To give you something to get you going, here is a review that I started, but never finished due to work and the inability to get screen shots. I have a better one of Fallout 3 coming soon, I am currently refining and adding meat to the bones of the review.
Introduction
Halo 3 is the conclusion to the massively popular Halo series. It once again puts you into the role of the Master Chief, a genetically enhanced super soldier that is bred for combat and built for war. The war for earth has begun and it's up to you to save it from the Covenant, a collective race of aliens that is bent on mankind's destruction. Use over 16 weapons, 3 grenades, and 7 vehicles to deal out punishment to all Covenant force that dare to stand in your path. When the first Halo came out, Bungie had a killer app and didn't even know it, when it launched with the Xbox in 2001, it was pretty much THE reason to buy an Xbox. It developed such a huge fan base that they had to make more games, whether they intended to or not. Halo: Combat Evolved was a tough act to follow, but Bungie promised that Halo 2 was going to be "The Best Game Ever", so we all waited till 2004 to see it released. Unfortunately, with the time and hardware constraints, they failed miserably, and came out with a game largely unchanged from the first, worse than that, they left you with a cliffhanger ending not long into the game. Now Bungie is back with the hardware constraints removed by the power of the Xbox 360 and they had plenty of time to make the game, so lets move on and see how they did.
[subheading]Back Story[/subheading]
Halo: Combat evolved tells the story of the Master Chief, an AI construct named Cortana, and the crew of the command ship "The Pillar of Autumn". The Covenant, then consisting of Hunters, Elites, Jackals, and Grunts, had attacked the planet Reach, a highly advanced research colony that was home to nearly 100 Spartan II's. The Pillar of Autumn made an emergency blind warp jump out of the system and wound up at a Covenant holy ring that they referred to as "Halo". The Pillar of Autumn's commander, Capitan Keys, crash landed his crippled cruiser on the ring and ordered the crew to abandon ship. The Covenant and Humans found clues that the ring world was actually a weapon and both sides sought to have it. Unfortunately for them, the weapon was a biological parasite called "The Flood" that was created by a long extinct race called the "Forerunners". The Flood spreads by infesting any living host, transforming them into horrible, mindless creatures with one thing in mind....escaping the ring world and destroying the universe. The Master Chief then sought to destroy the flood with the help of 343 Guilty Spark, the monitor of the installation. 343 Guilty Spark told the Chief that the ring was a weapon that was used to destroy the flood, what he did not tell him was the method of destruction, the only way to eliminate the Flood, was to destroy it's food source, any living thing in the galaxy. The Master Chief and Cortana devised and executed a plan to use the engines of The Pillar of Autumn to destroy the ring world. It worked to perfection, the installation was destroyed while the Chief escaped in a small starfighter.
In Halo 2 we rejoin the Master Chief as he defends Earth from the Covenant and we are introduced to the Brutes, a huge brutish race that has joined the Covenant, as well as the Arbiter, the Elite that failed defending Halo. Shamed and convicted of heresy, he made an oath to destroy the ones that destroyed Halo and now has one purpose, to kill the Chief. The story jumps back and forth between story lines because you play as both the Chief and the Arbiter. All in all, the Arbiter is trying to kill the Chief and the Chief is trying to stop the Covenant. The story takes you back to another Halo where the Prophet of Truth, the covenant's leader, primes all of the Halos for firing and the Arbiter delays it with the help of the human forces. The Elites rebelled against the Covenant when the Brutes took over as the primary protectors of the Prophets. The Chief on the other hand meets up face to face with Gravemind, the central brain behind the flood. He escapes, but had to leave Cortana behind. It ends for the Chief as he heads back to Earth to help stop the Covenant from destroying his home planet.
