Well, folks the momentous day many (most?) of you have been waiting for is finally at hand. Halo 3, the third and final part of Bungie’s epic sci-fi saga that paved the way for 36 million (and counting!) Xboxes and Xbox 360s, will be released on Tuesday to complete the story that abruptly ended just three short years ago.
Halo 3 will likely be one of the – if not the - biggest entertainment releases of all-time, eclipsing even the largest box-office opening weekends. Microsoft is banking on the game being a system-seller for fans of the previous games, something that would be a huge boost for their next-gen console’s sales numbers. There’s no doubt that the game will sell amazingly well, so the big question is whether or not it will live up to the expectations of its rabid fanbase.
Luckily for them, we’re happy to report that Halo 3 is not only the best game of the series, but the best Xbox 360 game to date. The single-player game is excellent and ends the story beautifully, but it’s the amazing multiplayer offerings and cutting-edge technology that will help the game stand the test of time. Make no mistake, this is a game that will still be played religiously until the end of the Xbox 360’s lifecycle, and may be one of the rare titles that actually gets better with age. Let’s kick things off with a look at the single-player campaign, shall we?
When last we saw our old friend Master Chief near the end of Halo 2, he was heading to “finish this fight” against the Covenant aboard a Forerunner ship headed toward Earth. Cortana, on the other hand, remained behind in the clutches of the ominous Gravemind, which is essentially the leader of the parasitic Flood. Oh, and did we mentioned that the Brutes and Elites were at war against each other? Just as things were really starting to heat up, the game went to black and informed player that the story would be continued. Thankfully, it’s been continued in a big way in Halo 3, but we feel like we owe it to you not to spoil any of the story elements, so we won’t be getting into any specifics.
While plenty of new gameplay mechanics have been introduced in Halo 3, there’s no denying that fans of the series will feel instantly comfortable with it. The gameplay in the Halo series has always had its own unique feel, and its obvious that Bungie knew better than to mess with a good thing. Sure, there have been a few fundamental changes here and there (some for better, some for worse), but the core gameplay formula has only been fine-tuned. You might need to get used to a few things here and there (for instance, it took me a while to stop hitting X to reload), and it won’t take long for most people get into the groove.
ven when it’s not terribly challenging, the cooperative gameplay is an absolute blast from beginning to end. There’s something inherently fun about blasting your way through the campaign with 3 of your friends, hooting and hollering every time you take down a Covenant dropship or melee kill a Brute. The ability to play co-op also means that you won’t have to rely on your occasionally moronic teammates to keep you alive. I was actually killed by my teammates on a few occasions, including one sweet moment in which I was crushed under an oncoming Warthog.
While the single-player game offerings are definitely a lot of fun, nothing can compare to the abundance of multiplayer options. There’s a pretty decent chance that a high percentage of you got in on the multiplayer beta, but that really didn’t do much to prepare you for what’s in the finished version of the game. Not only is the multiplayer action stellar (after all, this is a Halo game), but there are even more options than ever. You’ll once again be able to create just about whatever custom game you can think of, tweaking Bungie-created variants in countless ways.
The developer even took a few pages from the community’s playbook, introducing some new official gametypes based on unscored user creations. The best of these is Infection, in which some players are sword-wielding “zombies” who attempt to infect other players. The gametype is a ton of fun, and there are few things more harrowing than being the last man standing. We’re also fans of the VIP gametype, in which each team’s VIP is blessed with an overshield but cursed with an icon over their head. Naturally, the goal of the game is kill the other team’s VIP to score a point. While all of the gametypes are a lot of fun, it’s the ability to customize them in whatever way you please that really sets Halo 3 apart from most other shooters.
One of the game’s new features is the ability to use equipment while out in the field, both in the single-player and multiplayer games. Some definitely are more useful than others, but the variety is pretty nice overall. Our biggest qualm with them was the fact that we didn’t really feel a huge need to use them in the single-player game, except on some occasions in which it felt like the developer was trying to spell out what we should do in a particular situation. If you see a Trip Mine or Cloaking device laying around, there’s a good chance that it’ll come in handy. You’ll definitely use the equipment a lot more in the multiplayer arena, and there will be times that dropping a Bubble Shield or Power Drainer at just the right moment will change the entire battle.
Of course, many multiplayer games are only as good as their maps, and Halo 3 features a great blend of levels: big and small, light and dark, symmetrical and assymmetrical, it’s all in there. It seems that the more you explore some of the maps, the more little details you’ll notice. Isolation and Guardian particularly stand out from the crowd, as the former features a cool dichotomy of normal and infected areas and the latter is, well, damn fun. Certain maps definitely work better with certain gametypes, so it’ll be nice to see what sort of recommendations Bungie puts out. If for some reason you get sick of what the game ships with, just head on over to the Forge.