Without LIVE don't expect to get much out of Halo 3, but if you do have LIVE then it's certainly a worthwhile purchase.
+ Loads of fun multiplayer features
+ Wide variety of futuristic weapons
+ Graphics look great
+ Epic soundtrack
+ Variety of fun to drive vechiles
Negatives
- Without LIVE you won't get nearly as much out of it
Welcome to my review for Halo 3 on the xbox 360, this is the first halo game I have played properly so I was definetely anxious to see how it went.
When I first started playing the game I gave it a much lower rating, I didn't have live and was just scoring it on the campaign (which to be honest is over rated for reasons I'll explain later on)
Multiplayer is a massive element in Halo 3- you can do 2-4 player splitscreen or play with up to 16 players online.
Multiplayer modes include slayer, team slayer, skullball and many more, they all have their own unique features.
Slayer involves players fighting alone against eachother (it's bassically a free for all) and these are normally based on small maps.
Team slayer puts you into teams where you fight against another team (hard to explain but you should know what I mean)
The last one I enjoyed playing was skullball- a skull is randomly dropped into a map and players have to fight over it, once your holding the skull you gain a point for every second you hold it, the first player to get 50 points wins the game.
Onto the campaign- there's several difficulty modes, easy, normal, heroic and legendary.
Easy is just to easy- you'll be able to walk through levels with no challenge what so ever- it also makes the game much more dull and you don't get achievments for completing the levels on easy mode.
Normal is much harder (sometimes to hard) but you'll get achievments for completing levels in this mode.
Legendary and heroic are much harder- it's reccomend you bring freinds to help you with this (this can be done by system link or 4 player splitscreen) you get extra achievments for completing levels in this mode.
Levels are mostly well designed and give a variety of moments with vechiles and shooting.
Vechiles are great, especially on multiplayer, there are usually several positions- driver, turret and passenger.
Depending on your skill level or mood you may want to do a diferent thing keeping driving from getting boring.
NPC's can also drive the vechiles if your not sure which way to go- which is usually the case on big levels when your given vechiles.
Onto weapons- you have rifles, snipers, pistols, automatics and melee weapons- all have their own uses and appearences.
You also have a melee attack when you press B.
Most weapons have a zoom depending on their type- for example the sniper has a much bigger zoom than the pistols.
You can also 'dual weild' smaller weapons (mostly pistols) which disables melee attacks or switching weapons but gies you a much powerful attack.
Controls are also very simple to use when shooting adding simplicity to the intense combat.
Onto music- I described it as 'epic' at the top of the review, I really thought the soundtrack added a certain feel to the game- it won't appear at all times but when it does it makes an impact.
Altough slightly apocolyptic it really suits Halo 3 on the whole... it's hard to explain but your just gunna have to trust me.
Sound effects are also solid- weapons almost sound realistic when you shoot or reload.
Voices are perfect as well- if not perfect they're certainly solid.
Now for the story- to be honest I didn't follow it as well as I should have done- basically you play as 'master cheif' a masked spartan warrior.
It involves you then over throwing the zombie like race called 'the flood' as well as the alien race of 'the covenant'
Graphics are also a stunning feature in the game, water detail is especially good.
Altough I felt multiplayer maps were a little less impressive than the campaign levels I still felt they were solid and by any means not bad.
The multiplayer maps and campaign levels take you from jungle cliffs to snowy plains, it's truly an epic sight seeing adventure.
Thanks for reading my review, to sum up Halo 3 I would reccomend it to anybody who thinks they would enjoy a good shooter and has acess to xbox LIVE.
Hope this review has helped you!