Halo 3

Jamie66 · Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:36 am Post subject: Halo 3

In the gaming industry any publisher be it a global company like EA or two guys in their garage making a game for fun can make a video game, heck even I have started making video games at school in my computer classes. This is really an easy thing; the hard thing about a game is to put out such an interesting story, along with characters you either love to make a game that not only sells copies but the fans line up to buy the next release. One of the biggest game sin my lifetime to do this as successfully as any I have heard of before is the Halo franchise, the numerous amount of fans and Halo marks out there is just enormous and with the game selling over 100 million dollars worth of copies within 24 hours how loyal their fan base is. But this can be a bad thing, if gamers are so in love with a game franchise or series they might not see the flaws in a game that contains their favourite character. But here you don't have any bias towards Halo, yes unlike many gamers this is my first experience in the Halo series, apart from multiplayer on Halo 1 being a former Playstation 2 owner I have never got my hands on an actual console version of Halo and with my PC being as slow as a donkey wearing ugg boots I haven't played the campaign on Halo 1. This review will be totally unbiased and I will give you the real look on Halo from a non-fan of the Halo franchise, so when it comes down to it. Will a player being able to pick up Halo 3 without playing the previous two and have a good time, keep reading to find out.

First off let me start out by saying to any gamers that haven't played any of the previous versions of the games, it isn't the smartest thing to do to start off at number 3. For starters you barely have clue who everyone is, unless you take the time to read the instruction manual which I did and you are completely oblivious to what is going on. The manual can only fill in so much, but it didn't take long before you realized what your task was....blowing the living snot out of alien scum. Now if my score for the story of this game isn't the highest you will understand why being I hadn't played the first two versions. Halo 3 throws you right into the thick of the action, which not many games do nowadays as they want you to have a quick play through and learn what’s going on and the controls but seeing as they had the previous 2 versions to do so, the nice change to start right out killing the baddies was great. The story at the start of the game is solid at best, it has a brief outline of your objectives and doesn't go into much detail, but once you get through the first few levels the games story picks up a great deal. This game gave me one of the most cinematic feels to playing a game I have ever have, sure COD4 gave me the most fun in a game before. But if you want a damn movie like experience like no other, Halo 3 is where it's at even my parents came in and their words not mine said, "What movie you watching?", and they know squat about games and when I told them it was Halo 3...they were gob smacked. Overall the story was good, nothing outstanding on my part but it had its great moments that not many games have, which stood out among the rest.

Expanding on the cinematic feel that i received from this game, now for started the graphics in the actual game play itself are great and it stands tall against any other games graphics on the 360 that I have played, and puts many others to shame. But where Halo 3 really stands out is the cut scenes, these scenes are just truly amazing the quality of the characters and the overall quality of the cut scene sis just amazing, I honestly cannot say just how god these look. This looks as good as any animated movie you will see, Pixar is taken to the woodshed on this game and that is an awesome thing to accomplish so I'm on my knees worshipping Bungie for their awesome work on this one. Also just because I say the cut scenes are so awesome, doesn’t mean at all that the graphics within the game aren't. The scenery, aliens, vehicles and boss battles are nonstop action-adrenaline pieces to experience and watch, as i said the graphics are as good as any game can muster on the 360 system so far. The manual is as good as any and shows they took the time to put colour and detail into their manual and it does fill in many details of the previous games for the gamers starting off that take the time to read it.

Many games nowadays put allot of effort in getting a great soundtrack for their game, although many might say this is an insignificant component of a game i believe it is crucial. If you can get a soundtrack that makes you players feel sad, angry or a rush of adrenaline it makes the game that much better. Halo 3 hammers every single nail on the wooden plank of a perfect soundtrack, every piece from the main theme of Halo that everyone knows to every other single piece of music you hear fits perfectly and I can't count the times i was moved in many ways by the music, I have Mass Effect way up high for best soundtrack i have experienced and I have to say we have a new winner in terms of that, Halo 3 is as perfect as you can get. As for the sound while in game play, it isn't as flash as the soundtrack. Many times you will miss information or conversations from the Arbiter due to the noise level of the battles; this can be annoying at boss battles as you don't know exactly how to kill the damn thing until they decide to repeat it. The weapons sound great and the sound within cut scenes is top notch, but to me there was nothing here that made me sit back and awe and go, "Wow, that sounded awesome". It was good but nothing spectacular, that isn't a terrible thing but it would've been great to have.

