Halo 3 - Review
Added September 30th, 2007 by Hellrazr360
Halo 3 is, without a doubt, the most highly-anticipated videogame ever, just look at the one-hundred and seventy million dollars the game made within its first twenty-four hours in the US alone. This is an impressive feat, the fact that a videogame managed to take in more money than any one movie has made within its first weekend at the box office. These numbers are nice and all, but the question that’s been on everyone’s minds is whether or not the game is actually worth all this hype. From sodas to twelve-inch statues to toy figures and even laser tag weapon replicas, the build-up for Halo 3 has been huge to say the least. So, is Halo 3 the game we’ve all been looking forward to? Well, read on to find out.
The game picks up right after the events in Halo 2, with the Master Chief landing on Earth and being discovered by Johnson and his team. Earth is in ruin and has been overrun by the Covenant, save for the Elites who have sided with you this time. You quickly find out that the Prophet of Truth and his armies have uncovered a massive structure in the middle of the African desert, possibly the Ark. As you might expect, it’s up to you to get there and stop him from activating the structure, or all life in the universe will perish. Needless to say, there’s quite a bit at stake and on your hands in Halo 3.
You’re required to push your way through hordes of Covenant troops in order to reach your destination. In the process of the events from Halo 2, the main enemies have been switched around. Since the Elites have now sided with you, someone’s going to have to take their place as field commanders for your enemies. Unfortunately for you, the Brutes are up to the task, and they’re easily the most deadly enemies the series has seen.
As with the Elites in Halo and Halo 2, there are several classes of Brutes, some more powerful than others. The main difference here is that the contrast between the Brutes is far more erratic than that of the Elites. Some of the Brutes you’ll encounter can get downright nasty in their techniques and prove to be quite tough to bring down. You’ll know this when you see a Brute with gold armor, some can even make themselves temporarily invincible. As you might’ve guessed, these aren’t the same dumb-founded apes you encountered in Halo 2.
The Brutes do make for a formidable force to combat in Halo 3, and when combined with the other tougher enemies, you’re not going to be getting around easily this time. Sometimes the resistance you’ll encounter from these foes can get almost too aggressive, but then again, nobody likes a pushover. The only major problem with the difficulty in the game is that if you want to see your enemies at the top of their game, you’ll need to play through on the Heroic difficulty (unless you don’t have a problem getting annihilated in Legendary). If you decide to play the game on the Normal difficulty, your enemies won’t pose too much of a challenge. To make it easier, the amount of enemies you encounter is less, meaning some battles won’t feel as large and widespread as you think.
So in a sense, Halo 3’s difficulty almost feels like Gears of War in that no difficulty feels quite perfect. But if you’re a well-experienced Halo player, then going through the game on Heroic is probably the best choice for when you start. If you’re feeling a bit rusty when going into Halo 3, then it’ll probably be best for you to start on Normal and then advance to Heroic once you’re familiar with the game.
Most gamers will head straight for the Campaign mode when they hit the main menu. The Campaign is on the short side, clocking in at about six to ten hours depending on the difficulty and your skill level. Fortunately, for the most part, Halo 3’s single-player is very entertaining for the time it lasts. There are a few moments in the Campaign mode that may cause frustration to arise, particularly the second to last level, but it’s ultimately very fulfilling.
One of the biggest additions Bungie has made to the single-player is the ability to play through the game in four-player co-op. You can still play through with a single buddy on one system but you’ll need two systems or an Xbox Live connection to play with four people. Each player will have a different character in co-op, but the third and fourth characters have absolutely no relevance to the game’s story. Fortunately, it still makes for a great experience and is quite a significant addition that will raise the bar for future shooters with cooperative play.
There have been several improvements made to Halo 3, and you’ll get a decent taste of these goodies in the single-player. One of the first you’ll notice in the single-player is the weapons, both the selection and how they’ve been balanced. All the returning weapons feel and behave as you’d expect them to, some producing some deadly and unexpected results. For instance, the Needler is now far more reliable thanks to a higher rate of fire and the shots don’t have delayed results anymore. The Assault Rifle also returns, with a shorter magazine but is far more accurate and reliable than before. Bungie has done a good job ensuring that the new weapons are evenly balanced with the old favorites.
