HALO 3 WALK THROUGH and FAQ
Game Review
The story begins with Master Chief falling an incredible distance back to Earth (in typical Chief fashion). Sergeant Johnson and a squad of Marines find you in the jungle, mangled and locked inside your MJOLNIR armor. Just as they are about to carry you away, you rise and grab your assault rifle. From where, exactly, did you jump? Did you read the (as of now) unfinished comic series covering the time between Halo 2 and 3? Even if you did, the story is still sub-par. Odd, considering the previous two titles carried such compelling plots. Even Halo 2, while having one of the most disappointing endings in gaming history, was able to start afresh after Halo: Combat Evolved cut off its small story arc within the trilogy. This is what hurts Halo 3 most. Newcomers to the series with no Halo experience will be lost within the game. Most missions coincide with typical Halo protocol, but there’s just something a bit off kilter with this one. Throughout the game, you’ll be forced to slow down as images of Cortana speak to you. Some parts are rehashes of the original E3 trailer but most of it is new. In a game that’s dependent upon its fast pace, this completely screws gameplay. Granted, it won’t do it mid-battle, but it’s still a shoe-horned plot device that wasn’t thought-out. We’re supposed to find it mysterious and compelling, but it fails every time. Stopping the Prophet of Truth from finding the Ark is still your main priority. Should he find the Ark, he'll be able to activate all the Halos, thus ending all life. Because that was set up in Halo 2, the story feels more like a limb than a fully formed entity--which is the result of the focus on "finishing the fight," rather than deepening the Halo lore and taking us in new directions. It's not necessarily a bad thing, as Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill proved (it was originally meant to be one long film). But even with its preset place in the trilogy, Halo 3 doesn't fall in line in a compelling way, and it hurts the game in the end. The culmination of cutscenes and Cortana inserts makes for a mediocre story telling device. And the all-important ending seems more like a cop-out. It isn’t horrendous, but we sure as hell deserve better. It's an appropiate ending--but also just enough to get by, rather than impress us.
Throughout the game, you will be able to find terminals to access. Accessing a terminal shows you coded information that provides a backstory to other battles. It is a nod to Bungie’s older Marathon series and quite the unnecessary one as it doesn’t fit the Halo world at all. Skulls are available to pick up as well and can be activated when going back into the game. The metagame scoring varies between difficulties. There isn't much of a point to it other than another competitive element to add to the game; which, we suppose, is just fine by some.
One thing that’s still fresh in this third installment is the gameplay itself. It’s much smoother and more streamlined than in the previous titles. There's more of a super soldier feeling with your controls (you can also tell now that you are clearly taller than everybody else). Weapons are balanced well and nothing seems to be too far off from their beta counterparts. The Brute Spiker was toned down just a notch, and Needler effects are much more blatant this time; when you pump them full of needles, it will send them flying off. Sword lovers may find its visual placement to be slightly irritating. Instead of being down in the corner, it now obstructs half of the screen and doesn’t work any better. The newly introduced Brute Hammer works great and provides an appropriately small delay as you get ready to swing. The vehicles received a major upgrade since the beta--driving a mongoose is much easier and faster to pick up on and the Warthog is as fun as ever. New to the mix are the Hornet (the UNSC’s answer to the Banshee), Brute Chopper (similar to a Ghost), and the Prowler (similar to Halo 2’s Spectre). All three handle well, but the Chopper and Hornet can prove to be finicky at times.
Halo 3’s AI was a major selling point for Bungie during the development process and the final product turned out a bit different from what was promised. Your soldiers are much more effective this time around, and they won’t get themselves killed before you fire a shot, which was great to finally witness. Enemy AI, which is supposed to react differently almost every time, didn’t. The only way we got them to react differently was when we knocked off a Brute’s armor, egging him on to hunt us down. On a positive note, it is somewhat exciting to see a Brute knock everything out of the way to get to you. They’ll also climb around and dive to avoid death, which is more obvious on higher difficulties.
But what would Halo be without great multiplayer? It’s the main element that has kept Halo 2 in the competition for so long. And the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude has served Halo 3 well. Still, there are plenty of new additions and it can become a haven for custom-gametype fiends. There are 12 maps shipping and all of them are balanced well. Some are meant for up close and personal combat, while others (like Sandtrap) are meant for vehicular combat. The Elephant was a bit of a let down for us. It is easily susceptible to being flanked should you stop paying attention—or if you just aren’t that good. But if it is used properly, it should serve well. There are plenty of gametypes available and room for vast numbers of custom game variants. Armor variants are bountiful as well--there are about 10 different styles in terms of helmets, but it can go down as far as 6 for others. Close Quarters Battle armor is available from the start, but beating the game, accessing terminals, and ranking up will unlock the others. Females can rejoice now that you can create your Spartan with a female voice during deaths. A moment of silence for equal rights in the virtual world.
As for the Forge and Saved Films, they are nice features that will add months of lasting value to the game. If you are still unclear about what the Forge is exactly, it's an editing tool used to shift around items on a multiplayer map, as well as add more items. It is not used to create maps from scratch. Controlling the editing isn’t tricky. You simply grasp an object, take it to the desired area, and drop it down. You can do this with vehicles, weapons, boxes, spawn points, and so on. It's a whole new terrain for online customization on a console, and will surely give birth to some sly cheats and fight strategies. If you wanted to have multiple Warthogs spawn on top of the map, you can. If you want to flip into the hovering editing mode and fly your teammate around a level, you can do that too. You can only use these map edits in custom games, though, and you’ll be able to view and download others maps as the whole system is very well integrated with the Bungie website. Saved films are also connected with Bungie.net but are not available to view on the site. You can edit films from both campaign and multiplayer, creating montages and screenshots. It’s great if you’re in to this sort of thing and it will surely become the community’s way of showing off their 1337 (s)kills to each other. YouTube's thunder has been swiped as of late by games like skate and Halo 3, with development teams smart enough to know what their fans want and need.
Halo 3’s graphics were a major concern long before the game was officially announced. One would think that Microsoft’s cash cow would have the best graphics, whether Bungie liked it or not. (And why wouldn’t they like it to?) During the beta, there were major complaints in between praise. The final product…looks like standard Xbox 360 material. Some things look really great, but for the most part everything pales in comparison to a game like BioShock or Gears of War. Visually, it’s not Halo 2.5 but rather Halo 2.75. Master Chief is appropriately the best looking render in the environment, and there are some elements later on in the game which look amazing, but on the whole, we were not impressed. When you are playing local co-op, the game takes a major hit, similar to Rainbow Six Vegas. The sound is very well done, as it usually is, but suffers from some poor voice acting. We also found some issues when you first meet the Covenant. The music is great for the most part, but gets recycled a bit too often. It’s a shame that a series with such an initially compelling score has put its soundtrack a bit on the backburner.
So is it any big surprise that Halo 3 isn’t able to live up to the insane expectations? Not really. It’s still worth the buy, if only for the multiplayer and to finish the story already. The story just isn’t put-together well enough, the graphics are disappointing, and the levels have you constantly running back and forth. Yes, if all of these things were rectified, the game would be spectacular. But they’re not, and that wouldn’t be the same game, would it? Instead, we have a flawed game that doesn’t fully deliver, but still rocks some of the best multiplayer ever invented. We know you’ll probably buy it anyway, so you might as well go find out for yourself.
HALO 3 WALK THROUGH and FAQ
