The best Xbox 360 game yet?
STORY
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The game takes place shortly after Halo 3, the Covenant is on its way to Earth, continuing its religious zealotry and attempting to activate the floating space weapons known as Halo's, which could destroy civilization as we know it. Master Chief and the other Earth forces of the UNSC are in hot pursuit to stop them, with newfound allies such as Arbiter coming along for the ride. The story is decent, it dosen't bring anything new, but it's good, except for some problems. It dosen't feel like there's a lot character development and there's no chemistry between Cheif and Arbiter, They never talk to each other, there's no feelings between. Also, you don't play as Arbiter anymore, and that makes it seem like there's a lot of story that has been lost. The ending though is good, though i don't wanna spoil what happens. 7.5
GAMEPLAY
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Gameplay wise there's some new equipment. With the touch of the X botton, you can throw things like gravity lifters (let's you jump to higher places) , regenrators & shields. The shield are are basicilly just a bubble, everyone who goes into can't get short for a limited time. The shields are perhaps best used in multiplayer though..... A new weapon has been added, a Brute Prowler. It was first seen in Halo 2, but you chould'nt use it or pick it up, in Halo 3 you can and they're deadly weapons, they'll kill most emenys in one hit, though you can't use it forever. Of course the weapons is very useful in multiplayer. Otherwise, there's no changes, think of it as Halo 2 on Xbox 360, added the Brtue Prowler and the shields, regenerators & etc. The vehicle sections also returns and they're as great as ever. The gameplay has some problems though, enemy AI are good, but your friends are bad, often they won't follow you and if you wanna man the torrent on the cars, be prepared to spend hours of getting through places, cause the AI can't drive properply, they'll make a lot of turns, drive in circles and sometimes they'll stop for no reason. Also, the campaign itself is diaspointing, it dosen't capture the cavalier spirit of the original Halo, neither is it any special, it's still the same features, same firefights over and over, plus the bosses are disapointingly easy. 7.5
MULTIPLAYER
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The multiplayer in Halo 2 was awesome, even 3 years after it's release, the servers was full of people shooting each other, so that leaves Halo 3 to make a even better multiplayer mode. Although you won't find anything new here, it's still as good as in Halo 2, you'll probably spend most time in it's multiplayer mode, which is understandable. There's also online Co-op for up to 4 players, which you can play with in the campaign, it makes the Legendary difficulty easier, but alone it's soooo hard to complete. 10
LENGTH
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The game takes under 10 hours, but can be completed in 6 hours, so it's very short. After that, there's multiplayer, skulls, which makes the game harder, but gives some good armour if all is found, & achievements. Plus the multiplater is unsurprisningly addictive. Plus there's downloadable content comming, so this game is bound to have been playing for years. There's also a couple of new features. You can record your progress through the game and upload the clips to your friends. It's a awesome feature, however it does have some shortcommings. You can't edit 2 or more clips together and you can't mix your own soundtrack into the clips. Neither can you export it into other forms of media (PC etc.). There's also a forge mode, where you can mess around with the levels, you can't make your own levels or add new parts, but you can place new items and make some bizzare creations. It might not sound like anything special, but it's a really fun feature. 10
GRAPHICS
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The graphics are a bit disapointing too, the backgrounds are nice, but character models are bad, especially later in the game. Basiclly, the graphics ends up being Halo 2 in HD. That being said though the graphics does has it's own style and charm. 8.0
SOUND
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Sound effects are ok, but the voice acting is excellent. The soundtrack is good, but it kinda feels like the composers just used the music from Halo & Halo 2, since there's some parts of it that sounds excatly like the previous games. 8.6
OVERALL
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So has Halo 3 lived up to the hype? Story wise yes, but it's not the best Xbox 360 game out there. The multiplayer's fun, but a disapointing single player and the fact that Halo 3 looks, feels and plays like a HD version of Halo 2, keeps Halo 3 from being the best Xbox 360 game. With Unreal Tournament 3 & Call of Duty 4 begin released soon, Halo 3 is going to have some serios competition. Halo 3's a game that defently should be brought by people who loves First person shooter, but if anyone played the beta for Call of Duty 4, then the multiplayer in Halo 3 probably won't be anything but fun, it won't be ground breaking or anything special, just fun. With Call of Duty 4, Unreal Tournamet 3 & The Orange Box comming during the next months, Halo 3's going to have a rough time, regardless if it sells well or not.