My Top 100: #100 – Halo 3

2007 – Xbox 360 (Microsoft Game Studios)

 

My old friend Josh and I started University in September of 2001.  About two months later, many hours probably intended for studying were instead lost thanks to two games; one was a third-person shooter by the name of Brute Force (which we thought was awesome, but totally ended up forgetting about), and the other was the sci-fi shooter Halo.

It was the perfect evolution of Goldeneye 007, an FPS with endless hours of multiplayer fun, perfect for smack-talking your friends.  We were lucky enough to have more than one Xbox, so we’d split up into groups at his house and spend hours just shootin’ and blowing each other up.  It was fantastic!

The single player campaign, however, I found bland and repetitive.  Enter room, kill all enemies.  Travel down a hall to next (very similar) room, repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Oh, there’s the Flood!  They’re gross.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Nothing special.  The sequel tried to give the formula a good kick in the rear-end, but despite a few major twists to the plot and gameplay, it all felt quite familiar.

Along with the new generation of consoles came the clamoring for a Halo sequel.  When we finally got it, almost two years had gone by since the Xbox 360 was released…  would it really live up to the astonishing amount of hype?

Well, it kinda did, actually.  Controls didn’t feel as clunky (they always did to me, anyway; maybe it was the controller), the graphics – more specifically, the lighting – made it feel like it was truly a next-gen experience, and the action…  ohhhhh the action.

 

 

It was that first battle with a “Scarab” tank (not the one shown above) that had me thinking Halo 3 was taking me for a hell of a ride.

“Bust those knees out from under it!  Avoid its main cannon!  It’s down!!  HOOOLY, OK, HURRY AND JUMP ONTO IT.  Shoot everyone on board!!!  What the hell now???”

Then, the tank starts to move again, lurching with every step it takes.  It almost made me queasy, but that just added to the fun.  I found the heart of the beast, slayed it, did my best Lando and got the heck out of there before the boom.

I knew the series had promise, so I tried to keep an open mind while playing through the first two games.  No, the gameplay wasn’t anything special,  but the characters and atmosphere (accompanied by a great score) had me hoping for a grand finale to the trilogy.  An epic sci-fi saga coming to a close, unique open environments, next-gen graphics, cool weapons, great vehicle combat, instense gunfights with enemies bigger than I could have possibly imagined…  that’s what we got.  It was a far cry from the Halo I was so sick of hearing so much praise for, and I was quite glad for it.

 

Hail to the Chief. Finally.

4 Comments on “My Top 100: #100 – Halo 3

  1. I end up buying all these games, and frankly I enjoy the Single player story a lot more than the Multiplayer. I just end up getting frustrated and start spinning in circles shooting in the air…

    • Greg, what did you think of ODST? I REALLY enjoyed the single player (despite not getting around to finishing it).

      • It’s funny, I started ODST and had some fun with it, but I never quite got a chance to complete it. I’m not sure if the split storylines made my attention waver, or if it just wasn’t enough of a captivating story, but I was attracted by a newly released game at the time (can’t remember what it was).

        I need to go back through it, though! I had initially heard you couldn’t quite do what Master Chief could do, but I found you were still pretty damn powerful. So, I enjoyed it before I stopped playing. haha

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