I enjoyed ODST quite a bit, and felt it was worth the money. However, I do have to agree it was kind of a let down.
Before you go flaming let me expand on the reasoning:
I've played Bungie games for a long time. I mean Pathways into Darkness long time.
I've beta tested two of their older games. One thing that's always stood out in Bungie games is their excellent story and depth. ODST had a great story as well, and filled an interesting niche in the Halo story; but it wasn't up to their old standards in my humble opinion.
The story was well told overall, the game play very enjoyable: I loved the differences and relative mortality of playing an ODST versus a Spartan. However, the game does end too quickly, and Firefight is only interesting for so long. Maybe some people are okay with doing the exact same thing repeatedly for hours on end, but it does get a little dull for me. I love Firefight for the challenge and intensity, but I would gladly trade that for even a few extra hours of actual story and campaign gameplay.
Being told that "the game is longer if you play it on a higher difficulty" is a no brainer. Of course it's longer. However extra time through difficulty does not make up for an lackluster initial playtime and story. It's not just Bungie, a lot of games are getting shorter and shorter without adding anything but better graphics and gimmicky features; the VISR for example - which I thought was awesome - but again: I'll deal without it and go through the dark using a plasma pistol overcharged as a flashlight if it meant the game was longer.
Am I wrong here? Is it "whining" to want to enjoy a game longer through sheer length and depth of play rather than being longer because the bad guys don't die as quick? Having both would be even better.
Oh yeah there's the "I took the time to look at everything" and I agree. ODST is a masterpiece and I fully intend to spend another round just exploring, but you know what? A lot of games have had the same, and better, level of detail and extra treats, and have managed to let you see them while working your way through the game, rather than having to abandon doing anything for the sake of walking around (though admittedly that is enjoyable).
Overall I loved the story as it was, thought the game play was brilliant (really: was there any need to use something other than the silenced and scoped SMG and magnum? They were perfect!) On top of that its scale was breathtaking.
I just would have much liked a longer story for the simple (and not unrealistic) enjoyment of having more time to be immersed in the story and game play, without having to resort to difficulty levels that add nothing more than just...difficulty. The game certainly did not suck, and it was certainly worth the money, but for what Bungie has offered up in the past, yeah: I was expecting more, and I don't feel it's unrealistic to expect the best from them.
[Edited on 09.24.2009 9:36 AM PDT]