Master Chief's finale is here, and I want YOU to finish the fight!
Halo 3 tasks you, the Master Chief, with Finishing the Fight, essentially stopping the Covenant from activating the Halos, exterminating the Flood, saving Cortana, and pretty much saving the galaxy before all sentiant life is destroyed. Its certainly a little bit more weight on your shoulders than most shooters would give you, and it does Halo 3 well. If you read my Halo 2 review, you might remember how I mentioned that Bungie has been making a slow change in the Halo franchise, focusing less on campaign and more on multiplayer, and this holds true. The campaign is NOT this games best point. It certainly is very good, but its far too short, and it seems like there could have been a lot more done. It certainly has some crazily awesome moments, like destroying two Scarabs at once, the final Warthog run, the opening of the portal, and a few others, but its not enough. The exploration factor isn't really there, there isn't any Covenant side-campaign, and its all really thin. This sounds really bad, but on its own merits the Halo 3 campaign is great, better than most all shooters out there, but we've come to expect much more from Halo in this regard, and Halo 3 doesn't fully deliver. Rest assured, the ending is satisfying nonetheless. There is some serious replay here tough, like hunting for the hidden skulls, beating it on every difficulty, playing 4 player co-op (a new feature in Halo 3, very fun), campaign scoring (an arcade-ish mode), and achievements.
If there is one thing Halo 3 defines, its formula. Every mechanic from Halo: CE and Halo 2 are here, like dual weilding, health regeneration, hijacking, vehicular combat, its all suped up and perfected. A slight control change has been made so you reload with RB, and LB when dual-weilding, to make X home for equipment, a new feature in Halo 3. Equipment can be a host of things, such as a gravity lift, that when dropped, lifts you ten feet into the air, the sheild, similar to Jackal's shields only stationary and much larger, and the bubble shield, a protective bubble that you can easily pass into and out. Two new grenades are also here, the flame grenade, which explodes fire, and the spike grenade, a less powerful but faster detonating version of the Plasma grenade. The Assualt Rifle returns (absent from Halo 2 for whatever reason), as well as some new heavy weapons like the missile launcher and Flamethrower, as well as the Gravity Hammer, a hammer like Tarturus' except you can now use one too. The hit box is also smaller, so you aren't popping headshots even when your crosshairs are slightly shifted away from your opponents head, jumps are slightly lower, movement is a little faster, everything has been perfectly tweaked.
Shooting things in campaign not enough? Take it to the best multiplayer experience this gen. The multiplayer is MASSIVE. There are nearly 30 maps to play on, all kinds of different playlists in matchmaking, a slow moving but honest ranking system, hundreds of thousands of online players, constant updates and support from Bungie, DLC maps that outnumber the default maps, lag-free, achievements, balance, unique and vast maps, party system, its all here. Since launch in 2007, I still play multiplayer to this day. Its actually a nearly daily game for me. I play this game every day! Thats how much replay there is here. Its absolutely incredible. But thats only matchmaking! Custom Games allows you to create a completely customizeable game, invite your friends, and play on either default gametypes or ones you made yourself. You can also customize your armor, by changing the colors, shoulder plates, chest plates, helmet, emblem, your gender, and even species (either elites or SPARTANs). Not to mention 4-player co-op in campaign. Simply put, there is no better online social experience on any console than Halo 3.
What new modes are there, you may ask? Theater and Forge! Theater is a tool that allows you to go back and view previous multiplayer matches or campaign sessions, and view the action in free camera, or watch yours or others characters in third or first person, and take screenshots and record movie clips to show off. Its a wonder why every game doesn't have it, to be honest. Forge is a map editor. You can go on a map, and change the spawns, weapon layouts, objective item placement, vehicles, and even scenery! On maps like Foundry and Sandbox you can even create your very own maps from the ground up! You can then save these maps and play them on Custom Games, or download other players maps on ForgeHub.net, or off other people's File Shares (a place where you can put your best maps, video clips, gametypes, and screenshots). Thankfully, its all very intuitive and well done, so can easily jump in and record or make your maps.
Thus, Halo 3 defines the console shooter, once and for all. So despite a somewhat lackluster campaign, there is so much multiplayer and customization that this game has infinite replay. If you don't have it, you should. Halo 3 is easily the best shooter this gen, and must own title for any self-respecting shooter fan.