Microsoft’s prize-winning cash cow certainly provided when it took in $170 million worth of sales on its first day. It smashed its own record of first day sales, beating Halo 2 which made $125 million. Gamers everywhere rejoiced...then many of them shouted in arms as hatred for the Halo series returned. Everyone has something to moan about in regards to the game, but it’s just so damn addictive! So here we are, about to take a look back at Halo 3. We’ll also be charting the evolution of the multiplayer game including a review of the recently released Heroic Map Pack.

Campaign

The single player portion is disappointing. While Halo 2’s story gave you stuff to moan about in comparison to the original, you’ll learn to appreciate Halo 2 after making your way through Halo 3’s 8-9 hour campaign. Yes, I said 8-9 hours. It’s hardly an epic send off to a much beloved trilogy. And while we know Bungie can’t do everything right, looking at Halo 3’s story; it’s hard to see how they couldn’t have fitted much more in.

It’s very hard to appreciate the storyline. It seems very lazy, and hasn’t been greatly thought out like the other games. The variety of levels is kind of dull when compared to the previous games, yet the gameplay still manages to make each battle interesting. The story will keep you glued to your screen, but you probably will wonder why when you finish the game. That being said, the ending is almost perfect.

Halo 3 is missing the mystery that the previous two games had; in particular, the first game. There are no real surprises here and it is disappointing when you compare it to the great joy had un-ravelling Halo 1’s story. The Covenant story arc from Halo 2, which received many mixed opinions, is almost completely dropped from the proceedings, as the Arbiter merely becomes an AI buddy. Even though most players did not enjoy the Arbiter’s playable levels in Halo 2, most players were again on the bandwagon to complain about how cheap it was to see The Arbiter as merely AI. It’s a big disappointment. Halo 2 kept it interesting with dual storylines; yet here, we just pretty much have the one. That being said, all the characters are back. Master Chief still kicks ass, Sergeant (Major) Johnson is still a badass and Cortana is still a hot blue AI...thing. Although, her Halo 2 look is by far the best. The same goes for Johnson.

In actual fact, the graphical style is weird. While Halo 2’s graphics were very cinematic and the faces of the main characters were very good; in Halo 3, they look a bit gormless. Johnson and Miranda Keyes both look different, as well as Cortana. Thankfully it’s not that bad, and the graphics do deliver.  
In HD, the game looks great. Okay, it’s no Gears of War, but let’s face it… Bungie wasn’t setting out to deliver a graphical powerhouse like the previous games were. The graphics deliver fantastic lighting effects.

Halo 3 features fantastic lighting effects

In HD, explosions look gorgeous when against both light and dark backdrops. Without giving too much away, you’ll blow up something big which will result in a beautiful ka-boom! What must be remembered is that Bungie made the game using a modified Halo 2 engine; which makes sense as it does look like Halo 2 in proper HD at times. Although, the native resolution for the game is below 720p - 720p was promised by the folks at Bungie. But unless you are a complete graphics whore, this shouldn’t bother you in the slightest as the game is simply scaled up to 720p.

Audio-wise, the game is a mixed bag. A lot of the sharp AI dialogue isn’t really prominent in the game. Although, we did love the ’password’ sketch from the Red vs. Blue guys - you’ll find it on the second level if you look hard enough. The cutscenes also lack the spark of truly intellectual dialogue. There was plenty to quote from Halo and Halo 2 soon after their releases. But we’re left with next to nothing that we found worthy of a memorable quote within this game. The voice acting, though, is superb as always. But a couple of actors have not come back to reprise their roles; those being the actors to the characters of Miranda Keyes and the Prophet of Truth. While you won’t notice the change in voice actor for Miranda, you’ll most certainly hear the difference in the Prophet of Truth. Although we do love Terence Stamp as an actor, he doesn’t sound anything like Truth’s previous voice (which was played by Michael Wincott).

But the big names such as Ron Pearlman (Lord Hood), Keith David (The Arbiter) and Robert Davi (’Half-Jaw’/Spec-ops Leader/Shipmaster) are back to reprise their roles, as well as the smaller names. Adam Baldwin is the stand out name in the AI marine cast, which also features John Di Maggio (Bender from Futurama and Marcus Fenix from Gears of War). The music is pretty much made up of remixes to classic suites from the first two games. While it is again superb to listen to all these tunes again, we would have liked to have heard some more prominent themes made for the game. The sound effects are still great. All the weapons and vehicles you know and love have the same tune to them; while the new weapons, vehicles and equipment also sound great.

The gameplay is pretty much the saving grace of the campaign. Halo 3 marks the return of the Assault Rifle, which is obviously one of your main starting weapons. It’s a good gun and you can easily take out a group of Covenant if used properly. While there are a few new weapons, none of them really stand out in the single player game. There are a couple of new grenades though: Spike grenades and Incendiary grenades. Spike grenades actually turn out to be better easier to stick than Plasma grenades due to their zippy speed. Yet plasma grenades dish out better area damage than Spike grenades (they provide hardly any); though it’s the Frag grenade that is still definitely the go-to grenade for when you are rushing the enemy. Incendiary grenades only feature towards the end of the game, and they are few and far between. Still, it’s awesome trying to create a ring of fire around the enemy. We reckon Johnny Cash would have been proud.

Equipment is the brand new feature to Halo 3’s already strong gameplay component and, thankfully, it is integrated very wisely. You are allowed to pick up one piece of equipment which includes: Bubble Shields, Regenerators, Trip Mines, Power Drainers and others. The equipment adds a bit more variety to the single player, without unbalancing it in any way. All equipment, minus the trip mine really, eventually runs out. So if a Brute Chieftain decides to plant down a Bubble Shield, you can either wait for it to run out or run in there and take out the enemy. You can, of course, make use of the enemy’s equipment against them too.

"Okay Chief, that was your kill..."

Also included within the Campaign, is co-op mode, though this time, you aren’t restricted to one Xbox. You can play online with up to three other players. The host takes control of Master Chief, while the second player becomes The Arbiter. The other two slots are filled out with a couple of Elites. We could tell you their names, but… it’s like a native English speaker trying to pronounce a Russian name while under the influence. Also, we can’t actually remember their names and don’t really care to be honest, since they are irrelevant to the story. Co-op is good fun for a while, but these days it has lost its appeal. Perhaps Bungie could make use of the 250 extra gamerpoints that they are allowed to hand out through downloadable content, and give some incentive towards more co-op play?

Another feature to the Campaign is a meta-scoring game. Players can either work together or work against each other in four player co-op to see how many points they can get together or how many points they can get ahead of their fellow players. Points are handed out for kills (the bigger, the better) and the way in which they are killed (aiming for the head brings bigger rewards). Skulls can be found in the single player levels, which can all be turned on from the Campaign menu. They all have certain effects and can multiply your meta-game scores when turned on. It’s all very nice, but the shelf life for such a feature as co-op isn’t very long - especially when the single player isn’t as outstanding as the previous campaigns in the series.

That being said, Halo 3’s Campaign mode is still a blast. You’ll enjoy it, but you’ll also feel like there could have been so much more to the game. Click the next page for a review of the Multiplayer portion.