Halo 3, co-op, normal | complete

Last night Chibi-R and I co-opped Halo 3 from start to finish at normal difficulty.
Hmm.
Thoughts.
…
It’s certainly not worth the nines and tens it’s getting, though it is a fantastic game. Here are the full ratings for the trilogy;

Halo: Combat evolved – 8.4
Halo 2 – 7.5
Halo 3 – 8

Yes, the first game is still my favourite. That may change after a few plays-through of the third game, especially if I get some good four player co-op sessions in, but as it stands now, these are my impressions, negatives first:

– Too much backtrackting; this was my chief dislike, as for a moment it seemed that the recycled level tiles weren’t going to be used as much (alas they’re still used), it was replaced by the majority of the levels consisting of penetrating the level, activating something, then making your way back the exact way you came. Essentially, this cut the game-environment in half, or perhaps made it half as big as it could have been. There are some good positives to counter this though.

– Many duplications of actions from the previous games; the one that made me miff the most was cutting the three core-containment tubes which really reminded me of cutting the three cables in the lab in Halo 2. There were others, some were actually good, but at times it just seemed to show a lack of ideas and recycling of old ones.

– 343 Guilty Spark; He was great in the first game, useless in the second, and just plain nerfed in the third. Can’t spoil much, but it seems that even his role is a bit cheated and simplified.

– Long cutscenes; this has the longest cutscenes of any title in the trilogy. I don’t mind watching movies, just not so much when I’m playing games.

– Not enough Cortana; for those who’ve read the books, Cortana really is the heart and soul of Halo. Yes, I know that sometimes her chirpings can be annoying, especially in the first game, but I’ve actually grown to appreciate her as a deep character, including her little comments and quips. She’s the only one who ever really knew the Chief aside from Dr. Elizabeth Halsey herself. The feeling of having her ride along with you was sorely missed in this game.

– Without spoiling too much, I felt that ultimately the Chief and Cortana really weren’t honoured enough by the conclusion of the game. Spiritually it should have been about the two of them – there’s so much to the Chief’s character that could have been explored, which we do see in the little visitations from Cortana throughout the game, but really not enough was done.

All of that in mind, as you can see by the score, it wasn’t enough to deter me from enjoying it.

– Less concerned with the updated textures and poly-count etc., graphically, some of the environmental set-pieces are absolutely stunning. More than a few times you’ll walk or drive into an area that is just simply gorgeous. The final set-piece is also quite impressive.

– The weapons problem of Halo 2 has been solved by placing strategically powerful weapons in places where you’d be at risk leaving other staples behind. The pressure with the flood is back, albeit lessened a little in impact as we have done this before. First time encounters can never be replicated though, so I was glad that I had to think a bit before choosing weapons at certain points.

– Battles are great. Every encounter from the smallest squad to the giant Scarabs has been balanced really well, and there are times where you feel like things just might get on top of you. The Brutes have been done really well, and the new Flood creatures really add pressure. The co-op dynamic works really well in the third installment, reminding me of the first.

– The new control scheme makes excellent use of the bumpers, and is really intuitive making for much more streamlined gameplay.

– Drop-shields, spike-grenades and the plethora of additions are really cool.

– Friendly NPCs behaviour has been greatly improved, making them a bit more real.

– Load times are fairly brief, bar when an extra-long cutscene is playing. Plus the new load screen is just nifty.

I know it looks like the bad out-weigh the good, but the environments, battles and weapons are really big plusses. I’ve always said that the Halo doesn’t really bring much new to the genre, but what it does do, it does very well. Halo 3 is an absolute blast to play through, even if you have to backtrack every level you play. Some of the environments are fantastic, and not just the big set-pieces. It was great to go over old territory redone with the graphical updates like the Control Room from Halo: Combat Evolved. Overall the game is a great experience, and I look forward to playing it through a bit more. We’ll see if it has the sticking power that Halo: Combat Evolved, to this day, still does.