Halo 3 is everything people were expecting, yet it somewhat falls short of greatness.
Halo 3 continues the style of Halo 2, fast-paced shooting with a larger emphasis on action than Halo CE. You still feel like a super human of sorts, which is exactly what Bungie wanted, and they executed this well. Being able to jump down from a slope and being able to rain bullets as you go never felt so gratifying. But of course, with a new game in the series, there are bound to be new stuff.
In previous titles, I had a huge complaint about how most of the weapons weren't correctly balanced. Each multiplayer match would usually consist of everyone grabbing only a couple of weapons. Apparently I wasn't the only person as Halo 3 shows that Bungie worked hard to make sure that this was fixed. Now pretty much every weapon is useful in both the single and multiplayer modes. I can't tell you how many times I've fallen at the hands of people who know how to use the pistol effectively. Grrr, that's annoying!
But that wasn't all Bungie did. Adding in to the general gameplay are powerups. I found this to be somewhat annoying (upon my first play not really knowing what they did) to now being a fantastic add on. Each powerup is situated as either offensive or defensive from the projectile immune bubble shield to the rather effective in a tight squeeze energy drainer. You don't know how many times these babies have helped change the course of a battle.
But enough about the gameplay adds or fixes, let's take a look at the actual game itself.
I'm a person who loves a great single player campaign, and it's part of the reason why I like the series so much. The story of Halo CE was perfect; it set the stage for things to come. But unfortunately, Bungie dropped the ball for Halo 2 in that department. As for Halo 3? I can say that Bungie's improved. It doesn't quite obtain that maginificence of the first. The story feels more or less like that of a Michael Bay film: huge fight scenes but with little to no character development or attachment. But that's not entirely bad. The campaign levels are play much better and have a better fluidity not seen in Halo 2. The levels are larger and there's a pretty good emphasis on vehicular combat. But even with this, the levels are too similar to each other and don't feature too much variety. Well, there is some variety, but at times they don't make sense. I'm pointing to a couple of instances when the enemy forces are fast asleep, and I just wondered, we're in open warfare, why are they napping? While this was used in Halo CE, it made sense then, but not here when it was applied. But while I am going on and on about what went wrong, the campaign does bring about a sufficient closure to the trilogy, but then again, most people didn't buy the game for the campaign.
The buzz about Halo 3 pretty much surrounded the multiplayer component, and I can say, Bungie really outdid themselves. Possibly one of the best multiplayer games for consoles, Halo 3 features pretty much everything you need: great ranking systems, fantastic level designs, and an easy to use interface. There's really not a whole lot to say here other than this is the reason why this game is so popular.
Bungie created created Halo CE and soon found themselves at the foot of an incredible mountain. Halo is now one of the most recognized and best selling franchises in history. But from what was seen in Halo 3, Bungie could have created a much better game. Great uses of new powerups and fixes in the weapon department brought some welcome praises, but the lack of a focused campaign hurt what could have been a great finish to the trilogy. But even with that, Halo 3 is a multiplayer extravaganza that should not be missed.