My Halo 3 review (probably not what you were expecting)

junehhan · 11-04-2007, 02:03 PM

I finally beat Halo 3 on Saturday, and have to blog my impressions of it. First of all, the biggest flaw this game has is that they automatically assume that you have already played the first 2 Halo games and know the story. Many of the jokes or throwbacks they make to earlier Halo games will not be understood by people who have just jumped into it with H3. In fact, I think someone could be entirely lost if they havn't played the earlier games as there is too much of the plotline that depends on the earlier games.

My second complaint is that the storyline moves WAY too fast. I know that Master Chief's situation is urgent, but it feels like the story is getting rushed a little too fast. The story also has a few breaks or holes in the flow of the plot that need to be further developed. All of a sudden the Flood ally with you only to turn back against you? That was sure quick. Guilty Spark allies with you to all of a sudden turn against you again? I also did not like the ending at all. To me, there is no conclusion as sure the Covenant and Flood have been defeated, but they left MC and Cortana's future uncertain as they drift in space. There is no feeling of satisfaction knowing that MC is just floating around as you wonder if he'll ever be rescued. This ending is just as bad as if they would have really killed him and Cortana off. Sure there is no question of the outcome, but it is not satisfying and does not feel good. Endings to these action games should make you feel good in my opinion.

I have to say that this was one helluva ride though. The last level where you flee for dear life with Cortana and the Arbiter is just as awesome as the last level in Halo 1 where you make a mad dash to the plane. The graphics are beautiful, as they definately make full use of all the colors that are available. The controls are by far the best for any FPS game as everything reacts quickly with none of the lag the plagues some FPS's. I thought the scene where Cortana gets rescued was beautiful and well scripted. Had I not been sleep deprived, I may have possibly even shed a tear in this cutscene. You have no idea how much I missed Cortana through the earlier part of this game, as you are kinda used to her being there from the first two Halo games. This game has left me wanting more Halo, and I really hope they revive the possibility of making a movie based on this game. If they can do a Transformers or even a new GI Joe movie, they can do a good Halo movie.

Alpha1 · 11-04-2007, 05:15 PM

Hi,

Finish it on Legendary difficulty. You'll find the ending is longer then, and that they may not be drifting in space for long...

Oliver

Ntruder · 11-04-2007, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by junehhan

I finally beat Halo 3 on Saturday, and have to blog my impressions of it. First of all, the biggest flaw this game has is that they automatically assume that you have already played the first 2 Halo games and know the story. Many of the jokes or throwbacks they make to earlier Halo games will not be understood by people who have just jumped into it with H3. In fact, I think someone could be entirely lost if they havn't played the earlier games as there is too much of the plotline that depends on the earlier games.

My second complaint is that the storyline moves WAY too fast. I know that Master Chief's situation is urgent, but it feels like the story is getting rushed a little too fast. The story also has a few breaks or holes in the flow of the plot that need to be further developed. All of a sudden the Flood ally with you only to turn back against you? That was sure quick. Guilty Spark allies with you to all of a sudden turn against you again? I also did not like the ending at all. To me, there is no conclusion as sure the Covenant and Flood have been defeated, but they left MC and Cortana's future uncertain as they drift in space. There is no feeling of satisfaction knowing that MC is just floating around as you wonder if he'll ever be rescued. This ending is just as bad as if they would have really killed him and Cortana off. Sure there is no question of the outcome, but it is not satisfying and does not feel good. Endings to these action games should make you feel good in my opinion.

I have to say that this was one helluva ride though. The last level where you flee for dear life with Cortana and the Arbiter is just as awesome as the last level in Halo 1 where you make a mad dash to the plane. The graphics are beautiful, as they definately make full use of all the colors that are available. The controls are by far the best for any FPS game as everything reacts quickly with none of the lag the plagues some FPS's. I thought the scene where Cortana gets rescued was beautiful and well scripted. Had I not been sleep deprived, I may have possibly even shed a tear in this cutscene. You have no idea how much I missed Cortana through the earlier part of this game, as you are kinda used to her being there from the first two Halo games. This game has left me wanting more Halo, and I really hope they revive the possibility of making a movie based on this game. If they can do a Transformers or even a new GI Joe movie, they can do a good Halo movie.

It will never happen, but Fall of Reach would make an amazing video game. Fighting side by side with 30+ other spartans... ooooohhh....

junehhan · 11-05-2007, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alpha1

Hi,

Finish it on Legendary difficulty. You'll find the ending is longer then, and that they may not be drifting in space for long...

Oliver

I didn't even know that there were different endings for different difficulty levels. Are the endings different for each difficulty level? Will there be a difference in ending from Normal to Legendary, or Heroic to Legendary?

I don't mind spoilers, and how is the ending different?

