Halo 3 – 360 – Review

While eagerly awaiting my review
copy of HALO 3, I played some more of HALO 2 to get me pumped and ready for
the third and presumably final installment of the storyline (I know, HALO Wars
comes out next year, but it probably will have nothing to do with the
story). And I got to thinking, what makes the Master Chief such an endearing
and well-created character. And it dawned on me, that the Master Chief is
everything that we, as people (me as a father), should be. He is brave, always
calm, knows what to do no matter the situation, and if you recall at the end
of HALO 2, The Chief makes a promise to Cortana, and the man always keeps his
word.

HALO 3 is now upon us and like all
good things, it seemed it took too long to get here. The last game left many
gamers upset and wanting more with its cliff-hanger ending and curveball
surprises in the form of the Arbiter. Are there surprises in this final
chapter? Well, yes, and like a good reviewer I am not going to mention them.
Half the fun of this game is the fact that it plays out like a major motion
picture. In fact, this game is about as close as it gets for most of us, in
terms of starring in our own action-packed movie.

"Master Chief: the man knows how
to blow stuff up."

I wanted to actually beat this
game before writing this review, not that this is a common practice, most of
the time we reviewers only need to play the game enough to get a good idea of
what the game is about. Its faults and strengths, how it looks and sounds all
that good stuff. But with HALO 3, I really needed to know that the game comes
to a definitive conclusion. No, cliff hanger ending, no "clearly rushed"
sections of the game. I know many of us love the series, but you could tell at
the end of the first one, that the chase sequence was way too choppy for it
not to have been rushed. I can report that there was a little bit of the game
that appeared to me did not have the same glossy finish as the rest of the
title, but it only appears rarely and most won’t even notice. There is no
choppy sequences to be found.

Now, to the good stuff. Yes, the
game delivers, right out of the gate, the action starts up and never lets up.
As you may recall in the end of HALO 2, the Chief comes back to Earth in order
to stop the Prophet of Truth from activating the rings (The Halos). It is
believed that if the rings are activated, then all life in the known universe
will be snuffed out and complete Truth’s idea that by doing so he will ascend
to God status. In order to do so, Truth is unearthing a device long buried in
the African sands called the Ark. Of course, not wanting the Earth to be
turned into a big lifeless rock, the Chief and the rest of the majorly
depleted Earth forces must band together with the Arbiter and other Elites
from the second game and turn the tide of destruction. Plus, the Chief has to
do all this without the help of Cortana, his steadfast assistant who was lost
in HALO 2 to the Gravemind, the leader of the Flood and all things gross.

"Next on ‘Pimp my ride’ we turn the
Chief’s classic 74′ bronco into something a bit more rugged."

Graphically, you can’t deny that
HALO 3 is at the top of the heap. The environments do not disappoint; the
water effects, the green lush jungle, futuristic structures, and other areas
are all rendered very smoothly and give the impression of not only
authenticity, but also a weathered and war-beaten look in some cases.
Stumbling into an already started battle, vehicles are left burnt out and
destroyed, buildings are demolished, bodies lie everywhere, the game does a
very nice job of keeping you in the moment. Since this is the first
installment officially on the 360, Bungie used the more powerful system to
really make things pop. The explosion effects, the weapon fire, the lack of
slowdown when things get crazy on screen and some really unique and creative
sequences will keep you, as the player, very happy. I think it is important to
acknowledge that in the past games, there were times when repetitive graphics
were used. I know this was a complaint from several game sites and I can see
where they had a decent argument. Well, that does not happen in this go
around. Missions are all original and never seem to take place in the same
areas. Plus, with the addition of several new vehicles both human and Covenant
and more weapons on which to dispense justice, the new visuals just keep
coming.

Controlling this monster is more
of the same. HALO is credited for bringing the first-person shooter to the
console format correctly and Bungie and Microsoft made sure they didn’t fix
what wasn’t broken. The controls are almost identical, with some slight
modifications to accommodate the newer buttons the 360 controller has. The
bumper buttons are used to scroll through grenades and to activate
items/reload. The D-pad is used for the flashlight, which surprisingly is not
used all that much and the "X" blue button is used to activate the new and
exciting items this edition includes; like shield generators (that fancy
bubble you’ve seen in the commercial) and energy drains. The Brutes (those
simian-inspired baddies from part 2) are the main foil to your actions and
they also have their own special devices, including one that spews forth a
green healing mist. Yes, there are all sorts of wonderful new weapons and toys
to play with, chances are though, you will stick with what works for you, and
use these new toys in the multiplayer heaven Bungie has now created.

