Halo 3: The Review (Xbox 360)
November 20th, 2007- Be Ye Aware, Spoilers be Ahead! Ye have been warned -
This weekend I finished Halo 3 with a friend of mine. I’ve played both the multiplayer portion of the game extensively also, so I feel like I’m finally at the point where I can review the game.
I’m of two minds about Halo 3. First off the multi-player game is excellent; providing tools, options, and abilities not normally found on console based First Person Shooters. You can modify all the maps using a tool called the forge, basically creating almost endless variations of the core game modes. You can customize your avatar so you don’t have 5 million master chief clones running around, with unlockable body parts to customize it even more. You can explore the maps at your leisure, learning the ins and outs of them so you don’t look like a doof online. (something I’m prone to do…)
Add to this a ranking system and the ability to save every game you play to as a game video. This ability allows you to pause them and wonder around at your leisure inside the saved game. You have some rudimentary editing features and you can also export clips of these videos, along with game types, game files, screen shots, and almost anything else you can think of to bungie.com. Combine this with the ablity to play the Campaign mode with up to four players and you have one heck of a multiplayer package; one that has rarely been reached on console or PC.
Needless to say that Bungie has the multiplayer side covered very well; I am very impressed with that part of the game and this is what will keep people coming back time and time again. Multi-player seems to be what Bungie has spent the majority of the last four years developing and I’m sure that is what will keep people hooked to this franchise for years to come.
The campaign mode and story, however, has left much to be desired.
I will make it clear that I am not the biggest halo fan. Yet, saying that, I’ve played all three, read most of the books, and want to get my hand on the comics to read. I love the quasi military universe that Bungie has created; and the Master Chief is the most visible symbol of that universe. I love the idea that this series might be a fore-runner to the Marathon series of games released on the macs many years ago. I find the Covenant a vicious enemy and the plight of the humans something that can show human resolve against an almost unstoppable foe.
Yet I had problems with Halo 1 when ti first came out: I had just finished playing the original Half-Life and the story in Halo just seemed pale in comparison. I loved how they changed and expanded the story in Halo 2, interweaving the story of the Arbiter while the continuing the adventures of the Master Chief. The game did end rather abruptly, but the promise of an even more expanded story lay in the future. So when the ads for Halo 3 started appearing and I really wanted to finish the fight. I wanted an ever expanding story that ended with a world or halo sized battle that was the breadth and complexity of epic battles featured in WW2 shooters like Call of Duty. When the awesome Documentary type “believe” commercials started to hit, I was hoping beyond all hope that my wishes would be granted: There would be a story worthy of the literature and comics that surrounded the Halo name. I tell you this to show you my state of mind when purchasing Halo 3. I even went as far out to by the Legendary Edition of the game: I rarely spend that much cash on one game..in fact I think this was the first time.. (That was a fair chunk of change for that set up.)
To say I was a bit disappointed when I started up the game, it mentioned the arbiter once and then never really delved back in to his story, is an understatement. I hoped that throughout the rest of the game there would be more story to flesh the characters out a bit more… Such was not to be the case. The levels were fun, but there was never that sense of world ending doom prevalent in the ads. I loved playing the multi-player campaign with my friends and despite my concerns the story did seem to be building up to a climax…
Then the last 2 levels came and I feltl ike I was ported back to the original Halo…the really bad parts of the original Halo. I figured getting Cortana back would be some sort of mid-game experience: I didn’t realize that that Bungie would end up making this the focus and we would end up fighting Flood the last two levels.
I hate the flood and not in a good “they are the enemy to beat” way but in the “Man I wish they had never put this in the game.” way. I hated the second to the last level; I feel it was poorly designed and it felt like work making our way through it. I ended up putting the difficultiy on Easy just so we could blast through the level…not something I like doing. The level wasn’t hard, just monotonous. Then the last level? It was rehash of the last part of the original Halo… I’ve heard people tell me it was an homage, but it felt more rushed and lazy then anything.
Then the game just…ended and even the last cut scene didn’t give any sense of closure: No epic boss to fight, no world spanning ultimate battle to save humanity. Not even a rush through a rocketing space ship before it blows up and *gasp* the characters bite the dust. Just a cut scene and one that seemed to be missing a few pieces. In the end I know the Master Chief and Cortana made it, but most of the other characters I liked died.
I also have questions about the motivations of the Charactes in the game. At least in Halo 2 you understood the movtivations…in Halo 3 they seem all but absent. The Master Chief seems to have an unhealthy relationship with a computer AI while everyone else seems to worship the Master Chief, going as far as to give their lives so he can get the job done. You end up understanding why the covenant had such an easy time, since most of the marines went to their death like sheep being led to the slaughter. I started just calling them Cannon Fodder during the game, since that seemed to be all they were good for.
In the end the campaign mode just seemed..shoddy and ill thought out. There seemed to be very few connections to the expanded story of the previous game and expanded universe: This is like Star Wars Episode 3 of video games: It has some very cool kick but moments but on the whole it left me feeling like there was so much more that could’ve been accomplished..
I will still play this game, but really only as a multi-player game. I know people that have never touched the main campaign, maybe that is my failing. I should’ve not worrieda bout the campaign at all and must played multi-player..I need to get better at that anyway. Would I recommend this as a purchase? Yes, but only for all the multi-player has to offer. I think Bungie dropped the ball on the campaign mode, especially since I’ve played Myth and I know they can tell a good story
Buy or don’t buy? Buy, but only for the Multiplayer.
- Warren