Pros and Cons Halo 3 Review
THE GOOD:
-Amazingly detailed skybox paintings
-Epic "Halo" confrontations
-Pretty bloom lighting and nice texture work on some
objects
-New vehicles are a blast to drive
-Replay recording right out of the box is amazingly fun
to play with, even if it is very bare-bones
-Co-op modes are a masterpiece of programming and
technical achievements even if you hate the story
-When new weapons do make their appearance, they are
pretty amusing to use
THE BAD:
-Either beautiful or ugly character models, nothing in
between
-The weapons are the same lot we've seen in previous
Halo games and the more powerful ones take up so much
damn room on the screen that it becomes a detriment
carrying them
-Terribly unrealistic gravity and damage modeling, even
though the game takes place on earth
-Bland physics and buggy Havok support (I cannot tell
you the number of times I've been meleed in multiplayer
only to watch my character literally fly 30-100 feet
straight up in the air)
-Co-op terminates if one player leaves the game (even if
they aren't hosting) and everyone is booted back to the
game lobby
-Control acceleration speed is terrible. For example,
when using the sniper rifle, the game speeds up your
turning speed while the scope is activated after moving
a certain distance. So, while you are attempting to lead
a slow-moving target, the reticule will follow him, ever
so slowly catching up to him, them suddenly fly past
him, forcing you to either miss the shot or refocus your
scope.
 SUMMARY:
This is not a trolling review of the game. Before
you assume anything and begin rating this review badly
simply because you don't see any reason why I gave it
such a low score, I'd like you to take a step back and
realize that not everyone will love everything that you
love, and I in no way am a Halo fanboy, so I'm reviewing
Halo 3 based solely on its appeal outside of the Halo
fan audience. I own this game and do enjoy it on
occasion, but it's just not "sublime" like every other
reviewer makes it out to be. Several flaws were apparent
when I played through it.
I work at Gamestop, so I have been hearing all about how
Halo 3 was going to revolutionize the way people play
FPS games. It was going to suck away all the time of
everyone on Xbox Live, and spawn an entire lineup of
knock-off products and games. If a new AAA title comes
out, it has to be deemed a "Halo killer", etc. Hell, I
was even working the midnight launch of the 25th. So
anticipation was very high for me when I popped it into
my 360 that night at 2:30 in the morning when I got
home.
The Graphics
The first thing I noticed was that while some areas of
Halo 3 shine with HD goodness, the character models are
incredibly bland. Your fellow soldiers look about as
impressive as the ones in Halo 2 in 480p (yes it was
that bad). The graphics engine is impressive, don't get
me wrong, as some of the more epic confrontations later
on in the game really show off how many objects and
events can be on screen at any one time. However, during
those confrontations I kept saying to myself "Wow, this
is just like that one mission in Halo 1/2!" instead of
"Wow! This blows Halo 1/2 out of the water!" The engine
stays at a pretty rock-solid framerate though, so a
little corner cutting is allright in that respect,
however in the cutscenes it becomes painfully clear that
the models for the Master Chief and Arbiter were the
focus of the artists, while the secondary characters
were left to a simple 1080p texture upgrade while their
poly counts were seemingly left low.
Presentation
A truly good sequel will make you completely forget
about the first game as the grandeur of the sequel
crashes over you. Flying along on a hoverboat in
Half-Life 2 and fighting a helicopter while dodging
exposive barrels made me completely forget the train
sequences in Half-Life 1. Running alongside a moving
Scarab tank in Halo 2 then walking over it only to make
my own decision (the game didn't instruct me to do it)
to jump onto the Scarab and destroy it from within made
me completely forget about the first time I took down a
Banshee in Halo CE. Halo 3 has almost none of those
memorable moments. In fact, Halo 2 overshadows it almost
completely in all aspects, mainly originality. It feels
like Bungie simply said "Hey, Halo 2 was really popular,
let's just twist the formula a bit and add some new
modes and weapons and call it Halo 3".
The music and sound design are on polar opposites
though. Martin O'Donnell's score is classy and exciting
at the same time and hearing the epic Halo theme during
some of the bigger fights is simply awesome for the mood
of the game. However, why most guns sound like pellet
rifles, I couldn't tell you. The sound of the Assault
Rifle in Halo CE was pleasant as well as being
ferocious, but now it sounds like a Airsoft gun. The
explosions sound directly ripped from Halo 1 and almost
nothing aside from the turrets sounds like you should be
roaring like Animal Mother from "Full Metal Jacket" when
firing it off. These are GUNS Bungie, they should sound
like them.
Gameplay
Even those mild nitpicks don't kill the experience
though. I mean, this is Halo right? Halo is about fun,
and damn did I have fun during the campaign. Racing
along a mongoose at top speed, while dodging the legs of
a giant walking Scarab then jumping up a giant hill
while a co-op teammate shoots rockets at attacking
Covenant was a blast. The Chief's movement speed is just
as maddeningly slow as ever though and you still fall
through the air like you're on the moon..
A big gripe I have with the game is the turning
acceleration of the controllers. It becomes very
frustrating in multiplayer as you constantly have to
adjust for the ever-changing speed of your reticule
rather than letting it be a constant movement. You can
be leading a target on your reticule then suddenly speed
past it as the game detects that you want to move faster
in that direction.
The co-op modes are well-made and lag-free, and even if
you enjoyed the campaign or not, it's a technical marvel
how Bungie was able to make 16 player co-op. The online
map's balance is superb, placing the right weapons in
the right places and allowing for fun vehicular combat,
however, it remains only a matter of time before that
balance is destroyed by hackers and modders (as games
like Halo very often do). Whether Bungie is able to keep
track of all the possible gaming exploits and bugs
remains to be seen, but if they don't then it will
become another superjump cesspool like Halo 2.
Overall
Halo 3 is a fantastic experience...for Halo fans.
Everyone else should either rent this game first or go
looking somewhere else for their 360 killer-app.
|
