Halo 3 may look like Halo 2 on the surface. But some small additions, make it one of the best games of the year.
If you've played Halo before, you know what to expect in the gameplay. The great gameplay elements are still all there. The memorable moments, the floaty jumps, and the great weapons, and all the sci-fi action you could want. But Bungie hasn't just copied Halo 2 and but in on the next-gen, they made some suttle changes that could improve your experience with the game.
First off, there are a couple of new weapons in the game. First off, the spiker is a sub-machine gun that is used by the Brutes. It's a powerful gun that when up close with an enemy, can do a lot of damage, and can be dual wielded with any other weapon much like the sub-machine gun used by the humans. Then maybe the most entertaining weapon that has been added is the gravity hammer. Practically taking the energy sword to the next level, the gravity hammer is another melee weapon that is used by the Brutes. So what is different? Well unlike the energy sword, the hammer has a larger area of effect and effects other enemies around them, and when you hit a brute, you send them flying. It is definitely one of the best new weapons in the game. But probably the best new weapon in this game is the mauler. The mauler is like the shotgun, but it is smaller, and can be dual wielded. If you put two shotguns together, that is what you get with two maulers. It is one of the best weapons in the game, and makes the game a little bit better then it was.
So along with the new weapons, there are a lot more vehicles that have been added to the game. Since the Brutes are the ones you are fighting, they have a couple of vehicles. They have a brute chopper, which acts like a motorcycle, but is a little stronger than the ghost. You'll find it hard to control at first, but it is one of the coolest vehicles in the game. The prowler is another Brute vehicle that is much like the spectre from Halo 2 (which has gone missing in this game), but it more like a transportation killing machine than the spectre did. All in all it feels better than the spectre. Also along with that, the humans have a couple of new vehicles up their sleeve as well. Although there is another addition to the warthog which isn't that big (i.e. a warthog with no turret, but it's a transport), the hornet is the aerial vehicle of the human. Although it is long overdue for the humans to get in the air, the hornet will quench that thirst for the humans. It is different than the banshee since it acts more like a helicopter than a plane. It has some interesting controls, but works great for aerial combat situations. It provides a solid match-up for the banshee, and is a cool addition.
There is another vehicle that you won't be able to play with in the campaign, but in the sandtrap multiplayer map, you'll be able to use a new vehicle called the elephant. It is a mobile base and carries a mongoose, as well as two turrets on the front and side. This is a very slow moving vehicle, but it is a terrible thing to deal with if your the enemy.
So besides some things being added to the gameplay, the story plays a huge part in the game. As left off in the last game, you'll land on earth to help finish the fight against the covenant. You must stop the prophet Truth before he fires off the halo's and destroys the galaxy. This story you'll see feels much more cinematic, in the way the cut-scenes are done, overall the game itself feels like an interactive movie. This is something that the previous Halo's weren't exactly able to do, which makes this game better in that sense.
The graphics in the game are pretty solid for 360 standards, and you'll be traveling to many environments. These environments range from mechanical, snow, jungle, desert, and some other cool environments. Master chief doesn't look much different than what he looked like in Halo 2, although you'll notice that there is a lot of light effects on the chief. You'll notice instead that some of the characters look different, but it isn't in a bad way.
So of course as you know what made Halo 2 one of the best games is the online multiplayer. Not much has changed, and the matchmaking is done pretty much the same way. It is still easy to get a party set up online to play some matches. But they've added some new additions to the online play that make it a lot better than how it was before. For example you can now play the campaign online with up to 4 people. You can still do 2-player split screen locally, but the 4 player co-op will allow to get through those levels on hard difficulties, or just to show your friends something cool in the level. Overall it is a key addition to the Halo online system.
Then also with the online is a new mode called the forge mode. Looking at it from the surface, it could be taken as a bland map editor. As you can't exactly edit the whole geometry of the map, you can move around objects, spawn objects, and move spawn points. If you really put your mind to it, you can make some cool/comical creations. Such as putting a mongoose on top of some fusion coils and watch it fly. That's the simplest you can do, you can also create map variants for custom games.
So when you create those custom games. You can send them to bungie.net and share them with some other players. Along with those map variants, you can use the new re-play feature in Halo, and you'll have films from previously played things, such as the campaign, multiplayer, or anything you preform in forge mode. It is a very cool way to share some cool things with everyone online. Although you can preform this stuff with your friends, and you can share files with them. It is a cool way to share content.
So overall, Halo 3 on the surface looks like Halo 2 on the 360. But with all the small new additions, it does make it the ultimate Halo experience that everyone was hoping for. It has shaped into one of the best games of the year, and if you have a 360, you need to get this game.