First Glance:
More of the same. But it's Halo so that's a good thing especially when there's new
weapons and vehicles!!
The Short Story:
You' re not going to spend a lot of time on the single player story mode. You're
looking at 6-12 hours to beat the single player game no matter what difficulty level
you play, which is a good thing for the Busy Gamer.
The Score:
I know a lot of review sites are going to give this game top marks but here's the deal,
It's hard not to give this game a Busy Gamer "5". The single player game doesn't
require a lot of time to beat, multiplayer matches are easy to set up and join, and
there's online co-op for even more First Person Shooter-y goodness.
Body of review:
I have to preface this review with a couple of facts. To begin, I'm not a huge FPS fan.
I wasn't real big on the original Halo but the second installment brought me around
with its multiplayer offering and a solid, interesting story at the core. There's going to
be some people out there that disagree with me when I say that Halo 3 just didn't
feel like there was as much time invested in the story as there was in the first two in
the series. I like games with a story at the core, so I was disappointed that the single
player mode didn't really build any more on the story they were telling. Perhaps the
intention was always to have the story climax in Halo 2 where as 3 would be the
clean up, the tying up of loose ends.
Those things being said, Bungie did a fine job on the multiplayer aspect of the game.
There's a campaign mode that allows online co-operative play through the single
player story, a facet that many FPS games fail to offer the genre, along with an easy
to use match making system for competitive play. I like competing against my
friends but there's certainly times when I'd rather sit down and play as a team
against a common enemy so the inclusion of the co-operative campaign was a nice
touch.
The graphics are top notch and the voice acting is well done. Backgrounds are clean
and well designed as are the characters you encounter throughout the game. There
are several points throughout the single player story that I found myself examining
the stunning settings the series has done so well.
I did run into a few problems with the AI in the game as I played through the story line
in both normal and heroic. Enemies sometimes wouldn't respond to my presence
until I was directly on top of them or my computer controlled team mates would
ignore larger threats to their well being in favor of firing on lesser enemies. Several
times my team would charge after one grunt, guns blazing, leaving me to handle the
brigade of Brutes charged through their midst.
I'm disappointed that the story seemed to take second place to the multi-player
portion of the game but Bungie has certainly raised the bar for other companies in
terms of solid game play, gorgeous graphics, and a multiplayer system that's hard to
beat. The series may be over with this third installment but I wouldn't be surprised if
there were several more games offered based on the Halo universe. My only fear is
that the future offerings may be competitive play only. But, if it keeps the masses
happy and keeps the hardcore fans coming back for more, who am I to argue?
More of the same. But it's Halo so that's a good thing especially when there's new
weapons and vehicles!!
The Short Story:
You' re not going to spend a lot of time on the single player story mode. You're
looking at 6-12 hours to beat the single player game no matter what difficulty level
you play, which is a good thing for the Busy Gamer.
The Score:
I know a lot of review sites are going to give this game top marks but here's the deal,
It's hard not to give this game a Busy Gamer "5". The single player game doesn't
require a lot of time to beat, multiplayer matches are easy to set up and join, and
there's online co-op for even more First Person Shooter-y goodness.
Body of review:
I have to preface this review with a couple of facts. To begin, I'm not a huge FPS fan.
I wasn't real big on the original Halo but the second installment brought me around
with its multiplayer offering and a solid, interesting story at the core. There's going to
be some people out there that disagree with me when I say that Halo 3 just didn't
feel like there was as much time invested in the story as there was in the first two in
the series. I like games with a story at the core, so I was disappointed that the single
player mode didn't really build any more on the story they were telling. Perhaps the
intention was always to have the story climax in Halo 2 where as 3 would be the
clean up, the tying up of loose ends.
Those things being said, Bungie did a fine job on the multiplayer aspect of the game.
There's a campaign mode that allows online co-operative play through the single
player story, a facet that many FPS games fail to offer the genre, along with an easy
to use match making system for competitive play. I like competing against my
friends but there's certainly times when I'd rather sit down and play as a team
against a common enemy so the inclusion of the co-operative campaign was a nice
touch.
The graphics are top notch and the voice acting is well done. Backgrounds are clean
and well designed as are the characters you encounter throughout the game. There
are several points throughout the single player story that I found myself examining
the stunning settings the series has done so well.
I did run into a few problems with the AI in the game as I played through the story line
in both normal and heroic. Enemies sometimes wouldn't respond to my presence
until I was directly on top of them or my computer controlled team mates would
ignore larger threats to their well being in favor of firing on lesser enemies. Several
times my team would charge after one grunt, guns blazing, leaving me to handle the
brigade of Brutes charged through their midst.
I'm disappointed that the story seemed to take second place to the multi-player
portion of the game but Bungie has certainly raised the bar for other companies in
terms of solid game play, gorgeous graphics, and a multiplayer system that's hard to
beat. The series may be over with this third installment but I wouldn't be surprised if
there were several more games offered based on the Halo universe. My only fear is
that the future offerings may be competitive play only. But, if it keeps the masses
happy and keeps the hardcore fans coming back for more, who am I to argue?
BusyGamer Rating
HALO 3
PLATFORM : XBOX 360
COMPANY: BUNGIE GAMES
REVIEWER: Grits Review Main