So, let’s sidestep for a second
and talk about how much more fun you are going to have now that HALO 3 is
online and ready to rock. For starters, there are 11 maps with all sorts of
accoutrements for the discerning player. Some maps favor snipers, others favor
close quarters and still others take advantage of both. The point is, they are
a nice set of varied battlegrounds and even come complete with a nifty little
trick called Forge. Forge is the map editor that allows you to move things
around so to keep things fresh. You can’t radically change the landscape, but
you can augment spawn points, weapon placement and so on. If you get really
good, you can even begin adding items to the map, like vehicles. MS has also
promised more maps for the future that will be available for download and with
the coming of "HALO Wars" next year, I seriously doubt that any of us will be jonesing for something new afterwards. It’s a good day to be an Xbox 360
owner.

"Shooting the Arbiter will not gain you
any favors."

If there is one thing that gets me
pumped to play, it is that darn orchestral music. It’s got hero written all
over it and the low pulls on the strings gets me so fired up to go kick some
butt, I honestly think it helped me through some of the game’s tougher parts.
Yes, the sound in HALO 3 is phenomenal. From the concussive blasts of bringing
down a large vehicle to the perfect voicework done by all of the cast. Steve
Downes is the voice of the Master Chief and I will say, that if they ever do
make a HALO movie, hire some stunt guy to wear the suit and have Downes do the
voice-over work. He has such an awesome baritone voice and says everything
with such conviction, I couldn’t imagine it done any better. The same can be
said of Keith David – he voices the Arbiter and I am convinced some of the
other characters, and Jen Taylor as Cortana … wow, this is the way voice
acting in a video game is done. My hats off to the folks at MS studios for
coming up with some great dialogue and sticking with the same voices
throughout the series. Well done.

A few other things you should know
about the game. The normal setting is a bit too easy for players who have been
going at it online for the last few years; you may want to play on either
heroic or legendary and I can confirm that there is a different ending when
played on legendary as opposed to normal. Want to know what really happens at
the end, you have to play the tougher game. This being said, the game’s A.I.
is really ramped up when you play on heroic or legendary. The Brutes employ an
awful lot more tactics when this is changed and you will find it to your
liking if you appreciate a challenge. As far as the marines and the Arbiter
who run with you at various points of the game, their A.I. isn’t quite as
dialed in as I would have thought. Marines run out into enemy fire and even
the Arbiter, who is supposed to be the equivalent of the Elites, will often
stand around getting his darn fool head shot off when cover is clearly
available. I know, I am picking at breadcrumbs here, but I was hoping to get
more support from a group of people desperately trying to save the planet and
not Gomer Pyle USMC.

"Not these guys again!"

Now I will tell you this, the game
is all the Chief, all the time. There is no crazy dual-story, dual-character
thing happening, and to be honest with you, I liked it this way. However, I
did think that the storyline dropped the ball by not giving enough thought to
the Arbiter’s storyline that was pretty carefully laid out in the last
installment. Again, you won’t be disappointed by the ending, but as a player
who wants all his things tied up in the end, I thought they sort of lame
ducked the Arbiter’s side of things.

Gameplay: 9.7
It is as smooth as ever. Vehicles, the Chief, they are all old
friends and everything works out so fine.

Graphics: 9.7
Lush, varied and really well put
together. The end sequence is as crazy as a hen house filled with fireworks
and you love every second of it.

Sound: 10
The complete use of digital
surround sound, the perfect voice acting, the choice of dialogue the
explosions, the whirrrr of machinery, the beauty of it all, this is perfect
sound.

Difficulty: Medium
Like I said, if you know what you
are doing, you need to ramp up the difficulty to make this a real challenge.
The single-player campaign can be beaten in 5-6 hours on normal.

Concept: 9.4
It is a wonderful piece of science
fiction work that deserves all of the accolades it gets. A strong lead
character wrapped around a fantastic story.

Multiplayer: 9.8
After playing the game through a
few times, you may want to join the millions of people playing online, it is
kind of fun. Oh, who am I kidding, the online tear is a blast to play and with
all the new bells and whistles they added to the game, you may not play
anything else online for quite a while.

Overall: 9.7
I said it before and I’ll say it
again. The Xbox 360 is the system to beat. With this, Bioshock and last years
Gears of War … well, it simply does not get any better then this.