Weather you love or hate the Halo games. It's here to stay. Halo's the new Pac-Man in this generation so there's no way that you can pretty much do to stop it. You can go ahead and express your hatred to Bungie, they're not going anywhere because in a buisness standpoint, Halo is absolutely phenomenal. When Halo 3 was first announced, everyone in the gaming community was highly anticipated in this game and it was hyped so much that it's probably the most hyped game I've seen in a long time. Now the game's finally released and it's been almost 3 years, is it still a solid game or it's just plain overrated?
Now, I haven't read the books or comics yet so I'm going to say Halo 3 took place after the events of Halo 2. You land in an unknown area and sooner or later, Johnson and his men come over to check on you. At first, they believe you're dead, but come on, you're obviously not since it's too early in the game. The Halo games are war-oriented and what do we see a lot in wars, lots of battles and killing. However, the main idea of the plot is that Master Chief needs to rescue Cortana from Gravemind from the second game and he needs to destroy this ring that he's on and would have to escape like the first game. This time, there are no Arbiter levels so he's not really the main character, but he does fight with you. There's a lot more stuff you will see when you play the campaign from start to finish-you will see that the UNSC and the Elites are having problem getting along to each other to seeing some familar faces dying.
The Bubble Shield makes everything so lighty.
The Brutes look all upgraded from the second game, eh?
The Plasma Grenade explosion looks amazing!
The graphics and sound are very solid. The weapons and everything else in Halo 3 is a drastic improvement fom the second game. Although, some textures look a bit ugly, but most of the stuff are eye-candy. I really enjoyed looking at most of the guns when I carry them. The Halo has always been well with the sound effects. Weapons sounds perfect, solid voice acting, yeah...it's more of the same stuff from the first two games. However, the music is quite disappointing since most of the stuff are remixes from the first and second game. There are a couple of new songs, but most of them are remixes. The remixes are actually good though. They give you a different feeling than the original version. For example, the original version of Under Cover of Night was dark, depressing and has this lonely feel to it. The remix isn't as dark, but it sounds more beautiful and lively. Still, I was hoping for some more songs by Marty, but oh well, the remixes are still a good listen.
Halo 3 gameplay is similar to the previous Halo games although since there's so much weapons now, the balancing is a bit different. The AR (which I'm glad they brought it back) won't be as strong in terms of damage compared to the AR in Halo: CE. This was made to keep dual-wielding powerful or else there will be no reason to use it. There are new weapons like Gravity Hammer which is a cool melee weapon and it's a good alternative to the Energy Sword. There's the Spiker which is like the SMG, but it's moderate on both shield and flesh. There's also support weapons which like you can rip out the turret and you can use it while you're moving. Halo 3 features a lot more weapons throughout the game. It might get some time to get used to, but you'll get used to it pretty fast. The Brutes are replaced by the Elites and they play very similar to them except when they're with other Brutes, they react a bit differently than they are with Grunts and Jackals. All Covenant enemies from the first two games are back and there's really no new enemies except for the Brutes that's been remade to keep them up to par with the Elites. The flood got a couple of new enemies. One's like a version of the Hunter and the other one's like an annoying support role for them since they shoot their little needle thing very fast and it's highly accurate. However, all these flood-type units can be transformed by the Stalker (which it does what it's supposed to do). There are two new grenade types. The Spike Grenade can stick to walls, but it feels very similar to the Plasma Grenade and the Incendiary Grenades are like firebombs and they're really cool to use. It's just awesome to throw one at a Brute. Master Chief's shields feels similar to the first game, so it doesn't regenerate as fast, but it's much more protective. Master Chief also move slightly slower for some reason. There are also new vehicles like the mongoose (a smaller version of the Warhog) and the Hornet (the UNSC answer to the Banshees). There's still a couple of more new vehicles by the ways. Halo 3 features Theater mode and Forge mode which are new to the series. Theater mode is pretty much allows you to watch your games that you've played and Forge mode is decent what it does. It's like a PC mod kit, but it's not as good, but it's very simple unlike most FPS editing kit. I really wish it allowed you to create your own campaign since it's only multiplayer. The Master Chief can also use equipment which are like usable power-ups to make the game a bit more interesting. For example, you can throw down a Bubble Shield to protect you from everything, but enemies can still go through. There's the Grav Lift which make you go up to the sky like crazy and this can give you an advantage for forcing your enemies to look up at you. There's a lot more equipment you will find as you play through the game.
Arbiter will help you if you need help!
Intense firefight.
Can he dodge the Brute Chieftain's swipe?
Vehicular assault.
The campaign of Halo 3 lasted me around a good 12+ hours when I first played it on Legendary. The campaign is a huge improvement from the second game. It has more memorable moments and The Storm and Crow's Nest are possibly the best Halo levels in a long time. The Crow's Nest is somewhat a throwback to Truth and Recon's intense firefight and The Storm is more of a level that features variety, but it also include a lot of fun ground fights. There's one part you'll be driving the mongoose then the next part you'll be using the Rocket Launcher to take down hordes of Brutes. Vehicle sequences are still here and they are much better than Halo 2's. You get to take down a Scarb with the Scorpion Tank! Not only that sooner or later, you get to drive the Hornet and take down two Scarabs! Lots of fun times. The campaign is really easy to explain. It's just pure epic and a blast to play. Every level will offer some sort of excitement or something to keep you satisfied while you're playing the level. However, there's only one level that I found to be actually bad and that's Cortana which is the second last level. It's a Flood level like the Library or Keyes from H: Ce, but it's just done horribly wrong. They keep on respawning and it gets really tedious and there's one part where you had to fight those ranged Flood units and it's just unsatisfying and not really fun because these guys are really protective to most of the weapons unless you have a sticky or some sort of Rocket Launcher. You can try to bash it to death, but on higher difficulties, you're basically asking to die. Overall, the Campaign is really polished and fun and the ending will please many Halo: Ce fans.
Looks like a fun game of Halo 3 online!
I need to Sword somebody...
Recon was the most wanted armor in Halo 3...and it's still is.
Rockets for the win!
Death is near.
The multiplayer is similar to the second game, but kind of tone down in terms of pace. Weapons won't kill you as fast compared to the first two games, but don't think it's a slow-paced game. Like the first two games, it's really fun and it plays pretty similar despite of some balance changes and technical changes of every weapon had. The game also features more customization than the second game. You can change your pads, armor, and helmet to something different or you can change your emblem. The options that the gives you is a lot of content too. Halo 3 is one of those game you will enjoy playing online because it's just done right and although it's not the most balanced shooter in the world, it's still really fun to play. You want to play this game with your buddies.
Halo 3 is a classic and a masterpiece and it's one of the reasons you should get a 360! People who bought this game won't regret it at all for its great campaign and addicting multiplayer will leave you 1000+ hours on your 360. 9/10.
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