Review: Halo 3
Halo 3 is the final game in the halo series, and the final game that Bungie will be working one since they left Microsoft's fold shortly after release of Halo 3. As with Halo 2 people actually waited in like line Star Wars nerds for a new movie, just to purchase this game. Can Halo 3 possibly live up to everyone's Hype? Or will this game wrap things up as poorly as the Matrix movies did?
Story:
The Master Chief has fallen to earth in some jungle in Africa, and it is up to the Arbiter, and the Sergeant to find him. Could he be dead? Wouldn't be much of a story if the Chief Cratered before the game started would it? After resuscitating the Chief both the Arbiter and he set off to stop the covenant once and for all!
Graphics:
Halo 3 looks good; however all is not well with Halo 3 graphically. This game looks like Halo 2 with a slight graphical update, seriously after a head to head with Halo 2, there wasn't much of a difference, especially in cut scenes, but all you really have to do is take a break from the action and you can easily see where the game needed a few more months to polish the game up. It seems like all of that the graphic hiccups that plagued Halo 2 are back, especially in the case of the slowdown during many of the action scenes. But this time you can include to the problem list that there are also many blocky looking textures where you can tell when they should be round (like on a tanker semi tractor trailer truck), and the sometimes oddly placed polish that appears to be on certain objects that leads them to feel out of place, leave the game feeling rushed in my opinion, and I am still saying this almost 6 months past launch, and none of the patches have fixed it yet. When compared to another graphical powerhouse released around the same time like Bioshock, Halo 3 looks weak and pathetic in comparison.
Music & Sound Effects:
Musically the game is still good, another well composed soundtrack from the sound and music department, and the sounds are as good as they were before but to be honest there have been better soundtracks in the Halo series, this one just doesn't feel as... Legendary as the first, or as grand as the second game's soundtracks
Control & Game Play:
This is where Halo 3 finds its biggest improvement, the controls of halo 1 & 2 were classic, but the controls for Halo 3 are so drastically improved that they easily blow the controls of the previous games away, the game play is now so seamless that going back to play halo 1 or 2 is now impossible considering you well Halo 3 plays... Well at least for me that is, Most of that can be held accountable to the 360's controller, but there has also been a button re-mapping that feels more natural in Halo 3 when compared to its predecessors. Multiplayer has been the Bread and Butter of Halo's success, and Halo 3 does not disappoint in this respect, the spawning problem experienced in Halo 2 has been repaired and happens less frequently than it once did, so you are less likely to spawn in front of an opponent waiting to kill you.
Design:
I think as this review has gone on I feel that I have shared with you the fact that I have felt that Halo 3 could have used more polish, I wouldn't have minded it at all if Bungie held off releasing this game a year, or even a few months to perfect the "final game in the Halo series" (though I doubt it will be the last game in the halo series), but to be fair Bungie has been under a lot of stress just to make this game not only from the gaming public but from Microsoft as well, and did a good job considering all of the stress piled on them, especially with the multiplayer portion of this game. So rather than continue to dwell on what I disliked about the game I would like to point out one of the big things that has bugged me, as this series has wound on I have found my self asking many questions of this series, one of the first questions I asked myself is where has some of the innovations gone, since the first game of the series, The AI is still as good as it has always been, but I think what disappoints me most is that, as the series wound on that innovations in weaponry, especially on the covenant side of the war, are practically non existent, why is it that weapons from an alien planet have to work, and in some cases look like human weapons, and as the series has wound on all of the upgraded weapons look like human technology or like a covenant take of human weapons instead of uniquely alien weaponry, that is not to say that there aren't good weapons but lets face it almost all of the innovative weaponry for the covenant was in the first game, with the only 3 new exceptions that felt alien were the Plasma Sword which was in the first game but you could not use it, the Brute Shot also featured in the first game but not used by the player (and was dramatically weakened), and the Brute Hammer giving us all an excuse to yell "It's Hammer Time" in the middle of multiplayer matches, which sadly does get old after a while.
If you are a die hard Halo Fanatic than you will not be disappointed, other wise I can direct you to 3 other amazing shooters that were released around the same time as this game, The Orange Box, Bioshock, and Call of Duty 4 that I consider superior.
Halo 3:
Pros:
Improved Controls
Refined Multiplayer
Action scenes still kick ass
Cons:
Graphically inadequate in quite a few cases
Cheesy cut scenes are back and worse
Feels Rushed