Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

Manufacturer: Microsoft Corp. Part number: 10825

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CNET Editor rating:
4.5 stars Spectacular
Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 70 reviews

More product information:: Editors' review; User reviews; Specifications; Manufacturer info

Description:: The epic saga continues with Halo 3, the third chapter in the highly successful and critically acclaimed Halo franchise. Master Chief returns to finish the fight, bringing the epic conflict between the Covenant, the Flood, and the entire human race to a dramatic, pulse-pounding climax. Halo 3 picks up where Halo 2 left off, answering questions around the fates of the beloved protagonist Master Chief and his artificial intelligence sidekick Cortana as they struggle to save humankind from destruction at the hands of the alien coalition known as the Covenant. In addition to the rich storyline, Halo 3 continues the franchise's grand tradition of delivering innovative online multiplayer experiences via Xbox LIVE, the world's largest social network on TV. Halo 3 represents the third chapter in the Halo trilogy - an international award-winning action series that grew into a global entertainment phenomenon, selling more than 14.5 million units worldwide, logging more than 650 million hours of multiplayer action on Xbox LIVE, and spawning action figures, books, a graphic novel, apparel, an upcoming film adaptation, and more.

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CNET editors' review

Reviewed by Jeff Gerstmann
Review date: 09/23/07
Release date: 09/25/07

Regardless of how you felt about its cliffhanger ending, there's no denying that Halo 2 was a gigantic success that raised the bar for what we, as a game-playing society, expect out of a good console-based first-person shooter. In the years that followed, plenty of games attempted to duplicate the Halo formula, with varying degrees of success. But there's still nothing quite like the genuine item. Luckily for all involved, Halo 3 is a positively amazing package that offers extreme satisfaction across all of its different parts. Maybe now you can finally retire your Halo 2 disc and really move into the next generation of games.

Halo 3 manages to feel familiar while also packing in a good amount of new material.

Halo 3 is an interesting mix of established protocol and intriguing new stuff. For example, the gameplay doesn't stray too far from Halo 2, which, in turn, didn't exactly reinvent the original Halo. Don't take that as a negative, because it means that Halo 3 plays extremely well, with the same types of light tactical considerations that have made the series stand apart from other, faster-paced shooters. The balance between your guns, your grenades, and your melee attack has always given Halo a unique feel in the genre, and those same considerations apply today, both in the campaign mode and in multiplayer. You'll also have new weapons and items to consider, such as a host of Brute weapons. One example is the spiker, which is an exciting automatic pistol that fires quickly and decimates opponents, especially if you're holding a pair of them. Another is the mauler, which is a one-handed shotgun that can level enemies up close. You'll even find weapons so huge that your movement speed slows when you carry them. When you use these weapons, the camera pulls out to a third-person perspective so you can see your missile pod, plasma cannon, or flamethrower as it fires. And then there's the gravity hammer. Originally shown in Halo 2 (where it wasn't usable by the player), the gravity hammer is a large melee weapon that will wipe out most regular enemies in one swipe. Needless to say, it can be especially fun in multiplayer settings. The end result is gameplay that feels wholly familiar without retreading the same ground too heavily.

The campaign is structured in much the same way as past Halo games, with multiple chapters and effective streaming that ensures you'll see load times only between chapters. There are also lengthy vehicle sequences to break up the on-foot action. You'll pilot the classic Halo vehicles, such as the Ghost, a hovering one-person craft that's fast and deadly, and the Warthog, a dune buggy with a turret mounted in the back. You'll also see new vehicles, such as the Brute Prowler, which is a two-person vehicle with turrets. Like in previous games, the vehicles are fun to use. Also similar to previous games, the artificial intelligence can't drive very well, so if you're playing alone, you'll usually want to grab the steering wheel rather than the weapons.

The concept of "equipment" is new to the series. These deployable special items have a variety of effects. The most obvious example is the bubble shield: You (and your enemies) can walk through it, but bullets and explosions bounce right off. It's especially entertaining when your enemies use it, given that you can just walk through and bash them with the butt of your gun. You'll also find items that make your shields regenerate more quickly, and others that drain enemy shields and stop their vehicles dead in their tracks. These items also show up in multiplayer, where they're a little more interesting.

