Halo 3

The Good

• Sharp, responsive controls and excellent gameplay.
• Superb sound effects accompanied with terrific voice acting.
• The story is great and very good.
• The game has one of the best textures in this generation.
• Awesome multiplayer modes and campaign.
• The new Forge mode and Theater are well made.
• The soundtrack is just great.

The Bad

• UNSC allies don't know how to run for their lives (including yours).
• The rewind button in Theater mode doesn't work as you expect.
• The single-player experience could've been better.

There are many reasons that will make you play Halo 3 over and over from those are the great campaign mode with amazing storyline and characters, strong competitive multiplayer modes offline & online, the new forge mode that will make you edit maps and the new theater mode that will record your play-through and multiplayer matches. Halo 3 is without doubt, the best FPS experience any gamer can get.

Halo 3 begins where Halo 2 left-off. The war between humans and the covenants are still here but the only difference is that the Elites have joined the UNSC forces after The Arbiter told them that the Covenants great journey is a lie. The story is great and it matches the great novels out there. It is full of unexpected stuff and will leave the players ask what or why. All these are integrated with dramatic cutscenes that will thrill the players and keeps the game fresh.


 he game-play mechanics isn’t evolved much but that is not a bad thing. The experience is great and still better than its predecessors. A couple of new features are introduced in the game-play. New weapons and maps have been added and a new feature called “Gadgets” makes a presence in Halo 3. Of course the health-regeneration mechanic and other things from the previous Halos remain. The combat is very engaging and fun. Every weapon is well balanced and adds spice to the intense action. The return of the Assault Rifle and the new double wield shotgun and spike gun should make things interesting. There are new grenades in the game but you can only carry two of each type. Gadgets are items that can do couple of things from them is to form a shield around you or a health regenerator and create an area of electro-magnetic energy that will drain your enemies shields. The controls are very sharp and responsive so you won’t have any problems with it. The game also has an aim assistance which tries to lock on an enemy but no full lock on.

Of course, Bungie have added new vehicles and most notable is the Mongoose, Warthug’s little brother. It is an ATV which can carry two persons but does not have any integrated weapons so you will have to rely on your teammate to do the killing for you. The Mongooes is not the only new vehicle in the game, there is the Chopper. Chopper is a strong vehicle similar to the Ghost but bigger and the front consists of a large chopping machine which will destroy any vehicle smaller than it just by giving it a boost in speed which you can do it by pressing the Left Trigger. Hornet is a human aircraft which is the counter part of the Banshee but it is not agile and fast as its counter part. Instead it has a turret and a rocket launcher which is enough for little kids to have fun with it. The Spectre in Halo 2 is replaced with The Prowler. Strong and built tough. It has a turret on the top and can carry as much as a Warthug can do. Of course all the remaining vehicles from the previous games are back and Bungie updated them for example the Banshee can fire the plasma canon like in Halo 2 campaign.

All this will aid through the Campaign mode and multiplayer matches. The Campaign mode is more fun when you play the game with three other people offline or online. The campaign will put through an interesting set of locales and places and will make you face numerous Brutes and other covenant members including the Flood. Master Chief and The Arbiter (and another two elites if you play in 4 player co-op) will have to team up in order to stop The Covenant from activating the Ark which will trigger all the Halo rings and end all the forms of life in the galaxy. The game is not easy as make it sound here and it will become more and more difficult if you play on Heroic or Legendary.

The game gets better and better when you play with somebody else and the multiplayer experience is so great that you will be addicted on it. There are 11 maps to choose from each will support 6-16 players. Of course the classic Deathmatch (Slayer), Team Deathmatch (Team Slayer) and Capture the Flag are back. There are also new modes like Infection which will turn one player into a zombie and the player will have to infect other players in order to win. All the modes in Halo 2 are still here so don’t worry about anything. The multiplayer is very addictive even if you play offline so if you like to play with other people, this game is for you. Of course, the game lets you customize these modes by replacing weapons, vehicles, stats and some other option in order to create one you are comfortable with.

The AI is pretty slick & smart. Bungie developed an AI package named the “Brute Pack” for the Brute units which will allow the Brutes act like a team when they are with each other. Simply the Brutes became smarter not become more stupid apes. They cover each other back’s and get angry when you deal a lot of damage to them so they will charge into you. The Grunts think they are tough when their Brute leader is with them but if he is gone they will run away or act suicidal in order to kill you. But the friendly don’t know how to run for their lives or protect themselves and this could be annoying if an AI is driving vehicles you are on it.

The character customization is even deeper. You can now change the armor pieces (Head, Shoulders and Body) which will truly flesh you out from the crowd. You can unlock more armor by unlocking certain achievements or doing certain things in the campaign or multiplayer. Of course choosing the icon and changing your characters color still remains and it is better. You get to choose a Spartan or Elite and start customizing their armor, color and icons. But to be honest the Spartan is has more armor than the Elite which is kind of unbalanced but still no problem because this is not a core thing that will affect the whole game.

The game looks really good and photorealistic. Now the characters are more detailed and environments are so believable and look very realistic. Probably the most impressive is the textures. They are highly resolution and very big which will enable us to see a character’s model very clearly like Master Chief, you can see the scratches on his armor. The models look great too along with animations which will make the characters one of the best moving video game characters of all the time. The game’s lightings are also great and shiny thanks to the HDR shader. When the sun’s light is on metallic objects, it shines and casts shadows on the characters and the object which look truly amazing. The visual effects are very amazing. The explosions are hyper-realistic! They also added motion blur that will make the screen blur a little when you drive fast (which you will if brutes with choppers are chasing you).

The sound effects are mind blowing. Explosion sound effects are great and well made. Also when you fire you weapons, the sound comes right in time. Every weapon has different sound effects so you won't be hearing "Boom Boom" with every single weapon in the game. The music score is perfect! It adds an epic feel to the campaign mode and the story . I think Martin O'Donnel did the best soundtrack in the gaming history. So I highly recommend buying the soundtrack too if you like orchestra.

The game runs very smooth with no lag or slowdowns so to sum it up: Master Chief have never looked better in any Halo game.

The new Forge mode lets you add weapons, vehicles, gadgets and scenery to existing map and save them as new maps or save on existing. It also lets up to 8 players edit the map so you and your friends can create a map together.

The Theater mode will automatically record the last 25 games you’ve played and if you like them you can save them later. You can view them also and take screenshots from that game in any place and any time. Like I said this will truly show off Halo 3 graphics so you can check how big the textures are or how great the explosions look. But the rewind button isn’t your standard rewind like in any video. Simply it will only set the film back by 30 seconds or more so it is kinda annoying.

Halo 3 is one of the best games around there and it is a solid reason why to buy a 360 and the multiplayer is just awesome and kick @$$! So the more people, the more fun it gets. You shouldn’t miss this game, it is a must have in your collection.
So Halo 3= Masterpiece