Halo 3 Review

Halo 3 is an all-time classic that still holds up today, more so than Half-Life. The campaign is the best of the series and is all killer, no filler. From the opening stage that begins in a dense jungle and ends in an epic rescue at a dam, to the thrill of taking down a gigantic Scarab with a Warthog, to the final sequence featuring a race across an exploding ring-world fleeing from hordes of Flood, Halo 3 pulls no punches. Just like Half-Life, you're always doing something different, but unlike the former, Halo 3 had nine years of technological advancement as well as a much bigger budget to draw upon, resulting in a truly epic adventure. There's really nothing to criticize from a modern prospective, except perhaps the potato faces of the human characters. I played it on my Series S as part of the Master Chief collection, and it has higher resolution graphics and runs at 60 fps, making the gameplay much smoother than players originally experienced on the X Box 360. Halo 3 was also built around co-op, having Halo 2's the Arbiter present on many missions as a second playable character. The golden triangle of melee, grenades, and shooting is enhanced by equipment like the bubble shield and health regenerator, as well as heavy weapons like turrets that can be ripped out of their stands and toted around from a third-person perspective. Some weapons are still able to be dual-wielded, and you'll utilize them to mow down ape-like Brutes, Jackals, Grunts, Hunters, and the mutated Flood. This is a game that feels really good to play, and while the campaign is probably an eight hour experience at best, it's one of the best shooters of all time. Definitely play it on Game Pass if you want to know why Halo is still around. 343 still hasn't come close to replicating Bungie's classic.