Halo 3: Has The Hype Machine Dulled The Shiny Exterior?

By Will Barker

I don't go to new game launches because I'm not considered an 'important' enough individual to warrant the red carpet treatment. And no, it's not because I'm rude, I curse, and sometimes I yell at invisible people.

The expensive wine, the fine food, the free USB sticks, the prompt taxi rides, talking to the developers. Sure, it sounds good in theory, but in reality this pampering rots you from the inside out, claiming your allegiance like the curious fungal strain that devours potatoes from within. 

So like you, and you, and that guy over there as well, I got Halo 3 at the same time as everyone else, at midnight on the 25th of September 2007. And it was quite cool, I must say.

I've been playing it for a couple of dozen hours now, having pumped through the campaign game in Heroic (the second hardest difficulty level) and spent many hours in multiplayer skirmishes. I feel a bit zonked, because there's a lot to it. And I haven't slept. And the Editor is a drop kick [You're just jealous - Ed].

But the biggest factor for mine after two mammoth sleep deprived sessions was the initial disappointment.

Yes, this is Halo 3, and yes, it's a very cool game and I can't wait to finish this review and go home and play it some more. But there's something about it that didn't stir my soul like I thought I would have. But more on these thoughts later in the review...

For those who don't know, Halo is a first-person shooter. The crux of the game is this: run around a war ravaged planet called Earth shooting alien invaders in the neck/head/nutsack with a huge array of destructive weaponry.

It's quite simple when you explain it like that, but as the Halo franchise has evolved it has become somewhat more complex, adding new weapons, vehicles, items, and challenges to the mix.

The game starts off with Halo's protagonist, the Master Chief, falling out of orbit and hitting the ground in Africa, knocking himself out cold. The Master Chief is a super hero though, so can survive a fall from orbit. 

The evil xenoc race known as the Covenant that you have been fighting in the previous two Halo games are searching for an alien artifact known as the Arc, which is said be found in Africa. According to legend, the Arc can unlock the power of the Halos...

After coming to, you and bunch of other puny humans trek through the jungle trying to get back to the UNSC headquarters and see how the war against the alien invaders is progressing.

Not good, as it turns out.

Unlike Halo 2, which involved some rather nebulous plot sequences that everyone except Stephen Hawking understood, Halo 3's story is laid out in a much more easily digestible fashion.

In fact, the plot and the musical score are arguably some of the games best elements, dragging the player into the finale of this epic saga like never before. The story is told via cool looking cut-scenes, and without giving too much away, the final chapter in the Halo series provides closure at long last.

Sweet, sweet closure when the Covenant finally... Oh. Sorry.

Running and gunning you're way through the main campaign game can be achieved in a number of ways. You can do it alone, like I did because I have stolen from my friends and colleagues too many times, or you can play co-operatively with up to four people.

This is very cool in and of itself, and is one of the few reasons why I've always loved the Halo games so much. Thankfully, it's better than ever in Halo 3, so get your mates and plan a long weekend of fragtastic action, because this games is the ducks gonads.

The control scheme hasn't really changed much since Halo 2, which is a good thing. The game is responsive to input, and you really do feel like an armour plated death trooper after the first few levels thanks to the intuitive controls.

You can now collect 'items' from fallen enemies, such as grav lifts that fling you into the air, and personal shields, which are all deployed with the 'X' button. These add an extra element of strategy to the more intense gun fights, and also make the multiplayer game far more complex (in a good way). 

Here's the full item list, complete with my own personal rating out of 100:

• Bubble Shield - weapons fire cannot penetrate this spherical shield but people can walk through it freely. Rating: 70%

• Power Drainer - drains power and sometimes leaves a fishy odour. Rating: 50%

• Trip Mine - a booby trap that goes boom. Rating: 65%

• Portable Gravity Lift - boosts you and other people vertically into the air when walked over. Rating: 75%

• Portable Shield Generator - throws up a clamshell-shaped shield. One of the best items in my opinion. Rating: 80%

• Active Camouflage - turns you invisible, like the Predator. Very cool in multiplayer. Rating: 90%

• Overshield - increases your shield strength. Rating: 80%

• Radar Jammer - jams the radar with raspberry. Rating: 60%

• Flare - blinds people, like flashbang grenades. Rating: 60%

• Regenerator - restores shields of nearby people. Rating: 45%

One of the best things about playing the campaign game, which spans nine rather large levels, all of which have been lovingly designed, is facing off against the tough enemy AI. You're computer controlled foes have even better AI scripting than the previous Halo games - and that's saying a lot. 

