Halo is most likely one of the more over hyped series of it's time. In some cases it is even said to be a major contributor to the "death of health bars". Which of course lead to quite a few developers to place in regenerating internal organ abilities to the games characters. After the funeral service at game stop for my defective Orange Box disk I decided to swallow my pride and pick up the game to see if it was even worth any of the hype it receives.

Spoilers possible beyond this point.

I'll get the fairly useless compliments out of the way beforehand. The game is much prettier than the ones before it. Not that praising graphics really should help a game in any way. Considering people tend to like hearing about graphics I tend to need to mention at least something about them. The characters appear to look extremely different from the other two games; It may just be my memory playing tricks with me.

The game start was rather surprising for me after the first two games starting the same bloody way. Instead of a space ship 'unexpectedly' being attacked, you start crash landed in some jungle-like area. Master Chief appears dead but is obviously fine; it's too early in the game for him to be dead yet. I actually was happy about the change of pace to begin the game for about 3 minutes. Until I quickly learned something very important and simple. There is close to no form of tutorial in this game. What this means is first time players will have to guess the controls, and old players in some instances. There are parts that tell you to press certain buttons to achieve certain actions but that was for only a few buttons. Bungie may have just assumed everyone would read the manual and know how to do every action in the game.

The entire story I found it to be quite boring and unappealing. You get out of the jungle, go to a facility underground which is conveniently discovered by Covenant shortly after you arrive. You help evacuate, set off a bomb, and go on your way. To save you time explaining the story. It isn't "bad" but it's nothing new from the other games.

This is how the story commonly goes; Halo 3 being no exception.

1. Bad situation
2. Bad situation gets worse
3. Evacuate and fight back
4. Situation appears to get better.
5. Situation is Finished
6. Tricked you! Situation went back to stage one.

That said I can't quite call the story "bad". It isn't a fantastic one and I'm not fond of it. None the less it manages to get the job done well and wrap up the story easily with no important loose ends to tie. I should correct myself and say no important loose ends to tie.

The game play is like the other Halo games: "A fast paced point and click adventure". I say this because the way the Halo series went about things. There is little leading that needs to be done with weapons when shooting at a moving target. It also helps that most of the AI enjoys standing still while you shoot them (most). Vehicle weapons and slow moving weapons may require leading, but for the most part you will notice yourself rarely having to take your cross hairs off the target. Which you'll find is easier than you think with the auto-aim feature the halo games carry.

While on the topic of auto-aim and other things of that nature. Multi-player has the stereotypical community that Xbox Live tends to carry around with it and then some. That bundled with how eye clawing easy I find multi-player it allows me to get high scores for being new to online. This of course leads some people to get angry. I can't quite explain it but I'm actually mad that the multi-player is as easy as it is. I may have been hoping for more from the game after being disappointed with the story mode.

Even though I'm not fond of multi-player either I have found something I quite enjoy. The game has added a theatre ability which allows you to go through recent matches (Multi-player or actual campaign) and go through the video and get footage or take images. As with almost everything in this game there are no actual instructions when you get into the mode but none the less it's a neat feature. The second feature this game brings is a Forge option. It lets you go through and edit objects, weapons, and vehicles; among other things. I surprisingly didn't like this feature too much either. It's not that it's a bad feature it's just hard to get used too and rather annoying to try and edit quickly.

I guess what I'm getting at here it isn't a bad game in the end. The game is of course over hyped with all the flaws and down sides placed into it. The multi-player is enjoyable if you can get into a game with nice people that will joke around while they play. Since that is a rarity I would suggest playing with friends unless you can't help it.

If you merely want to try it out or finish the story I'd rent it. If you are a hardcore fanboy you already have the game and this doesn't apply to you to any extent.

On an ending notice.
I may have been slightly biased against this game. I guess if I were to only praise the game for how much I disliked it this wouldn't be a personal review. Which is just flat out silly.