Halo 3: Same Fucking Fight?
Saturday 29 September 2007 @ 11:57 pm | By Jonathan_Leo 27 Comments
Hey, at least you start outside in a forest this time. Guess there can only be one Library, huh?
After all the bullcrap and the launch party at New York, videos of people throwing duffel bags through a window, and the oodles of “memorial” ads littering game sites, I get to play Bungie’s final game of the trilogy which is synonymous to that thing you see on Jesus and angels. So how fares Halo 3, you wonder?
It’s the same old, same old, albeit a lot prettier and with the ability to ask three of your other friends to join you in the campaign mode. Not that that’s a bad thing. When Fallout 2 came out, it was basically an expansion of the first game, but I still like it. “If it ain’t broken, why fix it?”, a wise sage once said, so why change the structure of a good thing? The latest definitely delivers in the action and graphics category. The lush jungles and blades of grass so lovingly crafted by Bungie prove that at least they can do outside environments just as well as interiors, seeing as they had a lot of practice on the latter in the first two games. Alas, compared with last year’s Gears of War, it decides to be content with being second best. People can be such sticklers for detail. Still, good try.
As with any good FPS, weapons do matter. This game got it in spades: in addition to the old rifle from the first game, you have at your disposal:-
1) A gravity hammer which makes the battlefield your own “ragdoll physics flying bodies party”, provided you can run fast up to the enemy of your choice.
2) The bubble shield, as shown in the Superbowl trailer, which lets out a spherical shield, protecting you against enemy fire. Not so good when a Brute or two enters the shield and clocks you six ways to Sunday.
3) A Brute Chopper, which is the Covenant’s interpretation of a Harley. Yes, you will have a blast riding this thing.
You’ve also got the Warthog, a tank, a Spartan laser and oodles of vehicles and weapons to experiment, offline and online. There’s a lot of maps to satisfy those who crave wide open spaces and others, like the Snowbound level, that are meant to feel cramp and tight. If you’re not happy with the placement of items on the map, the intuitive Forge editor lets you tweak bits and pieces of non-permanent elements of the map of your choosing, and gives you the option to share the love online. Bungie does care for its audience indeed.
I believe that Bungie created a nice game with a solid sci-fi plot, backed up with a nice coherent theme and music; certainly a huge successor to the Marathon games they’ve done. And yes, multiplayer is reminiscent of the good old days when I used to play Doom on dial-up with my buddies, only without the satanism-on-mars-and-in-space theme. I do get goosebumps when the Braveheart-esque theme plays as you enter the pivotal battles in the game. I also like the fact that all the difficulties are vastly different, much like Gears of War. You haven’t lived until you’re furiously looking for cover against the sniping Jackals, now with more AI commands on Legendary. It’s just that at the end of the day, it’s just another First Person Shooter that feels exactly like the first two. Only with better lighting and more wide open spaces (which I exploit to the fullest with the plethora of vehicles available). After a year or two, you’ll be wondering why you even lined up for this game, and why the millions-of-dollars promotions were done in the first place.
The Halo series just came in the right place at the right time; just enough of a justification to convince modern America to get an Xbox/Xbox 360. Because if you place millions of dollars on plugging your game on TV and on Mountain Dew, everyone will notice. And seriously, 9s and 10s, and 5 out of 5s? It’s a nice game, not a life-altering experience in the medium. Microsoft loves handing out blank checks to game magazine publishers. Oh wait, I meant to say duffel bags. As the story comes to an end, we draw out the curtains to the (in)famous series which depict the last Spartan as the man who gets the job done, no matter the cost, much like a certain leader of the Autobots. A series that will bring out the worst and the bottom-of-the-barrel-worst in people on Xbox Live. A series which, at the end of the day, is satisfied on just being an experience synonymous with “good”, especially with the advent that is the multiplayer, but never on the side of “great”.
Is that enough to justify “fun”? Tell us, dear readers.
, finish-the-fight , FPS , Halo , HALO-3 , Microsoft , million-dollar-marketing-101 , Xbox , Xbox-360
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Abraham 'Velcor' Duarte
David 'KidKobun' Bruno
Ivan 'Nahu' Lozano
Random J
Sol
Good games can be as entertaining as great games. In the end, it’s just a matter of personality.
indeed but, I expected a major shock when this game came out, being the last of the saga, but. . .it’s just same old, same old.
The multiplayer can be extremely satisfying, even for someone with little to no skill (like me). The campaign satisfies, too. At least it’s longer than Prey or FEAR.
Geirskogul:- I agree with the multiplayer bit. However, there are better alternatives for a good single player experience for FPSs (half-life series and Bioshock), unless you’ve been following the Halo story since day one.
