Alright, I've purchased every version of Halo since it was released on PC back in '03, I've loved each and every one, the story has been great, the gameplay has been superb, and the multiplayer has been hours of fun.

This game does what all the previous installments have done, but not quite as good.

There is nothing wrong with the gameplay, it's virtually the same, all the old weapons and vehicles are there along with new ones, and the way Master Chief moves is the same. The campaign is just a bit too short for my liking, however.

The atmosphere is excellent, the Flood levels are wonderfully creepy, the beautiful soundtrack, the superb voice acting all make for an epic experience.
There is one point in the game where a traumatized Marine mourns the loss of two friends infected by the Flood whom he had to kill was a scene that was, while not important to the story, made that level that much more upsetting. little things like this are an excellent addition.

The graphics are good enough, but it suffers from what most "Next-gen" games do: Bloom effects, too much, too bright. Nothing intolerable.

The multiplayer is fun as always, the new vehicles and game modes (Zombie, finally) make for hours of fun, the only hindrance is also on all Live games: Kids, screeching profanities and trash-talking you in prepubescent tones, put them on mute if you have Live.

Now, my only real quarrel with this game: the story.

The storytelling is excellent and it progresses seamlessly. The ending, not so much. (No spoilers, don't worry)

For those of us who have loved the Harry Potter series for the last however many years were quite upset when JK Rowling decided to slaughter many main characters, it seems Bungie has decided to pull the same stunt.
I won't reveal who dies, I'll just say too many, I'm hoping I'm not the only guy to cry at the end. I honestly can't think of a worse way to end the series, see it for yourself, the extent of the problem can't be seen unless you play through the series.

It is an excellent game, but the ending will no doubt disappoint, multiplayer will continue to entertain.
Let's get this out of the way right now....Halo 3 does not revolutionize nor change the face of FPS gaming. There I said it.

With that out of the way, Bungie's Halo 3 is an amazingly fun experience that brings the Halo trilogy to a close. Like other "Space Operas" of its ilk, the Halo storyline is a very confusing one, especially if you have never been exposed to the previous Halo games, the books or the graphic novels. However this in no way affects the fun factor of Halo 3.

Let's start with the graphical department. It is my personal opinion that each Halo offering has had quite amazing graphics. The original Halo: Combat Evolved, stunned gamers on the Xbox. It had some of the best graphics on the Xbox at the time and rivaled every game in terms of graphical beauty on the console market. Halo 2 had upgraded graphics from its predecessor that were equally impressive and garnered a top spot as one of the Xbox's best games graphically.
Halo 3 has some amazing graphics, but it is in no way THE best Xbox 360 game in graphical terms. That title still remains with Gears of War.
However one cannot ignore the beauty of Halo 3. Water effects are simply stunning; water both reflects and refracts light and objects in real time and reacts when a character or vehicle moves through it. Water crashes up against and flows around rocks and other objects.

The flora and fauna of certain levels is simply astounding: the first level has you fighting through a jungle and it looks simply gorgeous. Plants react to gunfire, if you walk over a plant it moves like a plant would if being walked over or brushed. Butterflies and bugs can be visibly seen going about their daily lives.

The lighting system is probably one of the best on the 360; light reflects off of vehicles, weapons and other metallic surfaces in just the right way, yet it does not give you that "over gloss" shiny effect that so many new games are offering these days (think Perfect Dark Zero). Objects and character models cast shadows in real time, and they look pretty realistic.

The alien enemies look absolutely awesome. Their armor is incredibly detailed and light reflects off it and their skin models look really good and believable. Similarly The Flood, which is another enemy in the game, look horrid and exactly what you would expect a parasite to look like.

The level designs are equally as impressive. Alien technology has never looked so stunning. Desert levels resemble barren wastelands and the jungle areas, as previously stated, are amazing. The levels also never really get repetitive; a problem of all the previous Halo games.
The vehicles, of which there are plenty of in the game, look equally amazing.

The cutscenes look simply astounding and are most definitely next generation stuff.

