Introduction
Today we will be looking at the next entry of the reviews of the full Halo franchise, Halo 3! This time around only the Master chief is playable, and the Arbiter is sidelined unless you can get co-op working, this is almost impossible for couch co-op. Once again new guns have been added, there are also lots of new flood forms to defeat! Maybe you can guess it, but you will once again play a large part of the missions on Halo rings! For more elements of the gameplay, please visit the gameplay section!
What did I think before playing Halo 3?
Halo 3 is just another Halo game, shoot, keep shooting and also keep jumping since you cannot sprint! Luckily there are some new elements like two-handed guns, new equipment and a lot more. Sadly, the health bar did not return. The shield is more visible in this game though, as long as you can keep hiding behind a wall, you will be safe! For more information, we went to the Microsoft store page!
The Microsoft store page
https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/halo-3/9pgl2z1h9m4r
There are eleven missions for you to play in Halo 3, this is a campaign that you can clear quite fast, which means that this is a game that you will not stick long with unless you play multiplayer in which case there is a new mode called forge! If you have been playing Halo 2, you also notice that the ending of that game does not connect with Halo 3 without mentioning any spoilers, as mentioned in the previous review, you will need a comic book for that connection!
Rating
I rate Halo 3 with a 6.0 before playing.
While all the new toys sound fun, the funky intro where you are in shock mode and do not know what is going on with the story breaks the immersion of Halo 3. What is going on? If you have not read any of the comic books, you will be in for a big surprise!
Story
The story of Halo 3 does take place after Halo 2, but some events transpire between the games, these are not mentioned in the cutscenes of Halo 3. You need to read the comic books to understand the gap.
The story starts after the comic book in which the Master Chief gets caught as a prisoner on the Covenant ship but escapes, after blowing it up he jumps into space and starts falling towards earth, the ark is being activated and if this task is completed by the Covenant, all food supply for the flood will be destroyed as the Halo rings will be fired. Once again the Master Chief needs to team up with the Arbiter to stop the covenant and destroy the Flood if that is even possible!
Rating
I rate the story of Halo 3 with a 7.0
The story in Halo starts getting lengthy and bothersome at this point, at least I get to shoot a lot of flood enemies in this game to reduce my frustration.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Halo 3 features some new elements, like new guns to choose from! You will get more guns to destroy your enemies! The dual wielding is still overpowered, but it is considerably scaled down as many weapons that could be dual wielded have been removed. For example the overpowered needlers combo has been removed, sadly, this means no more big explosions!
The missions take place in many locations and this time around you have new toys to play with, but a lot of them are quite useless, who would want a gravity lift in your pocket? However, you could maybe put the power drain to use to take down some hefty elite aliens! The bubble shield can protect you from the Flood, for a small period of time, as some of them can walk inside your bubble!
There are some new vehicles like the chopper bike! There have been some improvement to using a vehicle, but this was only slightly noticeable, but to be honest it felt just the same with new skins. Sadly, the amazing camouflage skill from Halo 2 does not make a comeback, no more extra stealthy kills! The new flood forms are fun to fight and figure out, it was quite weird that you fight the Gravemind but never really encounter him like in Halo 2.
Rating
I rate the gameplay of Halo 3 with a 6.5
It is quite weird that you do not meet the big bad guy, aka the Gravemind. The new equipment and guns are not very impressive, the story also starts out bad unless you have read a comic book. As the story progresses, it only keeps getting worse. However, this is not the worst that the Halo franchise has to offer.
Sound and Graphics
Graphics
The graphics of Halo 3 are actually worse compared with Halo 2, this is not per se a bad thing, but it does feel odd when you are playing the Master Chief collection. Even the remastered graphics of Halo 1 look better. I do like the new Flood forms though, but I do miss the Gravemind, except for his constant haunting voice, they should have scrapped that!
Sound
While the music is epic, there are quite some annoying sound effects in Halo 3. The game slows down, and you get haunted with voices in your head, this is not a fun gameplay mechanic, just let the bad guy have his normal evil, I will kill and eat everyone monologue please!
Rating
I rate the sound and graphics of Halo 3 with a 6.4
While the music is still epic, the constant haunting voices are annoying, the graphics are not quite up to date and have not aged well. Halo 2 does look much better!
What did I think after playing Halo 3?
I still had fun when playing Halo 3, but the missions were over in a heartbeat, as I do not play multiplayer I barely had any time in Halo 3. The difficulty was very low on normal, and I still need to start my legendary difficulty run, but I was more interested in what Halo 4 had to offer. I would love to see the return of the Flood after the conclusion of Halo 3.
While the dual wielding got optimized a bit, it still did not work properly, with a bit more tweaking it could work perfectly! The health bar missing is less of an issue in this game, as your shield is huge! You can also use the new equipment like the regenerator to heal your shield while under a barrage of flood parasites or bullets!
Rating
I rate Halo 3 with a 6.7 after playing.
While the game is fun, as the franchise continues, the quality is getting worse with each game that passes. Halo 4 needs a huge comeback of the Flood, massive tweaking of the formula to make it interesting again, Make the Master Chief epic again! Together with Cortana, the Master Chief will save the universe! Let us see if this happens in the next Halo game!
What are my personal thoughts about Halo 3?
I did have some fun with Halo 3, but I did miss that feeling of Halo 1 when the Flood first show up. Also, it is getting quite repetitive, and the quality seems to be getting worse in gameplay terms. Halo 4 needs to shake up things heavily to get things rolling again neatly!
Rating
My personal Rating of Halo 3 is a 7.0
I did like the new flood forms!
Last Words
Pros
- Face off with new Flood forms in Halo 3
- New weapons and gadgets to use in battle
- Play through 11 new missions as you shoot up aliens!
- Your shield is upgraded and will no longer deplete quickly
- Team up once again with the Arbiter to finally defeat the Flood
Cons
- Halo 3 has graphics that have not aged well
- The Arbiter is no longer playabel
- Constant haunting voices
- The story starts off bad and breaks all immersion unless you have read the comic books
Did you know that Sergeant Johnson is a super soldier, aka a Spartan 1? This is why he cannot be infected by the Flood and how he survived Halo 1.Â
SPOILERS
This does not mean that he can survive a laser through his chest.
Final Rating
6.5
Let me know what you think of Halo 3 in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
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Silentrets
Thanks for the review.
rotie
Graphic downgrade between Halo 2: Anniversary on PC and Halo 3 was breathtaking. I also love/hate fighting the flood. Mixed bag that one is.
supersven
Yeah, the graphics are indeed a lot worse in Halo 3.
Delicious Bacon
My personal best Halo because it was the first one I could split-screen with my brother! =D
We had so much fun playing that one on the highest difficulty. Still have the limited steelbook edition. =3
supersven
Split-screen is so much fun!
Alamar
Thanks for your review and video.
supersven
You are welcome!
quilor
Thanks for the review
fano23
Pretty cool saga and nice game