[subheading] Graphics[/subheading]
This is one of the better looking Xbox 360 games that I have seen to date. They did a spectacular job with the colors, which really helps the graphics to blend well, it's not bland like the last Halo's, or the highly acclaimed Gears of War. While the engine is showing age, they used tricks like color blending and bump mapping to keep it looking crisp and sharp. It's no where near next gen quality, but it's decent enough to be passable in todays gaming market. Bungie did do a stand up job making sure that the environment is as close to Earth as possible. The jungle looks like a jungle, it's thick and confusing, rather than an easy path, newer games like Crysis do it better, but it's still a nice addition from the barren landscapes that the previous Halos provided. It does have some Oblivion like vegetation "fade in", but that is to be expected with so many plants to render and not enough graphic power. The textures are very nicely done, even at closer distances and I rarely saw any jagged lines or blurred skins covering the rocks. Almost everything is bump mapped, so it has a certain depth to it that it refreshing. The enemies have been completely redone, adding much more detail to them as well as destructible armor and body parts. You can shoot the methane tanks right off from the grunts and watch them explode, which in turn sets off the grenades around him, it's a very nice touch to the game as well as a battlefield advantage. The Brutes' armor will pop off and fall to the ground when shot, revealing their flesh and allowing you to strike the mortal blow. The objects in the game are no longer fixed down, now if there is a concrete block, you simply bash it out of your way. The enemies use this to their advantage as well, if you are hiding behind a crate, they will knock the crate away to get at you. This is all brought to you by the highly acclaimed Havok physics engine.
The level design is top notch this time, in most places, there are at least two paths that you can take to give you the advantage. There are rivers and waterfalls that run through the jungle as well as the usual cliffs that mark the end of the map. It's still very linear, but not to the extent that you usually find in first person shooters, you can find alternate ways to deal with nearly every situation. There are plenty of indoor and outdoor environments to explore and each area is new, not a carbon copy of the last area. The lighting is MUCH better than the previous Halo's, the flashlight is actually needed at times and the shadowing is much more extensive. The trees and rocks cast canopy shadows down on you and the enemies have their own shadows that act realistically. It looks very good whether you are running on a 480I TV or a 1080I HDTV, but it obviously looks better in HD flavor. It usually runs at a solid 30FPS, but when the action gets thick, it can slow to a snail crawl. This is very noticeable in the last mission when I frequently saw near slide show frame rates, which was quite frustrating considering amount of control required to get past the last part of the game. One of the main marvels is how they got split screen co-op to run so smooth while not sacrificing quality, points to Bungie for this feat since co-op is one of the best parts of Halo.
[subheading]Sound[/subheading]
As always the sound and musical score is beyond impressive, I actually get cold chills at some of the music. They really took a lesson from the Call of Duty series for the battlefield sounds. The Brutes are constantly barking orders to the terrified grunts, the gunships are roaring in and dropping off the troops and the explosions of grenades completely immerses you into the game. Everything is exactly as you would imagine it if you were on a futuristic battlefield. Weapon sounds are pretty accurate and the alien weapon sounds are how you would imagine them, the frag grenades and rockets boom when they strike home. The music is always perfect for the mood and whats happening on screen. Bungie has their own orchestra performing the music, so it sounds like a movie soundtrack. It's fun to listen to your marines while in combat, some of their phrases will crack you up, one of my personal favorites that had me laughing is "You're headin for a spreadin", also notable is their reaction if you die. On thing that I really miss is that the cut scene dialog doesn't change with the difficulty anymore, that was something that I really enjoyed from the first two. All of this is begging to be heard on a 5.1 surround setup, but still manages to sound good on the single TV speaker of a cheap TV. It's hard to talk about sound, but Halo is among the top five for game audio.
[subheading]Gameplay[/subheading]
At it's core, Halo is a fairly bare bones shooter, if thats all it had going for it, it probably wouldn't be all that great. You can carry two weapons, or two dual wielded with one holstered, you have 4 types of grenades at your service and you can carry two of each. The Chief wears a powered armor suit that has a recharging shield unit on it. If you take damage, you simply duck behind cover and wait for them to recharge, this system is much like Call of Duty 2, Gears of war, or Crysis. Vehicles play a big part of the game too, you have quite a few to choose from and they are all easy to control. Your enemies and allies will also get in the drivers seat and they are quite skilled, so watch out. Halo veterans rejoice, the game play remains largely unchanged from the first two games, there are a few new additions, such as the deployable items, but nothing major has been changed. The controls are one down from a keyboard/mouse combination, the right thumb stick is used for aiming, while the left stick is used for moving. This combination works very well for the game, but it feels dumbed down from the last two which were very crisp and precise, I had to turn the sensitivity all the way up to get the type of response that I am used to. I do have to gripe about the changing of the reload button from X to RB, I cussed more times because I deployed my equipment when I meant to reload. Would it have been THAT hard to allow the user to map their own keys rather than the pre-mapped options that they supply? The aiming system is a problem, Bungie decided to add an auto aim feature that can REALLY mess you up at times due to it tracking an enemy. It's an annoyance that CAN be helpful to beginners, but should be disabled on the higher difficulties, because nine times out of ten, it gets in the way for an experienced player. Again would it have been that hard to make it an option?
