Review

Flick around the internet at various game sites and you’ll find pages upon pages of reviews for Halo 3 that have clearly been written by the same over-excited gamers who queued up at midnight to grab a copy. The one’s who believe Halo and its sequel to be two of the finest examples of gaming known to man, but what of the flip-side? What about the opinions of people, like myself, who played both the previous games and saw nothing beyond an enjoyable but unremarkable shooter? I’m here to redress that balance.

I’ll begin with an undisputed statement of fact: Halo 3 is the best game in the trilogy. That is not saying it’s the greatest game ever made but rather pointing out that, compared to a tedious, repetitive shooter and it’s shorter but just as repetitive sequel with superb multiplayer, this is the clear winner, but it’s hardly a fantastic claim.

The action kicks off exactly where Halo 2 finished (I’ll have to take Bungie’s word for that having got bored long before the end) with Master Chief crashing down in the middle of a jungle. Here he is found by a platoon of soldiers who get him back up and running and the fight begins again. It soon becomes clear that this is the first game in the trilogy to have a decent opening level!

It doesn’t stop there either, each subsequent level offers up new challenges, whether it’s the setting or the layout. Halo and Halo 2 both enjoyed pinning you down in one small area while they bombarded you with wave upon wave of identikit enemies before allowing you to progress. This was one of the reasons I found the previous games a bit boring. Fortunately, there’s none of that here and progression through the levels is nicely paced despite the fact that you’re once again fighting the same set of enemies every five minutes.

I’m pleased to report that vehicles are as insanely enjoyable to drive as ever and first time I got into a Warthog I had to spend five minutes dicking about for the hell of it before progressing with the mission at hand. However, whatever you do, don’t allow an A.I. driver behind the wheel as they’re still severely lacking in both the skill to navigate tricky sections or the urgency when you find yourself in the heat of battle.

Two new additions to the arsenal add greatly to the single-player experience, firstly is the Brute’s Gravity Hammer, which is difficult to use but incredibly satisfying when you send a stream of enemies flying with one swipe. The second, and my personal favourite, is the use of gun emplacements, which you can now rip off their stand and walk around carrying for a few moments. Other new weapons such as the Bubble Shield and Gravity Lift are interesting but have clearly been designed with the multiplayer mode in mind.

While you’d never be able to accuse the visuals of being poor, they are definitely a disappointment and there are a number of games that look better. At it’s best this offers spectacular vistas with vast amounts of detail and at it’s worst it looks like a good Xbox game. It maintains a steady frame rate, suffers no glitches and is always clear so it’s hard to grumble too much about them.

As far as the multiplayer is concerned it’s business as usual thanks, in part, to the fact that Halo 2 remains one of the most player Xbox Live titles on the 360. The new modes don’t really add greatly to what was there already but it is an improvement on the Halo 3 Beta we played a few months back. The same stupid matchmaking system is in place for setting up matches and too many rooms are filled with excitable teenagers or American’s taking the whole thing far too seriously that you’ll probably have much more fun just inviting people off your friends list instead for the time being!

So, question time: is Halo 3 the greatest game ever made? No. Is it the best game available on the Xbox 360? Not even close. Is it over-hyped? Yes. Is it worth buying? Yes, it is, even for someone who didn’t particularly like the first two like me. What Halo 3 does offer is a solid, entertaining blast that any F.P.S. fan should be able to enjoy with the added bonus of decent online multiplayer.

About the Review

Platform

Microsoft Xbox 360

Developer

Bungie

Publisher

Microsoft Game Studios

Released

26th September 2007