There aren't too many flaws in the game play, sure the camera can get caught a few times and on a few levels you may get stuck on different pieces of the landscape or a vehicle, but there is nothing terrible that will make your throw the controller at the TV screen and stop playing. The feeling you get when you are fighting on your own against 20 or so enemies is just awesome and you really get into it, especially with the ability to hold dual weapons. This feature is just awesome, you feel as if it's in real life being able to use the two separate triggers to shoot of enemies and when you have dual Spykers reloading at the same time, it looks so Arnie like it isn't funny and every time I did it I was thinking can it get any cooler. The vehicles run fairly well and seem consistent from how they ran in Halo 1 multiplayer for me, so even though it isn't perfect that is how they want them to feel so I'm not going to take anything away from them there. The boss battles in the game are nothing short of magnificent, although there is a big flaw within them which I will indulge in soon the first boss battle was a great experience; you will see why I said "first" boss battle shortly. With the single player mode lasting 12-15 hours or more, along with some of the best if not the best multiplayer available on consoles the overall lasting appeal of Halo 3 is second to none, with heroic difficulty meaning you have to be almost invincible at the game and the many multiplayer games and The Forge online there is no doubt this is one of the most fully packed games on the market.

Now onto what everyone has been waiting for, what stinks in Halo 3? Yes, even though many stated this game was "Fully sick, awesomeness. If you don't like this game you're not a gamer", well my friend this is nowhere near a perfect game. Sure as I said before a fan of the series will let the flaws slide and enjoy the positives of the game but Halo 3 has a few big negatives that need to be addressed and that's exactly what I'm going to do.

First off the biggest problem in the game has to be the backtracking, easily translated into...going over the same piece of land over and over until it becomes repetitive. Now some games you have to do it and that's fine, but Halo 3 brings it to a new level with at least 6-7 areas having you backtrack over the same level or area you have just cleared of enemies not too long ago, one level near the end of the game takes forever to get through. Then you finally get to the end and you have to go all the way back through again, man this was annoying and had me really frustrated nearing the end of the game, this might be the reason why I have the second biggest problem on Halo 3 or not but i don't care. No game that is has such a big name amongst the gaming industry should have this much backtracking, at least an hour of your experience or maybe even more is going through old areas, not the best way to go Bungie.
The second biggest let down would have to be the ending, now I'm going to say SPOILER ALERT here even though it has been out for months some may still gripe if I ruin it, anyway the ending has you driving frantically for about 10 minutes and then jump into the Pelican and that's the end of your part in the game...This is truly a WTF moment, no big battle to end the game all it is driving over and over for about 5-10 minutes, this was a let down in my opinion, the story was great but this ending was a real downer compared to the huge moments in the game beforehand that could have been saved for the climax, rather then driving.
My last gripe is the boss battles, now for those who have finished Halo 3 about right now I’m guessing your thinking how could I hate them, they were awesome. That they were but there is a big letdown within them, again going back to my first point of repetition. 5 huge boss battles and all 5 were the giant scarabs, first time was amazing at the size and detail of him...but you're telling me they couldn't have changed the boss up a little bit for each new battle? It would have made them so much better if each time or ever 3 times it was a new boss/monster to challenge rather then already knowing how to defeat and therefore taking it out with ease.

First off this review went way longer then expected so for those who take the time to read and comment I really appreciate it. Overall Halo 3 is an amazing game, if I had played the first 2 in the series I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed it more, but even as a Halo virgin I had a great time. Sure it has some flaws but let me say right now the positives out stack the negatives by a fair while and really that is what makes a good game great. With some of the most amazing cut scenes I have ever seen, along with gigantic boss battles that are awesome to play and a terrific story and outstanding soundtrack, the flaws really are swept under the rug for Halo 3. If you love the Halo series or shooter sin general, I ask you not I'm forcing you to buy this game (Joke), but it is that good a must owned game for 360 in m option. Took me a long while to finish the game due to my busy schedule, but I hope my review make sup for that. Look out for my Devil May Cry 4 review coming up in 2 weeks or less, hopefully.

Thanks for reading Cool

Story : 9.2
Presentation : 9.8
Sound : 9.8
Game Play : 8.9
Lasting Appeal : 9.6

Overall : 47.3/50

SeRial123 · Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 8:21 pm Post subject:

My main problem with Halo 3 are that, it just felt like a re-hashing of Halo 1. Just with better graphics and a few new things added. Also, there were a few graphical things that bugged me. But overall it's a pretty fun game. Very solid and all that.
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Giraffe

Jamie66 · Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 9:25 pm Post subject:

SeRial123 · Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 6:20 am Post subject:

Well, if you were holding the pitchforks, then I was probably holding the torches. Halo 3 was good but not Game of the Year good. COD 4 was wayyyyy better. The only edge that Halo 3 has over Call of Duty 4 is that you can play the campaign on line with three other players.
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Giraffe

Jamie66 · Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 11:09 pm Post subject:

Joeywan · Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:40 am Post subject:

I agree with SeRial, but it certainly wasn't a bad game.
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