Halo 2's ending was widely criticized for being too much of a cliffhanger and leaving you with no sense of progress or resolution whatsoever. It's good news, then, that Halo 3's story doesn't suffer from that problem at all. It opens immediately following the events of Halo 2: The Covenant is on its way to Earth, continuing its religious zealotry and attempting to activate the floating space weapons known as Halos, which could destroy civilization as we know it. The Master Chief and the other Earth forces of the UNSC are in hot pursuit to stop them, with newfound allies such as the Arbiter coming along for the ride. We'll spare you the specifics because they're quite compelling and should be seen firsthand. All you really need to know if you're on the fence about Halo 3's campaign is that it's a delicate balancing act that manages to provide satisfying closure for the trilogy, make perfect sense of all the cryptic events in Halo 2, and leave you filled with anticipation for more adventures set in the Halo universe. Not bad for a game that will take most players between 10 and 15 hours to finish on one of four difficulty settings.

But you'll probably go through the campaign more than once, thanks to the inclusion of a strong co-op mode. Previous Halo games have let two players go through the campaign; Halo 3 ups that number to four players and lets you do the whole thing over Xbox Live, if you so choose. This is a really fun way to experience the campaign's nine chapters, and you can choose to go through them in any order, provided you've already played through it alone. Furthermore, this method of play (which you can also do alone) lets you turn on scoring in campaign mode, in which you earn points for kills and lose them for dying. This adds a sense of competition to the co-op, and there are also achievements associated with finishing chapters with high point totals. You can also customize the experience a bit by turning on a series of unlockable modifiers that open up as you collect hidden skulls. The skulls are stashed around the game, and some of them do things such as increase the amount of damage you'll need to deal to take an enemy down, remove the heads-up display and make your weapon invisible, and so on. This gives the story-driven section of the game some more replay value, although it doesn't get significantly more difficult as you scale up the number of players. Consequently, finishing the game on legendary difficulty is a breeze if you're rolling through with three experienced fellow triggermen.

You can earn the campaign achievements in co-op mode, which makes the legendary difficulty a lot easier to manage.

In addition to the four-player co-op action, you can also play competitive solo and team-based multiplayer matches with up to 16 players on 11 different maps. There's a lot of depth to the multiplayer modes, ranging from simple stuff such as deathmatch and team deathmatch (still referred to as slayer and team slayer here), to more objective-based gameplay such as capture the flag. Another similar mode is called territories, in which the two teams fight to defend or attack various control points around the map. You'll also find a mode called infection, where a percentage of the players start as sword-wielding zombies and must convert the members of the other team by killing them, until only one non-zombie remains. Each of the maps can handle any of these game modes.

Like in Halo 2, you can customize these game types, and there's more to customize this time around. You can change things like starting weapons, the weapons that appear on the map, whether the motion sensor is active, the force of gravity, the game speed, whether the players all have active camouflage or not, and much, much more. The multiplayer is as strong as it has ever been thanks to the addition of new weapons and tweaks to old ones. Swords have been made much more interesting this time around: If two players run at one another with energy swords and attack at the same time, the swords clash and the players bounce off one another. This makes all-swords matches totally wild. The gravity hammer is also big fun in multiplayer matches, both because it crushes enemies that are foolish enough to get too close, and because you can smack incoming rockets to bat them away, which makes for an interesting game of baseball.

(Originally posted on CNET Reviews)

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Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 70 reviews

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10 stars

a real review from a real player...please read

by basic chair on September 28, 2007

Pros: features features features, graphics, replayability

Cons: didnt live up to EVERYONES ultimately unbeatably high expectations *sarcasim*

Summary: let me say what i think is retarded with people first...then on to the review. yes i realized the hype behind this game and honestly it lived up to ...

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Summary: let me say what i think is retarded with people first...then on to the review. yes i realized the hype behind this game and honestly it lived up to it. any bad ratings you see are coming from uneducated people who cant think outside of the specific lofty expectations they personally had for halo 3. some people wanted the campaign to be rpg length. others wanted gow graphics. others expected halo 3 to give them EXACTLY what they wanted and one little fault makes bungie a failure. so lets rate halo 3 low and complain. how stupid?