Whether playing solo or with a few buddies it makes progression very satisfying, because your foes put up such a tough fight.

The AI of your team mates, which includes the Covenant Arbiter and other human military squads, isn't quite as deadly as your foes' but with judicious use of items like the bubble shield and the portable shield generator you can make up for their retardation.

Getting back to the enemy AI, which is top notch, your foes will work together, regroup, use items against you like the shields and regenerators, and don't mind chasing you down long corridors if they think you're almost dead or even backing off and taking cover if you severely injure them. 

Almost as important as the enemy AI is the range of weaponry you can use to dispatch your foes, and Halo 3 doesn't disappoint. One of my new favourite things is the ability to use mini gun and plasma gun turrets, and then rip the weapons clean off their tripods when you're done.

Yep, you take them with you once you've cleared an area, and the camera shifts to 3rd person view so you can see the hugeness of these assault weapons. Oh, and there's also a flame thrower. Psyche.

Right, here's the full armament rundown (to skip it click here, because it is a bit long and drones on a like an lonely old woman just a bit):

UNSC Weapons

• Pistol (M6G): Two of these pistols can be used at once, but with no zoom, less power, less range, and a lower RoF (rate of fire) than in the first game, I wasn't a huge fan of this gun. Rating: 30%

• SMG (M7): Another dual wieldable weapon, high rate of fire is the only thing going for it. Good in close quarters. Rating: 55%

• Assault Rifle (MA5C): First seen in Halo, it was removed for Halo 2, and now it's back. Good rate of fire, good damage, poor accuracy. A decent all-rounder.Rating: 65%

• Battle Rifle (BR55HB SR): It's a bit like the Assault rifle, but has a lower RoF, less ammo and smaller clips. But it also has a short range zoom, which makes it one of the staples during the campaign.Rating: 80%

• Shotgun (M90A): One of my personal favourite. Makes dispatching Brutes a lot of fun. Rating: 75%

• Sniper Rifle (SRS99D-S2 AM): Very cool gun, with limitations. Massive range, huge damage, but low RoF, low ammo count, big recoil. Rating: 75%

• Rocket Launcher (M41): It shoot rockets that explode, delivering splash damage. Devastating weapon, but can only hold a few rockets and takes ages to reload. Can't lock onto vehicles either.Rating: 65%

• Spartan Laser (M6): This is a pretty cool anti-vehicle weapon that takes time to charge up. Useless against swarms of enemies. Rating: 70%

Covenant Weapons

• Plasma Pistol: Not great, not terrible. This reliable gun has a high RoF, can be dual wielded, and there's also a clever charge shot mode.Rating: 65%

• Plasma Rifle: One of the best weapons on the game. Super high RoF, awesome accuracy, and plenty of stopping power. When you've got plas-rifes akimbo, you're hard to stop.Rating: 90%

• Energy Sword: It's a melee or close combat weapon, but is remarkably powerful. Good in close quarters: Rating: 70%

• Energy Hammer: Used by Brute Chieftains, this is one badass melee weapon, killing most enemies in one swipe. It also sends everything careening away - boxes, glass, cadavers - as it creates a severe gravity distortion.

• Fuel Rod Cannon: This is the Covenant rocket launcher for lack of a better description. It does similar damage, has a slow RoF, but holds heaps more ammo which - like almost every Covenant weapon in the game - is better than it's UNSC equivalent. Rating: 70%

• Needler: Fires tiny pink shards that home in towards enemies that explode after embedding on their target. It's a real fire-and-forget weapon, and is very useful in certain situations. No more dual wielding though, which halves it's stopping power. Rating: 60%

• Beam Rifle: This is the alien version of the sniper rifle. It's not quite as powerful, gives away you position, but has lots more ammo. Rating: 70%

• Carbine: The xenoc Battle Rifle equivalent, this weapon is a multipurpose firearm that's always useful. Has a good RoF, nominal zoom function, excellent accuracy and good damage levels. Rating: 80%

• Spiker: This one is a Brute weapon, and is like the SMG with crappy accuracy but an awesome RoF that peppers spikes/bullets everywhere. It can also be toted in both hands at once.Rating: 60%

