Halo 3 is a great game, but not as great as it should've been. There are many frustrating things that most do not know.
THE BAD
Halo 3 has just about everything an fps gamer would want, rankings, unlocks, replays, gametypes, matchmaking, etc. The game lacks overall skill as opposed to Halo 1 and Halo 2. Halo 3's melle is the most important aspect to victory on Halo 3 Multiplayer, being that the Assault Rifle is a shoot and melle type weapon, it takes a lot to take a player out without a melle when weilding an AR. So when it comes to the melle, most people get frustrated when they get the hit on someone with minor shields but still get killed my the enemies melle. This is because of Bungie's genious new melle system *SARCASM*
The way the new melle system works is that it is all about amount of shield left. Halo 2 was all about who got the hit off first with faster reation time. Let's say on Halo 3 that you have 5% of your shield left and the person your going up against has 10%, now being that a lunge against an opponent with 20% shield or less is fatal, you'd think that if you get the melle off first you'd kill them. Thanks to bungie's new system, your dead wrong. The way it works is when they have more shield and you hit them with the melle if they react before 1 second and hit you back, you die. If you have more shield then them, and you hit them first, they're dead. So basically if you have more shield than them and they are at or under 20%, you win the melle battle.
Halo 3's gameplay is sloooooow paced. People may disagree with me, but the truth is, Halo 2 is a lot faster. Halo 2's long range weapons do somthing for everyone, in other words, they actually HIT your opponents from long-range. Bungie said that Halo 3's Battle Rifle and Carbine are much better long range. They left out the fact that you need to be host for that to work. When a matchmade game starts, one host is chosen by random, this determines the connection of the game and somewhat determines the winning team in a decent sized way. Host gets perfect connection and weapons work on key as opposed to off host battle rifle where you have to give a small trail like on Halo 1. Halo 2 has this too, but its not as sporatic as Halo 3, I honestly don't understand where to shoot at to hit them and make them flash. The battle-rifle takes 4 shots with the last one a headshot for a kill, in Halo 3 it takes like a whole clip because bullets don't effect people sometimes off-host.
Free for all is wayyyyyyyyyyy to balanced. It's the most frustrating thing about the game. You usually start out with an AR in FFA and you need to rely on getting weapons and equipment from throughout the map. Now because weapons are so balanced, you can never get that little up against other players because someone with an AR can take out one of the power weapons like the supposed to be a one hit kill Gravity Hammer. Now you'd think that if you lunge and wack someone over the head with a gravity hammer, you'd kill them right? Not all the time on Halo 3, sometimes they go flying above ur head and end up assasinating you or somthing else of the sort. It just seems that all the weapons on the game are leaning towards the 8 year old cursing you out over the headset.
THE GOOD
The sniper has improved a lot. It's not as powerful as a weapon because it now has recoil and doesn't allow you to easily 2 shot someone in the body as easy and calls you to nail the head more often. It also calls for players to no-scope more often in close range situations because of its more steady aim and stronger lock on (slows down crosshair when hovered over an enemy).
Vehicles are way better. Not all the vehicles can be used in matchmaking and require custom games with private parties. Mongooses and Warthog's are most common in matchmaking, other on ground and some flying vehicles are used in bigger maps.
Character custimization is a great addition to the game. Players can now custimize their helmet, shoulders. and chest pieces to their liking. Also their colors and symbol/icon as wanted.
Now with all that said, I'd say it's a great game, but for the reasons above it's not my favorite fps and I like Halo 2 more. None the less, I say rent the game, if you like it buy, it's actually decent fun but get's old as opposed to Halo 2.
Score: 8.0