The Halo 3 Post

So I just finished the long awaited Halo 3 in cooperative mode, with just one other person (on Heroic, the way it’s meant to be played according to the difficulty settings screen). Don’t worry, I won’t include any spoilers.

The game looked nice. I mean, really. Crysis looks cool and all, but I don’t see why Halo 3 doesn’t get equal attention on that subject.

The effects were pretty spiffy, the atmosphere was plenty good, and I actually got pretty well into it at times. The gameplay was solid, and I thought they remedied a few of the mistakes that they made in Halo 2, with a nice hybrid of Halo 2 style features and original Halo authenticity; the game ended up reminiscent of original Halo. And boy are there some fun new features in Halo 3; and not the kind of idea that gets thrown in but doesn’t really add to the game either. I won’t spoil anything, it’s fun to find out for yourself.

The length of the campaign is comparable to those of the first two Halo games. Maybe it would have been nice if it lasted a tad longer, but played on Heroic, the storyline didn’t leave me with the “What? It’s over already?” feeling. Maybe that would have happened if I had played it on an easier setting, so that it moved faster. I think it ended well.

I haven’t played much of the multiplayer yet, but that seems decent too. I think the new features add a nice new layer of strategy, and of what I’ve seen, the map design in the campaign and in multiplayer mode seems good.

It’s not particularly groundbreaking, though I do like some of the new features. Overall, it’s a pretty solid, polished game.

Note: We didn’t buy Halo 3 at midnight on opening night or any of that. It actually took us 4 nights of (not nonstop, but mostly solid) play to finish it out.