Halo 3 by: Bungie Studios

Release: 9/25/07

User Review by: xMrAx

Intro

The first thing I need to say is this game is not for everyone. Some people are going to get this game and think it was a complete waste of their money with no entertainment value at all. Some people are going to walk away and think the game is amazing no matter what since they are intense Halo fans. However, if you are like me and like to play good fps games the choice becomes a little sketchy, not because of content but because of the price.

Halo 3 ODST decides to strip you away from your normal superpower traits as Master Chief and place you into the role of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. Cliché name or not this dramatically changes the gameplay experience from the past two Halo entries. However, this is not a bad thing. ODST is almost like a welcome back to Combat Evolved, something fans have been wishing for some time now. Making a return appearance are health packs and a more powerful version of the Combat Evolved pistol. No more magnums just the pure power of the scoped pistol. Unfortunately, the pistol does not make a return to Halo 3 multiplayer as well, somewhat lessening the impact.

Gameplay

The singleplayer campaign marks a different path for Bungie. While there are action sequences, most of the game is focused on the Rookie as he travels around the city alone. This aspect of the game will probably be the breaking point for some people. If played on Heroic or Legendary the game will take about somewhere between five to ten hours, noticeably shorter than previous Halo games. While you might think coop will lengthen the game somewhat, it actually ruins the atmosphere of being alone and seems to be strapped on at the last minute compared to Halo 3’s coop campaign. Actually playing the campaign is somewhat of a good news, bad news situation. The good news is that the story is much easier to follow than in previous entries. Also since it revolves around the lives of normal people rather than a kick- ass universe saver you tend to care much more about the characters. This is also helped by the character models which appear much more life like than in Halo 2. The character models are not the only thing to receive an improvement. The game looks much better than Halo 2.

Graphics

People are still going to complain about some of the low res textures and the age of the engine, the game is one of the best looking Halo games to date. The intro sequence is especially awesome. My only complaint would be it seems as if Bungie intentionally turned down the lighting in some areas to force you to use the visor. The visor is cool to use when its night, but when you constantly have to go in and out buildings during the day it can be an annoyance. The music is all new and all original and is worth getting as a soundtrack if you do not buy the game. Now for the bad news. While, the idea of the rookie being alone and being able to explore the entire city to find out what happened sounds cool, it doesn’t come of that way when playing. At first it’s pretty exciting to know that you have a whole city to explore, until you recognize this is not true. 99% of doors are locked while those that are not have exactly the same insides ruining the somewhat freeroam experience.