Fall of Reach would be awesome!

oleviarules · 11-05-2007, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by junehhan

I didn't even know that there were different endings for different difficulty levels. Are the endings different for each difficulty level? Will there be a difference in ending from Normal to Legendary, or Heroic to Legendary?

I don't mind spoilers, and how is the ending different?

Fall of Reach would be awesome!

at the end of legendary, it goes through the same endings as the other difficulties, but it shows the ship the chief and cortana on very close to a planet that has lights on it. there is some speculation that it is the beginning of the marathon series, but no one knows for sure.

Ntruder · 11-06-2007, 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oleviarules

at the end of legendary, it goes through the same endings as the other difficulties, but it shows the ship the chief and cortana on very close to a planet that has lights on it. there is some speculation that it is the beginning of the marathon series, but no one knows for sure.

There's a good chance its Onyx. Thats where the remaining spartans and Dr Halsey are, incase you haven't read Ghosts of Onyx

junehhan · 11-06-2007, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oleviarules

at the end of legendary, it goes through the same endings as the other difficulties, but it shows the ship the chief and cortana on very close to a planet that has lights on it. there is some speculation that it is the beginning of the marathon series, but no one knows for sure.

Ahh.

I'm hoping sometime during the holiday break to be able to get together with 3 other people for 4 player coop on Legendary. I don't want to even bother with Legendary by myself, since I know that it can be sadistic from my attempts at that difficulty on earlier Halo games.

oleviarules · 11-06-2007, 11:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by junehhan

Ahh.

I'm hoping sometime during the holiday break to be able to get together with 3 other people for 4 player coop on Legendary. I don't want to even bother with Legendary by myself, since I know that it can be sadistic from my attempts at that difficulty on earlier Halo games.

you only need to play the last level on legendary to see the ending, and legendary on halo 3 is a hell of a lot easier than legendary on halo 2. the level, as you probably know, can get hairy at times, but as long as you have one other person you should be okay, considering you get respawned.

and as for the planet being onyx, i don't really think that is the case. i think onyx is going to continue being important in the overall story, but not for the games. this is based mostly off of star wars. at the end of Return of the Jedi, everyone leaves the movie thinking the Emperor has died, the Empire is destroyed, and everyone lives happily ever after. however, if you continue reading the novels and graphic novels, you learn that the Empire is still quite strong, the Emperor comes back to life, and the main characters most definitely do not live "happily ever after." the ending for halo 3 is quite similar: the covenant and flood are seemingly destroyed, humanity survives, and the master chief and cortana chill in some spaceship for an undetermined amount of time. for the casual viewer, everything is tied up nicely. for those of us that read the books, however, we know that there is still much more. remember that Halsey and the other Spartans weren't actually on onyx. they went through the doorway to some other place that is described as huge and bowl-like. my guess is that this is actually the ark, and a later book will describe how they somehow helped master chief stop truth (this is purely my speculation). onyx was built as a shield planet, a place to go to when the rings were activated, or rather (in my mind) a military complex that could defend itself if need be while the forerunners were able to get to safety. once safe, they would be able to activate the halo's killing the flood while remaining unharmed. in halo 3 we see that the portal through the ark leads to a place very far away from our galaxy. it makes perfect sense to me for the ark and onyx to lead to the same place. it will be very interesting to see how the writers (hopefully nylund) solve the problem of a huge planet made of sentinels floating around that have enough firepower to kill anything, just don't expect it to be in a game.

Ntruder · 11-07-2007, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oleviarules

and as for the planet being onyx, i don't really think that is the case. i think onyx is going to continue being important in the overall story, but not for the games. this is based mostly off of star wars. at the end of Return of the Jedi, everyone leaves the movie thinking the Emperor has died, the Empire is destroyed, and everyone lives happily ever after. however, if you continue reading the novels and graphic novels, you learn that the Empire is still quite strong, the Emperor comes back to life, and the main characters most definitely do not live "happily ever after." the ending for halo 3 is quite similar: the covenant and flood are seemingly destroyed, humanity survives, and the master chief and cortana chill in some spaceship for an undetermined amount of time. for the casual viewer, everything is tied up nicely. for those of us that read the books, however, we know that there is still much more. remember that Halsey and the other Spartans weren't actually on onyx. they went through the doorway to some other place that is described as huge and bowl-like. my guess is that this is actually the ark, and a later book will describe how they somehow helped master chief stop truth (this is purely my speculation). onyx was built as a shield planet, a place to go to when the rings were activated, or rather (in my mind) a military complex that could defend itself if need be while the forerunners were able to get to safety. once safe, they would be able to activate the halo's killing the flood while remaining unharmed. in halo 3 we see that the portal through the ark leads to a place very far away from our galaxy. it makes perfect sense to me for the ark and onyx to lead to the same place. it will be very interesting to see how the writers (hopefully nylund) solve the problem of a huge planet made of sentinels floating around that have enough firepower to kill anything, just don't expect it to be in a game.

