4. Halo 3 (XBONE)
Despite Halo CE and Halo 2 coming out while I was in high school and it being all the rage at the time, I never "loved" Halo, but I certainly liked it. By the time Halo 3 got announced I had graduated high school and was living 1200 miles away out of state for college. My little brother and I shared joint custody of our XBOX 360 Elite console; I'd have it for about 3 months, ship it to him, and he'd send it back in another 3 or 4 months. Around the time Halo 3 came out, my brother was in possession of our 360, which was absolutely appropriate given he LOVED Halo, definitely way more than I did. Funny enough, he went to a huge Halo 3 launch event that was holding an all ages tournament and he ended up winning it along with a free copy of Halo 3, a giant Master Chief cardboard cutout and like $100. I guess that's what playing Halo 2 thousands of hours on XBOX Live amounts to. But anyhow, the combination of my brother having the 360 when Halo 3 came out, me living so far away from all my high school friends whom I used to play Halo with, and the fact that I was never crazy about Halo to begin with meant I didn't play this game back in 2007, or in 2008, or for the rest of the 2000s....or the 2010s. Nope, here we are in 2026, nearly 19 years since Halo 3 originally came out and I finally sat down and played through the campaign. Better late than never I suppose.
As mentioned, I only played the campaign which is where most of my interest in Halo games lies. I enjoyed playing local multiplayer in Halo CE and Halo 2, but in recent years I've only ever played the single player campaign in those games. Same goes for Halo 3. With that said, i am aware how robust Halo 3's multiplayer and map editor modes are and how this games legendary for its multiplayer back in the day, both locally and online. The reason I mentioned this is because your mileage will vary greatly depending on how much you value the multiplayer aspect of these games and my review may not reflect how balanced or enjoyable this experience might be. However, if you're just interested in the single player experience, read on if you'd like.
I'm a bit bummed to say, Halo 3 was not nearly as impressive and many have led me to believe over the years. With that said, I sort of expected to like this game roughly about as much as I did Halo CE and Halo 2, minus the nostalgia I directly have for those two games. And sure enough, I enjoyed Halo 3 about just as much. With me saying that, i have to stress that Halo 3 did have aspects about it that I did genuinely enjoy more than any of the previous Halo games, mainly how much better paced Halo 3 is. There isn't nearly as many chapters and sections that just drag on and on like they did in Halo 2, and especially Halo CE. This meant the action and story just kept coming and coming, which is something I really appreciate. Unfortunately, the final chapter to the original Halo story arch was not as cool as I had hoped, but at the very least ties things up nicely and the final chapter of the game was appropriately epic.
Halo 3 also luckily refined the gameplay from the previous two Bungie Halo games. Shooting feels a little more crisp, vehicles control way better, and level design is generally way better. Speaking of vehicles, there are a decent amount more to pilot compared to the previous two games, which makes the improvements to how they control that much more appreciated. Most of Halo's chapters are very well made, however the sections and chapters that aren't are so bad that I dare say they are some of the worst in the original Halo trilogy. Particularly, the double scarabs fight and the final couple stages that bombard you with flood to the point where it's more frustrating than fun. There are also more weapons, although many are just variations of other weapons that have existed in the series for some time. In saying all this, the gameplay of Halo 3 is certainly improved, but it still has some notable flaws that prevent this game from being the incredible experience this game was often lauded for around the time of its release.
Probably Halo 3's weakest quality is its visuals. That's not to say Halo 3 is a bad looking game, but unfortunately the jump in visual fidelity compared to Halo 2 just didn't wow me as much as I was hoping. Maybe I've forgotten how old 7th gen game graphics can look, but honestly Halo 3 didn't look that much better than Halo 2. This lack of visual sharpness and detail is most evident in character models and animations which again, don't seem to look that much better than how they looked in Halo 2 back in 2004. Sure, some textures are noticeably better, but overall the visuals crispness of Halo 3 is not the leap forward I thought it would be. The beefed up hardware of the 360 seems to have gone more towards the spectacle and scale of the battles that take place; there are definitely way more enemies and just general chaos during the game, and fortunately there are rarely any framerate dips or stutters when these large scale skirmishes occur.
Finally, there's Halo 3's audio which is just as epic as it was in the previous games. Keeping with the Bungie era Halo games, many memorable and iconic tracks from Halo CE and Halo 2 are also present in 3 as well. There are some new orchestral tracks which really complement the action on screen and also fit in well with those classic Halo songs as well. Voice acting is also competent and well done too, with nearly the entire voice cast from Halo 2 reprising their respective roles in this game. As you'd expect, there are a ton of explosions, enemy growls and screams, cool weapon sounds, and just overall the audio design in Halo is something that needs to be experienced. My only real compliant about the audio is sometimes the volume of character dialogue can sound really quiet, even during cutscenes. Seeing how I commonly play games with voice acting on this same TV and almost never have this compliant, this definitely seems to be more the game's fault than my setup.
While it's a shame I wasn't blown away by Halo 3 as I'd hoped, I'm at least happy to say I liked it about as much as Halo CE and Halo 2, with Halo 2 being my favorite of the three by only a small sliver. Still, despite me not thinking these three games are the unparalleled masterpieces thousands, possibly millions of other gamers seem to think, I can still appreciate these games for what they are, but also what they mean to gaming culture. The original Halo trilogy practically defined the zeitgeist of 2000s gaming. I have so many wonderful memories of playing Halo CE and Halo 2 with friends back in high school, and those are honestly just as special to me, if not more so than the games themselves. As for Halo 3, I obviously never played it until just the other day, but I certainly remember the almost indescribable hype surrounding it before and after release in 2007 and 2008, and also how at the time of its release, it was practically synonymous with gaming. In a way, Halo 3 and its predecessors have become a bit of a time machine for me, reminding me of the fun times back in my teens and early 20s. It's for those reasons that I will always hold Halo CE, Halo 2, and Halo 3 in high regard, even if I think the games themselves are just pretty good for the most part. (1/4/26) [36/50]
