Holy Crap. Amazing. Epic. Need I say more? Well, I guess I do, this is a review, not a comment.
***DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T BEATEN THE GAME*** (BUT IT'S STILL OKAY IF YOU ONLY CARE ABOUT MULTI-PLAYER)
Amazing.
Epic. It really is, I don't care what you think, if you like your Playstation a bit too much and decide to give this game 1, do it, it won't change anything, this is one of the best reviewed games ever released.
Am I overrating this game?
The answer? No.
I'll start with this: This is the trilogy that brought FPS's to the consoles, Goldeneye? Yes, that helped, it lit the fuse, all that was needed was time, time to get to the the bomb.
What was that bomb? Halo.
You would never have had Half-Life on an Xbox, no Bioshock, no GRAW, no Gears of War (Technically not an FPS, but still), you probably wouldn't have ever heard of an Xbox 360, the original Xbox would have died on it's first try if it wasn't for Halo.
Never, ever say that we never needed Halo.
Never.
Yes, somebody would have figured it out eventually, but Bungie was first, so they get credit.
Now that I'm done with that I'll talk about gameplay. Is there anything to really say? Something you don't already know? No? Well I'll just have to repeat it all again, as if Halo: Combat Evolved had just been released.
This game has some of the most crisp, responsive controls on a console, some may think that there are better controls on a PC, and I'm not disagreeing with those people, that's why I said it had the best controls on a console.
The weapon selection is great, it has a lot of variety. Some may complain that some of the weapons are overpowered. They aren't, the more powerful weapons are evenly spaced around the map, the power weapons all have at least one downside. The Gravity Hammer can push you off the edge of a map if you're not careful, when two people swing their swords at the same time and hit each other, it doesn't kill, it sends them back a bit and damages their shields (Great health system by the way. Really? Yeah, only the one that has been used in sime form in almost every FPS since the release of Halo 2.). The sniper's auto-aim is turned down, a lot. The rockets no longer have lock-on. The support weapons (flamethrower and turrets) make you move much slower. Shotgun has far less ammunition than in Halo 1 and 2. Things like that.
Then there's the equipment, it can change the tide of the battle. And people are already finding strange uses for them, things like using a Grav Lift to blow a guys bubble shield out form under him and have your teammates move in for the kill.
The Custom games selection is great, there are many options you can change and tweak to your liking. But I do have some complaints about the matchmaking, mostly with the Lone Wolves playlist, there aren't enought players, it makes it hard to get achievements like Overkill and Steppin Razor.
The map selection isn't too great, there aren't a lot of really fun maps, but none of them are truly bad. But all of that can be fixed with Downloadable Content. Customizeable armor is good too, it adds some variety and gives you something to work for, and that would also make for some good Dowloadable content too.
Now that I'm done with Multiplayer I'll talk about Campaign.
In my opinion Halo has one of the best Videogame stories ever created, it is very involved, thrilling, and epic.
This is a thrilling conclusion to the series and I'm going to spit the ending out now. So if you haven't beatent the game don't read from here on out. If you've beaten the game but haven't watched after the credits don't read either. (Go watch after the credits right now if you haven't done so yet)
The Master Chief dies, but then you see him after the and realize that everybody made a mistake in thinking that he was dead. The Legendary ending sets up for another trilogy.
The Gameplay in Campaign works very nicely but equipment isn't quite as useful, and you get to kill the Monitor, which is something I've wanted to do since the first Halo, but I'm not so sure it's worth Miranda Keyes and Sergeant Johnson dying.
Forge (Map Editor) and saved films are awesome features that have been helping some awesome things happen on the Bungie website (Another great feature that isn't in the game but feels a lot like it, it's an online ranking system woth LOTS of added bonuses). And scored four-player co-op adds to the experience as well.
Halo 3 is an awesome game, even if you read through all of this (including the ending, but there are still some surprises in store for you) and haven't gotten the game yet. You should still get it if you haven't done so yet. It's worth getting an Xbox 360 for.