo series. I only find it fun when playing with a large group. And even then I might not enjoy it as much. Really I don’t have any grounds to give this game a rating. But it would definitely be mid-range (4,5,6) Graphics aren’t everything. When I play a game I want a long investment in time. At least a day or two to beat it in the first run. Sometimes I do like to speed run through a game, but not until I’ve mastered it. When I get a game and beat it in under five hours on the first go I’m real disappointed. Either, the game is not involved enough or not challenging enough. I think good games need both. You can’t ride on just beauty (graphics, sound, music, etc) you have to enjoy playing for the gameplay and story. I feel that a lot of games are putting story on the back shelf and pushing graphics and sound. And that makes me sad. Hopefully the one’s who are making great story driven games with great gameplay will influence the jackholes who are just trying to get our money with flashy second-rate products.
Nice vid, JOE. Power to the Players!
I’d give it a provisional 4 because the campaign has nothing new and the Halo recipe became stale after Halo 2 (for single players), the lack of proper multiplayer is unforgivable.
BUT if I have to pay for any DLC then it’ll be a 2 no buts.
My recommendation go for something unusual like Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn (Wii) or Astro Boy Omega Factor (GBA-and Tresure made it I got mine for £3)
Well, ODST was a short game with, but with a fun experience. I would give it a 7/10, because i like the firefight option, wich is very addictive (spend more time in it than the campaign). I like the game but firefight gets repedetive, and the campaign is like a rollercoaster, the fun is too short. If youre considering bying a new game, dont buy ODST, buy Borderlands. Borderlands is way better and LONGER, or try Dragon age: origins. If youre a headbanger buy Brutal Legend!
Im glad i got this at 1/3 of the price of a full game, and i stil sort of regret paying that much
I think this game is overhyped just like Modern Warfare 2.
And Joe, yes, this is your best review. But it also absolutely best review on Halo ODST review EVER. Thats my opinion.
God bless you, Joe. And thanks for this great review. Awesome.
I’m pretty sure all those review sites that rated it well rated it based on the experience and not solely on the price point. I personally really, really enjoyed the game, sure the campaign was short, but that doesn’t automatically make it second-rate. This game’s longetivity is greatly extended with a bunch of friends and we played together ATLEAST 20 hours of ODST campaign and aroudn 15 of Firefight. So yeah, I personally loved the game and the pricepoint was justafied to me due to the high replayablility with my friends.
JOE it wasent 60$ here it was about 30€ here? they are ripping off americans :O (it was still too expensive)
Meh space marine’s , not my type of game
Hey Joe. I have to compliment you on a great video. I certainly feel your pain at the shortness of ODST. It was a crying shame, and criminal of whomever decided to sell this game at full retail price.
What I find really telling is that in the making video, especially in the clips you showed, quite a few of the guys at Bungie almost seem embarrassed at the fact that the game was being sold at full price. Not that they weren’t proud at what they’d made, but that it was being sold at the wrong price point. I have a feeling that Microsoft were the decision makers on that one.
Saying that, I really cannot fault Bungie in any way for what they produced. ODST was a fun and enjoyable game in itself. It was a definite callback to the original Halo, what with the return of the medpacks and the pistol sniping. The main plot line was decent and had some frankly awesome voice acting from the Firefly Alumni, add in the optional Sadie Viddocs found throughout the game and you could argue that there’s some excellent storytelling to be found here. Firefight is an excellent multiplayer mode (however, lack of a proper lobby/game search mode was rather disappointing).
While I completely understand your disappointment at the bizarre choice to sell this game at full retail price, and while that should influence your final score, I think that you may have penalized the game a little too much. May I ask what you would have scored the game if it was released at the proper, and initially promised price point? I know that the game wasn’t, but I’d be interested to know if your score would be similar to that of the more “advertising revenue influenced” review websites out there.
I agree, maybe your best review. Calm, collected, and some good humorous parts. Too bad this wasn’t just a budget title, then it might have gotten a pass. I’ll take your advice, and wait untill it drops to a more reasonable price.
On another note, why are so many of the most popular games these days criminally short? It’s disgusting that game devs can get away with putting out 5 hour campanes and just hope the multiplayer makes up for it. I like Multiplayer, but why can’t we have good campanes too?
I thought we reached a point in video game technology were we didn’t have to choose, we could get good story, great gameplay, and awsome multiplayer all in the same package. For $60 a pop, I thought we ought to.
This was probably your best review.
You can definitely tell you were real disappointed and serious in this review Joe.
I have to agree that the gameplay was just fine and this could have been an awesome DLC campaign. Firefight was fun, but I just feel that this game wasn’t worth it. I know I’ll just seem like I’m agreeing with you, but I was really hoping for ODST to be a full-fledged campaign like they said it grew into.
