Bungie is currently on tour with Halo 3: ODST and they’re showing off the Firefight mode. If you haven’t heard, Firefight is a co-op mode where a team of four works together to fight waves of enemies. I hate to compare it this way, but Firefight is similar to Horde mode in Gears of War 2.

Bungie brought the game in an army troop transport vehicle, and if I remember correctly, it’s from the 70’s. They had it painted black and managed to fit eight T.V’s and Xbox 360’s, benches and stools inside. It’s a fine piece of work if I do say so myself, and if you can, I highly suggest you check it out.

Now on to the game itself. There were two maps available to play. I got my hands on an outside level, and it looked like there was another one that took place at night. Unsurprisingly, ODST plays exactly like Halo 3. There are a few tweaks though, such as more noticeable weapon recoil,  the use of your VISR mode; which acts as sort of a night-vision view, allowing you to see outlines of enemies and friendlies. Since you aren’t playing as Master Chief, you won’t be able to hijack vehicles, dual-wielding isn’t an option, no shields, and you’re slower. Some of these differences aren’t entirely noticeable if you haven’t played Halo 3 in a while, but I definitely got the feeling that I wasn’t a one-man army.

FireFight Mode reuires teammates to... cont. on page 2

Firefight mode requires team mates to work together to be successful. In the retail version, the team will have a set number of lives which are shared. This encourages players to protect each other and stick close together. The demo was set to unlimited lives so we could be reckless. Players also accumulate points, and depending on what you kill and how you kill it, you’ll be rewarded different amounts.

I couldn’t get a close look at the weapon selection, but players start off with the silenced machine-gun and a pistol. Over time stronger enemies dropped in with more powerful weapons, such as the Gravity Hammer – which I got hit by and made me fly half-way across the map, so yeah, it’s still awesome.

In short, ODST’s multiplayer is extremely similar to Halo 3, which still makes it really satisfying and fun. It makes enough changes to justify playing the multiplayer for many, many hours. I had more fun playing the demo than I thought I would, in fact, I must of enjoyed it so much that I won this license plate frame for being the top player in my round. I am officially now more excited for this release.

Halo 3: ODST is said to take place in between the events of Halo 2 and 3, and will be on store shelves September 22.

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