Halo 3
Reviewed on Xbox 360. Developed by Bungie. Published by Microsoft.
The fight has been finished… Until the next one comes out…
In 2004, Halo 2 came out. The sequel to 2000′s Halo: Combat Evolved was a huge smash and the killer Xbox Live app until recently. It also had a seemingly truncated single player experience that, while it avoided much of the repetition of levels from the first game, seemed to just peter out, like the first season finale of Heroes.
Halo 3 is, quite simply, the best action game on the Xbox 360. It is probably the best game on Xbox 360 and one of the best games since Bioshock (yes, but since that was the best game since 2004′s Half Life 2, it’s still saying something). Halo 3 makes Gears of War seem like a placeholder rather than a great game in its own right (which it is, but Halo 3 has raised the bar higher).
The story is fitting, and makes more sense that either of the first two games. The voice acting is great, helped by a fantastic script (even though the hero character says all of 5 lines in the whole game), it’s the ‘extras’ that bring this world alive. Graphics don’t immediately strike you as being great, but the “Halo 2 in HD” epithet fades as soon as you look closer. The human characters still have some strangely bad facial models and frankly appalling animation in the cinematics, but the aliens, vehicles, environments and props look fantastic, with a draw distance most games would give their right thread to feature. The audio is another drawcard with a score that will be referenced by gamers for years to come. FX and Voice work are great, but it does seem if some of the weapons are a tad quieter than you’d expect. The game also runs with a silky smoothness- not running at 60 fps, but it never dips below a solid 30, even in Multiplayer.
Multiplayer is of course one of the Halo series main claim to fame. Even if Halo 2 single player was not as great as the original, Xbox Live Halo 2 was brilliant. Halo 3 on live, whether it be online co-op, deathmatch or team games, is sublime. Yes, you have the racist 12-year olds, but you have them in every PC shooter I’ve ever played so deal with it, and you can mute individual players easily.
Apart from the second last level of this game, i can find very little criticize. If you hate previous Halo games, Halo 3 won’t change your mind, but if you liked Halo:CE or Halo 2 at all, you will LOVE this.
I can’t recommend this game enough. The worst part is trying to work out what to play next!
C1 Rating: 3/3
