Halo 3 – Can any game really live up to this kind of hype?

How do you review a game like Halo 3? This is easily one of the most hyped games that I’ve ever seen and it has loads of raving fans proclaiming the game as the second coming yet I’ve never been a huge fan of the Halo series. I played most of the way through Halo and enjoyed the single player and completely skipped the campaign for Halo 2 and only played a small amount of the multiplayer. I had originally told myself I wasn’t going to touch Halo 3 and I was just going to ignore every 360 owner I knew (because they all got Halo 3 as soon as it was officially released). Finally after a few days of them constantly telling me about how much fun the multiplayer was and informing me there was a zombie game type I finally made myself give in to the monster that was Halo 3.

Traditionally I’m not a fan of console FPS games, especially after playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition but I do admit that Halo has a particular charm about it. The graphical improvement doesn’t mean much to me and the gameplay felt pretty much the same but all in all, I still had fun with the multiplayer. Even after making it through the single and co-op I still had fun with the game. While Halo 3 may not be the most original game ever, it does build upon the great gameplay that was founded in the previous two games and improves slightly were possible.

Presentation – 10

One of the things that impressed me the most about Halo 3 wasn’t its strong gameplay; it was its high degree of polish. Just about every game I play these days either ships with very noticeable and disturbing bugs or annoying frame rate problems. As far as I saw Halo 3 had neither of these and that is impressive.

It is easy to tell that Bungie allowed for a large amount of polish time in this game and that is one of the reasons Halo 3 truly shines. Halo 3 has the player playing through massive battles that has the player fighting a very large and impressive amount of enemies at once and the frame rate never suffers, the environments are large and show a large amount of area and they look wonderful, and the game offers a decent length campaign with no noticeable bugs. As I said it once and I’ll say it again, this is a very impressive feat. If I was in the habit of wearing hats it would go off to Bungie for this marvel.

Graphics – 8.8

For more than a month I have seen many flame wars with the topic being Halo 3’s graphics. I admit that some of the screenshots I saw were bad while others I saw were simply amazing. After seeing the game for myself, single player and multiplayer, I must say that the graphics are not bad. For the most part they aren’t the most amazing thing ever but they are by no means at all bad and more importantly, the framerate never suffers from these pleasing graphics.

By far the best looking areas in Halo 3 are the outside areas. The game starts the player off in a lush forest that is simply awe inspiring. The area feels completely natural and is just wonderful. Everything is very organic and it just really makes the player feel as though they are walking through that space. Even the more barren places like the desert and snow filled areas just feel right. Everything looks like it should be placed there and doesn’t make the player think that whatever particular rock wasn’t placed there purely for cover.

The next major area that the players finds themselves are the Flood infested areas. While there aren’t many of these areas they do have a nice feeling to them. The mixture of the living Flood environment with the ship environments works very well. If that wasn’t enough, these areas also have a fog/particle effect that makes the player feel as though they are walking through a Petri dish of sorts. It was also nice to see the environments pulsate with life as though you’re walking inside some sort of large living organism. While I wasn’t always happy with the lighting in these areas, all in all these were very nicely done.

The last major areas that the player finds themselves in are the ship and installation areas. It’s sad that so much care and attention was given to the outside and Flood areas while these areas almost feel as though they were completely overlooked. These areas have minimal prop placement with boring textures and it just makes these areas suffer. It was just so jarring coming from these fantastic outside areas into these very boring inside areas where one room looked exactly like the others. Sadly, these areas really show laziness on someone’s part and it just completely ruins the feeling the player gets from the previous two areas. Everything about these areas just screams lazy and the game suffers because of it.

Sound – 9.5

One of the other things that really impressed me about Halo 3 was the spectacular sound. Every character from the highest ranking generals to the peon infantry soldiers had a life of their own. On top of that the score for this game was beautiful.

Each character, friendly and enemy, had at least dozens of lines of dialogue associated with them for every situation that really made the AI feel like they were part of the world. Whenever Master Chief died you could hear enemies yell I got him! I got the demon! to when you entered the Warthog and friendly AI yell shotgun! the voice acting and attention to detail in this area was just very well done.