Few games are known for their weapons as much as the Halo series is. Halo 2 had an already impressive roster of weapons to choose from, and Halo 3 adds even more to the mix. Among the newcomers is the Brute Spiker, a dual-wieldable SMG-like gun that fires out spike bullets that proves to be quite a reliable weapon to use. There are also two new grenades: the Spike Grenade and Firebomb. The Spike Grenade is essentially a grenade that explodes with spiked fragments that can also be stuck to enemies like the Plasma Grenade. As for the Firebomb, it creates a small field of fire upon detonation that sets anything in its vicinity ablaze.
Perhaps the biggest, most substantial additions to your arsenal are the Spartan Laser and Gravity Hammer. The Spartan Laser is an over-the-shoulder weapon that fires lasers to totally annihilate your enemies. Think the Rocket Launcher mixed with the precision of the Sniper Rifle and you’ve basically got the Spartan Laser. As for the Gravity Hammer, it’s basically a large melee-based weapon that you swing to deliver some devastating blows. It has a very slight lock-on feature similar to the Energy Sword, but not as drastic. In exchange, you weld a weapon that deals a bit of splash damage (usually enough to take down a full shield) and can potentially destroy vehicles in one or two blows.
This is just a taste of what you can imagine to happen in the game, both single-player and multiplayer. And we’ve just barely covered the weapons. Another thing the Halo series is known for is its vehicles, and there are even more to toy around with now. All the vehicles from Halo 2 have returned in Halo 3 except for the very forgettable Covenant Spectre. The tweaks made to the returning vehicles are pretty minor, although some do stick out. For instance, the Banshee can’t make drastic dives and the Scorpion along with the Wraith require an extra person to use the machinegun or plasma turret, respectively.
Naturally, there have been a few new vehicles added to the mix, each of which will probably become as memorable as older Halo vehicles. One that’s already received a good deal of attention is the AT-V Mongoose, with room for a driver and passenger. The Mongoose is nimble, controls really well and makes for a good swift ride in the game, although it’s rather unstable on bumpy terrain. There’s also the UNSC Hornet, which is the human’s answer to the Banshee. While the Hornet doesn’t have a boost option, it does fire homing missiles and has room for two passengers.
As with the weapons, two are really going to stand out from the rest. In this case, it’s the Brute Chopper and the Elephant. The Brute Chopper is a vehicle with room for one driver that’s like a Ghost except it stays on the ground by a large wheel in the front. It fires relatively powerful flare-like shots and has a boost system like the Wraith to make for some quick kills; whether it be on-foot enemies or other vehicles. As for the Elephant, imaging a towering monstrosity of a tank the size of almost four Scorpions and you’ve got an Elephant in a nutshell. Only available in the multiplayer map Sandtrap, the Elephant is a slow but massive force, with room for any other vehicle inside of it.
Oh, but the fun doesn’t stop there, Bungie decided to go and add equipment into the game. How these items work is that you can carry one at a time and you activate them with the X button (the reload button has been moved to the right bumper and left if you’re dual-wielding). There are several equipment items that you can use, such as the Trip Mine, Portable Gravity Lift, Regenerator, Power Drainer and so many others. But the Bubble Shield is likely to become the most widely used. If you’re not familiar with this particular item, it basically creates a force field that protects anyone inside from any outside fire. The catch is that both people and vehicles can pass right through it, so don’t think you’re Mr. Invincible when you drop it.
All these additions are probably making you go “Give me this in multiplayer!” Well, that’s exactly what you’ll get; all these vehicles and weapons are available at your disposal in Halo 3’s extensive multiplayer component. The game comes pre-loaded with eleven maps, only one being a return, which is Last Resort, the new Zanzibar. And yes, the three maps from the multiplayer beta have found their way into the full game, so don’t feel too bad if you get annihilated on one of those maps. The sixteen player limit on Halo 2’s online portion hasn’t changed, but this does help to keep the game running smooth.
