“Fire fight” is a ‘new’ multiplayer mode on Halo 3:ODST. Think CoD’s Zombie Nazis mode combined with L4D’s Survival mode, or a super-powered version of Gears 2’s Horde. You play with up to three of your friends on a map from the game. There are a few to choose from, some day, some night, some indoors and some that leave you open from almost every angle, my favourite being ‘End of the Road’, a mainly outdoors, symmetrical map. You and your friends must fight off wave after wave of covenant forces or prepare to come face to face with your dear and fluffy lord.
The waves of enemies are measured fairly accurately, each round has four sets, each set has five waves. Every wave is one or two phantoms worth of enemies. You could get landed with jackals without shields and grunts with plasma pistols. Equally, you could get two whole phantoms of brute chieftains with gravity hammers and hunters who’re on a mission. It’s luck of the draw, or lack of luck.
You’re not limited to only one life, like you’ll find with most of the similar modes of game play. You have a collective pool of lives, seven. It’s seven and only seven. Like it or lump it. New lives are awarded lives for passing each round. (One round = four sets or twenty waves.) It all evens out, more players equals more guns to hand but not as much lee-way when it came to dying, less players means less guns but a bit more allowance when it comes to digging graves.
A not so fantastical part I noticed in “Fire-fight” was that you only have you and your friends. No computer controlled players to watch your rear while you snipe a brute chieftain. I’m not saying that this is a major fault but I don’t imagine it’s too much to ask for an extra pair of hands, is it?
All in all, it’s playable. And playable. And playable. And playable… And playable. And playa- You get the picture. Replay-ability is one of its strong points. A random selection of enemies and almost unlimited tactical opportunities means that you can play till the drones come home…