• Mauler: Kind of like a Brute shotgun, only not as cool. Sometimes leaves permanent green stain on your trousers. Rating: 65%

• Brute Shot: This is a cool grenade launcher weapon of sorts that is like a less powerful rocket launcher, but with a much improved RoF. Very useful as a secondary weapon to back yourself when tougher enemies emerge. Rating: 80%

Support Weapons

• Missile Pod (UNSC): Carries 8 missiles and unlike the standard rocket launcher has a higher RoF and can lock onto vehicles, tracking them before exploding upon contact. Rating: 80%

• Defoliant Projector (UNSC): Say what now? Ah, it's a flamethrower! Arguably the coolest weapon in the game, and even cooler because, like these four support weapons, the camera shifts to an over-the-shoulder angle. Rating: 90%

• Mini Gun (UNSC): Similar to the mini guns from the previous Halo games, it has a terrifying RoF but takes time to build up to speed. Very powerful and good to taking out drop ship turrets and the like.Rating: 80%

• Plasma Cannon (Covenant): As the only Covenant support weapon, it's pretty bloody good. High rate of fire, accurate, lots of ammo, and colossal damage. A real 'say hello to my little friend' kind of weapon.Rating: 85%

Grenades

• Fragmentation Grenade: Can be thrown over shields and other obstacles, and a great assault weapon as you charge into the fray as it normally causes panic amongst your foes and does big damage. Rating: 70%

• Spike Grenade: Brutes drop these, and once thrown they will stick to enemies, exploding in a rain of spikes. Rating: 70%

• Firebomb Grenade: Another Brute grenade, this handheld projectile is very powerful but sometimes hard to use. Upon contact with anything solid it breaks, spewing liquid fire everywhere which burns at something like2200°C. Rating: 75%

• Plasma Grenade: The original 'sticky' grenade and still the best. Rating: 85%

So, after boring you witless with my visceral knowledge of Halo 3 ordnance, let us move on. Getting through the campaign game on easy and normal will be pretty boring for anyone who has played through the previous Halo games, as it's easier than before. Enemies drop like flies. But on hard and very hard difficulty levels (heroic and legendary) the game is hugely satisfying, with tougher and more numerous enemies, providing one of the best first person shooter experiences to ever grace the wide screen.

Of course, Halo 3 wouldn't be complete without a vast range of vehicles, and the final game in the series serves up a vehicular feast, with new vehicles, old vehicles, and some very cool vehicles. By adding motorised transport into the mix, this also allowed the game's developers, Bungie, to create totally huge levels that showcase just how epic in scope the graphics engine is. And it also means even bigger guns. Muahahah!

Whether cruising through demolished cities in the faithful Warthog, a jeep-like vehicle with a mounted mini gun, or trying out one of the new vehicles, such as the Hornet, Halo 3's vehicles provide an enjoyable (and slightly more protective) way to explore your danger-filled surroundings.

UNSC Vehicles

 Elephant: This thing is massive. And slow. It can carry one Mongoose and 12 soldiers and has a couple of mini guns.
 Hornet: The Hornet can can fly and has two chain guns for two extra passengers, and a rocket pod for the pilot. Lots of fun.
 Warthog: There are a few types of Warthogs, including troop carriers and assault versions. They're fast and fun to drive.
 Mongoose: A smaller, faster version of the Warthog. It carries the driver and one passenger, but has no weapons.
 Scorpion Tank: It's a tank. It's got a big gun. It does lots of damage. One passenger can now take charge of a mini gun turret.

Covenant Vehicles

Ghost: From the first two games, it's like a ride-on hover mower, with twin plasma guns. Fast and agile.
Banshee: This flying unit has two different weapons and provides the player with near unlimited exploration ability.
Wraith: The Covenant tank. One player drives and shoots the main cannon, while another player mans the anti-infantry plasma turret.
Chopper: Probably the most intriguing vehicle in the game, it's like a motorbike whose front wheel is large and spiky, and painful.
Prowler: This anti-grav sled takes one driver and one gunner, and could be seen as the alien Warthog.

Okay, so the campaign game is awesome, delivering the final chapter in what has been, and still is, one of the coolest videogame franchises every created. That's good news. What about multiplayer? It's even better!

Playing others online (or via LAN) takes the game to a whole new, and somewhat unexpected level. The powerups and items become more important, and the vehicles less so. The melee weapons make more sense against human foes and the level design is much improved over the first two games. 

