Halo 3 is (nowadays) just another cog in the wheel of Halo games, but when Halo 3 was released it was one of the biggest releases of all-time. Tons of copies flew out the doors and everyone was antsy to see where the series would go after the huge success of Halo 2.
Gameplay: 9.5
Halo 3 is a relatively high-tech first-person shooter.
As always, Halo 3's multiplayer is masterful. Millions of gamers have logged billions of online games, and there's a reason for that: Halo 3 sticks to the formula - offers up things people will like across a broad spectrum and they offer a multitude of options for people to either pick up and play or become hopelessly devoted to making maps/games that will wind up making it big among the custom gaming community.
Halo 3 could have done a ton of things better, and I've already talked about that in great length, but the bottom line is that it's gameplay concepts are about as solid as you're going to find, and there will be very few shooters that will top Halo's popularity, for a good reason.
I will admit that Halo 3's campaign is probably the best one of the entire series up until Reach, which is supposedly their final game. It features the greatest amount of flexibility, variety and entertaining gameplay. Halo 2's campaign, by comparison, was about as interesting as watching a game of bingo. But still, Halo 3's campaign pales to a game like Modern Warfare 2, in terms of action, excitement and overall craft in creating a really fun experience from front to back.
Their introduction of Forge and Saved Films brought the world of Halo to the next level.
Saved films have essentially been done before, but not in a shooter and not this well. The amount of footage you see on youtube, using the tools such as slow motion and frozen worlds that you can wander, is endless. It's an amazing feature for any fan of the game. I've personally made 6 highlight videos of funny stuff that's happened to me throughout the life of the game.
Forge allowed players to create their own maps and basically their own gameplay concepts.. it was huge and spawned a massive custom gaming community, with a limitless amount of possibilities.
Presentation: 9.5
Halo 3 looks nice - about where you'd expect for the time it was released. Still, the facial movements and overall modeling are pretty poor, so it can detract from the story and characters quite a bit. And as expected, Halo 3 features an amazing musical score.
Theatrics: 5.0
Halo's stories have always been massively overrated. Halo 3 continues that trend, offering up another stock story, told in a very boring way. You can easily play through the campaign and not care about the story one bit, and still get the same gameplay experience. It's just never been a series that tells a good story, or even tells any story in any sort of way that will hold your attention.
Controls: 9.5
Flawless in-game controls. The engine runs really well and you'll very rarely press buttons, something confusing will happen and you'll wonder why the game didn't do what you wanted it to.
The only real complaint that I have is the way they set up Forging. It was more of stacking blocks on top of each other rather than a logical level-editor. It can get goofy when trying to put objects in their place and you'll have a tendency to wrestle with the controls a little bit until you learn all of their little programming rules.
Replay Value: 10.0
If you have Xbox Live and like shooters, it's unlikely you've logged less than 100 games. I've logged somewhere around 10,000 games between Halo 2 and Halo 3. 10,000 games for roughly $120. Can't beat that.
Fun: 9.5
Halo has it's ups and downs, but for the most part you can play it for quite a while and enjoy yourself. There's a large-enough community and enough players to play what you like, whenever you want.
My Overall Rating: 9.6
Appeal and Recommendations
One huge warning about Halo is that to truly get the kind of rating I've spoke of, you really need to have an Xbox Live account and play online. That's 90% of the game, in my mind. If you played Halo and only played the campaign, you're going to think the game sucks and that I'm out of my mind.
If you have Xbox Live and haven't played this - how? And if you don't have Xbox Live, the campaign is at least a little bit entertaining and you might enjoy a few levels of it.
Gameplay: 9.5
Halo 3 is a relatively high-tech first-person shooter.
As always, Halo 3's multiplayer is masterful. Millions of gamers have logged billions of online games, and there's a reason for that: Halo 3 sticks to the formula - offers up things people will like across a broad spectrum and they offer a multitude of options for people to either pick up and play or become hopelessly devoted to making maps/games that will wind up making it big among the custom gaming community.
Halo 3 could have done a ton of things better, and I've already talked about that in great length, but the bottom line is that it's gameplay concepts are about as solid as you're going to find, and there will be very few shooters that will top Halo's popularity, for a good reason.
I will admit that Halo 3's campaign is probably the best one of the entire series up until Reach, which is supposedly their final game. It features the greatest amount of flexibility, variety and entertaining gameplay. Halo 2's campaign, by comparison, was about as interesting as watching a game of bingo. But still, Halo 3's campaign pales to a game like Modern Warfare 2, in terms of action, excitement and overall craft in creating a really fun experience from front to back.
Their introduction of Forge and Saved Films brought the world of Halo to the next level.
Saved films have essentially been done before, but not in a shooter and not this well. The amount of footage you see on youtube, using the tools such as slow motion and frozen worlds that you can wander, is endless. It's an amazing feature for any fan of the game. I've personally made 6 highlight videos of funny stuff that's happened to me throughout the life of the game.
Forge allowed players to create their own maps and basically their own gameplay concepts.. it was huge and spawned a massive custom gaming community, with a limitless amount of possibilities.
Presentation: 9.5
Halo 3 looks nice - about where you'd expect for the time it was released. Still, the facial movements and overall modeling are pretty poor, so it can detract from the story and characters quite a bit. And as expected, Halo 3 features an amazing musical score.
Theatrics: 5.0
Halo's stories have always been massively overrated. Halo 3 continues that trend, offering up another stock story, told in a very boring way. You can easily play through the campaign and not care about the story one bit, and still get the same gameplay experience. It's just never been a series that tells a good story, or even tells any story in any sort of way that will hold your attention.
Controls: 9.5
Flawless in-game controls. The engine runs really well and you'll very rarely press buttons, something confusing will happen and you'll wonder why the game didn't do what you wanted it to.
The only real complaint that I have is the way they set up Forging. It was more of stacking blocks on top of each other rather than a logical level-editor. It can get goofy when trying to put objects in their place and you'll have a tendency to wrestle with the controls a little bit until you learn all of their little programming rules.
Replay Value: 10.0
If you have Xbox Live and like shooters, it's unlikely you've logged less than 100 games. I've logged somewhere around 10,000 games between Halo 2 and Halo 3. 10,000 games for roughly $120. Can't beat that.
Fun: 9.5
Halo has it's ups and downs, but for the most part you can play it for quite a while and enjoy yourself. There's a large-enough community and enough players to play what you like, whenever you want.
My Overall Rating: 9.6
Appeal and Recommendations
One huge warning about Halo is that to truly get the kind of rating I've spoke of, you really need to have an Xbox Live account and play online. That's 90% of the game, in my mind. If you played Halo and only played the campaign, you're going to think the game sucks and that I'm out of my mind.
If you have Xbox Live and haven't played this - how? And if you don't have Xbox Live, the campaign is at least a little bit entertaining and you might enjoy a few levels of it.
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