For starting off life as an expansion to Halo 3, ODST is, in my opinion, the best game of the series.
This review is free of spoilers, so please read further without any fear of having the game/story spoiled for you.
Graphics:
It should be noted I played this game on a 40" LCD 1080p Sony Bravia TV and thus there may be differences in displays. Basically, if you enjoyed the graphics of Halo 3, you'll enjoy ODST's. Likewise, if you hated Halo 3's graphics, you won't see any thing here to change your opinion. Overall, while the graphics are not the best found on the 360, they are still excellent. As always, Bungie delivers in creating a great and believable gaming environment. My particular favorite atmostphere is when you'll be playing as the Rookie in a world that takes place directly after the Covenant ship jumped in New Mombasa. Bungie, through the destroyed New Mombasa, firery sky, and surrounding destruction, gives an experience much different from Halo 3's where you play an all powerful spartan.
Graphics Score 8.5 out of 10.0
Sound:
I played this game using the optical out connected to a 5.1 Kenwood 720W Surround Sound system. Overall sound was excellent. Users with a surround sound system will have an advantage over those that do not due to ODST's excellent use of directional sound. Low Frequency Effects (LFE's) were good throughout and offered a nice bass effect to explosions, gun fire, etc. The soundtrack to ODST is also one of the best around. ODST's score creates an atmophere that nicely compliments Bungie's desire to make you feel outnumbered, surrounded, and alone.
Sound Score 10.0 out of 10.0
Controls:
Overall the controls were excellent. They were quick and responsive, and if you have played Halo 3, you know what to expect.
Controls Score 9.5 out of 10.0
Online Features:
First you can do 4 player co-op throughout the campaign. It's fun and works well, but personally, I'd recommend playing through the campaign on your own before tackling campaign with friends. This is because, as previously mentioned, Bungie creates the atmosphere of being alone, playing with friends significantly decreases the emotions that Bungie has attempted to create.
Next up is Firefight. Overall, IMO, firefight is worth the $60 alone. Firefight has you either going solo, or with up to 3 friends fighting wave after wave of increasingly difficult covenant. You can medals for consectutive kills, grenade sticks, basically every medal you could earn in Halo 3 you can earn in firefight. Additionally, to add to the challenge, various skulls are activated each round such as having to melee to recharge your stamina (similar to Halo 3's shield), enemies throw more grenades, etc. If you have played Gears of War 2's Horde mode, you'll know what to expect with Firefight, although I personally prefer firefight. My only complaint with firefight is that it has glitched several times while playing with friends. It's similar to lag, but I don't think it is. Basically, the entire map slows down for everyone, causing you to restart. Additionally, there have been a couple times where it has exited firefight saying that a player disconnected when no one did. Lastly, to play with someone they have to be on your friend's list, or friend's with one of your friends as there is no match making. Given Bungie's record, I would expect these issues to be patched soon.
On disc 2 is all of the maps included with Halo 3, as well as all the map packs released since Halo 3 came out. I won't review this part as it is the exact same thing as Halo 3's multiplayer.
Lastly, if you go to www.bungie.net and create an account, you can see all of your ODST stats, including campaign, firefight, mp, etc.
Online Features Score: 10.0 out of 10.0
Overall Presentation/Story:
I really enjoyed ODST's campaign, particularly the suprise at the end as it was unexpected and really helped the story come together. It took me around 6 hours to complete. For Halo veterans I'd recommend playing it on Heroic the first time as normal is entirely too easy. In ODST, you play as a Rookie who drops into New Mombasa shortly after the covenant cruiser warps. From there you seek out various hints to fill in the story. Upon finding these hints you play the character they are associated with. Additionally, the story is further fleshed out through finding audio logs thoughout the game. Throughout the game you are assisted by a friendly A.I. system that provides help through weapon caches and directions. Overall, Bungie does an excellent job in creating a believable environment. Many times developers attempt to create emotions and atmosphere only to fair miserably. Bungie is not one of those developers.
Overall Presentation/Story Score: 10.0 out of 10.0
Closing words:
To assign an overall score for the game, I took the score from each section, added them up, and then divided it by the number of total sections.
Overall Score of Resistance 2: 9.6 out of 10.0 (rounded down to 9.5 because of GameSpot's scoring system)
Please feel free to leave a comment about what you liked, disliked, or have suggestions about. You can also feel free to PM me. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy ODST as much as I did.