Halo 3 and my thoughts (this may surprise you, coming from me.)

MikeReiner

Golden Master
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So a good friend of mine lent me his 360 and a copy of halo 3, so that I could play it.

I wasn't really in a hurry to play the game, but I figured why not.

I would like you all to know, that I have always been more of a Halo 1 purist. I hated Halo 2. I simply could not have fun with it. I'm not some "THE FIRST IS ALWAYS BETTAR" fanboy or anything, I just couldn't stand Halo 2.

Whenever I try and tell somebody what I think of a game (as in one I have actually played) , I throw something out of the window: Popularity/Hype.
Of coarse Halo 3 isn't what the hype would make you think it is, but sheesh, nothing, and I repeat, nothing is worth it's weight in hype. Ever.

I'm honestly surprised. I thought I would hate this game. I think it's better than Halo 2 in every way that is possible to be better. I have had more fun with this game than I ever thought possible. Shit, I'm even thinking of getting a 360 sooner now.

Campaign:
Too short, however I feel this is made up for by having MUCH, MUCH, repeat, MUCH better level design.
Halo1 and 2's level design has nothing on this. No more monotonous repetitive crap.

Coop has been expanded to 4 players, either through split screen, system link, or xbox live. (bout damn time, honestly. This pissed me off about the first two more than you can imagine.)

Dying in coop on legendary no longer restarts everyone to the last check point.

Multi player:
I feel anyone who was good at Halo 2 will be good at this one. It is largely the same, but the slew of new maps, weapons, and other gadgets are all good for the most part.

Off the top of my head we have things like..

Shield Drainers, Chargers, and Bubble Shields, oh my!
Drainers: Blue fog field that drains your shields.
Chargers: Green fog field that charges your shields
Bubble Shields: Creates, well, a bubble. You cannot fire or throw grenades into this bubble, however there is nothing stopping you from walking into it.

Radar Jammer:
Fills your motion tracker with a bunch of red dots, makes your motion tracker basically useless.

All these are classified as 'equipment', which is used by "X"
You can destroy most of these once they have been activated, which is nice.

I would also like to mention that Cloaks are no longer activated upon pick up, they are now equipment and are treated as such.

Weapons:
Bungie has changed the control scheme on us, for the better perhaps.
"X" is no longer "Action", that has been reassigned to the right "bumper", which I feel is better. You don't have to take your thumb off of the analog to reload anymore.
Also, when dual wielding, you can reload your two weapons independently of each other!

Energy swords: it is now possible to collide swords with your opponents to some degree, meaning it's possible to NOT get killed in one hit. Sword fights just got a helluv a lot more fun with that! A direct hit is fatal.

Stationary turrets:
Missile turrets, Plasma turrets, and the typical Machine gun turret.
You now have the ability to rip the turret from it's stand and run around with it. You have limited ammo and increased recoil when you do this, you also have reduced movement speed.
On the bright side, you don't have to drop either of your two weapons in order to take it.
You cannot melee with this weapon.

I would like to point out that in bungie's infinite wisdom, the didn't remove these turrets from sword only matches. Last one I played, I grabbed the turret and killed like 12 people. I got screamed at so much.. and I laughed my ass off.

Gravity Hammer:
A big hammer that uses, well.. gravity. A direct hit to any enemy that doesn't have an over shield is fatal, and attacking from a slight range will send them flying. It should be illegal to have that much fun. It has limited energy.. roughly 10-15 swings I believe.

Spartan Laser:
Big cannon like monstrosity. You take aim, hold the trigger, and a laser will appear. Keep it on your target for a few seconds and, well.. you don't have a target anymore.. unless you call ash a target.

Assault Rifle:
Not really new, but rather a returning goodie from Halo 1. Instead of 60 rounds, it's 32. However these 32 rounds are by far more effective, so it's a good trade off.

Spiker (dual wield able):
Typically used by brutes, this is basically a souped up SMG, fires red plasma. Good weapon.

Mauler (dual wield able):
Another brute weapon. It's basically a shotgun that reloads faster. As you can imagine, you want to use this at close range.

Needler:
Not really new, but you should all know that you cannot dual wield it. However, it is now quite powerful, so it's a great weapon.

Rocket Launcher:
Basically the same, but no targeting now.. I may be wrong but I haven't been able to get it to do it.

Shotgun: Stronger than Halo 2's. This NEEDED to happen.

Pistol (Dual Wield able): Shotgun's statement applies here. It's basically the Halo 1 pistol.

Plasma Rifle, Plasma Pistol, Sniper Rifle, Carbine, Fuel Rod Cannon:
Nothing new to report here.

Thats all I can think of at the moment.

Putting aside the hyper and whatnot, and just looking at Halo 3 for what it is, it's a good shooter, which will earn it's self a spot on my shelf for occasional frag fests when I get my 360.
That in of it's self is a feat, considering how much I expected this game to blow.
 
I bet in the next XBL update the needler's power will be reduced, it's way overpowered. Other than that though, everything is pretty balanced.

Overall, I'd say it's a lot better than Halo 2. Especially the campaign, it actually has REPLAY VALUE now!
 
I don't think the needler is way overpowered. I do love Halo 3. At the LAN party last night we played Halo 3 and it was awesome. I like getting dual Spikers and running around killing people. Some other guy was sniping with the spartan laser. This game is much more improved over Halo 2 in the campaign as freestyler said. I do get annoyed when Cortana is on your screen and you can hardly move.
 
The coop via System Link seems awesome. Even with the Xbox Live!. I'll give it a try when it will go on PC.
 
the main story was kinda short...but I like how you can unlock different armor and stuff by beating it on different difficulty's and stuff, adds some good replay value to it. and some of the skulls you find do some cool stuff as well haha
 
The needler needed power. You still have to basically unload a whole clip into someone and land most of the shots for a kill. It takes finesse, so I don't think it's cheap. The only difference is in Halo 2 you had to use 2 of them to do that.
 
I miss the old needler's melee (halo1's)..

You'd literally shove the needles right into your foe, that HAS to be devastating.
 
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