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Halo 3

By vox 28 October, 2007 07:00 This article has been read 2751 times.

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After the flawed genius of Halo 1 & 2 and all the hype that the final installment in the trilogy has received there was always the worry of being let down. No matter how well it has done or will do, people are going to judge its "wow factor" against how amazing the original Halo felt to play back when it first came out. Now that we are used to the weapons, races, environments and plotline, nothing is as cool as it was that first time. It's the same issue that plagues any series, be it Dune, the Matrix, Star Wars, etc. (Notice the comparison to film and not game trilogies, this is how big the Halo franchise is!)

Halo 3 does get a boost in that it is released for the 360, so you get an automatic upgrade in abilities there, while the previous two were on the original Xbox. Rated are playing it on a high end HD TV, and yes, it looks really nice. The backgrounds look like a painting in motion, with swirling clouds and dancing dust storms. From the light glinting off the metal surfaces to the detailed shadows in the rocks, it can be really gorgeous. Is every detail as beautiful as every detail in, say Gears of War? Maybe not.

The sound and dialogue are really great. I like the background music, and I find much of the dialogue hilarious. There are some conversations that make you laugh out loud especially some of the comments characters make as you make a good sniper shot or accidently shoot one of your team mates. This is a good game to play with your surround sound stereo system hooked up.

I hated the ending of Halo 2. I dislike it when a story finishes with a "and now wait a few years to find out what happened." They can at least have you feel like you achieved something, and ended a chapter. For that reason alone it's good to have Halo 3 here to wrap everything up.

Unfortunately, with all the time they spent in development, this third outing is a bit predictable. I really enjoyed the multi character play in Halo 2. I thought that was a great touch. They completely removed it for Halo 3, setting you back into a Master Chief only mode. To be honest, I really thought we'd get THREE races this time around, and get to play as the Flood too. Why reduce ourselves to just one?

Also, while there are a lot of "missions", some of them are maybe 5 minutes long. That's a bit on the short side. I realize you can go back and replay on harder and harder levels to challenge yourself - but they could have put more depth into the basic story line.

Although the campaign does a great job, it is a bit short and many of the settings are a little too familiar to previous games to actually wow you. Although it's single player campaign is short, it is the online multiplaying which will hook you and reel you in for a very long time. Multiplayer is completely unlimited - and you're not stuck with the formulas built into the AI brains. Halo 3 is definitely the best multiplayer experience of the three games and probably of any game online to date - the most balanced, the most fun, the best graphics. You could literally play this for years and not get bored of it.

Single player is once again flawed genius, minor gripes that don't let the experience down too much. But online is where it is at. If you don't have online then you simply must get online as this is where Halo 3 destroys all the competition.