If that wasn’t enough the game offers a wonderful soundtrack that changes depending on what the player was doing. Every piece of music fits the atmosphere perfectly and really drives the player to keep moving forward. What really impressed me was how the music was driving me while fighting and as soon as I finished off the last enemy it suddenly slowed but still felt like the exact same piece. The context sensitive music like that is something I’ve wanted to see for a while and this game just does it very well.

Gameplay – 8.2

Halo 3 is a hard game for me to judge on gameplay because I value the single player and co-op experience much more than the multiplayer experience but Halo 3 works because of a great multiplayer experience and well designed base gameplay. That said, I feel it’s best just to look at the core rules and touch on the campaign and multiplayer.

Halo did a great thing when it was first released on the Xbox by proving that FPS games can work well on consoles, be accessible by more than four people, and brought us a very interesting health system. Halo 2 improved on that experience by making the game even more accessible and adding interesting things like duel wielding and more weapons. While people weren’t happy with the single player campaign, it still can’t be denied that the improvements on the multiplayer moved things forward for the series. With Halo 3, it made minor improvements on the series, but it really didn’t bring much new other than equipment. All in all, this just felt like the same game we’ve been playing for years with a few skin.

I’m not saying the gameplay is bad, far from it, it’s very solid and very balanced but it’s not anything new or stunning. It’s more or less minor improvements on what has already been done before. While I do like the gameplay, I can’t give high very high marks because it doesn’t do much at all new.

While the base gameplay hasn’t changed much, the game does offer an impressive multiplayer. With plenty of game modes out of the box and the ability to make your own game modes and maps, the multiplayer for Halo 3 is exactly what one would expect from the Halo series. That said, I still get the feeling this has all been done before. Other than the user created game types, I’ve been playing this stuff for the past 10 years. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it’s just the safe thing.

With the single player campaign, it’s one of the few things about Halo 3 that didn’t impress me. While I had a lot of fun with some of the parts, I had serious problems and even hated a few parts of the campaign. Once I figured out how to deal with the horrible vehicle AI, I had a blast on the vehicle levels (well, maybe except the last one but that’s another story). There were also quite a few gun fights that were a lot of fun and will even stick out in my mind as some of the more memorable gun fights in video game history. That being said, while the levels were completely linear, they were also pretty confusing. I will admit that this is an amazing feat but not necessarily a good one.

There were quite a few times that I found myself completely lost in the game. I think part of it had to due with the fact that every area, especially the inside areas, look exactly the same and the path just wasn’t always very well highlighted for the player. I found myself many times letting the AI drive my vehicle or trying to follow the Arbiter just so I could get an idea where I was suppose to go. Just for the record, I shouldn’t have to rely on the AI like that to know where I’m supposed to go like that in an action game. It’s just poor design and the game suffers for it.

My other problem with the game is that some of the levels were just bad. While I had some of the most fun moments in gaming on some of the sections, I had entire levels that just felt like torture. To make things worse, some of these levels were just very hard and frustrating. The only thing that actually kept me going forward was that I wanted the achievements. I won’t go into details about the level here since I don’t like posting spoilers in my reviews (I’ll post them after this), but some of the levels in this game were just bad. They were frustrating because they were just so much harder than everything else, I would constantly get lost, sometimes I wouldn’t know what exactly I’m supposed to do, and they just weren’t fun.

All that being said, Halo 3 is a fun game. While the multiplayer doesn’t offer much new and isn’t revolutionary it’s still fun. The campaign is also a pretty good time despite its flaws. Still though, Halo 3 may be a good game, it just doesn’t offer much at all new gameplay wise, doesn’t offer much that is impressive, and even has some serious flaws in its level design.

Lasting Appeal – 9.4

If you’re like me, you’ll play through the campaign once and have a good time with it. Hardcore fans and achievement whores will play through it more times to find all the skulls and beat the different difficulties but the game really doesn’t offer much in its campaign to play more than once and have the same amount of fun. What it does offer is a fantastic multiplayer that people will still be playing until Halo 4 or the next great multiplayer FPS game on the 360 is released.

The multiplayer experience is really where Halo 3 shines and is where people will be spending years playing. It’s impressive enough to know that Halo 2 was going strong until Halo 3 was released and it’s not hard to see that Halo 3 will be played until the 360 dies, a better FPS shooter is released that is more hyped than Halo 3, or Halo 4 is released.

