 | My Halo 3 Review October 04, 2007 11:35am in gaming |
 I have defied gods and demons I am your shield, I am your sword I know you, your past, your future This is the way the world ends Those words excited many Halo fans in July 2006 when they all got to see their first taste of Halo 3 at E3. Now, a little over a year since the first teaser, and almost 3 years since Halo 2, Halo 3 has come home to the excitement of many. So how does it stack up compared to the hype and expectations? SINGLE PLAYER **BEWARE SPOILERS*** I'll start with the single player campaign. New to the campaign is the ability to do online co-op. Now not only with 2 players, but with 4. This feature seemed to run very smoothly for me. The mic is always on so you can always talk and coordinate with your teammates. The biggest difference is that only one of the 4 players plays the only spartan...Master Chief of course. The other 3 play Elites, including the Arbiter. The campaign starts off almost where Halo 2 left off, although there is somewhat of a gap. You start off meeting the very familiar characters of Master Chief, the Arbiter, and of course Seargent Johnson. The Master Chief almost ends up killing the arbiter not realizing that the two of them are fighting for the same cause now. Like in Halo and Halo 2, you get right into the fight pushing through Grunts, Brutes, and the occasional Hunter. The enemy AI has overall gotten better. The Brutes fight in a dynamic group mentality, and the Grunts are still stupid, but do seem to surprise you with the occasional flank. Your allies AI I often see as being hit or miss, but still primarily good. When they miss, they look like idiots, but more often, they're on fire. I remember driving around on a Mongoose with a marine on the back with a rocket launcher. He was nailing ghost after ghost and was doing a great job against the Wraith tanks. The music in the campaign follows the quality of the music from Halo and Halo 2. The mood of the music ties in directly with what is going on in the game. The right music at the right times. The story is done well as I feel that it was in the previous 2 Halo games. It does a good job at finalizing the storyline. I still was disappointed at it. The game ends with the Master Chief and the Arbiter running for their life to escape the activated Halo ring. In a manner very similar to the ending in the original Halo by racing a warthog to the landed Earth ship Dawn. The playable part ends with you jumping the ship into Dawn's cargo bay. During your escape, Cortana says something like "I hope we make it". The Master Chief says "We will" and the screen goes black. The story continues with Lord Hood, the Arbiter, and several marines at a memorial in Africa honoring those who were lost. Before the Arbiter departs he has a conversation with Lord Hood. Lord Hood: "I can't believe he's gone" Arbiter: "Were it so easy" On that memorial is the number 117 scratched in. (For those that do not get the reference, the Master Chief is Spartan 117) If you were smart enough to watch the credits, you would find out that the Master Chief and Cortana are indeed alive. Part of the hull of Dawn broke off entering the portal. Cortana sets a distress beacon and the Master Chief enters Cryogenic Stasis after being warned that it could take "years" before they're found. The story finally ends with the Master Chief telling Cortana "Wake me if you need me". The story finalizes the Halo and Halo 2 stories quite well. While the ending was almost depressing, the storyline is pretty much complete. The Covenant was defeated, the Flood was contained and defeated, and Earth is saved. Unfortunately its not without its casualties. Sergeant Johnson is dead, Commander Keys is dead, and the Master Chief is believed dead. While somewhat disappointing, the campaign did a good job in finishing the story. There were two things that disappointed me. One was that the campaign was notably shorter than it was in Halo or Halo 2. Not a deal breaker, but I still wish there was more. The other thing was that the levels while large, seemed a lot more constrained than they were in the original Halo. Again, not a deal-breaker, but somewhat of a disappointment. All in all, the campaign was pretty solid. MULTIPLAYER  Despite being almost 3 years old, I still played Halo 2 on XBOX Live a fair amount of time, only surpassed by Rainbow Six Vegas of late. Halo 2 multiplayer was fun and fast-paced. Halo 3 lives up to expectations by far. I believe there are 10+ maps, new weapons, and of course, vehicles. The first thing I noticed is that the weapons have been rebalanced overall. The biggest notable is the energy sword. Yes, it's still there. But, here's the good news, its not quite as cheap as it used to be. The sword is no longer infinite. This means that after so many strikes, it runs out and acts more as a paperweight than a weapon. Also, the range for the lunge seems to be lessened, meaning you need to get closer to your target before the reticule turns red and you can lunge and strike. Something else that's interesting is that if two people have it and lunge at each other, the swords will collide and both parties will survive. I've done it like 6 times in a row with someone, our swords just kept interlocking and we kept surviving. Another notable is the Needler. The Needler is more powerful than it was in Halo 2, but no longer can you carry 2. It is now just a single wield weapon. The Battle Rifle I feel has also become a little more powerful per shot. To balance this, the firing rate seems to be a tad bit lower. The pistol is now back to half its former glory. It seems to be about as powerful as it was in the origingal Halo, but still no scope (sadly). A few new weapons have made it into the game, both in single player and multiplayer. The Spiker (standard Brute weapon, can be dual wielded), The gravity hammer (much like the sword), and a small shotgun like weapon (can be dual wielded, but seemingly not as powerful as the normal shotty) The vehicles are still there in some levels, and remain as fun as they always have been. They remain destructable as they were in Halo 2. The maps are done for the most part very well. Val Halla is the new Blood Gulch/Coagulation, the big fan favorite. And you have several recognizeable maps remembered from Halo 2. Overall I am very pleased with what Bungie has done with Halo 3. The matchmaking works very well with pairing you up with appropriate players. Servers are running notably smoother than those for Halo 2 thus far. And the veto feature is definitely a plus. If matchmaking sets you up with a gametype/map you don't like, press 'x' and veto the game. If over half the group vetoes, a new map/gametype is chosen. It's incredibly easy to start parties up to go into custom games or matchmaking, or even the single player co-op. There's even a shortcut button that brings up the XBOX sidebar for friends for easy access. In the end I was quite pleased with what Halo 3 brought to the multiplayer aspect. It's what I expected and more. They even listened to fans and made some custom gametypes that were popular in custom games, but previously unavailable in matchmaking. GRAPHICS The graphics are better than they were in Halo 2 and better than the Halo 3 multiplayer beta. They're actually pretty amazing. The best the XBOX 360 can offer? No, not at all, but they're still pretty good. the lighting is done pretty well and the world's look amazing. But again, not the best the 360 has to offer but still pretty damn good, and by no means a deal-breaker. WRAP-UP So, did Halo 3 live up to the hype? I would have to say the the multiplayer by all means did. In terms of the campaign? I don't think it lived up to they hype, although it did live up to what I expected of it. Overall, if you're a fan of the Halo series or just want a fun FPS, Halo 3 would be a good pick-up. Halo 3 doesn't revolutionize the FPS, it's fun and fast-paced, and what it does, it does well. Definitely a game that will get plenty of playing time and not get old, at least for me. Tags: review, halo, microsoft, xbox
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Comments (1)
saxykat on October 04, 2007 4:32pm This review is really written well. Organized very well.
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