3
- Reviewed on: Xbox 360 (viewed on an HP PL4200N 42-inch plasma TV in 720p mode)
- Also available for: N/A
- The Good: It's got all of the best bits from the first two games and almost none of the bad; Theater mode is the ultimate way to keep shoving your greatest multiplayer game moments in your friends' faces; the Forge is sure to generate some wildly entertaining videogame physics experiments on YouTube
- The Bad: Players hoping for groundbreaking advances in game design will probably be disappointed. Oh...and if shooting and/or pistol whipping scads and scads of aliens isn't your bag, you're kind of out of luck
- The Verdict: The most anticipated game of the year is short on Earth-shattering innovation, but loaded with well-balanced, finely tuned, ass-kicking action
Halo 3 is the best new game you've already played. Twice.
The third and purportedly final game in Microsoft's flagship series, which sees Master Chief, everyone's favourite sci-fi super-soldier, fending off multiple alien forces invading Earth (the rudimentary space opera narrative doesn't require much more of an explanation than that), fires on all cylinders; every weapon is fun to shoot, every vehicle is a blast to drive, and every level is a hoot to fight through.
It's just not particularly innovative. Developer Bungie appears to have gone into the design process aiming not to think up lots of new ways to play Halo, but rather to enhance and refine all of the ways in which we played the first two games.
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I hastily add that this isn't a bad thing; millions of the people who played Halo and Halo 2 are undoubtedly hoping for nothing more than to relive past videogame glory, and Halo 3 will give them the chance to do just that—and have more fun than ever before in the process. I simply mean to say that the game is more an exercise in perfecting an existing entity rather than creating a new one. Don't go in looking for any ground shaking breakthroughs and you'll have a Halo of a time.
Designed to delight
Halo 3 couldn't fail to be fun. As the focus of what was probably the most comprehensive quality assurance program ever conducted for a game, Bungie analyzed thousands of hours of play tester game data to identify any potentially un-fun spots, then carefully inserted more fun, tested it again, and repeated the process.
All of this QC did its job. Nearly every moment I spent playing Halo 3 was entertaining. There's just the right amount of claustrophobic first-person combat and epic, open battlefield fighting. Circumstances change constantly, keeping the action fast paced and dynamic—I never got bogged down killing an endless stream of enemies in a repetitive environment (as I often did in the first two games). Plus, I never avoided a weapon or vehicle because I didn't like it or thought it was too weak (another issue in the two preceding games); every tool at Master Chief's disposal can be both effective and gratifying if properly employed.
And there's little trouble figuring how to properly use anything in Halo 3. New equipment has been seamlessly integrated. The first time I hopped into the driver's seat of the motorcycle-like Chopper I didn't even have to think about how to drive it—I just did. Ditto for the devastatingly powerful melee weapon the Gravity Hammer; I simply picked it up and began swinging with extreme satisfaction. New deployable items like the groovy looking bubble shield we've all seen in Halo trailers are equally simple to use, even if they don't play as much of a role in the campaign as some might have hoped.
Meanwhile, returning equipment has been fine tuned for additional fun. The legendary Warthog jeep, for instance, can now power slide at the touch of a button—handy for slamming into big groups of bad guys with the car's broad side. And emplaced guns can be ripped from their mounts and lugged around Schwarzenegger-style, which throws us into a third person view so we can finally admire Master Chief in action as he decimates his enemies.
By the way, he looks great. Bungie's power armour design is second to none; from its reflective golden faceplate to its wide treaded, alien stomping boots, Master Chief's combat suit is one of the finest costumes ever donned by a videogame character. It even shows signs of wear in the form of dents and scratches as the campaign progresses. Pity Bungie hasn't a similar knack for human faces—the mugs of returning characters Sergeant Johnson and Commander Keyes are downright ugly.
A guaranteed YouTube content generator
It took less than seven hours for me to plough through the campaign mode on normal difficulty, but this relatively quick play time isn't as much of an issue as you might think.
Bungie has introduced four-player online co-operative play in Halo 3, along with statistics tracking and scoring, which provides ample motivation to play through the campaign multiple times with your friends (in which case campaign brevity can be seen as a strength).
Besides, if the nearly two billion hours (I'm not making that unfathomable number up—it comes from Microsoft) people have spent shooting each other online in Halo 2 is any indication, most players will likely spend the majority of their time with Halo 3 in multiplayer fragfests anyway.
Instead of messing around too much with Halo2's multiplayer modes, map types, or matchmaking methods (Bungie's clever way of ensuring we play against opponents of equal skill)—both of which continue to act as benchmarks for multiplayer first-person shooter game design—Bungie focused instead on introducing elements meant to enhance the social experience.
One of the most accessible and enticing of these is Theater, a feature that gives players the ability to record, re-watch, and even distribute their favourite game moments as "films," so that when, say, that rocket you fire into the underbelly of a warthog flying off the crest of a hill sends it spinning high into the air as its flailing occupants soar off in all directions, you can upload the scene to Bungie's web site and play it back in slow motion for everyone you work with (A.K.A. the people who were riding in the jeep when it blew up) the next day.
Another new feature is the Forge, a mode in which players can run around any of the game's dozen or so multiplayer maps and remove and add scenery objects, weapons, and vehicles at whim before saving their changes as a custom map. This turns the typically dull task of level editing into a fun and cooperative experience in which you can goof around by shooting your pal for removing a turret you just spent the last few minutes finding the perfect place for.
It also provides the ability for players to easily set up outrageous experiments like the famous Warthog Jump, a stunt carried out and recorded by players with a little too much time on their hands that shows a jeep in the original Halo being blasted into the stratosphere.
However, while the Forge will undoubtedly become the source of many hilarious YouTube videos, it will probably only be used to its full potential by a fraction of players—namely, diehard fanatics willing to spend hours on end just experimenting and not really playing. In other words, while cool, The Forge won't provide much of a tangible benefit to more casual players, save any films they might watch of what other people have created.
The fight is finished ... at least for a while
So, the fight has been finished, the trilogy concluded. The game's satisfying closing scene (it happens after the credits—don't press the X-button to skip them or you'll miss it) leaves little doubt that the Halo storyline has been exhausted.
But don't expect Master Chief to hang up his helmet anytime soon.
We already know that a strategy game set in Master Chief's world called Halo Wars is in the works and will probably be released next year. But it seems likely that a more personal story involving Master Chief is inevitable as well—with the possible exception of Mario, no other videogame character sells consoles quite like Bungie's genetically enhanced mega-marine.
The only question mark is the shape that his next adventure will take. Will it be like Halo, just without the ring worlds? Who will we be fighting? Will Bungie develop it, or will Microsoft hand Master Chief's reins to another studio?
Personally, I hope Bungie moves on to something different. Halo has been great fun, but the core game really hasn't changed much over the franchise's life. I want to see this talented crew of developers set free to create the next iconic Xbox franchise. No disrespect to the Master Chief, but I think he might be starting to hold them back.
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