You know what one of my favourite TV series is? Firefly. I saw Serenity once, thought it was pretty damned awesome, and tracked down the series before it. It’s got a wonderful mix of wild-west influences in a sci-fi world, it’s a pretty neat look into what the future could hold, and of course, it has Nathan Fillion in the lead role. That man just melts my heart. He’s got good looks, charm, wit… *sigh*. It’s enough to make a man swing the other way. So naturally, when I heard they were making a game out of Firefly, I was pretty damned excited. Sadly that’s gonna take a while to make, so instead I went for Halo 3: ODST.For those of you who haven’t picked up on the long, convoluted joke yet, ODST features not only Nathan Fillion, but also Adam Baldwin and Alan Tudyk as voice actors in the game, each one filling a role similar to their characters in Firefly. Which is no bad thing of course, I love their voices. It just feels a little… weird. Anyway, let’s get on with the real review, shall we?

Halo 3: ODST is a prequel to Halo 3, this time ditching Master Chief in favour of the titular Orbital Drop Shock Troops. Within about five minutes of the game starting, the mission goes wrong, and you get separated from your team and left to wander the streets of New Mombasa at night, with none of that fancy Spartan armour to protect you this time. What’s interesting about this is that you’re actually given freedom to roam around an open environment, rather than stick to a linear path like past Halo games. Thankfully, the map isn’t massive, so getting from one side to the other by foot won’t take too much time.

The aim of the game is obviously to try and get back together with your squad, and this is done by going to different points on the map, finding a significant item, and triggering a flashback of sorts. These flashbacks give you control of a different character to The Rookie, your main man, although there’s no difference in styles. These flashback levels play out like a typical Halo level, and it’s nice to see that the tried-and-tested formula hasn’t been ditched. Each of these levels add up to what is probably the best story in a Halo game yet, as each character is given their own identity, and you feel more invested in each one, rather than just blasting through everywhere like Master Chief would.

And then, like that, it’s over. I played for about five hours on the normal difficulty by myself, and had managed to complete it with every single audio log found. And I generally suck at games. I know this started life as a budget side project to fill time between 3 and Reach, but this length is just not what you expect from a Halo game. Obviously there’s the multiplayer aspect to it, but if you already have Halo 3 you’re essentially buying the same game again with a different campaign. But hey, it’s a good campaign while it lasts, so you could be forgiven for wanting to buy it.

Graphically it’s the same as Halo 3, maybe slightly better and animations more fluid, but really it’s the same thing all over again. Then again, Nathan Fillion’s character looks a lot like him, so clearly someone on the art team was trying to suck up. Or they’re just damn good, one or the other.

Speaking of Nathan, the voice acting in the game is pretty awesome all over, with every Firefly guy giving his character a heap of personality, and all the non-Firefly cast being pretty cool too. The music is a little less epic compared to past Halo games, but it make sense in the new environment, where not every battle is a massive fight. The guns all sound the same as they have done throughout the series, and there’s not much else to say on the matter.

All in all, Halo 3: ODST is a bit of a letdown. It’s got a good campaign, but it’s over way too quickly. The multiplayer is obviously going to be great, because it’s the same one from Halo 3. People are still going to buy it, there’s no doubt of that, but you might want to consider just renting it instead of throwing all your cash at it. But if you like Nathan Fillion, it’s a definite buy.

Score: 7/10