Daimon's Lair

Easily one of the most anticipated games in my gaming lifetime. . . .

Did it finish the fight? Let's find out. . . .

Immersion: Much like buying the Xbox to play Halo, I held out on buying the 360 until Halo 3 came out. Which was great, because my wife and I pooled our Xmas money that year and bought the Halo 3 special edition 360 with it's cool, unique case. (No, I wouldn't call it puke green like some people out there). Plus we avoided the three red lights boogeyman which plagued so many of the initial release consoles.

Halo 3 was my first immersion into current-gen gaming--and even without an HDTV at that point, I was quite simply blown away with the graphics and the sheer beauty of the game. It was an awesome night when I first put that disc in. . . *sighs*. Definitely a high immersion rating, possibly even higher than Halo 2 in my book. At least when it comes to visuals and audio--though the score is possibly the weakest of the trilogy in my book. It's just a little too instrumental for my taste.

When it comes to storyline, Halo 3's is good, but probably the weakest of the 3, especially when it comes to immersion. The first level in the jungle is awesome, and Miranda Keyes does an admirable job of being the immediate face of the UNSC command. The thing I really hate are all the cryptic and just stupid Cortana immersions. Yes, some of them are interesting, but most of them would have much more place at home in a JRPG than a FPS. Especially. . . Especially in the penultimate level in the belly of the Gravemind. *fakes vomiting* Way too many interruptions--more annoying than MGS4, which is saying something.

Another gripe is that Halo 3's whole slogan was "Finish the Fight". Was the fight finished? I don't think so. But I don't want to spoil what the actual ending was.

Replay Value: The campaign is the least replayable of the three, but it's still quite replayable, especially with co-op available as both split screen and over Xbox Live.

Where Halo 3 really shines is its multiplayer. Halo 3 is the first game I put in when i got Xbox Live Gold and it remains pretty much the only multiplayer game I play online despite having tried others like COD4 and Gears.

One thing I really like about Halo 3 that so many other games lack is the combination of ranked and 'social' or unranked playlists. If I want the most even match possible, I'll play on ranked playlists. If I'm rusty or just want to have fun, I'll go on the social side. I've gotten (so far) up to 21 on Lone Wolves, but in pretty much any other ranked list I suck. Guess I'm not much of a team player.

Another thing I like is the way Bungie continually tweaks content--both maps, playlist content, and game variants as well as regularly adding maps. Not to mention the regular Double Experience weekends--my favorite being 'grifball'.

Bungie is up there as one of the best developers out there and with the Mythic Map Pack being released alongside Halo Wars in Feb '09 and Halo 3: ODST being released Fall '09, I see no reason for Halo 3 to drop out of the top two, let alone the top five 360 titles any time soon.

Balancing: I really disagree with Bungie's decision to make normal=pretty casual in the single player campaign. That's what easy has always been. I've finished every level on Heroic except the penultimate, which goes down in my book as the worst Halo level of the trilogy. Yes, worse than the fucking Library level in Halo: CE.

I haven't tried Legendary yet, but we'll see how that goes.

That said, I really like the de-emphasis on dual wielding in both the single player and multiplayer games. The addition of accessories is a mixed bag. I'm not a huge fan of it in multiplayer, but that may be just because I suck at it. I didn't use them much at all my first time through. My second time through the game I found them useful, but honestly more of a distraction from the classic Halo formula.

De-emphasizing dual wielding came with the price of making the SMG largely worthless, even as a dual-wield. The re-introduction of the assault rifle was a great decision on Bungie's part. The Brute Spiker is also nice and is somewhat useful as a multiplayer tool of destruction. Being able to use the gravity hammer is a nice touch.

I really like the re-design of the Brutes. A lot. When I saw the ViDoc before the game was released, I was psyched about the Brute pack and the relatively punishing nature of their AI. The basic brutes are pretty easy, even when in numbers. It's the yellow brutes (especially on Tsavo Highway when they have fuel rod cannons) that are challenging. And the chieftains, well, they're just insane. Three head shots with the sniper rifle to kill? That's just crazy. But crazy fun at parts.

One gripe about the AI--it's inconsistent in its aggressiveness. My first time through the game when I got to the long hallway in Crow's Nest with the huge brute pack (and your first chieftain) it took me 5 hours to beat because they rushed me in waves. Then, at random intervals the Brute Chieftain would all of a sudden charge (sometimes when there were still other Brutes standing).

The next time I came prepared. Tempted as I was to use the turret left over from the hanger on the Drones, I saved it and parked myself behind the bullet shield at the beginning of the hallway. And what--the Brutes, instead of rushing me just stood there and let me pick them off with the BR. They didn't even rush me when I went to go grab ammo when I ran out. And the Chieftain obliged me by running straight into the turret and dying at my feet.

That said, that's the only part I've noticed such a drastic change in the AI (perhaps because I was stuck for soooo long the first time).

Final Impressions: This is a must have for all 360 owners. Despite the really weak final boss and the lame final cutscene, it's a great game. In some ways it's the weakest of the trilogy, in others the best. Can I say more?