Halo 3: ODST - No tentacles please.

I've been playing Halo 3 : ODST of late, and its undoubtedly a fun experience. Whilst the Master Chief is off on annual leave, the playstyle of '30 seconds of fun..repeated' is intact.

My fellow PC gamers tend to treat Halo as an unwelcome guest in the hallowed halls of the first person shooter genre. Firstly, there is not a keyboard and mouse in sight. PC gamers are notoriously protective of their fine-tuned control system. Secondly and arguably more important, is that the Halo franchise's popularity took the crown away from the PC as the sole domain of the 'hardcore' shooter genre. Console shooters have the whiff of the 'everyday- joe' invading the supreme geek realm.

For my part, the original Halo grabbed me big-time. The setting, the characters and the 'feel' of the game sat alongside my PC gaming sensibilities surprisingly well. Truth be told, PC shooters (before Half-Life) were never about characters or narrative. It was always about maximum carnage courtesy of madskills and a de-fluffed mouseball (now thats oldschool). Halo introduced something different, and that was welcomed.

I played Halo 1 repeatedly. Whilst I never cracked legendary difficulty, normal and heroic got an extreme workout. I recall lining up for the midnight release of Halo 2. That's when proceedings took a sour turn. Halo 1's exceptional setting of adventure and discovery, gave way to some bizarre half-baked story with a giant tentacle monster rabbiting on about philosophy. The narrative was all over the place. Instead of trying to escape a mysterious doomed deep space installation, Master Chief was errand boy for a plot I still cant be bothered to recall. Oh and ending a game on a cliff-hanger when the next episode is years away. That reeks of 'marketing device' invading game design.

Halo2's misfire saw me casually picking up the 3rd installment, long after its release. I really would have settled for a crashed spacecraft and another 'escape' adventure. Instead it was more characters blabbing about this and that. Something about a Covenant rebellion, lost artifacts - all a bit uninteresting. And, oh the giant tentacle monster was back. This time he had ambition as well as philosophy. Calamari cannot be smart. Ever.

Still the online multiplayer was a treat, and the competition was and still is fierce. The mouse and keyboard might be the most accurate virtual combat system from an ergonomic point of view, but goodness me these halo guys can muscle a controller with pinpoint precision. The multiplayer component of Halo 3 is so engaging, its only drawback is highlighting the deeply un-awesomeness of the single player campaign.

Thats the concern I had with ODST. Was this going to be another multiplayer centric Halo title? So far, things are looking good. Interesting characters, a sense of adventure and discovery, and probably one of the most atmospheric gaming soundtracks in recent memory. And not a philosophizing tentacle in sight. Sweet relief indeed.

Thanks Bungie, from one old-timer Halo fan.