Halo 3: ODST

Best: Firefight. Gears of War may have popularized it, but in my mind, Halo perfected it: the horde mode. Halo 3: ODST introduced the first iteration of Halo’s Firefight mode, in which you and up to three other players would fight off progressively challenging waves of enemies. It was simple. It was replayable. It had real staying power. After original developer Bungie passed the buck to 343 Industries, Halo did away with Firefight, opting instead to introduce more complicated PvE modes, with varying success. (They were fine.) But Halo PvE has never been as strong as it was in ODST’s Firefight.

Worst: The loneliness. Yes, Master Chief has always meant to be a cipher of sorts for the players, but at least he had a personality of his own. Rookie, the silent protagonist of Halo 3: ODST, was a literal blank slate. That, plus roaming around a blown-out city at night, jazzy tunes in the background, imbued parts of ODST with a sense of isolation. Squads aside, Halo 3: ODST always came across as a somber, melancholic twist on Halo—a nice change of pace for a first playthrough that didn’t quite carry over to subsequent ones.