The weapons seem pretty well balanced for multiplayer fragging and though we did have a few issues with lag here and there, overall it's a hugely compelling multiplayer game than runs fairly smoothly.

There's heaps of different options and customisables for multiplayer maps, so you can play teams, or deathmatch, and fiddle with pretty much any variable you can think of. There's also the Forge feature, which allows for an altogether fresh first-person shooter dynamic. In a nutshell, it allows on-the-run placement of almost anything, from vehicles and weapons and powerups. It's not very easy to explain, so I'll conclude this topic by saying that it'll add years of longevity to the game scenarios.

In addition to this cool new Forge mode for multiplayer games, there's also a video and screenshot capture mode. I found this to be a real treat after particularly difficult levels in the campaign, especially during vehicle sections, because you can pause the game, pan around the player, zoom in and out and watch slow motion explosions in forward or reverse. 

It's also great for recording the instances when you unintentionally drive up a makeshift ramp (often a hillock or similar) in a Mongoose car, perform a perfect barrel role through the air, land it gracefully, all the while dodging huge amounts of enemy fire. Now that's cool. Especially in slow motion. And then you can save the best video clips to your hard drive, and send them to friends (and they're not that big either). Show ponies will love it.

I haven't touched on the graphics or the sound yet, so let me begin right here. The graphics are very good, but it's not the best looking game on the Xbox 360. It's very shiny and all the weapon's fire and vehicles look suitably cool, there's lots of detail, impressive bump mapping, and heaps of eye candy to melt every synapse in your cerebral cortex. But it looks too much like Halo 2 for my liking. 

Sure, it's a bit sharper and uses a slightly higher res (if you have a high definition TV) but overall it looked a lot like Halo 2. The sound, however, is without peer. My girlfriend told me that the orchestral introduction theme was 'presumptuous'. She's now my ex-girlfriend. The score is fantastic, setting the scene wonderfully and immersing the player in the game in a way that's more like a big budget movie than a videogame. It feels grand and gives the game a certain significance.

During parts of the campaign there'll be no music at all, just the crystal clear voices of your foes screaming as you stomp on their vocal amplifiers, the sound of your shotgun decimating your enemies, and ambient sounds such as the insects chirupping away. And then the orchestral score slowly fades in and it makes your heart beat faster and you get all nervous about the enemies lurking beyond the next rise.

I tell you, with the music and cut-scenes and engrossing story line, it's hard not to be sucked into the world of Halo 3. It may not be the best looking game on the planet, but when the audio, visual and interactive elements combine, nothing can touch it. 

There's also some amazing set piece scenarios in the campaign that involve huge amounts of firepower, hundreds of combatants, some very cool geographical features and of course numerous vehicles, all of which the Xbox 360 handles with ease. There was slow down at times, but it was infrequent. Furthermore, it's these sections of Halo 3 that demand to be played over and over, the levels you always used to replay with a mate in Halo and Halo 2.

Albeit relatively minor, there are problems with Halo 3. One of them was the shortness of the single-player campaign. But it's not a deal-breaking issue, as the co-op modes add plenty of longevity, as does the 'legendary' difficulty setting. The second problem I found was the mythical status that the game has been built up to.

Because the game has been so over hyped, I found myself getting pretty worked up about playing the game in the weeks leading up to its launch, visualising that Halo 3 would be a gaming experience beyond anything we've touched before. So much so that that when I finally did play it I couldn't help but feel a little bit underwhelmed. 

It was supposed to be mind-numbingly brilliant, and when it turns out to be merely 'superb' I raised my fists to the heavens and then lowered them again. Not sure why. I think it had something to with free taxi rides and a curious fungal strain that devours potatoes.

Overall, Halo 3 is a fantastic game. The plot and the way the story moves forward are highly compelling, the gameplay is what we all know and love, and the audio-visual elements have been upgraded for the next gen console. Easily the best game on the Xbox 360, loaded with more features than any other, and with some of the best single- and multiplayer modes. 

Halo 3 deserves to be successful, and you can bet that it will be. Now you'll have to excuse me, I have a Mongoose to mount.

Game: Halo 3
System: Xbox 360
Players: 1-multi
Online: Yes
Developer: Bungie
Distributor: Microsoft

Rating: 90%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)