The AI is MUCH better on this installment, the grunts are shockingly aggressive and use terrain advantages, like high ground and cover, they also flank your position and are generally a pain to deal with in large numbers. I have even seen them attach live grenades to themselves and make a suicide run at you when you can't retreat. The brutes juke and jive unlike any other AI that I have seen, I would actually prefer to go one on one in an open space with them, rather than in a jungle environment because they use cover so well. They issue orders very well and are to be respected, especially on the harder difficulties. The Brutes will also use deployable items like bubble shields if you have a sniping advantage, or have them wounded. You will see the occasional AI brain fart though, like when a brute will deploy a bubble shield, just to make a kamikaze charge at you. Thankfully, they are much less "Psychic" than before. The jackal snipers no longer know exactly where you are and wait for you to show yourself. Sniping is much easier since they don't move the second you get your sights of them. The flood have returned in this installment, but have been reworked. They aren't near as tough as they used to be, but they make up for that in sheer numbers. To make matters worse, if you kill them and the flug spores reach them, they will reanimate. You must melee them to pieces before moving on, or they will be after you again. Thankfully, they are much easier to kill and are no longer impervious to melee attacks. Much improved in this installment is the Marine AI and toughness. They are much better about finding cover and using tactics, such as flanking and mass grenade use, plus they can take quite a beating before dieing. They rarely rush in and get killed and and are genuinely useful, I actually enjoyed having them around, rather than them being an annoyance. Although they can take much more damage than before, they will still die pretty quickly when the difficulty gets ramped up to heroic or higher. A new addition to the series is the Arbiter, a shamed elite from the second game, he is your partner for most of the missions and is quite useful. He is nearly indestructible and if he dies, he respawns when the area is clear, much like in the co-op game. Be warned that if you put the difficulty on Legendary, he is dies very quickly because of an AI flaw, once he runs out of ammunition, he charges with an energy sword and usually gets killed in a microsecond. It's sad to see this type of behavior since the rest of the NPC AI is excellent.
Co-op remains nearly unchanged, except that instead of two Spartans, you have the Chief and Arbiter playing. Something that has returned from the first Halo is no penalty deaths. If one dies while the other lives, you will respawn without reloading to the last checkpoint. Some dislike this feature and others love it. I for one love it, it makes the game playable again, so you aren't relying on your friend not to die. They should have made it an option that can be turned off, but it's not that big of a deal.
[subheading]Story[/subheading]
The story is one of the main things that Halo has going for it. It shows you an impossible situation and give you a character thats good enough to get out of that situation. It's an uphill battle that began in the first one and "finishes" in this one, it's a rare shooter that requires a story and they deliver it with cinema quality perfection. If you are a fan of the games, then you have probably read all of the back story that has been offered in the books and they all blend together perfectly to create a complete story. f not, then you need to go get the first two games as well as the books, it's well worth it to learn the story of the game. In my opinion, Halo is the best story since Star Wars, only with Halo, you get to play the story and be the character, rather than just watching it happen.
Hal 3 picks up with the Chief returning to Earth and with the help of the Arbiter, he must stop the Prophet of Truth from finding an ancient Forerunner artifact called the Ark, which is extremely valuable to the Covenant, because it's the firing station for the remaining Halos. The focus of the story is primarily around the Chief, rather than the split story of Halo 2, but there are a few cases when the Arbiter comes into play. I can't tell you much without it being a spoiler, but it pans out nicely.