No. They are without question, two unique places.

The center of Onyx had a compressed slipspace field that Halsey and the remaining Spartan II's and III's opened up and it took them into a Micro Dyson Sphere. Its not actually a "bowl" at all. Linda said it felt like being at the bottom of a large bowl, but "Dr. Halsey assured them that they were most definitely not in a bowl." This Dyson Sphere is actually inside Onyx, compressed down to a few meter sphere in the center of Construct Onyx. (Onyx isn't actually a planet, its a Forerunner construct built to house this Dyson Sphere, or "shield world.") The Shield World inside Onyx is a safehaven designed for the Reclaimers whom "take refuge behind the sharpened edge of the shield. Wonder beyond awaits." (p. 351 GoO) Halsey took them there because this shield world (Dyson Sphere) is supposed to contain Forerunner technologies that she hopes to use against the Covenant. But don't be mistaken, this place is INSIDE Onyx, INSIDE our galaxy, protected by a slipspace bubble.

The Ark, on the other hand, has only one entrance: through the Earth portal. The Ark itself is the bowl shaped structure that is located far outside of our galaxy. At the start of the level "the Ark," you can see the Milky Way galaxy in the sky. The Ark is the only location that the Halo's can be remotely activated.

SOBAY310 · 11-07-2007, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ntruder

No. They are without question, two unique places.

The center of Onyx had a compressed slipspace field that Halsey and the remaining Spartan II's and III's opened up and it took them into a Micro Dyson Sphere. Its not actually a "bowl" at all. Linda said it felt like being at the bottom of a large bowl, but "Dr. Halsey assured them that they were most definitely not in a bowl." This Dyson Sphere is actually inside Onyx, compressed down to a few meter sphere in the center of Construct Onyx. (Onyx isn't actually a planet, its a Forerunner construct built to house this Dyson Sphere, or "shield world.") The Shield World inside Onyx is a safehaven designed for the Reclaimers whom "take refuge behind the sharpened edge of the shield. Wonder beyond awaits." (p. 351 GoO) Halsey took them there because this shield world (Dyson Sphere) is supposed to contain Forerunner technologies that she hopes to use against the Covenant. But don't be mistaken, this place is INSIDE Onyx, INSIDE our galaxy, protected by a slipspace bubble.

The Ark, on the other hand, has only one entrance: through the Earth portal. The Ark itself is the bowl shaped structure that is located far outside of our galaxy. At the start of the level "the Ark," you can see the Milky Way galaxy in the sky. The Ark is the only location that the Halo's can be remotely activated.

Are you guys kidding me?

Ntruder · 11-07-2007, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SOBAY310

Are you guys kidding me?

No. There are currently 5 Halo novels that take place in around the events of the video games. I rarely read science fiction, but these are actually very good books.

WestC07 · 11-07-2007, 08:33 PM

Quote:

GRAPHICS

Halo 3 is remarkable in the graphics department, especially when you take the time to stop and look at things. But it has one major downfall: aliasing. Jaggies ultimately damage this game graphically by preventing the full package. Every texture has tremendous detail, and every character has ridiculous amounts of detail. The use of the color pallet is fantastic and the HDR lighting blows you away. But those damn jaggies make the game look messy. Straight edges move when you move. This becomes bad on a larger TV. It is worth noting that I didn't notice jaggies on my 30" HD-CRT, but on my 56" HD-ILA TV, jaggies are everywhere. I don't know if this is a result of the strange resolution, or a lack of FSAA, but its a problem, it really hurts the game visually. Or, it prevents the game from being the best graphically. Overall, this game is still beautiful. And most people probably aren't playing on 56" screens and sitting 7 feet away. Besides the jaggies, the game looks phenomenal.

I could not agree more with that. Jaggies really aren't doing it for me in this game. The cutscenes look awesome, but everywhere you look in the game there are jaggies. Textures are absolutely amazing, and overall the graphics are stunning but the jaggies really cut down on the overall WOW factor of the graphics. I use a 32" 720p LCD. I must say that Bioshock definitely reigns supreme.

Ntruder · 11-07-2007, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WestC07

I could not agree more with that. Jaggies really aren't doing it for me in this game. The cutscenes look awesome, but everywhere you look in the game there are jaggies. Textures are absolutely amazing, and overall the graphics are stunning but the jaggies really cut down on the overall WOW factor of the graphics. I use a 32" 720p LCD. I must say that Bioshock definitely reigns supreme.

Bioshock does a great job with anti-aliasing. But you have to consider that there is a lot less going on on the screen in Bioshock. Less enemies, smaller environments, etc. But yes, the jaggies are annoying. I'm seeing a lot of them in COD4 also. But thats on a 56" TV, so its much more pronounced than on smaller sets

oleviarules · 11-07-2007, 10:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ntruder

No. They are without question, two unique places.

