Halo 3 is the latest entry in the Halo series. If you read my earlier review on Halo 3: ODST, you will know what that series is about. If not, scroll down and read it. If you are too lazy to do that, then I will explain it here. You play as the last of a line of super-soldiers called Spartans. You are fighting the Covenant, a theocratic alliance of alien races bent on eradicating the human race. They are composed of the Grunts, or Unggoy, the Jackals, or Kig-Yar, the Drones, or Yanme’e, Hunters, or Mgalekgolo, Engineers, or Huragok, Brutes, or Jiralhanae, and the Elites, or Sangheili, who have defected and are now allied with the humans. In the process of the war, a parasite known as the Flood was released. The Flood consumes and destroys all intelligent life it comes into contact with. An ancient race known as the Forerunners constructed a series of installations known as Halos to destroy the Flood and their food supply – intelligent life. A few surviving specimens were captured and contained on the installations, which the Covenant view as holy relics, meant to begin an ascent to godhood known as the “Great Journey.” The Flood have a sentient leader: the Gravemind. It vaguely guides the Flood in its movements.
So, on to the story. You (Master Chief) have destroyed two Halos: Installation 04 and Installation 05. The monitor for Installation 04, 343 Guilty Spark, is accompanying you, since its Halo was destroyed. You crash-land on Earth in an attempt to stop the Covenant forces on the human home planet from activating a Forerunner artifact found outside the city of New Mombasa, Kenya. (You may recall this as the city in which Halo 3: ODST takes place.) You meet up with Sergeant Avery Johnson, a prominent figure in all three Halo games, and the Arbiter, leader of the Elites. When you reach a UNSC outpost, you are assigned the task of destroying the Covenant anti-air guns. You do this, but are unable to stop the last remaining Covenant Prophet, the Prophet of Truth, from activating the artifact. This tears a hole in Slipspace, which is used to travel long distances at a time, to outside the Milky Way galaxy, right to Installation 00, The Ark. From here, all of the Halos can be activated at once. Unfortunately, the Flood has followed them there on the former Covenant Holy City, High Charity. Truth is bent on starting the Great Journey and is there to activate all of the Halos. He kidnaps Sgt. Johnson because he needs a human to use the Forerunner technology. You have to rescue him to prevent Truth from wiping out all intelligent life in the galaxy! You temporarily team up with the Gravemind, since your interests are temporarily the same. You and the Flood charge toward the chamber where Truth is and kill him. Suddeenly, the Flood turn on you and you have to battle your way through them to get out. You discover that a replacement for Installation 04 is being built, and decide to activate only that ring to destroy the Flood in the area. You need an activation index – but the only one you know of is with Cortana, your A.I. partner from the first two games. You go to High Charity to retrieve her from the Gravemind. I’m going to stop there so you actually have a reason to play the campaign.
The multiplayer is a beast of a mode, featuring such gametypes as Slayer, Infection, Rocket Race, and Capture the Flag. There are twenty-one maps for you to play on. These have such traits as having two facing Man Cannons (devices to launch crap), you being able to go outside the boundaries – only, if you do, you get killed withing ten seconds, and more! You are given the option to chat with your teammates using the Xbox Live headset, or to just play without knowing what your teammates are doing. With an addicting ranking system, you will be entertained for hours with just multiplayer.
The weapons generally stay away from the cliches such as the “laser gun” which is the standard of sci-fi. In fact, the only laser gun in the game is a devastating weapon that can reduce a tank to a smoking hulk in just one shot! This is known as the “Spartan Laser”. Its downsides are that it has only five shots and takes a while to fire. The assault rifle has a display that tells you how many rounds are left in the clip, and the Needler fires pink crystalline shards that home in on opponents and can explode. The two powerhouses are melee weapons. They are the only weapons that have plenty of shots and can kill in one hit. These are the energy sword, which can only be used on one enemy but has more uses, and the Gravity Hammer, which creates a shockwave, but only has twenty shots. These are just a fraction of the weapons available to use in Halo 3, all of which are powerhouses in their own right.
Overall, this is an excellent game, and I am extremely psyched for the next game, Halo: Reach. If it is half as good as this, it will still be an excellent game.
Rating: 9.9/10
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April 11th, 2010 at 6:08 PM
Whoops. I meant “addictive ranking system”. My bad.