One of the most anticipated games of the year came out on the Xbox 360 a few weeks ago and I'm just doing a review on it now. What's this game? It's Halo 3. What's the reason for the delay in the review? I've been playing the damn game and didn't want to put it down.Millions of people stood outside of their local game stores at midnight for the release of Halo 3 and I was one of them. It was cold and the line was long. I grabbed my copy and raced home to fire it up. From that moment on, my days and nights have been filled with Master Chief mayhem and online multiplayer massacre.
Graphics:
Halo 3 does not disappoint in the graphics area. The Halo series is one of the most beautiful games in Microsoft's line-up. That's one of the things that drew me to the game.
The game makes full use of the graphical power of the Xbox 360. The huge areas and detailed background seems endless. There's not much else I can say other than this is a gorgeous game.
Gameplay:
There have been some modifications and additions to the vehicles and arsenal. One example is the Spiker, which is an automatic pistol that fires quickly and destroys opponents, especially if you're dual-wielding it. Another is the mauler, which is a one-handed shotgun for up close pwnage. You'll even find weapons that will slow your movement speed due to the huge size of them. When you use these weapons, the camera pulls out to a third-person perspective with an over the shoulder view. Then there's the gravity hammer which was originally shown in Halo 2 but wasn't usable by the player. The gravity hammer is a large melee weapon that will totally wipe out most regular enemies in one swipe. All in all, the gameplay seems familiar while adding in some new features to keep things fresh.
Online multiplayer is a blast, allowing up to 16 player to go at it. The only downfall, in my opinion, about this feature is that you can't host a game for other to see and join like the previous installments to the series. Someone from your friends list has to be invited or someone that you invited can, in turn can invite someone from their friends list. I guess this is a good way to keep assholes and idiotic kids out of your game, but what about those who have little to no one on their list? Not every member of Xbox Live has an overflowing friends list. Some just want to log on, jump into a quick open game, and be done with it after that.
An addition to the multiplayer called the Forge puts map creation in the hands of the player. This mode allows you to change the geometry of the land and spawn equipment, weapons, and vehicles on the fly. This is a plus because the player can manipulate the gameplay in ways not intended by the developer.
Halo 3 has a strong co-op campaign mode that definitely has replay value. Unlike Halo 2, which only allowed two player co-op, Halo 3 brings four players into the campaign via Xbox Live. I guess Bungie learned from Cliffy B.'s fumble. You and three comrades can choose to go through the nine chapters in any order, provided you've already played through it alone. You can also turn on scoring in campaign mode, in which you earn points for kills and lose them for dying. This brings a sense of competition to the co-op that awards achievements for finishing chapters with high point totals. You can also customize the game by turning on unlockable modifiers that open up as you collect hidden skulls that are stashed around the game. For example, you can increase the amount of damage it takes beat an enemy for and/or remove the heads-up display and make your weapon visable, and so on.
A file-sharing function has been added to send screenshots and saved films over Xbox Live. The last 25 or so sessions are saved automatically and you can choose to save them more permanently from there. You can edit the films, showing highlights of your gameplay from the solo campaign to the various multiplayer modes. The camera is not locked to your perspective. You can switch to another player's view or move the camera around the whole battle to add a different viewpoint to your film. Being able to record and share your films is a great addition to the game, but I have to say that the rewinding sucks. You can fast-forward to whatever point in the video you want, but if you overshoot your mark, then good luck rewinding because it's not happening easily.
Overall, Halo 3 is a solid game and loads of fun. It's definitely better than Halo 2. The game may take the average player between 10-15 hours to complete depending on the difficulty setting. Here's the big question though. Is Halo 3 a system seller for Microsoft? I'd have to say no. Don't get me wrong. It's a great game and definitely worth buying if you already have an Xbox 360, but I think the only people who will run out to buy the system just to play this game are those diehard Halo fans, and who are we kidding... those people probably already had/have the system and were waiting for the game to come out. If you want to talk system-seller then check back after Mass Effect comes out and we'll see what's what then.
Labels: Douceswild, Halo3, Videogames, XBox-360, XBox-Live
« Home