The center of Onyx had a compressed slipspace field that Halsey and the remaining Spartan II's and III's opened up and it took them into a Micro Dyson Sphere. Its not actually a "bowl" at all. Linda said it felt like being at the bottom of a large bowl, but "Dr. Halsey assured them that they were most definitely not in a bowl." This Dyson Sphere is actually inside Onyx, compressed down to a few meter sphere in the center of Construct Onyx. (Onyx isn't actually a planet, its a Forerunner construct built to house this Dyson Sphere, or "shield world.") The Shield World inside Onyx is a safehaven designed for the Reclaimers whom "take refuge behind the sharpened edge of the shield. Wonder beyond awaits." (p. 351 GoO) Halsey took them there because this shield world (Dyson Sphere) is supposed to contain Forerunner technologies that she hopes to use against the Covenant. But don't be mistaken, this place is INSIDE Onyx, INSIDE our galaxy, protected by a slipspace bubble.

The Ark, on the other hand, has only one entrance: through the Earth portal. The Ark itself is the bowl shaped structure that is located far outside of our galaxy. At the start of the level "the Ark," you can see the Milky Way galaxy in the sky. The Ark is the only location that the Halo's can be remotely activated.

after reading that, i have to agree with you now. i finished the book really late one night being really tired and buzzed. now i'm thinking the planet at the end of legendary is onyx, but that just leads to the question of how did onyx intercept the half of the ship? let's hope the next book that comes out will take place after the events of halo 3.

Ntruder · 11-08-2007, 12:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oleviarules

after reading that, i have to agree with you now. i finished the book really late one night being really tired and buzzed. now i'm thinking the planet at the end of legendary is onyx, but that just leads to the question of how did onyx intercept the half of the ship? let's hope the next book that comes out will take place after the events of halo 3.

Yeah, I actually had to check Ghosts of Onyx to make sure after you said that, because I did remember a line about it being like a bowl, but I knew it was a Dyson Sphere.

I only read Ghosts of Onyx once, and I've read the other books 2-3 times, so I'm an expert on the story up to that point. I'm currently about half way through Contact Harvest, and I'm looking forward to more books at or after the events of Halo 3.

11-04-2007, 02:03 PM	#31
junehhan High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Aug 2006 Age: 29 Posts: 5,663	I finally beat Halo 3 on Saturday, and have to blog my impressions of it. First of all, the biggest flaw this game has is that they automatically assume that you have already played the first 2 Halo games and know the story. Many of the jokes or throwbacks they make to earlier Halo games will not be understood by people who have just jumped into it with H3. In fact, I think someone could be entirely lost if they havn't played the earlier games as there is too much of the plotline that depends on the earlier games. My second complaint is that the storyline moves WAY too fast. I know that Master Chief's situation is urgent, but it feels like the story is getting rushed a little too fast. The story also has a few breaks or holes in the flow of the plot that need to be further developed. All of a sudden the Flood ally with you only to turn back against you? That was sure quick. Guilty Spark allies with you to all of a sudden turn against you again? I also did not like the ending at all. To me, there is no conclusion as sure the Covenant and Flood have been defeated, but they left MC and Cortana's future uncertain as they drift in space. There is no feeling of satisfaction knowing that MC is just floating around as you wonder if he'll ever be rescued. This ending is just as bad as if they would have really killed him and Cortana off. Sure there is no question of the outcome, but it is not satisfying and does not feel good. Endings to these action games should make you feel good in my opinion. I have to say that this was one helluva ride though. The last level where you flee for dear life with Cortana and the Arbiter is just as awesome as the last level in Halo 1 where you make a mad dash to the plane. The graphics are beautiful, as they definately make full use of all the colors that are available. The controls are by far the best for any FPS game as everything reacts quickly with none of the lag the plagues some FPS's. I thought the scene where Cortana gets rescued was beautiful and well scripted. Had I not been sleep deprived, I may have possibly even shed a tear in this cutscene. You have no idea how much I missed Cortana through the earlier part of this game, as you are kinda used to her being there from the first two Halo games. This game has left me wanting more Halo, and I really hope they revive the possibility of making a movie based on this game. If they can do a Transformers or even a new GI Joe movie, they can do a good Halo movie. __________________ X360 Gamertag junehhan Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD player -Klipsch RSW10 Subwoofer -Pioneer VSX1016TXVK reciever -Klipsch Synergy Quintet III 5 channel speakers AIM: jhhan80 HD-DVD's: Loving it! BD's: When we get a reasonably priced BDP with lossless decoders Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state, they forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone - Frederich Bastiat, 1848

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11-04-2007, 05:15 PM	#32
Alpha1 High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 284	Hi, Finish it on Legendary difficulty. You'll find the ending is longer then, and that they may not be drifting in space for long... Oliver