Overall – 8.9

All in all, Halo 3 is a good game that builds upon what has already been done and tries to do it better. Sadly, the fact it doesn’t offer much new gameplay wise and the lacking campaign doesn’t bring it up to those truly great titles. Now, before you start flaming this review, sending me hate messages, threaten to devour my bones and so on, I’m not saying Halo 3 isn’t a good game, it’s a great game, it has just all been done before. Halo 3 offers very solid and balanced gameplay that is also very highly polished. I’m sure that just about every 360 owner reading this already has Halo 3, but if you’re one of the few that don’t, go ahead and give this game a try. It’s a pleasant experience that you just might enjoy.

A very well written review twesterm. Thanks. *hands you a flame shield.* Prepare to be destroyed for your opinions and score, despite explaining your scoring very well. I haven't played enough of it to review but I do enjoy the multiplayer a lot.

A solid review. Although I think lasting appeal should perhaps be a bit higher, particularly if players will be playing this consistently until Halo 4. But that is a small nit pick.

The Halo campaigns are the single most boring thing you can experience in a videogame.

There, I said it.

But Xbox Live is hella fun. Team Slayer? Tits, I say.

@MontanaHatchet "The Halo campaigns are the single most boring thing you can experience in a videogame."

Me and many other people would have to disagree with you, i have played each story mode over 10 times for Halo1 and Halo2 each. Those are completed plays of the whole story mode. While me and my friends have played countless hours of the co-op mode.


@twesterm, before i read your review is their any spoilers in it? I have not played the game let and don't want it wrecked for me. If i may ask what TV and sound system are you playing the game on? Is it 720p and 5.1?

Have you played MP3 and if so how do you feel the two compete against each other, based on all areas of the game.

Are you more of a PC gamer or console gamer, do you play single player games more or Online type games more. Do you like FPS or RPGs more. I just want to get a feel of were this review is coming from.

Thanks again for the long write up :)

Twestern, did you try the campaign in 4-player co-op?

Not nearly as much as I would have liked to. It was fun and kind of neat, but it was just easy. honestly don't remember the difficulty I was playing on but I *believe* it was heroic.

No spoilers, I generally try to specifically avoid those when writing the reviews, though I was going to post a few of my complaints about the level design a bit later when I have the time to write those (I was a little too tired last night).

I have played MP3 but I'm still nowhere close to beating it. Every time I get some time to play it something comes up and I have to put it down. That being said, I like MP3 better. The design is better, I personally like the look better, and I just haven't played a console FPS that controls better than that game.  I played both on those on an HDTV with 5.1 sound.

As for my tastes, I generally like PC FPS games better just because I'm not great with duel analog sticks though I wouldn't be upset with more games controlled like MP3. My genre preference is generally RPG and Action/Adventure type of games. I'm not a huge fan of FPS games and I only decided to play Halo 3 because I have a lot of real life friends to play with. Also, I just like single player much more than multiplayer games. I'm just funny like that.

Also, I should add before people bitch about the scores: I consider an 8 a good score and anything above an 8 as a good game. Anything above am 8.5 is a really good game and something above a 9 is just an absolutely excellent game. Don't be upset with an 8.2 gameplay and an 8.9 overall-- that's still a really good score.

I honestly wasn't going to buy Halo 3 when I get a 360 until I played it. Like you I have never cared for console FPS games much and I didn't ever particularly enjoy the single player in Halo and Halo 2. However, after spending many hours playing the multiplayer with my friends it's definitely a purchase for me. I'm not sure what I would rate it at this point. I don't feel comfortable reviewing it since I never played single player. However, I can say with confidence that it is a fun and polished game with a great multiplayer. I won't compare it to MP3 because the only thing I played in MP3 was singleplayer and the only thing I played in Halo 3 was multiplayer.

I agree on graphics not stunning but I would say a 9 would be better (looks way better than MP3), but I agree its not close to gears of war. Gameplay, I disagree, I understand that you don't like FPS but for me it was one of the best video game expirences in a long time, fun, fast and very very difficult (play it on legendary) over 20 hours for me (I know I'm not the best Halo player), but legendary is tough.
On the lasting appeal for me its a big 10, I already beat it on normal and about to beat it on legendary, playing online coop multiplayer team slayer its great, so many things to do, not enough time.
Just my side of the story, you have to know that FPS is what I really like, that and sports and racing.

