Halo 3
September 23,2007 - Hype, excitement, brand merchandising, and millions of people waiting anxiously for their pre-orders. Countless others hoping the game fails. And through the forum battles of it all, Bungie promising they’ve made the best game they ever have. This is the Halo 3 phenomenon. And after milking the game for all it's worth, what were we left with? A messy narrative, mixed bag of graphics, mostly superb audio, and fully satisfying multiplayer. After you finally finish the fight, you’ll feel two clicks shy of disappointment.

The story begins with Master Chief falling an incredible distance back to Earth (in typical Chief fashion). Sergeant Johnson and a squad of Marines find you in the jungle, mangled and locked inside your MJOLNIR armor. Just as they are about to carry you away, you rise and grab your assault rifle. From where, exactly, did you jump? Did you read the (as of now) unfinished comic series covering the time between Halo 2 and 3? Even if you did, the story is still sub-par. Odd, considering the previous two titles carried such compelling plots. Even Halo 2, while having one of the most disappointing endings in gaming history, was able to start afresh after Halo: Combat Evolved cut off its small story arc within the trilogy. This is what hurts Halo 3 most. Newcomers to the series with no Halo experience will be lost within the game. Most missions coincide with typical Halo protocol, but there’s just something a bit off kilter with this one. 

Throughout the game, you’ll be forced to slow down as images of Cortana speak to you. Some parts are rehashes of the original E3 trailer but most of it is new. In a game that’s dependent upon its fast pace, this completely screws gameplay. Granted, it won’t do it mid-battle, but it’s still a shoe-horned plot device that wasn’t thought-out. We’re supposed to find it mysterious and compelling, but it fails every time. Stopping the Prophet of Truth from finding the Ark is still your main priority. Should he find the Ark, he'll be able to activate all the Halos, thus ending all life. Because that was set up in Halo 2, the story feels more like a limb than a fully formed entity--which is the result of the focus on "finishing the fight," rather than deepening the Halo lore and taking us in new directions. It's not necessarily a bad thing, as Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill proved (it was originally meant to be one long film). But even with its preset place in the trilogy, Halo 3 doesn't fall in line in a compelling way, and it hurts the game in the end. The culmination of cutscenes and Cortana inserts makes for a mediocre story telling device. And the all-important ending seems more like a cop-out. It isn’t horrendous, but we sure as hell deserve better. It's an appropiate ending--but also just enough to get by, rather than impress us.

Throughout the game, you will be able to find terminals to access. Accessing a terminal shows you coded information that provides a backstory to other battles. It is a nod to Bungie’s older Marathon series and quite the unnecessary one as it doesn’t fit the Halo world at all. Skulls are available to pick up as well and can be activated when going back into the game. The metagame scoring varies between difficulties. There isn't much of a point to it other than another competitive element to add to the game; which, we suppose, is just fine by some.

One thing that’s still fresh in this third installment is the gameplay itself. It’s much smoother and more streamlined than in the previous titles. There's more of a super soldier feeling with your controls (you can also tell now that you are clearly taller than everybody else). Weapons are balanced well and nothing seems to be too far off from their beta counterparts. The Brute Spiker was toned down just a notch, and Needler effects are much more blatant this time; when you pump them full of needles, it will send them flying off. Sword lovers may find its visual placement to be slightly irritating. Instead of being down in the corner, it now obstructs half of the screen and doesn’t work any better. The newly introduced Brute Hammer works great and provides an appropriately small delay as you get ready to swing. The vehicles received a major upgrade since the beta--driving a mongoose is much easier and faster to pick up on and the Warthog is as fun as ever. New to the mix are the Hornet (the UNSC’s answer to the Banshee), Brute Chopper (similar to a Ghost), and the Prowler (similar to Halo 2’s Spectre). All three handle well, but the Chopper and Hornet can prove to be finicky at times.

Halo 3’s AI was a major selling point for Bungie during the development process and the final product turned out a bit different from what was promised. Your soldiers are much more effective this time around, and they won’t get themselves killed before you fire a shot, which was great to finally witness. Enemy AI, which is supposed to react differently almost every time, didn’t. The only way we got them to react differently was when we knocked off a Brute’s armor, egging him on to hunt us down. On a positive note, it is somewhat exciting to see a Brute knock everything out of the way to get to you. They’ll also climb around and dive to avoid death, which is more obvious on higher difficulties.

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