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Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

By: DriverHeaven Oct 19, 2007

1. Introduction
2. Gameplay & New Features
3. Multiplayer & Graphics
4. Final thoughts & Scores

When a game generates over $170 million in the first 24 hours (USA alone!) there is clearly something exceptional about it. Some might disagree when I call the Halo franchise one, if not the most important hallmark in gaming, but Bungie's games up until now never failed to impress. Is Halo 3 the great game it was supposed to be, or are the incredible sales all due to Microsoft spending millions on marketing? PC zealots will undoubtedly go with the second option while the Xbox 360 fans are already lighting the torches and sharpening their pitchforks to defend the title. As usual the truth is somewhere in between ...

E3 2007 Halo 3 Trailer

Finish the fight

If you were disappointed with the way Halo 2 ended (and going by the huge cliffhanger at the end of the game there is a good chance you were) then you probably can't wait to find out how all the loose ends tie up. What happens to Cortana who was left behind with the Gravemind, the "leader" of the flood? Why did the prophet Truth return to earth after activating all of the long-dormant halos? And for that matter, how is the Covenant doing now that the Elites have gone AWOL with brutes taking over as the main military force within the organization? All of these questions and more get answered during the course of the game, along with a bunch of others that you might have had.

Overall the story is satisfying, as is the end. Compared to Halo 2 there are fewer cutscenes, but you still get your share of high quality drama complete with cheesy one-liners. What is disappointing is that if you want to enjoy the story in Halo 3, a good understanding of the previous two games is a must. There is a short "The story so far" snippet in the manual, but it only grazes the events of the past games, leaving out important aspects of character development. That said, you can go ahead and skip all of the cinematics if you wish to and play Halo 3 as a pure shooter, ignoring the entire back story and still have some fun.