Actually I find his review to be rated a bit high ^^; Now before anyone goes off and calls me a fanboi let me be honest, I have access to all 3 consoles and I have games that I love on each :P I find myself a huge Sony fan yes, but thats only because I'm a die-hard fan of hardware :3 Anyway....

Halo isn't bad by any means!!! (just getting that out of the way)  here were a few probs I ran into.

1.) Is it me, or did this game have TONS of graphical errors, playing through I've seen numerous brutes fly right through crates, when piloting the Tank I've hit a ton of "snags" wheren I had to make a snails pace manuever around, there was a scene in one of the warehouse locations where some debris falls, shortly after I killed this giant (forgive me I don't know the halo enemies ;-; ) and as his body fell it went right through (like 0 collision detection) and these didn't just happen once, I've been spotting this throughout the whole game.

2.)Hit response and collision detection. I simply don't know whats going on with grenades or bullets sometimes! I've tossed a grenade into a pack of guys and emptied the fuel rod gun into multipe clusters of people and I find that 80 percent of the time it registers splash damage. o.O sometimes a grenade will go off and it has little to NO impact. Yet I've attatched on to an enemy and it deals full impact to him and his nearby's, if they stick to an enemy I always get full impact, but my problem seems to be the splash damage. Then with the fuel rod its rare that they ever react to AOE, like almost to the point that I'm going to ask if it does have AOE?

Whats the deal with bullets? I've hit every part of the body on brutes and the little guys :3 and all I ever seem to get are those "shove effects" where the flinch a little if I'm lucky, Yes I understand that their wearing armor, but MAN does it make my gun feel weak. MAJOR ISSUE, the shotgun!!!! WTF, talk about a fickle weapon, I simply stopped picking it up, the range on that thing fluxuates like no other! I've had a decent shot from a good 15 or so feet, then I've had HORRID shots point blank that just have NO impact.. I just don't get it ;-;

Impact and master chief. I've been hit by explosives on the other side of the obstacle I happen to be covering agasint such as crates, walls, highway cement rail, etc. On numerous occasions. I've had enemy's with gravity hammers hit me by swinging through walls, I had the Scarrab(?) miss me by like 10 feet and kill me XD by stepping on me with the jedi force trick apparently :D

3.) Audio. My BIGGEST gripe with this game is its audio, the musical score was pretty cool sometimes, (I've found it a little overwhelming at times when npc's attempt to speak to me) but overall a great soundtrack, my problem however are the weapon sound effects and the enemy voices >< about an hour into the game I could have SWORN that the enemy's were copying the dialogue from Killzone 1!!!! I was hearing those muffled screams that the hellghast's gave out and it was almost disturbing!!! THE GUNS WTF!!! I was running around sniping people with my semi-rifle? ( sorry don't speak halo ;-; ) and I thought the gun sounded significanly under-powered (which fit with my earlier nags on response) and then I saw a turret, mmmmmm turrets, I LOVE TURRETS. So I go to man this turret, and MUCH TO MY DISMAY, it sounded weaker than my handheld!! Keep in mind this is the ONLY game I've played thats done this to me!

4.) Story. Not going to give away any more spoilers than I already have (I'm sorry >< ) but man with god of war being one of my favorite franchises I was expecting something a little more epic XD

5.) Multi-player. Keep in mind I've played MANY fps's some of my favorites being Tribes and Unreal for the PC, golden-eye, perfect dark, timesplitters future perfect and Resistance fall of man on console. I found Halo's multi to be ENTIRELY 1 dimensional. Like it was fun raping my friends and stuff, but wow does it get old ;-; again maybe I'm the odd man out, but I saw 10/10's like EVERYWHERE and man can I say I was dissapointed :( 

I don't find halo bad in the least though! Its DEFINATELY got some flaws, but you really can look past them in this game (for the most part, audio still leaving awefull taste >< ) but man is this game average! I can at most give this game a 7.5 out of 10. And the flaws can't be my disk! (my friend had to buy 2 copies, our first one got a beautiful ring etched into it when one of our cats colided with the 360 >_>) but both copies had these aformentioned flaws. :(

Sorry for the poor paragraph structure but thats my 2 cents ;-;