Let's be honest everyone...when you look at all the other games for all the other next gen systems, what makes you say, "wow", that game is next gen! most say graphics, but do graphics make a game fun? they add to it but when you think about it replayability and new innovative ideas/features make a game fun and make it stick out above all the other average junk developers put out. too many games have like one feature or are single player only with a shallow online experience and people praise those games. warhawk, moh airborn, bioshock, etc. not to knock those games but look at the comparison:

Halo 3 lives up to the hype considering everything that is put into this game. campaign might be short to some, but most people who complain about this obviously started on normal. then you have 4 player coop that can be played online, then you have forge that lets you customize and change objects in maps, then you have saved films to save sweet clips and take snap shots of those sweet kills, then you have team scoring that lets you compete against friends through campaign, then you have online for 16 players with a rankings and stats connected to bungie.net that is too much for me to think about, then you have 4 player split screen, which most games sadly lack these days, in which all 4 can play online off one system. not to mention for a halo game the graphics are pretty stellar.

TAKE A LOOK AT THAT PEOPLE. if you dont like shooters in general then this doesnt matter, but for $60 you get one heck of a game that is so feature packed it makes you wonder if bungie is the only developer that knows how to make a real game. there is so many new things in this game and so much replayability that a knock on campaign or graphics is a SELFISH complaint. if you like shooters look at what halo 3 has compared to every other game and then rate it instead of rating it based on being sad bungie didnt make this game JUST FOR YOU.

Halo 3 is an awesome experience and personally i enjoy the campaign so much more than h2. levels are better, bigger, and have way more enemies. online is more advanced too with better rating system to rid cheaters and match up against more even players. coop is a blast with 4 people, finding sculls is fun, and forge/saved films is an unbeatable experience never found in a console game before. halo 3 lives up to the hype and shouldnt be missed out on.

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6 out of 10 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 stars

The "Master" is back for more

by feldmandigital on June 1, 2008

Pros: Outstanding 3D worlds and Animation, Quick-to-learn Controls, Good Closing Storyline, Forge Mode & Theater, Online Matchmaking

Cons: No "rewind" option on Theater, What's Next?, Glitchy at-times, Online players can be awkward

Summary: I've played the first two and loved them. Once I heard about the third installment, I was excited like any other Halo series fan. The first thing I did ...

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Summary: I've played the first two and loved them. Once I heard about the third installment, I was excited like any other Halo series fan. The first thing I did was to play the forge mode. Being able to alter the level's item/scenery setup is an awesome feature. The theater mode is another outstanding feature for machinima makers. The only problem many noticed was the 'rewind" problem, but overtime you will begin to tolerate it.

Then came campaign, which I only tried on Normal difficulty. It wasn't too bad. The storyline was fair and the conclusion lefted me saying "what's coming up next?". Of course, the legendary mode is much harder than the other modes and requires other players to come in and help out with the enemy brutes.

Last but maybe least was the online. At first I loved it. It was fun playing others online in random matched. But overtime, I grew bored of the constant same levels and objectives. Yes, I do like the whole ranking idea... but I feel that it gets to people and makes them gain harsh attitudes when playing lower ranked players. I began to play only my friends and maybe a few others online, but once again overtime I grew bored and slowly turned away from Halo. I'm not saying its a bad game, I just think (FOR ME) it grew into bad habit and slowly faded. However, the single aspect I loved about this game was the constant "WTF" glitches that happened in laggy games. I guess I can say the game gave me plently of laughs. Thanks for the humor Bungie...

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1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

The perfect game. perfect online. perfect campaign

by lifelonglego on September 27, 2007

Pros: online, campaign forge theater

Cons: there were no cons in this game except that is the end of the series

Summary: It is the best game I have ever played. better than ioshock. better than halo 1. better than halo 2. If the game was $600 I would still buy it. ...

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Summary: It is the best game I have ever played. better than ioshock. better than halo 1. better than halo 2. If the game was $600 I would still buy it. no exageration

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1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

Deserves what the critics gave it

by MAK1981 on September 27, 2007

Pros: Multiplayer, as always!

Cons: Short-ish singleplayer

Summary: I'm giving this a 10 to help balanace the Sony trolls who give this game a 1 or 2. Poor fools.

Summary: I'm giving this a 10 to help balanace the Sony trolls who give this game a 1 or 2. Poor fools.

1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

ONE HELL OF A GAME

by stenchio on September 26, 2007

Pros: Excellent graphics, fun as hell, love halo, masterchief can own any game

Cons: People keep putting up stupid reviews

Summary: THE BEST GAME EVER,
Now i just have to get it

Summary: THE BEST GAME EVER,
Now i just have to get it

1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 stars

Halo 3 makes up for the sins of Halo 2.

by Durandal1138 on September 24, 2007

Pros: Great Graphics, Better Story, Best Multiplayer.

