Along with the new campaign in Halo ODST comes a brand new multiplayer mode called Firefight. Up to four players will work together to take on waves of Covenant forces to try and stay alive as long as possible. 

Two Covenant drop ships will fly into the map and drop off random group of enemies. You could be taking on weaklings like Grunts and Jackals or you can get screwed and face off against a couple of Wraith, Jetpack Brutes and a few Chieftans in a wave. 

More after the break. 

The random wave of enemies enforces teamwork. The Covenant forces are extremely aggressive in Firefight. They know where you are and they will come at you hard.

Things become even harder because of the seven skulls that turn on or off randomly in each round. These skulls are from the original campaign and the effects range from making the Covenant throw more grenades, be more aggressive and so on. Eventually, all of the skulls will be turned on at once during a round. (I can only imagine how much of a bitch that’s going to be.) You can also turn on some of the goofy skulls during Firefight such as the Grunt birthday party skull.

Everyone on the same team shares seven lives from a common pool with each other. Players can earn more lives at certain points in Firefight and they’ll get health packs and fresh ammo at the end of each of the five rounds in a set. There’s no time limit in Firefight and matches will last until all the ODST players have died.

Only two maps were being shown off at E3, one set during the day and one set during the night. The day map saw the ODST players starting at the top of a building and the Covenant forces had to rush up towards the players. There’s a lot of cover in between the two groups and some of the buildings that can be used as cover can actually be demolished by a big enough blast, such as the Wraith’s energy blast. And yes, there will be vehicles in Firefight. I never got a chance to see the night level, but you can use your VISR in Firefight as well.

Some of the multiplayer features also make it into Firefight. You’ll earn points, medals (Overkill, Killing Spree, etc) and more. The multiplayer announcer is even in Firefight! The post carnage report will be overhauled for Firefight and will be a lot more detailed. Players can also give themselves four letter nicknames as opposed to the one letter and two number nicknames from regular multiplayer. And no, you can’t give yourself a nickname like fuck or shit. Yes, I asked.

I can easily see Firefight bringing back Halo 3 players who are completely burned out with the multiplayer, like myself. Firefight is definitely a great addition to the Halo universe.