At first glance, Halo 3 looks exactly like the other games in the series. Other than souped-up weapons and vehicles, what makes this game worth your while?
For one, the control layout has been tweaked for both comfort and speed, which helps you use another cool new feature: the deployable item. Multi-player games get much more exciting when you can use stuff like bubble shields and gravity lifts. Another huge addition to the game is forge mode. This allows you to customize any pre-existing map and upload it to Xbox Live for the rest of the community to download and play.
The last major addition is the theatre feature, where the game regularly saves your actions so you can go back and review, from multiple angles, that sweet move you just pulled. Upload a clip to either Xbox Live or Bungie’s website so that people who don’t even have Halo 3 can see how astute you are with an energy sword.
Of course, while the new goodies are nice, the meat and potatoes of any Halo game are still the single player campaign and the multiplayer modes. These, executed at the expected high level, are still a ton of fun. It’s just a shame that the campaign’s light challenge on any setting other than legendary will only take you about 10 to 12 hours complete. However, with the inclusion of a four player co-op, multiplayer is now more fun than it’s ever been.
From a technical standpoint, Halo 3 is top of the line. The sound design is still second to none. Everything— the music, voice acting, and sound effects—is outstanding. The exaggerated physics are still as hilarious as they have always been, and the graphics are gorgeous—as expected.
Halo 3 is about as close to a perfect video game as you will find. You definitely need to try it if you have an Xbox 360. If you don’t, you might want to consider picking one up for the sole purpose of playing this game.