Cons: Very short Campaign.

Summary: Halo 3 is great, but it could have used more work. The second to last level is just long, boring, and really hard. Multiplayer and Forge make up for the ...

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Summary: Halo 3 is great, but it could have used more work. The second to last level is just long, boring, and really hard. Multiplayer and Forge make up for the short campaign. Great game overall. Most fun I have had since Zelda on the N64.

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1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
5 stars

meh...its decent enough but i've played better

by ofrancis on October 1, 2007

Pros: hype, community, online gameplay to extend interest

Cons: as a PC gamer with mouse and keyboard I'm dying with this controller

Summary: I stayed away from Halo when back in the day Microsoft bought bungie virtually on the eve of Halo's originally intended release on the PC, I was mad so ...

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Summary: I stayed away from Halo when back in the day Microsoft bought bungie virtually on the eve of Halo's originally intended release on the PC, I was mad so didn't buy in then. I've been a PC gamer from the first FPS (from castle frankenstein)and I guess I've been using the keyboard and mouse for so long that nothing....and I mean nothing compares to it's flexibility, speed, finesse and accuracy, the last controller I used was the 'spaceorb 360' with Doom2 (remember that?). I finally broke and bought into the Halo3 hype, bought an Xbox 360 and have been playing every day and just cant groove with the controller. I don't have near the experience I do with a PC FPS and my keyboard and mouse...nowhere near. As for as the gameplay goes...it's okay...I guess but heavens I've played better..quake2, unreal tournament, tribes 2, far cry, fear, etc..etc..I swear these were better gaming experiences than Halo. It's amazing what hype and marketing can do...in that aspect, well done Microsoft and Bungie, take that crazy loot you just earned to the bank..I'm jealous there admittedly..

I'm not hatin', I'll keep plugging away for some time to come so that I can be certain that it's not me that simply doesn't get it. There is this hype and myriads of consumers saying "it's unparalled, it's a modern technical masterpiece"..etc, etc so I'll give it some time to determine if it's just me that doesn't get it. I'm am no noobie by any stretch, had 'em all, played 'em all, excelled at 'em..most (lol) and this being the best...??? meh..

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1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
5 stars

Nothing unexpected but still fun.

by rdavidson420 on September 30, 2007

Pros: Fast paced action, new maps, good for a console shooter

Cons: only 9 new maps, games take forever to start, not close to PC shooters

Summary: I am a fan of the previous games and this one is a good 3rd installment. It is nothing spectacular. the graphics are a bit better but the game play ...

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Summary: I am a fan of the previous games and this one is a good 3rd installment. It is nothing spectacular. the graphics are a bit better but the game play is still the same. It still lags far behind PC shooters in every aspect, but considering it is just a console, its expected. I would like to see new vehicles, more weapons, more maps that i dont have to pay more $ for in a couple months, and just more things to set it apart from other games. I think Shadowrun is easily better than Halo 3. Hopefully Halo 4 has more ground breaking things in it or i doubt i will spend another $60 on a rehashed console shooter.

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1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
5 stars

Good game, but not worth the hype

by galindenba on September 27, 2007

Pros: Great graphics and not one bug yet!!

Cons: Short off line play-Cannot restart where you saved

Summary: I'll probably get a lot of hate mail type replies to this review. I really enjoyed the game, but with all the hype I guess I just expected more.......

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Summary: I'll probably get a lot of hate mail type replies to this review. I really enjoyed the game, but with all the hype I guess I just expected more....better graphics, a longer story line. I think Lost Planet is prettier. I finished the off-line version in about 5 hours. I'm not a big on-line gamer so it's like...."OK, I'm done...Now what?"
My only beef with the game technically is that once I turned off the console when I went back the next time to play the story line again the game put me way back at the beginning of a "chapter" and not where I saved it.
Don't get me wrong. I really did like this game, but it left me wanting more.

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3 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

The best game ever

by darth66 on May 7, 2008

Pros: forge, 4-player campaign, online

Cons: their are none

Summary: best game ever, great ending espically legendary ending

Summary: best game ever, great ending espically legendary ending

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Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

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