Halo 3 – Review

To Start off, Halo 3 is undoubtedly the best game in the series. The campaign has been improved from Halo 2 and provides a satisfying yet (leaving you wanting for more) conclusion to the Halo story arc. The Multiplayer, considering how great it was feels even more balanced with the introduction of new arsenal and equipment, dramatically changes the face of both singleplayer and multiplayer games while at the same time, feels familiar and tightly integrated.

Lets first start with a brief story from the ending of HALO 2:

Master Chief chases the last of the remaining Covenant Prophets, Truth on a race against time to Earth and stop Truth from activating the Ark, which would activate all the remaining 6 Halos (1 destroyed by Chief as an act of desperate measure in 1st Halo, and would cause suicide on a galactic scale. The Ark is located underneath the earth of present Kenya and the USNC (human) forces as well as the Chief must get there first otherwise its goodbye humanity. Halo 3 starts from here.

Story: The story of Halo 3 revolves heavily around Master Chief and rightly so due to the injustice he received in Halo 2 from his Covenant counterpart The Arbiter. While not spoiling anything, the story is definitely told in a way even more better than Halo 2 with much better cut scenes and with strong soundtrack providing the emotional impact of the game. The game provides the conclusion to the Halo story arc, but expect games to be based on Halo universe in the future, whether tied to the Chief or not. While the story is good in Halo 3, it’s not AAA. Which is quite a shame as the world Bungie created have huge possibilities and could possibly rival and even surpass the world created by George Lucas in Star Wars. In fact, what I mean to say is, the story is good, but not AAA good, not as good as the novels based on the game.

Campaign: The Campaign of Halo 3 is a definite improvement from the other two. The levels are much larger in scale; the transition from indoor battles to outdoor feels smoother and makes you adjust your tactics accordingly. The levels are also varied, like there are jungles, desert and even snow this time around. Now the Campaign can be played by upto 4 players at the same time via Xbox Live!, and Halo 3 is the 1st game to do so. This changes the gameplay a lot and introduces new tactical considerations that were not possible with a single player. Also in the mix is a metagame called campaign scoring, which tracks how many points each player has (by killing the covenant) at the end of the game and see which player was the MVP, if you think you did all the work, now you’ve got the stats to back it up.

But there are still problems from previous titles to be found in Halo 3. For example the indoor levels don’t look as much detailed as the outdoor ones; the copy/paste level design can be still seen in some places which makes the navigation a bit difficult in certain circumstances.

Halo’s philosophy was based on three things: Shoot, Grenade, Melee. Halo 2 introduced dual wielding which was overpowered in some cases and damaged the philosophy. Halo 3 corrects the problem by reducing the effectiveness of dual-wielding and adding several things into the mix like the equipment- which are devices that you drop on the ground like a Bubble Shield, Regenerator, etc. New weapons like the Brute Hammer, Mauler, Spiker are all well integrated and feels perfectly balanced. The AI of the Covenant is easily the best there is, no questions asked. To fully experience the AI, play it at least on Heroic Difficulty. On the other hand, the AI of the Marines are very poor and feels like they are just waiting to ramp up the death count of the Covenant. While it is understandable the reason behind the poor AI is so that the AI marines don’t take away your kills, but it just too poor and could have been better if they were smarter.

This is where it seams a letdown. Halo 3’s graphics is not a giant leap from Halo 2, but that doesn’t mean things don’t look great. There are sharp textures, great HD lighting all-around and great Halo art we came to know and love, and this visual style just fits into the world of Halo. In other words, the graphics is nothing complex like Gears of War or Bioshock, but still looking descent, but not great.

Sound: This is where HALO is 2nd to none. From the ambient sound to the fantastic music of Martin O’Donnel, HALO owns every game in this department. Halo 3 has the best soundtrack in a game yet, and uses it to perfection by highlighting the dramatic moments in the game.

The Multiplayer is everything you’d expect from the proven success of HALO 2, with even more gameplay modes like Elephant, etc. The new weapons are so well balanced that they never feel out of place. A easy map-editor called Forge lets you modify objects in the map like adding vehicles, weapons and eventually creating your very own game. Expect HALO 3 to rule Live! For years and years to come. Its tons of fun when you invite your friends over for LAN or split screen matches.

HALO 3 consists of features you’d want to be Standard for games from here on end. Like there is a replay feature which the game automatically tracks up to 25 previously played games and lets you save which ones to save. Since the replay record in-game data, the replays are very small and can viewed from virtually in point/angle on the map for both Campaign and Multiplayer. This feature can prove priceless when you want to study how the Pros tick online. The game is also tightly integrated with Bungie.net and you can see your stats and even screenshots (which is upscaled to 1080) which you took during you game sessions. Bungie Recommends is a section where it showcases interesting things the HALO community came up with and worth your attention.

So there you have it. Halo has everything, from a better than average campaign to outstanding multiplayer. And features you’d wish you will see from games from here on end. The reason its shy of 9.5 is only due to it’s a bit mediocre graphics and the Campaign falling short of awesomeness of the multiplayer.