If you are a Master Chief disciple like I am, then this review will probably be of no use to you, as you have most likely already purchased Halo 3, and may have even finished the single player campaign, or rapidly climbed the ranks in ranked online multiplayer matches.

But if you haven’t yet purchased the game, or have been waiting for this title to upgrade from an Xbox to an Xbox 360, read on.

Graphics – 85%
The Halo 3 engine looks beautiful provided you haven’t played Bioshock or Lair and assuming you have an HDTV.  Of the entries in the Halo series, this is definitely the most beautiful of the bunch, hands down.  And the graphics you may have seen in the Beta are not representative of what was included in the actual release.  But if you have seen the two most beautiful games to come out for some time, the aforementioned Bioshock and Lair, then this just doesn’t compare.

 That’s not to say that Halo 3 isn’t beautiful in its own right.  It is. The textures are very detailed, the character models are noticeably improved, and the environments are, at times, amazing. The problem is, unless you are playing Halo 3 on an HDTV, these improvements don’t look like much more than a polished version of Halo 2.
All that being said, Halo 3 is nice to look at, and something any Halo fan will love.

Sound – 95%
Nothing much to say here, except the sound in Halo 3 is near perfection.  Ambient noise, sound effects, voice acting, and musical score all surpass the accomplishments of the previous chapters in this trilogy.

If you have your Xbox 360 connected to a home theater, you’re in luck: this game is an auditory spectacular when experienced in surround sound.  The 3D positional sound will take full advantage of your Dolby Digital 5.1 system.  The game even sounds good on your average stereo TV as well, with simulated positional audio that is some of the best I’ve ever heard.  I could hear where the enemy was, even if it was behind me.

Gameplay – 80%
Because Halo 3, much like Halo 2, offers two completely different game experiences, I decided it was best to split up this section, and average the two, producing a total gameplay score.

Single Player Campaign – 70%
IT IS TOO DAMN SHORT.

I don’t know how many times I can write this in my reviews before it seems futile.  Maybe the time for long narrative games has come and gone, but it seems like I can rip through recent games playing at a normal or medium level, in just 3 or 4 nights.  To me, that seems ridiculous.

Maybe I come from a different generation: a generation that has an attention span.  I might even believe that developers are producing games for a new generation, but I can dispel that by simply looking to my teenage daughter.  People have an attention span if you give them something worth watching, and despite Bungie’s lack of length in its content, Halo 3 certainly has story worth experiencing.

***SPOILER WARNING***

My first gripe with the campaign is that the storyline does not begin where Halo 2 left off.  And although Marvel in conjunction with Bungie and Microsoft is releasing a four-issue comic miniseries entitled Halo: Uprising, in my opinion it is a little late.  I’m not keen on the idea of the comic tie-in to tell the story, but if they were going to do this, maybe it should have been released before the game.  Then, I might understand why Master Chief has fallen two kilometers to Earth.

The ending of Halo 2 left me feeling empty.  Halo: Combat Evolved ended in a race for your life, as you drive a Warthog at top speeds fleeing certain doom.  Halo 3 returns to this, by putting you, as Master Chief, and the Arbiter in a Warthog racing toward a frigate to escape a Halo installation that is about to go critical.  Although it sounds much the same as the last sequence of the first Halo, it is on a much grander scale, and does an excellent job of instilling in the gamer a sense of urgency, unlike any other game.

Bungie pulls no punches in this episode of the Halo saga, killing a few of the story’s main characters.  I do not want to go into too much detail, but at least three have died by the time the credits roll at the end of the campaign, but I will warn you, be sure to watch all the credits if you want to know the full story.

***END OF SPOILER***

Despite its length, Halo 3 was a delight to play.  If you are a fan of the series, there is really nothing like climbing back into a Warthog to do battle against the Covenant and the Flood.  Bungie’s story is great, and the trilogy really does come full circle.

Online Mulitplayer – 90%
If it were not for online multiplayer, this game would only be worth $60 to gamers who enjoyed the first two chapters, and wanted to know how “the World ends”.  And although I was not a fan of Halo 2 multiplayer, I love Halo 3 online play.

The game seems much more balanced than Halo 2, and the new maps and weapons are great for small or large games.  In addition, the matchmaking system works well…sometimes.  In my first outing, I took the lead and won the match with just seconds to go.  The person in last place was only seven kills behind my thirty, proving that it was in reality an even match.  By the same token, my next match I was slaughtered, losing by no less than 20 kills.

If you’ve never been a fan of multiplayer first-person shooters, I urge you to give this a try.  You may be surprised.  Even though I do enjoy them, I have never much liked them on a console…until now.  The speed falls somewhere between that of the Unreal Tournament series and the Battlefield games.

Cut Scenes/Video – 90%
If not for the cut scenes, none of us would have a clue what the Master Chief's Mjolnir armor even looks like.  The problem with these scenes though, is their omniscient viewpoint temporarily destroys the immersion of the first-person experience. Nevertheless, these cut scenes are filled with information that bridges the gap between gameplay sequences and for the first time in the Halo series, real emotion.  While watching a few of the sequences, I thought I might actually tear up.

Controls/Interface – 100%
I’m not keen on giving 100% in any category, but it seems the third time is the charm for the folks at Bungie.  The controls, although well implemented in the two previous chapters of the franchise, have been perfected in Halo 3. 

First, the right and left bumpers are infinitely easier to use than the black and white buttons of the original Xbox controllers, including the S-version, and while Bungie had nothing to do with that, it is a noteworthy change. While I always felt Halo’s controls were near perfect, in the previous games the heads-up display (HUD) was a little cluttered.  The amusing part is, I never thought so until I saw just how streamlined it could be.  The HUD in Halo 3 is so clean, yet so simple, that it is amazing to me why no one did it this way before.  Each section of the HUD, the four corners and top center of the screen, displays different info.  No more looking at the radar to see the power level of your shield; it is now displayed at the top center.  While I thought its placement may become obtrusive, it did not interfere with the graphics, and was actually easier to see. 

 Lastly, the HUD was also slightly curved, borrowing from Metroid Prime’s interface, making it look as if the player is looking through the signature gold visor.  It may not seem like much, but that little extra immersion makes the player feel a tad more like Spartan-117.

Outside the game itself, Bungie has added two very cool features to Halo 3: the Forge, and the Theater.  The Forge allows gamers to play as a Forerunner Monitor, and assist players in multiplayer games to drop weapons, vehicles, and other objects into an ongoing game.  If you’ve ever played Battlefield 2, it reminded me of ‘Commander Mode’, although anyone can switch to editing mode.

The theater allows players to view recent games played: campaign and online games.  You can literally go back, and watch an entire match or campaign mission, all while switching cameras and views.  While viewing a film, you can snap screenshots that you can upload to Bungie.net to download to other consoles, or to a computer.

Summary – 90%
The game is good, it really is, but if you’ve never played a Halo game before, don’t expect to enjoy the campaign.  Make multiplayer your thing.  Also, if you don’t own an HDTV or a 5.1 home theater system, you are really missing out on the technological advancements made since Halo 2.

Simply put, Halo 3 is worth your money, but stick to the $60 version.

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