Since being a fan of the original Halo, I was very excited about the whole hype about Halo3. To be honest, I'm the gamer who does not care about story lines...I just care about gameplay. Even in the first Halo, i never bothered with the story...I just played and fell inlove. Halo is one of a few games that shows off single player & Multiplayer, and yet again Bungie continues to pull out a bag of trix. Halo2 delivered an awesome online performance with adequate matchmaking. In Halo3, the X-box live community is now able to use forge(customize maps), being able to save replays of matches/campaign. Bungie also put in new vehicles with apearances of new weapons. taSo did Halo3 meet the hype or deliver?
Starting off with the campaign, the chief is found with his crew basically frozen and about to begin the fight. (mind you, i dont pay attention to the story). As the opening mission begins, you are partnered up with Arbiter making your way in some jungle like atmosphere with many enemies already. I did find that my AI teammates were more of a cosmetic than a help. The variety of enemies were very suprising as they have different weapons and some of them actually use bubble shields. Very tacticle when playing on legendary. Stages are well designed with proper positioning of checkpoints. Skulls are to be found secretly in each mission that will open up cheats. Single player delivered properly especially with a friend offline or online.
On the graphical side, Bungie has done it again delivering spectacular visuals. I'm not a tech freak... and I could care less about 720p/1080p crap... Halo3 looks spectacular runs very smooth with out tearing and hiccups. The textures on the walls and caves are sharp but the look on the faces of your teammates just looks like Halo2(edges are bad on the faces). errrr.
Sound..check... the bass when ships fly by you and the sound of the needlers just shooting away. The sound of bubble shields and side equipments are spot on and do add to the evironment. Background music is great especially on the opening theme.
Enough of the single player.. lets get down to pwning. Halo3 has possibly the best multiplayer online and offline. Playing Gears of War and Forza2 and the many x-box live titles has made me very VERY Rusty with Halo3. Luckily, Bungie does a geat job with assorting matches and making sure everyone is at the same level. Matchmaking is even and often puts you with players of higher ranks to see if you can rank up. The Player matches are for people who just wanna have fun and not be too accountable for team losses. Big team slayer on Sandtrap is good and the maps are decent. Bunjie has also put in Forge which lets you customize official maps and use them in social matches. Ranked matched are hardcore pwning. (You might win some but you will lose one). Addicting as ever, Bungie balances the gameplay perfectly and really bringing the shine to each weapon in the game.
Over all,
Halo 3 pwns! Besides me being a fan of the original Halo. Bungie has made the first Nex-Gen game that delievers the WHOLE package. Online, Offline.... You have fun either way. Probably the only things that are negative is when you nitpick. ex, lack of custom armor. ai is gay. The different modes you can play, theatre, ranks, forge are the reasons why Halo3 really meets the hype.