A few words from a professional procrastinator

After all the hype and all the talk about Halo 3 did it deliver? It’s a shooter, it finishes the “Halo” story and not wanting to spoil the game it simply does as advertised. But how does it hold up?

Just a few weeks before Halo 3, Bioshock came out then followed by Orange Box, Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed and Unreal Tournament. The Xbox platform is not as empty as when Halo and Halo 2 came out for the original Xbox. The gameplay is basically the same but not as impressive as the other shooters available for the platform. The story of course is another matter entirely.

If you want to jump into a shooter and start playing without any thinking then this game is for you. But if you’re new to the series and haven’t played the last two, you will be lost. And I do mean lost. There is no recap of the last game, there is no in game movie that would explain why are you where you are and why you are fighting. I myself have only played the first game (on a mac no less) and skipped Halo 2 for Metal Gear Solid 3 that year and I didn’t want to spend money on a console that only had a handful games I wanted to play so now I’m playing Halo 2 just to catch up with the story. Halo was the first shooter that I played which I didn’t need cheat codes to beat. It does involve a lot of trial and error in some parts but nothing that a Spartan can’t handle. So I would recommend it to people who bought the game because they heard it was good.

The multiplayer is something else. It has co-op campaign and various player vs. player offerings. The matchmaking controls need a little bit more tweaking since it will not be easy for new players to jump into the game. You could be faced with some kid who has played the game since Halo 2 and here you are just discovering the game. So it’s a little bit steep for new players to get into. The co-op experience is something that I hope is fixed or will be fixed. There was just so much lag. But using the same network my friend and I played Gears of War co-op just fine. So I guess that Halo is not so forgiving about slow networks.

Halo is the shooter for the casual gamers. It’s simple enough for anyone new to the game to pick up and get started. But the the multiplayer is not for the noob.