Halo 3

Logan Booker watches as Halo comes 360.

After months of heavy, almost suffocating marketing by Microsoft, the third instalment in Bungie’s Halo series is here.

If you somehow missed the branded cans of Mountain Dew and the whole ‘Believe’ campaign, it’s still unlikely that Halo 3’s imminent arrival escaped your attention. In fact, if you own an Xbox 360, it’s probably #1 on your September shopping list. This, as you’ll find out, is a good thing.

Fundamentally, Halo 3 might as well be Halo 2, or even the original. You’re still the Master Chief, and Earth is still under threat from alien attackers, having been conquered completely by the fearsome Covenant. The game is played from the same first-person perspective, and instead of a health bar, you have a weak shield that regenerates after a short period of hiding like a pansy. In single player, the meta-game of weapon juggling still exists, as does the gun carry limit of two.

Multiplayer, perhaps, has seen the most work, the details of which we’ll cover in just a moment.

The crux of the plot is the recent discovery of a mysterious artefact in Africa, one the Covenant appears to be fascinated by. It’s up to the Chief of course to find out what the deal is, and it should come as no surprise that you’ll have to slaughter hundreds of aliens on your way to it.

Apart from the basic enemies you’ll fight, who sound completely out of place with their high-pitched whiny cries, the Master Chief will also face off against Hunters and Brutes. These tougher opponents tend to pack powerful weapons - usually explosive in nature - and on the harder difficulty modes of Heroic and Legendary, will require patience and attrition to defeat.

A few additions help spice the SP campaign: The Master Chief can now dual-wield any combination of small arms and carry a single ‘special’ item. These specials include deployable cover, bubble shields and regeneration auras, and come in handy in the game’s more gruelling sections.

Checkpoints again serve as the save mechanic, and while they are mostly well placed, there are a few tricky areas, such as a fortified base very early in the game, that could have done with a few more. It also doesn’t help that checkpoints sometimes fail to register your presence.

The series has always been the crowning jewel of multiplayer for Microsoft’s console, and Halo 3 is light years ahead of its predecessor in this regard. Along with Slayer and Team Slayer, Bungie has introduced Infection, Oddball, Multi-Flag, Juggernaut, Ninjanaut and Team King modes, as well as a few others. Co-op multiplayer returns, packing support for four players using split-screen, system link or Xbox Live.

Some modes, such as Juggernaut and Ninjanaut, are loads of fun, requiring one player with enhanced abilities to face off against everyone else until they die; at which point the person who made the kill takes their place. Others game types, such as Infection (which replicates the Half-Life mod Zombic Panic!), suffer from pacing problems or are too basic or underdeveloped to hold one’s attention for long. Regardless, the variety is not unwelcome.

By far the most interesting of the new modes is Forge, where players can delete, add or move objects around a map at their leisure. Each map has an item budget that averages $100, with basic objects (barrels and guns) costing $2-$5 and vehicles between $10 to $40. These maps can be saved for play at a later date, or even while construction occurs.

The last new feature of Halo 3 is a video editor, allowing players to create recordings of their matches. It should be noted that rewinding is not supported.

Halo 3 takes advantage of the Xbox 360’s graphics capabilities, and sports the usual assortment of effects including motion blur, HDR lighting and depth of field, however, a lack of anti-aliasing is painfully obvious. Outdoor textures for rocks and foliage also appear to be of a lower resolution, but one can hardly complain as the frame rate is always smooth.

As expected, Halo 3 is a solid upgrade to Halo 2. While the gameplay hasn’t changed much, it’s better in every conceivable way. Xbox 360 owners will be happy with their purchase, and if for some reason they’re not, well... there’s always Halo 4.