• Is it age appropriate?

  About our ratings

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  Not age appropriate for kids under 16, age appropriate for kids over 18; suggested age 16.

• Is it any good?

  4.0

• Common Sense says

  Impressive prequel focuses on co-op tactics to shoot aliens.

Why We Rated This for Ages 16–18

The good stuff

• Ease of play:

  The game is fairly easy to pick up -- especially for Halo players and fans of other first-person shooters. Plus, a tutorial and manual walks the players through the main controls.
• Educational value:

  Not an issue.

What to watch out for

• Online interaction:

  The game is even more fun when you add online friends, but as with past Halo games, you might hear cursing from other players in your headset. This is true for most online games, and many Halo players use the headsets to talk tactics while working together as soldiers towards a common goal.
• Messages:

  In this fictional world, you play as a rookie space marine, a human soldier who protects Earth from an alien invasion. The message isn't bad in this light, but you only use violence to ward off the creatures and never pursue less violent means.

   

• Role models:

  You play as a good guy in this sci-fi shooter, but use weapons to make your way through the game by blowing away thousands of baddies. Depending on how you look at it, the game's role model -- a nameless rookie who joins the ODST team of highly-skilled space marines -- is either good or bad.
• Violence:

  As with past Halo games, Halo 3: ODST is a first-person shooter that lets gamers fire powerful weapons, including machine guns, rifles, pistols, and rocket launchers. Small amounts of blood can be seen spraying out of enemies, which are mostly alien in nature, and they scream in pain and fall to the ground. Blood is also seen smeared on walls and floors. During firefights the camera may blur or the screen shake to heighten tension.
• Sex:

  Not an issue.
• Language:

  Not pushing the limits of profanity, but some swear words can be heard during dialogue sequences or radio chatter in your soldier headset. Examples include "sh-t," "bullsh-t," "a--hole," and "bastard."
• Consumerism:

  Not an issue.
• Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

  Not an issue.

What Parents Need to Know

This review of Halo 3: ODST was written by Marc Saltzman

Families Can Talk About

More on Halo 3: ODST