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| COMING FULL CIRCLE |
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 lmost two years after the Xbox 360’s release, Microsoft’s marquee franchise finally comes home. With a satisfying campaign closure to the series’ epic story arc, unprecedented multiplayer options, an innovative video recording feature, and heretofore unseen console mod tools, Halo 3 lives up to every bit of its ever-expanding reputation. However, a few small disappointments chip away at the game’s shot at perfection.
Every enemy type from the first two Halo games returns here smarter than ever, especially on Legendary difficulty. Since Elites are now your friends (the Arbiter and two generic Elites fill out a four-player co-op team), you won’t be fighting this classic enemy. Brutes do take on some Elite traits, like cloaking and their own answer to the Plasma Sword – a Gravity Hammer. However, an advanced form of a certain enemy group near the end proves to be the most challenging adversary.
Almost all of the old weapons are back (assault rifle ftw!) in addition to more new guns than ever. I especially like the detachable turrets, even if they do slow you down a little. A new power-up slot spices up the traditional melee, guns, and grenades mix. The Mongoose and Chopper complement previous Halo vehicles well, but the best addition is a powerful UNSC answer to the Banshee.
Halo 3’s multiplayer has really outdone itself this time. Countless modes and variants always keep the 11 maps fresh. In addition to standard modes like capture the flag, deathmatch, and king of the hill, several new creative modes abound – an especially cool one makes 25 percent of players “zombies” with plasma swords who must “infect” the remaining players.
The Forge is basically “modding lite” and makes the already expansive multiplayer even more unlimited. At any time during these unranked matches players can turn into a Monitor and add, move, or remove any object in the game. This can be a collaborative creation process, or you can have just one person with editing capabilities serve as a multiplayer DM of sorts. Think of what can happen during a heated battle when the editor decides to drop a Scorpion tank right in the middle of the fray.
Four-player co-op is fun as hell. Playing on Legendary is definitely a must, but even this extreme single-player challenge is severely watered down when you introduce other players. There’s also an unlockable campaign scoring system based on kills, headshots, and difficulty setting that can be enacted in single player and co-op. Online leaderboards provide a great incentive to come back to the campaign again and again like never before.
I also really dug the new Theater feature. It basically auto saves your last 25 campaign levels or multiplayer matches and allows you to watch them from any player perspective or from a floating camera, edit clips, take screens, and send them through Xbox Live. After playing around with this you’ll want it in every game.
However, Halo 3 does have a few small problems that are primarily located in the campaign. First off, full on boss battles are noticeably absent. Sure, you’ll fight a few massive enemies, but none of them really feel like a true boss. And the last major fight is more like a quick interactive cutscene than a knock-down, drag-out fight. This is especially disappointing because there is one obvious candidate Bungie could have used and didn’t. Also, there is plenty of trudging back and forth through the same environments in addition to the whole “Okay, we deactivated this tower. Now let’s take care of the next one with the exact same layout.” There are a few other nitpicky issues I have, but these are all relatively minor when you look at the big picture.
Overall, Bungie has crafted another masterpiece that serves as a fitting end to the trilogy (no big cliffhanger here). Of course, not every mystery of the Halo universe is answered, but it does look like the next game is moving in a very interesting direction. Until next time, Chief!
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1,500 miles from my own bed, and tired from jetlag and the marathon gaming sessions that have kept me up past 2 a.m. the last couple days, I’m fueled by Mountain Dew, my eyes are bloodshot, and I’m beginning to get a headache. And I don’t care. Because the only thing I can think about is that I have to wait two whole weeks before I can get my hands on this game again. Halo 3’s multiplayer hits a new benchmark. It’s hard to feel that the game hasn’t lived up to the hype with its arsenal of new weapons, well-balanced environments, and sea of customizable options. Even so, Halo 3 offers up so many other rich experiences that it’s easy to forget about deathmatch and CTF while you’re altering the level in the new Forge or editing your game videos. About the only knock I can give this game is that the single player hasn’t evolved much since the series’ inception. You’ll occasionally get lost running the wrong way in one of the repeated environments. Bungie’s storytelling hasn’t changed much either, so you’ll probably find yourself in one of two camps either devotedly absorbed by Halo 3’s plot or wondering why other people are so devotedly absorbed by Halo 3’s plot. But these complaints are pretty nitpicky, because Halo 3 is so goodthey could probably charge people a $130 and it would still sell. |
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9.75 |
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| CONCEPT: |
| Somehow live up to the hype of Halo in the series’ first next-gen outing |
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| GRAPHICS: |
| Vehicles, enemies, and most environments look fantastic, but human faces and some textures are just plain embarrassing |
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| SOUND: |
| There’s nothing like hearing Halo’s signature “da-da-da-duuum” as you rush into a squad of brutes |
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| PLAYABILITY: |
| Some of the tightest console FPS controls in the biz |
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| ENTERTAINMENT: |
| Deep feature set will keep multiplayer and campaign fans alike playing well into 2008 and beyond |
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