Like Halo 2, crazy and insane moments are bound to occur, whether they’re deliberate or accidental. With all the weapons, vehicles and newly added Equipment items, you’ll probably want to save a few of these moments to show your friends. Well, Bungie heard you and has delivered the goods, for Halo 3 now has a saved films feature. The way the saved films work is that every match or level you play on, whether it be single or multiplayer will be saved to your hard drive automatically. If you want to view the clip and/or edit it, such as cutting out a specific part or take a picture, then you’re free to do so. Best part is that you can take the photo or video portion you saved and send it to your friends to really pound down the humiliation on them. The only real issue with the saved films feature is that you can only view your replays from the Campaign mode; you can’t take pictures or save a certain portion of a level.
But saved films aren’t the only new addition made to Halo 3, there’s also a new mode called “Forge”. What is Forge you ask? Well, in a couple words, its Halo 3’s map editor. Now, before you start calling up your friends saying that you can create maps in Halo 3, it’s a map editor, not a map creator. But by no means should be bummed out over just changing the way each map looks, since the options you’re given and the way Forge has been made makes it easily the best console game with a map editor.
How the map editor works is that you choose a map you want to mess around with and you start as an Elite or Spartan. But then you’re given the option to turn into the 343 Guilty Spark monitor, and this is how you edit what you want. You can change just about everything in a map aside from its set landscape. Weapons, vehicles, spawn points, equipment, crates, turrets, and so much more are all yours to change in each map. The only two limits you have with editing each map is how many of each item you can put on the map and you have a certain amount of money you can spend. Fortunately, deleting items will increase your budget while adding will decrease it, so it’s a fair system. And yes, you can watch replays of when you were messing around with Forge thanks to the saved films feature.
If you’re completely satisfied with the set-up you’ve made for a map, then you can save and upload it for the whole world to see, test and assess. The saved films and Forge mode are easily two of the best things Bungie have added to Halo 3 to make the experience even more involved, especially with the online community. To keep things familiar, the matchmaking in the game remains identical to that of Halo 2. Getting connected to a game is also the same as it ever was, so the wait time shouldn’t take much longer than a minute. Online play is smooth and the experience you’ll get with all the new features and additions make it significantly better than Halo 2; take it from me.
With all that’s included in the game, it’s easy to think that Halo 3 wouldn’t be much of a technical powerhouse, despite the fact the game’s running on the Xbox 360. Fortunately, that’s not the case. Halo makes its leap to the next-generation on the Xbox 360 and does so very well. Probably the first thing you’ll notice with Halo 3’s graphics is how beautiful the scenery looks. The game manages to have plenty of these areas; some parts look so good it’s downright distracting. The water in the game also looks very impressive; probably the most distracting part of the game’s visuals. Like its predecessors, Halo 3 manages to do all this while running surprisingly smooth; there are no framerate drops in the Campaign whatsoever. The only real complaint about the graphics is that some parts look either rough or seem to lack a bit of detail. Oh, and did I mention how amazing the water looks?
It’s not just the graphics that Halo 3 exceeds at, it’s also the sound, whether it comes from the music, voiceovers or sound effects. The last two Halo games had an amazing score that always came in at the right time and really brought gamers into the game. Halo 3’s music is no different, and the main score might just be the best Halo theme yet. The voice work in the game is also quite impressive, so much that it wouldn’t surprise me if videogame characters got Oscar nominations for the best Actor/Actress awards. Finally there are the sound effects, which are even more crisp and believable than Halo 2, which had some pretty great weapon and explosion noises. Each gun has its own tune with the right punch when shot to make them all sound equally authentic. Needless to say, Marty O’Donnell has done the Halo series more than enough justice by doing his part.
After three long years of waiting to “Finish the Fight” Halo 3 finally arrives and finishing the fight is exactly what you’ll do. The game has a great conclusion and ties up all the loose ends in the story. As a whole, Halo 3 is definitely worth every second of waiting from the time gamers completed Halo 2. The game is definitely far superior to its predecessor and is just about on-par with the original, maybe even more so since it feels more complete. And just like how the original Halo set the bar for console first-person shooters, Halo 3 raises the bar for all shooters out there. Halo fans won’t need to worry about being disappointed, for Halo 3 delivers the goods and is worth playing through every step till the end.