Would it make a difference if Bungie marketed Halo 3 as
“Halo: Multiplayer pack 3- with bonus 12-hour Campaign Mode”? :)
Thats true, no one really cares more for the campaign than the multiplayer, Halo is a solid party FPS which enjoyed being the one FPS game to be there when the hoards of colllege fratboys got bored of the latest Maden. No more, no less.
Ill tell you when I get an X-Box 360.. Or a better computer(sooner).
Guys, I have too say that halo does not do that many things new or different. Bungie (the game’s producer)admits that. But what this game does it does exceptionally well.
On the story side, gameplay is shoot-em-up enough for a good player to gun through the game and includes references deep enough for HALO story gurus to freak out from the story (but if you don’t get all the references the story at least is still decent.)
Multiplayer forge is a ‘far-cry’ from a map maker, but it turn out to be even more usefull.
…Oh, and that duffle bag thing, that is being blown out of proportion by opposing fanboys. All in all, this game is not getting a fair shake from people on opposing consoles (ahem, PS3) just like XBOX fanboys and other fanboys shot down the good PS3 games so far.
Is the game great? It’s good, a game can only be called great by the gamer.
Hey, us college nerds played more Halo than the fratboys!
Quit with the generalising, and just admit that the Halo series is the “really good fun, let’s-play-a-quick-round” FPS that PC-gamers just cannot enjoy because it’s so damn DIFFERENT to what they’re used to (i.e. 1 person per machine).
And have fun. Y’know, fun? That thing that made you pick up a pad all these years ago?
Kikimaru, yes you playED more than the fratboys, until they caught wind of it and thats why it became so popular, you may not like it but thats the fact. The ‘bro’ type is the demographic that lauched the game to what it is today. Sure its a fun game, but its not what the hype made it up to be, thats the point.
Link: Hey, if you wait 3 more years, Bungie will release a Vista-only Halo 3 with additional bugs. :)
Leo: Holy crap!! I can’t wait! Hmm.. Buy it now, or later, and need another brand new kickass $3000 computer? HELL YEAH ILL WAIT!!
Nahu: In response to “After a year or two, youll be wondering why you even lined up for this game…” The average lifespan of any game is only about a year or two anyway. I know I personally have never stuck with a game constantly for two years. Sure I’ll still go back and play them every once in a while but no matter how great the game is it’ll get old within a year. I would however like to see if you’re still playing Bioshock in a year because I for sure will still be playing Halo 3 in three years. Halo 3 got such great scores because it’s a great game with a lot of polish. It doesn’t have as good of graphics as GoW because Bungie didn’t want it that way and there’s no way GoW could handle as large a scale as Halo with the graphics it’s got. Not to mention I was sick of Gears within like four months because of how glitchy it is (which is due to the graphics overload in online games)(yes I realize that’s latency but it wouldn’t be that bad if it weren’t for the processor not being able to keep up). I’m sick of people ripping on it; just give Halo the credit it deserves.
why do you tell me that Hawk? I didnt make the line up commentary, nor the post. And come on, no game deservers such high scores on the grounds of it being so polished. Im giving halo the credit it deserves, its a solid game, but not a groundbreaking game, not a perfect score game. It does not live up to the hype.
Hawk: You can’t really compare Bioshock with Halo 3, since one places its entire development time on the single player “immersive” experience, while the other has most of its focus on making it a good multiplayer experience. At best, Halo 3 feels like an “FPS” for beginners (since according to most forums, Normal is a cinch to beat, and there’s a beginner’s lobby for multiplayer) until they mature up to stuff like Unreal Tournament 3, Team Fortress 2, or any of the other FPSs meant to be on a PC. With the majority of Halo’s core audience being people who play one or two games in their lifetimes AS WELL AS those who can’t really afford to tune up their PCs, I’m not sure if the upgrade would happen or not. Surprise me.
The graphics are more of a personal taste than anything. For me, I’ve been spoiled by Gears of War, Bioshock, hell, even Okami wowed me, and THAT’S a PS2 game. But I did say it’s good, so if you like them, that’s fine. If not, that’s cool too.
Haha, sorry Nahu. I guess I wasn’t looking to see who wrote it. So I’ll redirect my original statement at Leo then.
More for Leo: I merely mentioned Bioshock and GoW because you brought them up in the first place. I realize comparisons can’t be made fairly because of how different the games are. “FPS for beginners?” First off, Bungie has stated that Heroic difficulty is the way the game’s meant to be played so Normal difficulty shouldn’t even be taken into account when judging the game. Second, the easier difficulties and beginner playlists for online are merely there for those that’ve never played Halo before. The fact is Bungie anticipated the game pulling in new players to the Halo fold and therefore gave them an easy entry. Halo is just as great a game as any PC FPS and that’s what has made the series so popular. It can require just as much skill as any of your “mature” stuff.
Oh damn, when the word mature starts being used this cant end well! haha
I just find it sad, that this game is getting sooooo much more hype and BS behind it, then the actual GOOD MS titles coming out (and that are already out) this year.
