 | Halo 3 review |
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| Simon Ohadi, filming manager | |
There are many reviews on Halo 3 out there, but Blade Tech strives on not only the performance of the game, but how realistic it is. We also look for glitches, kinks, and other problems or up sides. So, today we have decided to review one of most awaited Xbox 360 games: Halo 3. The legendary conclusion to the Halo trilogy was greatly anticipated by Xbox 360 gamers as Halo and Halo 2 had made a great first impression. As we played Halo 3, this is what we have compiled
Halo 3 was definitely worth the wait and the money people paid for it. While it isn’t the most realistic game that has come out, it is definitely a good one on the animation side of things. Halo wasn’t created to be realistic, so we have decided to over look the realistic factor in this game. The game over all has decent graphics. While it doesn’t compare to most of the recent games that have come out in the past few months, it is still up to date. Bungie did, however, improve a great bit on their online playing though. In Halo and Halo 2, online game play was very basic and not as fun for people to network and play on. Now, they have all kinds of different games to play, boards to choose from, and it allows you to do it with more people.
Most of the preloaded maps are decent. They vary on the small fields, for people who like non-stop action, and then there are the large fields for those who like to use vehicles, strategy, and sniping. The weapons are placed in good places, not to far apart from each other, but not to close. The correct vehicles are placed on the right fields that will suit them best. Small fields usually don’t have a lot of vehicles, but instead contain a lot of weapons, grenades, and extras. Over all, Bungie did a good job on evening out the playing field. The additional fields that you can purchase from Xbox Live are all almost perfect fields as well. They are a lot of fun to play on and are evenly designed as well.
Now, although it seems all is perfect, there are its kinks. Seems how this game is so improved and action packed, it has a good amount of glitches. For example, it seemed like this happened to us a few too many times, where we would throw a grenade, it would stick, and not kill them, or you hit them and shot them for a while, then the opponent hits you once and your dead. It seems like it occasionally likes to mess up on reading the damage. Also, when someone leaves the game, it brings you to the list of players, takes about 20 or so seconds, shows who left by highlighting them grey, and then resets the score to zero for a few seconds, then goes back to the right score when you left off. It also may put you in a different position then when you left off, like maybe 5 or so seconds before it cut off. So if you captured a flag or something, when it starts up, you may not have the flag any more, or you may die, or something like that. It’s a real annoying problem, and I don’t think it was meant to be that way.
If you play campaign on the hardest difficulty there is, you can beat the whole game when you get to the end, but when playing on the lower difficulty levels, and you have to play it through all the different difficulties. Honestly, I think that is fair enough. Makes sense to me anyways. Now, you also can capture special skulls that unlock certain armor, rewards, and other cool things. These are all hidden throughout the maps and difficulties and you can find them easily on YouTube or other game sites, but if you are a true gamer, you will work towards finding them on your own. In order to do that, you can’t leave a rock unturned or a corner unchecked. Every opening you see, take. You may find something, or fall to your death, either way.
Now, the story board wasn’t as exciting as Halo 1 and some of Halo 2, but I still like the way it works out. The latter part of the game is a hard one, but a whole lot of fun. Also, the fields have a lot more hands-on things to do such as driving vehicles or riding in one and shooting. Also, it allows you to let a friend join from online and help you, or on your system link. It is a lot more fun when you can have more than one person working on the level, and you can get it done faster. The fields also require more strategy than just running out there and shooting a gun. You have to sneak up on vehicles to destroy them, go from being the sniped to being the sniper, and kill creatures called Grunts. You have to choose the weapons you pick up wisely, or you may regret it later. It really is a more interesting campaign now.
My favorite feature of Halo 3 is the Forge. I love being able to create the layout of things on a map. You can add, delete, and move things around. While it costs Xbox Live points, it is well worth it if you are creative. For example, if you are playing online and think “you know what, it would be cool if there was a Ghost here.” You can go onto Forge, and put one there, and play your custom map with friends or on your own. It’s a lot of fun.
Last, but not least, we have the Theater. You can watch some of your recently played games from Xbox Live, or Forge, or whatever. You can pause, rewind, fast forward, and also navigate to other players on the field other than just watching from your point of view. It’s a great way to find hiding spots others used, see how you got killed, or learn what you did wrong. It’s a great feature and helps out in a lot of ways.
Well, after all of that, and quite a few months of playing Halo 3, its time for me to give it my overall rating as a game. So, I will break this up in the ratings, then give it my overall rate. So, graphics wise, I give it a 7, mainly because it isn’t great, but it isn’t terrible. Xbox Live gets a rating of 8 and a half. With the fields, and options they have available, it makes it really nice to play on. Campaign wise, it gets a 9. I love the fields, I love the action, and I love the multi-player functionality; it’s just a great thing. Overall, I think the game deserves a 8 and a half. With everything they came out with, the made it what it was said to be. Good job on Bungie’s part.