Halo 3 review
Halo 3 was one of the first big named games xbox 360 players were able to experience. And still has a huge following 3 years later. Over these years halo 3 still defines the xbox. When Playstation users and xbox users get into fanboy arguments halo 3 will most certainly be mentioned.
Halo 3 is the third game in a series of first person sci-fi shooters. The player is master chief, a biologically augmented super-soldier, who is in a seemingly never ending struggle with an alien alliance referred to as the covenant, and a parasitic organism called the flood. As master chief, the player will go through many different battlefields, such as cities, remnants of cities, spaceships, and remnants of spaceships. One major difference between Halo 3 and its predecessors is that it is co-op, with one player controlling master chief, and the other controlling the arbiter, the leader of a faction that has split from the covenant. The story of Halo 3 is a simple story, where master chief has to save his AI, cortana, from the flood, and stop the covenant from activating the halo (a central piece to the covenant’s religion, that will lead to extinction). Throughout the campaign, the players are encouraged to collect easter eggs that are in the form of skulls that the player must find, and pick up. These skulls, when activated, will activate various in game effects, such as grunt birthday party (when the player gets a headshot on a grunt, the grunt’s head will explode with confetti) or the iron skull (on co-op, if one player dies, the whole team loses). These skulls can also add on to how many points the player can earn in a level.
Of course the major draw to Halo 3, and the reason it is still being played today, is the multiplayer. The multiplayer of Halo 3 has generic multiplayer shooter modes, such as, team deathmatch, deathmatch, capture the flag, odd man out, and so on. The reason people are drawn to Halo 3 multiplayer, instead of other shooters’ multiplayer, is because of: bungie’s online support, the physics, and the unique weapons and vehicles. Although new players should be warned that most people playing Halo 3 multiplayer, have been playing for years, and are generally jerks. Apart from the fact that Halo 3 multiplayer is filled with obnoxious child gamers, it is still a fun experience.
The last groundbreaking addition to Halo 3 is forge mode. Forge mode is essentially a map editor, where players can go into existing maps, and completely change the objects that are in them. The player can then play on their newly edited map. This can make for clever obstacle courses, or game modes, such as dodgeball (the players start with plasma pistols and grenades, and must shoot/throw their weapons across a chasm and kill the other team) and sumo (the players start near warthogs, essentially a humvee, and must knock the opposing warthog of the edge of the map). These modes and maps add a great layer of depth in Halo 3’s multiplayer.
PROs:
-Halo 3 is, to date, one of the only sci-fi shooters with a successful multiplayer
-the addition of skulls allows for multiple playthroughs of the campaign
-forge mode allows creative maps, and modes
-weapons feel well balanced
-vehicles can add to great depth in a good multiplayer match
-many different maps to play on assure the player of a relatively different match every time
CONs
-campaign is copy/paste from the previous games in the series
-it is hard to get into the multiplayer, due to the many jerks, and insanely good players
TOTAL SCORE: ( 8.5)