It’s been 3 years since Halo 2’s release and now gamers around the world finally get to know what happened to the Master Chief after the dramatic finale to the second game and a recent graphic novel.
As Spartan-117: The Master Chief you fight with The Arbiter, a disgraced former Commander of the Covenant Fleet, against the Covenant and the Flood. Halo 2 gave the ability to have dual-wielding weapons and this time deployable items (like the Bubble Shield allowing for only melee combat) that add to the mix. New weapons include the Spartan laser gun, flame thrower and the Brute shotgun. You also have the Brute Hammer, a blunt-trauma melee weapon, and new grenade types. Add the ability to take turrets off their stands Terminator 2-style and you’ve got some fun times ahead.
While there are a number of new vehicles like the flying Hornet and the Brute Chopper that reminds Judge Dredd’s Lawmaster motorbike, but the best vehicle is still the Warthog from the original game.
The single player campaign has a linear direction with a lot of action although it starts slowly with only a few forest encounters in the first 10 minutes. The allied A.I. isn’t very good but this has always been the letdown in the games so no real news there. The Arbiter fares better but he doesn’t have enough punch to make much difference in battle. The enemy A.I. though is excellent.
The graphics are an improvement on the previous installments (they had to be), but the lack of fully destructible environments is a let down. The multiplayer comes with 16 players, co-op player over XBL and 11 maps. There is also now the Forge map editor included to give even more content and replay value. Plus for those of you who like familiar voices in single player like Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean in Oblivion; Halo 3 has people such as Ron Perlman, Terence Stamp and Robert Davi plus Firefly’s Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin and Alan Tudyk with Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff rounding off the cast.
Halo 3 is one of the most enjoyable games you will ever play, finishing the franchise storyline with aplomb.Providing memorable characters and great frantic action it is easily going to be a highlight of the decade.If you don’t have a 360 console, it’s worth it for this alone, otherwise you will have to wait years for the PC conversion – and who wants to do that?
Verdict: A milestone in entertainment history
Rating: *****
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