One of the best games of the year, they said. 9.5 out of 10, they said. Why did they lie to me??
Ok, putting the Halo myth aside, let's focus on the game itself. Let's imagine it's not called Halo 3, it's not advertised, doesn't have two prequels behind it. The very game. The essence. First look at the game and you know what's going on. The graphics is really great, everything looks sharp, the color spectrum is wide and bright. Maybe a little too bright at times, but you can get used to it. Good lighting effects, nice water, everything looks they way it's supposed to. Everything except the shadows maybe. It's hard not to notice that things don't really cast shadows as you would expect. But I'm used to turning shadows off on my PC, so it doesn't really bother me. Right at the beginning of the game there is this jungle with a waterfall in it. I spent like 10 minutes just looking at that waterfall, it looks really amazing. The graphics really is one of the best things about this game.
When I watched the video review here on Gamespot, I thought to myself "is that really music from the game? wow!". Yes, the music is absolutely beautiful. Makes you think of epic scenes in movies, makes you feel like you're taking part in something huge, something overwhelming. Same goes for the sound effects. That is how a plasma cannon would sound in real world, I'd bet money on that!
The gameplay is ok. Fast action, lots of things to shoot at. The physics engine is amazing, maybe the part when you get killed and your corpse bounces off of things is a bit funny, but above that it's pretty realistic. Gotta love driving the vehicles and using all the deployable equipment too.
All this makes Halo 3 a very solid, nice game. And my issues with it start exactly at this point. The game is just that, to me, it's a solid sci-fi shooter. I just don't understand what all the hype was about. Why did it get such a high score? Why is it Editor's Choice? The game lacks something very important. It doesn't that thing that would make me wanna spend the entire night playing. It has absolutely no atmosphere, no vibe, whatsoever. You just run around in a stupid suit and shoot things that make noises like The Muppets. It was huge disappointment, because I expected it to be so much more than just another pointless shooter, especially with all that hype created by Gamespot. I mean come on, what is it that makes this game so great it got such a high score? What makes it so legendary? The fact that I feel absolutely no tension when I'm playing it? Because that's how it is, it's so... empty. No emotion involved. The great graphics and music don't make it a 9.5 game. The gameplay and vibe are the things that count. And they are at most average in Halo 3.