Halo 3 - my mini review

[Scotracer]

Halo 3 - I believe in finishing a fight

As most of you know I picked up Halo 3 early, from the UK retailer Argos. I do not have enough superlatives to describe my feelings at that moment. Disbelief would probably come closest. I had, in my hands the most anticipated game of all time - before anyone else. It was quite something.

So, in light of my luck, I bring you a mini-review of the game (and before the online reviewers -- HA!).

Outline

When you place the fabled disk into your 360, you are welcomed by the usual "Microsoft Games Studio" splash screen. Nothing out of the ordinary, and then follows is the Bungie Studios screen. So far, so normal.

When the title screen loads, you are overlooking the excavation site, which will be familiar to those who have watched the E3 '06 trailer religiously. It looks identical, apart from only the blue-spectrum of colours being visible. Very appealing to the eye. The first thing that strikes you, is not the options on the screen (which I will come to later), it is the music. Marty O'Donnell is a master and a genius. He knows how to create a proper atmosphere through sound. The menu music will be familiar to Halo regulars...but don't think it's the same piece. I can leave the game on the title menu and just listen to the orchestral sounds and choir singing...as sad as that sounds. As a matter of fact, Halo 3 is sitting on the menu screen as I type this.

Now, for people that actually want to play the game (phillistines), the options on the menu are:

Start Solo Game
Campaign
Matchmaking
Custom Games
Forge
Theater

Each of the options (bar Start Solo game) will load a lobby. These lobbies are the heart of Halo 3. Almost everything is controlled from them. If you have, for instance a party of people, when you want to switch to Forge, from Campaign (co-op, obviously) you just press "Switch Lobby" from inside any of them and tada, your whole group is moved. Very slick. This even works when going to Theater lobbies.

Campaign

For many Halo veterans and fanboys alike, Campaign is the soul of the game. When you first load campaign you are welcomed by a very familiar voice, and she gives a short speech about Master Chief, of which will be very familiar to those who have read the novels.

After the opening cinematic (which is one of the best I have ever seen), you are in Sierra 117. If you're running HD...this is the time to go get your diapers/nappies ready. When you are in control of your character, you can see a crash site, with God-rays coming through the canopy and smoke. HOLY **** O_O. It is downright spectacular.

The mission then unfolds from there. I started out on Heroic, since that was my favourite difficulty from Halo:CE and 2. It is hard. Very hard, in fact. Around almost every corner you are greated with a Brute Chieftain and his Grunt minions. What you have to look out for are the Jackal Snipers. Oh yes, they are back. They have had some attention, though. You will notice they carry Covenant Carbines, instead of Beam Rifles (for the most-part) so you aren't dead STRAIGHT away...just 1 or 2 seconds later.

From the out-set you can tell the Brutes have been overhauled. Before you engage them, they stand generally on the highest perch, showing their pragmatic nature and blind arrogance for snipers

I won't give anymore away, but I will confirm that this game isn't a 6 hour sprint, if you play it on a proper difficulty.

Matchmaking

Matchmaking was up for a short time on Thursday evening. I played what must have been one of the first Halo 3 Xbox Live matches. For that I feel spesul

It works very similarly to Halo 2's online system. You can create a Party of friends and jump into matchmaking -- which is properly rank-regulated so veterans don't go up against casuals.

Anyone familiar with the Beta, will know the score.

There are more game-modes than the Beta. They range from Free-for-all deathmatches to Tactical/Objective team games. One thing I am partially disappointed in is the fact that the biggest playlist in terms of team size is 12 (6v6); Big Team Battle. On a map the size of Sandtrap...that will be rather strange.

Custom Games

There are a plethora of options in this mode; from gravity, to player speed all the way up which team has the most shields. Without many people on my friends list, I cannot say much about them as I've only played 10 or so...but from what I've done so far, it is epic on a whole new level.

Side-note: If you don't like the Halo Jump-or-die style, just put gravity to 150% and it will play like COD

Forge

I could go into a 10,000 word report on the workings of Forge, but I will keep it brief here.

Basically, when you load a map in Forge, you can see everything that can be done in it. Spawn points, weapon caches and vehicles. All of these can be edited.

The fun part of Forge, however is the fact that upto 8 people can edit the game AT ONCE. It basically turns it from being a map editor, into a carnage-fest. Someone's in a Hornet and is straifing your position? No problem, spawn a couple of Spartan Lasers for you and your team-mates!

Theater

This is the feature of the game I was always a bit suspicious about. Would it be useful? Would I EVER use it? The answer is HELLS YEAH! It is so amazing to go look at that triple kill you got, but from the victim's perspective.

So, the fabled score:

Graphics: 9.5/10 - Only the aliasing lets the game down
Sound: 10/10 - Amazing spacial environments and music
Gameplay: 10/10 - Tweaked to perfection - Halo's strong-point
Longevity: 10/10 - For a shooter, this game has almost infinite possibilities
Online: 10/10 - Halo IS online...

Overall: 9.9/10 - Only the slight aliasing puts dampening on the gorgeous visuals, but with slightly better dialogue...this would be a perfect game. Can a game be perfect? Halo 3 certainly tries...

[Derek]

I think you over rated it.

You should've just sold it on ebay for a ton, lol.

[Don_Rico]

Good job Scotty

[Wickedone82]

Great Review ! I cant wait for midnight tomorrow i will get to experiance it all first hand finally !

I need my AA! jaggies are for the ***s.

Ill pick this game up during the week at some stage, sounds decent. And whats this about Argos? Theres loads of Argos here they still selling early?

[Scotracer]

I think the game is actually 1080p native, which would account for the aliasing. Unfortunately it's hard to find out if the game is 1080p native.

Grr.

[Quiz]

Good job scot can't wait to get this game tommorow night.

[hollywood21639]

Tuesday at 12:01 will be a sweet moment indeed.

[friedkarma]

Thanks for the write up, Scott. I'll can't wait to pop this in the disc tray.

[Råge Øf Wª®]

oh wow, thx...

[FLANKER 5]

wow you are the man scotty .......good review, but damn you! i still have to wait till tuesday!!!