The one flaw, and it is a pretty big one, is that the human characters look lifeless and grotesque, and its painfully obvious that Bungie spent much more time on all of the other aspects of the game and neglected the human models. Their faces look rigid and linear, their eyes look downright weird, and their body's look awkward.

As far as gameplay goes you can expect a very easy to control FPS. Halo benchmarked the FPS controls for console gaming way back with the original Halo. Bungie made FPS gaming fun. Firefights, depending on which level of difficulty you decide to play on, are downright intense; if you are playing on the Heroic or Legendary difficulty there is a literal downpour of enemies as each wave of them is replenished by enemy drop ships.

One of the greatest aspects of the Halo games are the assortment of hidden goodies that Bungie has cleverly placed throughout the game, and Halo 3 has its share of them. The infamous "skulls" (there are golden ones and silver ones) that were located in hard to reach places in Halo 2 make their return, and they are found in equally hard to reach and sometimes impossible places (meaning that if you were not looking for them there is probably no way that you would be able to find a good majority of them). These skulls, when activated will alter the game play in some way. For example there is a skull that, when turned on, will award the player with a chorus of children screaming "yay!" and confetti if he/she scores a successful head shot. Another skull upgrades all enemies to their highest ranking (military wise), making them tougher. There is also a skull that doubles the amount of health the enemies have, a skull that takes away your HUD( Heads up display) and a skull that makes explosions much more grand.
There is even a skull that changes the game in subtle but very enjoyable ways, and this skull is also the hardest skull to get in the game, forcing the player to think outside of the box to attain it.

Also, Halo 3 introduces the Meta-game the Halo series, which really adds replay value to the campaign mode. The Meta-game is like an "arcade mode" where you get points for each kill (more points for stylish kills), and when in conjunction with activated skulls a player can really rack up the points. The meta-game is a really cool addition in that it challenges the player to hone and improve their skills, which will help them with the online multiplayer portion of Halo 3.

The multiplayer is basically the big attraction for most Halo fans, as the game play is intense, fast paced and features all of the weapons and vehicles of the campaign. There are many different multiplayer games to play as well. The game types range from classic Free For All and team deathmatch to more original team games like Capture the Flag and Oddball.
Overall the multiplayer is fun but not the greatest online multiplayer available.

For achievement hunters there is much to be found. A good chunk of the achievements are for mutliplayer (kill x amount of players with x weapon), or completing each mission and beating the game on Normal, Heroic and Legendary. The other achievements are more original. There are achievements for finding the golden skulls and there are achievements for scoring insane amounts of points in the meta-game.

I have only covered a small range in this review of what Halo 3 has to offer. There is a lot to do and I cannot see anyone getting bored with this game right away, this is of course unless you are just interested in beating the game, this can easily be accomplished on Easy or Normal with ease. However, if played on Heroic or Legendary a solo player will have quite the time beating the game, as some fights get so intense they will find themselves dying a lot. The skulls, Meta-game and online multiplayer are more than enough to keep Halo 3 in the 360 consoles across America for a long time.
Halo 3 more than ever deserves all the hype it has received. The game is an outstanding example of gameplay mixed with storytelling in a manner that draws the player in, in such a manic, unrelenting intensity that sets the bar very high, almost impossibly high, for other game developers seeking to dethrone the king of first-person shooters (fps).

The reviews garnered by Halo 3 tell it all:

"On 9/25 the Xbox 360 received a new game from Microsoft Game Studios titled Halo 3. Since then 23 sites and magazines have reviewed it including Gamer 2.0, Game Informer, GameSpy and IGN. Together their reviews have resulted in an average ratio of 95.9%. That ratio has resulted in this title becoming the 4th best game of all time and the 1st best game on the Xbox 360." [ http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/926632.asp ]

Halo 3's multiplayer is second to none. It offers all sorts of match-making options and gametypes. Bungie did their homework and delivered in spades. Halo 3 will be played for years to come. Believe!



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