Jimmays.com

I know there are lots of sites out there that review games. There are lots of sites that review EVERY game. There are other sites that don’t review games that have come out over a year ago, even if they haven’t reviewed it before.

But this site isn’t like those other sites. Those other sites are not MY site, so I will do things MY way.

Good, now that we have this out of the way, let’s begin.

For starters, let’s talk about where Halo 3 came from. The Halo universe was first introduced into the world in 2001, as Xbox’s killer launch title. Although the game got great reviews and pulled off a great feat by simultaneously releasing Halo on the PC and Mac as well.

Halo quickly rose up the ladder of best FPS games of it’s time, and honestly has a strong case to be declared best FPS ever. While a lot of the things Halo does has been applauded, one of it’s greatest signatures was what it didn’t. Simply put, you could not stock pile weapons to your heart’s content. You were allowed two and that’s it.

Sure you could have grenades too, but weapons were your primary tool of destruction. This led to a simple, yet much needed change of pace, and planning that other games lacked. This improved realism immensely, but also allowed for a player to go through a thick firefight swapping weapons constantly.

The formula to success has largely remained unchanged through Halo 2, and landed on our laps in 2007 as Halo 3. Halo 3 takes a lot of the changes found in Halo 2 and improves on them.

For one, the health system is nearly identical. There is no health bar that underlies your standard shields. You can also dual-wield certain guns, personally the SMG is my favorite to dual-wield, and your traditional grenades are still there as well.

To make things a little more interesting, Halo 3 has introduced new items, that can be used in a variety of ways. Using the ‘X’ button you can throw a generic covenant shield in front of you to protect you from fire in front, or you can drop a ‘bubble shield,’ (this is the item Master Chief uses in the video shown above). This is one of my favorite power-ups. It prevents all things except other players from passing through. Also available are things such as health re-generators, shield depletion orbs, bright orbs of light brighter than the sun and many others.

These need to be found in the battle field, and only one can be equipped at a time. You can’t have multiples in any way.

In addition, Bungie has added a few new grenade types. The most common third type you will see is spike grenades. They work generally the same as plasma grenades, but they stick to everything, walls included, whereas plasmas can slide off walls just like normal.

Less commonly, you can find grenades that act like flamethrowers and just dowse their surroundings in flames.

Also there are a couple of new weapons, notably a gun called the ‘brute shot’, which roughly correlates with the Assault Rifle. There is also a new weapon, called the grav hammer.

This guy you essentially hold much like you would a flag, and them proceed to smash opponents into smithereens as it sends out a strong shock wave.

As far as weapons are concerned, they all seem to do a wonderful job of managing each weapon’s strengths and weaknesses. No one weapon feels too powerful on the whole. Swords are fun to run around with, but they are only usable in short range. This results in your necessity to stay in small places so as not to get picked off.

The assault rifle (and the Brute Shot) are generally medium range. You can start firing from about 50 yards away, but usually the finishing kill ends up being a melee attack.

Battle rifles hold an edge on the medium-long range due to their combination of medium power, good accuracy, and large ammo capacity. This weapon is a Halo staple.

Longer range still is the sniper rifle. This takes perhaps the most skill to master, but if you can, you will be a lethal weapon out on the battlefield.

Looking at the graphics side of things, this is a HUGE case of bitter-sweet. On the one hand everything looks gorgeous. Light looks pristine and reflections, explosions and shadows look great. Details are high, with grass and vines in jungles looking nearly life-like.

All this beauty comes at a very high cost, however. The two greatest components to a sharp, and near perfect picture are simply not there: resolution and anti-aliasing.

Either of these components lacking would be understandable and easy to accept. However, both of these elements lacking, sure puts a damper on just how beautiful the game looks.

It has been revealed that the game only renders in 640 vertical lines of pixels, which doesn’t even measure up to a traditional 720p HDTV. This fact, combined with no anti-aliasing to speak of, makes diagonal lines look blocky, and corners appear less than perfect. Overall the game does a great job in its effects department, but the lack of resolution and AA really seems apparent on the models.

