A cool new features specifically for the ODST troops, and you wonder why the Master Chief was never equipped with these lavish quirks,  is the visor modes.  You can either look at the world around you in a low light mode, which is pretty much like wearing night vision goggles, and this also enables you to see the surrounding world with different coloured outlines, where red outlines the enemies, green outlines friendlies and yellow outlines the Super Intendant hubs which are scattered around the world.

The Super Intendant hub is where you collect your intelligence from, and this is everything from maps to points of interest on the map that you need to go and explore.  More often than not these points of interest drop you into a mission of sorts, but we'll get onto that after we talk about the original role of the Super Intendant.

The Super Intendant is the cities public transport infrastructure, its security, its waste disposal, its alarm system.  The Super Intendant is a computer which took care of all the administrative jobs local and central government, in this country at least, hasn't been able to get right since forever.  It's at these hubs you'll find the city AI, and where you can update your maps and get help from this intelligent AI.  What's also quite exciting is the waypoint tool in the maps, which means you can set a waypoint anywhere in the world, and it'll reflect in the in-built compass in your visor.

As well as the advantages of the visor, you will have access to two new weapons; a silenced SMG and a M-65 pistol...both with zoom and both with auto-mags.

But it's the missions we're most interested in, and apart from getting to the locations of interest outlined by the Super Intendant, you have to search for specific objects at the location, which unlock events that happened earlier in the storyline.  Although this sounds convoluted, it's actually a very effective story telling method, and you find yourself engrossed in battles which can take up to twenty or thirty minutes.  And you can expect to see all your favourite enemies too, as well as all the UNSC and Covenant vehicles.

But you can also play this game in Firefight mode, which is a brand new mode based on tennis.  Well, not really tennis, but a scoring system like tennis.  Well not really a scoring system like tennis, but more a game, set and match scoring system.  Firefight is a never ending wave battle, and you score points by killing enemies and stringing together kills, as well as varying you weapons.  Different achievements are rewarded with points, and as you progress through the game, the difficulty settings get harder and different mini achievements can be pursued if you're that way inclined.

The problem with this game is that it's just another Halo game.  That isn't necessarily a bad thing for fans, but it's my humble opinion that there's just not enough in this game for FPS gamers.  Let me put it another way:  If you're a Halo fan, as I am, then you're going to love this game no matter what.  But, if you're a FPS fan, as I am, and haven't played Halo before, I don't know if there is anything there that really grabs you.  I could be wrong, I could be being too objective, but I expect more.  A few RPG elements maybe, and not just a different way to play the same game.

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