All in all, I’d give it about the same score.
While ill admit I love Halo but this game is halo 1 with better graphics if i wanted to play halo 1 id wip out my old ass xbox and play halo 1.
ps if the game was 40$ at launch i could have dug it
pps Im glad i only barrowed it from some dick who pre ordered it.XD
i would give it a 7/10 because i didn’t already have all the map packs because i never got around to actually buying halo 3 since i beat it with my friend and didn’t think i would get into the multiplayer since i didn’t have alot of time to devote to it. i like the story, but it was way too short, and i didn’t feel good buying a game i knew wouldn’t be very long since they had already said it would be short. i was really interested in the open world, while i think they did it okay, i really hope more FPS do this and expand on it. i would love to play a FPS that was squad based but you could go into almost every building, and if it was a big ruined city, i would love to climb sky scrapers in order to set up a good sniper nest and have my buddies sweep the city while we set up new nests on the way to the objective.
Firefight was fun, and i wish you would let us know what you thought of that.
i was disappointed in the game and have already traded it in. if i had friends that wanted to play firefight i might have held on to it, but i just didn’t feel any attachment to it. Hopefully reach will be a full game, and one that i will love. i liked the new weapons and i hope they stay in the game, and i hope they include firefight.
Taking what you said, I never bought the original halo 3, so this was actually a very good deal for me, all the maps and dlc plus a new campaign and halo reach. That said, the camapign was short, and the mombassa street section is a tad dull, but overall i think this game is a very good, but short experience. If you already own halo 3 its a 6/10, like you said, but for me and my bought an xbox 2 months ago persona, its a 9/10
Make sure you guys leave a Star Rating in the Details at the Top, Just want to see how everyone Rates the Game in their own Views!
While I do agree that the game was overpriced, I cannot agree that it was “wallet-rape” any more than king of fighters was “wallet-rape”. The game is incredibility polished, and offers fun times. That said… I didn’t buy it upon release, for the simple reason that by waiting like 2 months, the game is going to be significantly less expensive, simply due to its lack of content.
OK Joe I know this is your opinion and all and I respect that but this game deserves no less than 8/10. First of all there is no way you can complete the campaign in less than 6 to 8 hours without skipping parts of the game. If you played the campaign coop then that was your mistake because bungie stated that the campaign had coop but should be play for the first time alone in heroic difficulty if you’re an experience fps player. Second you barely mention firefight, which by far is the best part of the game. If you divide the price of the game like this: campaign 20$,firefight 10$, 3 new multiplayer maps 10$, halo reach beta invitation 10$, disk with all the halo 3 maps 10$. There you got your 60$. Otherwise liked the video specially the end, nice work.
Thats actually a pretty good analysis except for the fact that if your a True Halo Fan that you would have likely already bought the maps for $10, and 3 new maps for $10? thats BS, and finally even more filled with the Shit of Bulls is paying $10 to get into a Beta for Reach.
The game is grossly overpriced by about $25-35 at the time of release.
My Ratings take the Total Value of a game Very Seriously. This was an Epic fail couple that with the INSANE perfect ratings from some outlets I felt I needed to make sure its true value was said, of course its just my opinion.
It’s not a Bad Game, its not Average. Its just SLIGHTLY above average. Which is a 6/10, NOT an 8/10.
I agree with the second disk part, I had already bought all the other map packs and didn’t need them again, but you are forgetting the most important mode of the game, firefight. Sure other games have done it before but the concept still works great in a halo game. I have played games of firefight that have lasted more than 3 hours with my friend. This is one of the best coop experiences released this year, only behind borderlands in that category. By the way Joe are you getting a PS3 soon, I would love to see you’re opinion on some PS3 games.
Honestly, I know plenty of my friends that I regularly play with, that don’t have the map packs which is irritating to me since that I do have them and can’t play most of my maps with them, (I know people that don’t even have heroic maps… which are free…) Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that your voicing your own opinion rather then catering to the halo fandom. However, you should be careful not to cater to the hatedom as well. Besides your going to play a lot more firefight in this game then campaign mode. So more then likely, firefight is more important then the campaign to most people. I would actually really like to talk with you (As in discuss, not argue.) about ODST.
Honestly I think that Halo just needs to either come to an end or go back to the quality of the old games, because ever since Halo 3, its pretty much been going down hill and both Halo Wars and ODST were nothing more than a bad joke, and it’s not bad that they charge $60 for a 5 hour game, just that they charge that much for a bad game, but we all know that the Halo franchise won’t be anywhere as good as it was when it first came out