Sunday 21 Oct 2007

The Xbox 360 First Person Shooter game to define all First Person Shooter games has arrived! But, has it really defined the first person genre and was all the hype worth it?

Well, that depends on what you are expecting from the game. If you played Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 then you have a very rough idea what this game is going to provide you with but if you’ve never played this franchise before then you might be a tad bit confused.

The game starts off where Halo 2 left off (which I won’t spoil for those still in caves) and it is up to you to “Finish the Fight!” You play as Master Chief and this time he has one of his arch enemies joining him in his fight. I’m not going to explain anything regarding the story as it is something that would spoil it for anyone who has never played it before, however, it does explain a lot from Halo 2.

Seamless controls

Looking at the game play it is very apparent that Bungie has taken their time and tested the game to death. In the past the Xbox controller (that’s the original Xbox and not the 360) was a bit clumsy when it came to using the “black and “white” buttons which were placed just below the face buttons on the right of the controller. Now these two buttons have been moved to the shoulder buttons (LB and RB) and it just makes so much more sense using that as your “weapon reload” or using it to jump on to vehicles and the like. The other buttons have not really changed that much. The “B” button is still to dismantle anything, “A” button provides you with a nice lengthy jump and “Y” changes the set of guns you have equipped. The “X” button brings a nice new feature which has various additional support features such as dropping a shield to hide behind or a short time of invisibility. It looks like they have brought some of their multiplayer aspects into the campaign mode.

This is by far the most responsive FPS on any console out there. The speed and sensitivity by default is perfect, something that most FPS’s find difficult to achieve on consoles in comparison to the PC counterparts. If you’re looking for a comparison to just how smooth the controls are then I can assure you that it takes TimeSplitters 2 out the picture.

Immerse yourself in the audio

The sound in this game is really out of this world (no pun intended). If you have a 5.1 setup at home your ears are going to love you. The soundtrack to the game has this aura that makes you want to pick up the controller and do it for the team, but then so did Halo 2 have an amazing soundtrack so one expects it from a game of its stature. The sound effects don’t really sound that much different to Halo 2 but that was also out the top drawer in the first place.

I’m not too sure on the graphics for the game though. The character modeling is good and the vehicles are great but I have seen better on the Xbox 360 like Bioshock to be quite frank. The environment details seem a bit sparse at times but then this HUGE creature would come out the middle of nowhere with an amazing amount of detail on it and totally “gob smack” you. One other aspect that outclasses anything out there at the moment is the scale this game portrays. It just feels so wide and open! At the end graphics should not sell games, the game play and the experience should, and this is something Halo 3 has an overabundance of.

Now any person that has played any of the Halo games before would know that Halo is not really about campaign mode but rather about the multiplayer experience. Halo 3 is no different. When completing the campaign mode, which you can play with up to four player in co-op mode – insane? I know! - you are going to play this game for at least another three years as the vast amount of options available to you for system-link and online matches is to die for!

Multiplayer options galore

King of the Hill, Capture the Flag, Death Match, Team Death Match and several other options are all there to choose from and work very, very well. Having up to 16 players join is something to behold. Setting up a match is a piece of cake and getting all your local friends to join in on Xbox LIVE is as easy as pie (Mmmm, cake and pie!). Once you have invited your friends and they have accepted, it is up to you to select the mode and off you go – The best multiplayer FPS on console you would have ever played in your life, end of story.

Halo 3 is a fresh breath of air, even if it is from the same franchise that revolutionised the FPS genre on console several years ago. “Don’t fix what ain’t broke,” seems to be what Bungie worked with, good for them.

For noobs, you might find the plot a bit confusing but overall a great experience. For veterans – Believe! It’s worth the hype.

Pros: Multiplayer (it’s orgasmic!); the smooth handling; amazing soundtrack; the outrageous scale of the game.
Cons: Graphically not as good as one would have imagined.

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Contributor:	Dawid

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