This small issue does not drag the game down with it. In fact, graphics is hard to complain about. The explosions look nearly perfect, light reflects nearly perfect, water, grass and the details of the characters are nearly perfect as well. All told, while the graphics are not flawless, they are close. Very close.

Sound is one area this game and this series has always excelled. Once again Marines and Grunts chatter in their usual way, making funny jokes, screaming bloody murder, and even respond to the fact Master Chief, Master Chief, has come to save the day.

Warthogs and other vehicles sound spot-on. Explosions are dramatic and satisfying. Voice acting is superb as well. This leads me in a way closer to the game’s true gem: it’s score.

Halo has always had my favorite sound tracks. This iteration is no different. The music is dramatic, grand, bold and exciting. At times it can be mellow, and somber. Simply put, this game has my favorite sound track of all time.

From the game play side, this is where the game becomes addicting. To start with, the game has 4 different difficulty levels, and each one seems tailored perfectly.

Easy is a difficulty level that no one who cares about games should need to play on. Easy is for the people who are playing games, or more specifically, First Person Shooters, for the first time.

Normal difficulty is for the people who haven’t yet enjoyed the Halo universe, but may be experienced in other FPS, or generally have a difficult time keeping up.

At this point the game gets into it’s “normal” mode. Although “normal” is reserved for the level beneath this, Heroic mode is truly the way Halo is meant to be played. This is the difficulty level that will satisfy you, yet yearning for more. After beating the game on this mode, you really ought to head straight for legendary mode.

Legendary mode is insane. Only the brave and talented should enter here. You can count on getting stopped very frequently. You will need to be very creative, not to mention very skilled, to get yourself out of some of the messes you can get into.

The campaign mode picks up right where Halo 2 left off. At this point, you and the arbiter go to find the prophets and attempt to take them out. On the way you will encounter scores of enemies of different squad sizes, in different situations all over.

Halo 3 does a good job of mixing in different elements into the game as well. There are numerous vehicle levels, varying from driving Warthogs, Scorpion tanks, to even your own Hornet (although you spend FAR too little time using the Hornet).

There are epic boss battles that usually end in the most satisfying of ways, usually with a huge explosion.

The flood play a large roll in this game again. Although this time, your job is to rescue Cortana, and stop the Covenant through any means necessary. This briefly allies you with the Flood that deserves to be enjoyed.

The game does a much better job of cleaning up after itself compared to the miserable job Halo 2 did. There are no major cliffhanger endings, and the story does a decent job of wrapping up.

After completing the campaign, if you hadn’t scoped out multi-player, this is where the game truly shines.

The game comes with several maps, each unique in almost every way. There are snow levels, desert levels, jungle levels, swamp levels, hill levels. You name it, it’s there.

The gameplay is often fast and intense. Finding other players is generally easy. Success comes to those with good aim and better scouting.

Power ups play a big role in multi-player. A well timed bubble shield can really sway a skirmish, and a shield re-generator can be a real life saver.

Extra maps can be downloaded off the Xbox Marketplace for an additional cost, which stinks for matchmaking due to many of the game types requiring newer maps. There is no option to go into games with certain maps. A lobby requires all members to carry certain maps before you even enter.

The game types online are generally good too. There is traditional slayer and team slayer, that is just about scoring more kills than anyone else. Oddball and king of the hill are possession type games.

Halo 3 also allows you to create custom game types. You can edit almost all of the pertinent information about each team. In addition you can edit any map you like in forge mode, which can then be shared online.

Each person has 6 slots to store replays from either the campaign or multi-player, or even custom multi-player maps. Many crazy events have been shared thanks to this new feature and it is sure to go on and on.

Overall this game is the total package. Fabulous campaign mode that is completely satisfying in almost every way, terrific multi-player action that can go on for days on end, nearly perfect graphics (although with some notable issues), and perfect sound.

This game must be one of the best games available for the Xbox 360.

Halo 3 Review Scores