Halo 3 Review - One of the best Xbox 360 games.

By Sam Coles:

Has it really been nearly 10 years since Halo 3 was first released? It’s hard to believe that one of the best games on the Xbox 360 is that old I remember when it came out and gazed enviously at my friends who owned an Xbox 360 with its beautiful graphics, gameplay and story. I didn’t get an Xbox 360 until 2009 for my 16^th birthday and fortunately my 360 came with a copy of Halo 3 and I fell in love with the game. Does it still hold up 10 years later? Yes!

Halo 3’s story takes place directly after Halo 2 where we see the Master Chief crash landing on Earth after infiltrating the Covenant’s city High Charity in the second game and killing the Prophet of Regret. Chief had to leave Cortana in the city which was also being overran by the parasitic race known as the flood, Chief unfortunately does not know where she is and sets off to find her and defend Earth from Covenant forces. The story is great as it was meant to be the last game in the series but we all knew that it wasn’t going to be the last game as Microsoft knew they had something good it really does feel like the last fight.

Halo 3 took what it had from the first two games with gameplay and times it by 10 with tighter and more responsive controls with excellent gunplay. The levels were bigger and wider in scope compared to the first two games with brute enemies taking stage as the Elites are now working with you as well as the Arbiter which unfortunately you don’t play as him this time. You can play the entire campaign with 4 players and it is a blast, I remember finishing the campaign on Legendary in split-screen with a night of pizza and beer. This is what modern Halo games are missing local multiplayer it’s just what gaming is missing in general, don’t get me wrong I love online multiplayer but there is nothing like the noise of a living room full of people.

The multiplayer is easily the best in the series whether it is online or offline you have your standard slew of modes from the first two games like Slayer and Capture the Flag. However you have some new and interesting modes which have become staples in the series such as Oddball and Griffball which came from the famous animated show Red vs Blue. This was a landmark title on Xbox Live I would constantly hear about people talking about this game online alongside Call of Duty 4.

Visually the game still looks good if you ignore the ugly character models minus Master Chief’s. The environments are beautiful with some fantastic lightning especially the first level where you’re in a dense jungle with lush flora and fauna. Particle effects look fantastic as well with explosions and the muzzle flashes from plasma based weapons. The only problem I have as I said earlier is that the character models look dated as well as the animations, as they look a bit stilted.

Halo 3 is a game that I still hear people talking about today 10 years down the line and I can see people talking about it 20 years down the line. The game is easy to find on the 360 but if you want to play it at native 1080p and 60 frames per second then I would recommend getting the Master Chief Collection on Xbox One, be warned it does come with a hefty patch.