Review: Halo 3: ODST - Firefight Mode

Halo 3: ODST is the newest part in the Halo storyline from Bungie and on it comes a new online mode called Firefight which is Bungie response to the popular Gears of War Horde mode and it puts players in an endless battle against the Covenant, in the form of waves and sets. As the game goes on, the difficulty increases, more skulls are automatically turned on, and the multiplier is raised.

Up to 4 people can play online and every map has something unique to offer. Some maps offer Ghosts, Spartan lasers, and Warthogs, while others force you to start with a Sniper rifle. Yet, you’ll need to be careful finding teammates to play with, as everyone shares the same amount of lives, and no one wants to play with someone who is consistently dying. You’ll start with 7 lives as a team, and you gain additional lives as you progress through the game and pass sets. If you run out of lives, you’ll be able to get your teammates back at the end of each mini-round when the announcer shouts, “Reinforcements!” in a trusty Unreal Tournament voice which I love just before the newest wave of enemies start to spawn which is a great feature, RUN AND GET THE GUNS!

Firefight is easily my favourite so far since it finally provides a gametype that doesn’t truly end, the music is epic in the game and it adds a great amount to the atmosphere to the game. However, Bungie have however seemed to miss the boat in some regards with lack of leaderboards and no matchmaking on the ODST disk.

After a successful game of Firefight that lasted until early this morning, I was disappointed that I couldn’t compare our score against our friends. Surely we aren’t the only ones who like to brag after a successful game, right? Well Bungie.net will be the exclusive home of leaderboards.

Either way, I believe that Halo fans and those how have not been stuck my the Bungie games will enjoy Firefight mode, because I would recommend this to any person that enjoys a never ending battle.

Overall 7/10