Bioshock and Mass Effect both have potential to win games of the year. Yet if Halo 3 takes the award, then i give up on the opinions of all the gaming media, and the ’so called’ fan base.
Now don’t get me wrong, Halo 3 is the first Halo i’ve actually BEAT. I couldn’t sit through the first 2. But when all is said and done. The campaign mode was generic fps garbage. But it really is multiplayer that truly shines, and that’s why most people are buying this game.
Then again… we all know that once Call of Duty 4 hits, everyone will probably forget all about Halo 3 and its multiplayer. That is, if COD4 lives up to all its promised features and options.
Desfunk: Just to let you know the majority of the reviews I’ve read have given Halo 3 such high scores due to it’s excellent campaign mode. So if you want to refer to 4 player online co-op, campaign scoring, massive battles, and a perfect mix of story and action as “generic fps garbage” then go ahead, but the fact is Halo is a great game because it does both campaign mode and multiplayer so well. Which is hard to do with any game. The developers of Bioshock said themselves that they didn’t have a multiplayer aspect to their game because it would’ve been too unfair, and almost impossible to balance.
Meh, FPS’s began to fail when the “geniuses” decided to put checkpoints and auto-regain HP. Old school, baby! ala GoldenEye and Perfect Dark!
Ah, Goldeneye…the good old days. I never was into Perfect Dark much. I tried to play Goldeneye just recently at a friend’s house and it was pathetic watching me try to play on those horrible N64 controllers after being away from them for so long.
Yes goldeneye, the golden days of goldeneye! :)
But back to the issue, I think a grea deal of our argument is what deserves a perfect score. I think for most of us a perfect score is for a game that is original, expands the borders of known gaming with something previously not done and is on its way to be a timeless classic.
Can Halo 3 fill those shoes? I dont think so, it was just a really good FPS, but not a legendary game, which was what the hype said.
That’s a great point. How do you judge a perfect score? I think the problem we’ve had all along in this arguement is that everyone has had Nahu’s belief that is: in order to recieve a perfect score a game must be something new and original, but if that were the case then there’d be a lot less games recieving the scores they deserve. My own opinion however is that Halo deserves a perfect score not because it’s something original (because obviously it’s not, although it’s done a few things quite well that’ve never been implemented or at least have never been done well before) but because what it set out to do it does nearly flawlessly.
You guys are all just comparing so many diffeent games together, it’s not even funny. Halo 3 is a decently fun game, only if you have buddies to play with via online, system link or just 3 buddies. The graphics aren’t much to boast, sure they’re nice, but that doesn’t make the game play much better. The weapons are better too, rather than being rained on by plasmas *ahem* halo 2 *ahem*, there’s finally limits, but also more grenades, the spike and the incinerary (which i favor most >:]). The Campaign is fine and dandy, but leaves everyone wanting more, especially the ending if you’ve played it on legendary, which has probably made thousands of the Halo faithful toss their controllers through their T.V., kick the dog or unintentionally punch their grandma who was sitting next to them on the couch.
I do like this game, I’d like it even more if I could have online but my DSL is too slow. Fucker. Anywho, the game has had alotta hype and although the game is pretty good, the hype turned to be a let down somewhat. Campaign is short, gameplay hasn’t changed much since Halo 2, and the cliff-hangers are really an annoyance.
Now we have to wait about a good 3-4 years now to continue the battle in Marathon. Whoopie.
sdmflksdfklsdjflkjd halo 3 sucks ass askdnalksdksad
jajajaja some of u guys are so sure of takin off credit to halo franchise just because u are u played golden eye??
to be honest i was a nintendo fan and i recognize who is here, i changed of platform now to ps3 and 360 because the big N has nothin’ to offer, zelda mario metroid, good and original games, once, come on!! i mean i u are talkin about the same @%@# fight, dont go too far with the games i mentioned before..
now about halo 3, it is a good game, excelent breakground cause of the story, or not?? so why its rating is so high in every review and like to many people??
u say that is cause was played by nerds or college fratboys?? so its the same with HL of GoW or even MGS series? thats why they became famous?? jajaja come on , just recongnize when a game is good!
u played without a little emotion and envying because of the rating it won, of course u re not gonna like it, and if u say that all three games are the same just learn how to play a FPS, i mean im gonna xplain it to you like apples and oranges, halo1 was about environment, halo 2 was just a struggle and 3 was about closing doors, fights whatever u start on the first
what am trying to say is that if u gonna review a game, first u must make a research, background, novels, etc, so u dont have to say that has no story, right??? u learn that even on school
well and since i wrote too much id say that if u write a review just because u play the game with some friends or cause u have known N games, its a shameee, only one more N fanboy
greetings
…my head….hurts so much after reading that.
the games multiplayer modes cool but you cant leave a match cause you will lose you exp points which is stupid