Thursday, October 4, 2007

The First: Halo 3

Bungie has done it again. After a fantastic Halo followed by a mediocre Halo 2, Bungie got their act together and produced gaming gold. Halo 3 flaunts a fantastic campaign with a satisfying ending and great multiplayer to boot. Gaming Age put it well in their review of Halo 3, "It's a fight worth finishing if you haven't already, get out there and do just that."

Some tend to think that the Arbiter's story was not covered enough in this third installment, but I beg to differ. The Arbiter's story was finished in Halo 2. There was not a lot of content to deal with about the Arbiter in the third game, but the fact that they involved him as fighting by your side the whole way, was fantastic. Correction, IS fantastic.

This game is amazing. With great replayability, using secret skulls that make the game more challenging, to Forge mode, where you edit a large array of things in the multiplayer maps, Halo 3 takes the cake for console shooters. You can even get customizable armor by accomplishing different things for your multiplayer persona.

Saved films are another awesome feature. Did you happen to have a game where you kill nine people in under four seconds and get a "Killapocalypse?" I did, and to rewatch that magic I got to go back to the Theater feature, watch it again, make a clip of the domination, and save the film for later viewing whenever I want. Now instead of claiming you are awesome at Halo 3, you have films to prove it.

I give Halo 3 a 9.8/10 for the reasons stated above and because the multiplayer maps seemed lacking. Although they are fantastic, and seem very balanced, I feel as though there are too many re-makes of Halo/Halo 2 maps. I was hoping for more original content. Other than that, this game is obsurdly fantastic. The HD resolution is also not completely filled. Instead of 720p, it's 640p, and so on and so forth for the 1080 resolutions. You lose 80 pixels in there somewhere!

1 comment:

Schmaefe said...

I totally agree with your point on the arbiter. The IGN review slammed Bungie for a "dropping the arbiter story", but just because he had his own story arc in Halo 2 doesn't mean the exact same thing should happen in Halo 3. I think his character served his purpose of advancing the plot in Halo 2, and he played his part well in Halo 3, even if he wasn't in the spotlight as much.

I will agree that more multiplayer maps would have been nice, and I could have done without the throwback maps like you said. However, the maps they did make are polished to an almost unreal extent. With most online games, you're lucky to get 1-2 good maps. With Halo 3, there simply are no "duds". All the maps are completely unique, and they all play extremely well. Furthermore, the landscapes they take place in are truly awesome. It really feels like you're playing on the vast surface of a planet/alien world, and not just a little box with mysteriously high walls.