Halo 3 only dissapoints for part of the game.
Well, I loved Halo: Combat Evloved and hated Halo 2. So I wasn't really expecting much from Halo 3, but it turned out to be a great game but it has its far share of problems and in my opinion this game isn't even close to deserving a perfect score.
When you first start up Halo 3 you should start off playing the Single-Player, for it has changed a great deal sense Halo 2. One of the changes include actually playing as the Master Cheif for 100% of the campagin this time around. The story takes place right where Halo 2 left off and never lets up from there. Intense shooting action is broken up between driving vehicles which control fantastically and ocasionally takeing out some Scarabs. The enemy A.I. is good, but not great. The Marines though are crap as ussual, not only do they die within about two seconds of encountering enemies they also spout out randam usless dialouge that tends to be very annoying. Give the Marine the wheel of a Warthog while you take the tourent, and you can you will die faster than you can say "Carmine." The levels are well desgined and set up in the Single-Player except for the level "Cortana" which nearly drove me insane trying to complete on Legendary with another friend. The main problem with it is the checkpoints don't work, and that can be said for most of the game. You will complete a long action sequence, die, start at the begining only to get about half-way through to where you were before and get a checkpoint. Its rather annoying and frustrating at points but fortunatly this happens only a handful of times. The major problem I have with the Single-Player is the story just isn't that great. (However the campagin is still a blast to play) Some of it feels rather rushed and in the end nothing is really explained too well and if you watch the Legendary Ending you are once again left with a cliffhanger. Skulls this time around are more fleshed out as you can turn them on, and in Meta games get extra multipliers for playing with them on. Another change here is you can get them on Normal and Hard dificulty levels. The campagin will take you about 8-12 or so hours to complete depending on the difficulty and for players who have played numerous shooters and know what they are doing, start playing the game on Hard.
The game also has some new vehicles and weapons that are rather nice and you get to use different weapons more in the Single-Player than you did any other games, the weapon diversity here is great. Same with the vehicles, they are diversivied so one minute your driving a Warthog, the next a Wraith, and then the next momment a Brute Chopper.
The multiplayer is where this game truely shines. Bungie took their "Custom" games one step further and pretty much turned you into a legal modder with all the options you have. Couple that with Forge in which you can make custom maps and with Fondry (a map in the Heroic Map Pack that is now free.) and the possibilities are endless. I've never had so much fun playing Halo Cart, Dodgeball, Cops and Robbers, and Infection with my friends. Maps have also been designed a lot better this time around, they are larger and more built for certian game types. Highground for example works better with one bomb, than it does Team Slayer, but it still works nice with it. In competitive play Bungie has Ranked, Social, Hadcore, DLC, and Double XP playlists. Hardcore is where you will find the MLG, and Team S.W.A.T. game variants, DLC is where it only cycles maps you have downloaded so you can actually play the three maps you payed $10 for. Double XP constantly changes from Infection, to 3-Ball, to Griffball where you gain Double XP by playing some not so standard Halo gametypes. The weapons are so much more ballanced in this game than Halo 2 its unbelieveable. Glitches are nowhere to be found and Bungie also included what they call the "A**hole button." Simply press the Back button, scroll down to a gamertag and press the A button to instantly mute them with .02 seconds. You also have a File Share, in which you can upload pictures, gametypes, map variants and movies you recorded in Theater. On top of that you can customize your Character's armour online.
Online you can also play the Single-Player campagin with up to three other friends, and you can do that offline too.
My only complaint with Forge is manipulating the objects isn't easy and can become frustrating. It would have been nice if Bungie would have included a 90* snapping feature in here to help take some of that frustration out.
Graphics in this game aren't that great. Infact it would have been better if Bungie would have just used the Source engine. The physics would have been better and the enviroments would actually look nice. The problem with Halo 3's graphics is the cutseense look like Halo 2 graphics (no joke) and the textures ingame blur way to quickly. Explosions look last gen at best, and the AA in this game in HD seems as if it is broken. On top of that this game only runs at 640p istead of full 720p. Sound on the other hand is nice and rich. You can here other people shooting and driving in the background.
Halo 3 is great game that you will deffinantly want to buy and it is a great buy. Unfortunately becuase of the HUGE hype sournding this game, people are going to be dissapointed that it isn't a AAAAE title but only a AAA title. But if you can look past the hype this game is wounderful with some flaws that could have been easily avoided.
