This review contains spoilers
The Halo 3 campaign does a fantastic job at providing the means for the player to get the most out of its sandbox, this is one of, if not the best first person shooter campaigns ever made.
I hadn't played Halo 3 since around it's release and I went into the MCC (Master Chief Collection) skeptical that it was as good as everyone made out, planning on just trying it out and screwing around only to find myself motivated to finish the fight yet again.
Whatever a red flag is in a game, this is the opposite. The game wastes no time in getting you into the action and with each scenario I found subtle ways to influence the battle so much so that a death resulted in barely any frustration (other than Jackal snipers which force themselves into being a no1 priority in a way that feels at odds with the Halo sandbox). Dying was simply another chance to tackle the fight in a different way. Would I go in duel wielding, alternating fire on each weapon so I can continuously shoot. Or would I hang back with the BR. Or would I chuck a sticky grenade into an enemy dropship only for the mounted gun to become detatched in the explosion allowing me to pick it up and take on a whole squad of covenant. All this with a soundtrack that can perfectly harmonise with the battle on screen, a favourite of mine being a moment during the track 'Released'.
The last combat example happened on a recent playthrough and highlights the variety of ways fights can play out in unpredictable ways.
Effective randomness (randomness generated out of a physics interactions or a high number other variables instead of a dice roll) is often seen as a negative yet in Halo 3 the core gameplay is so dynamic that it imparts the feeling that any unforseen moment is just par for the course. If I can benefit from an unpredictable result of my actions or friendly AI then it only feels fair that I can be on the flip side of that coin from time to time. Of course on higher difficulties this may be harder to swallow (I only played on Heroic) however I feel with the right mindset, many out of the blue deaths will be met with a laugh instead of a flying controller.
Level design this time is a big step up, even with indoor areas there are many changes in elevation and flanking routes, sometimes routes that let you circumvent large areas and get directly behind the enemy like in Sierra 117's finale. Couple this with the still generally great ai and you will be making constant decisions about how to turn the fight in your favour.
Equipment makes an impact here as well, while enemies rarely make good use of it they now present a new wrinkle to the sandbox.
Combat can now be altered by the smart use of these tools like accessing higher vantage points with the grav lift or providing a buffer between you and the enemies via a bubble shield or regenerator. Offensive tools like the flare, trip mine and power drain fill the role of hampering enemies defenses.
Perhaps the biggest impact made by this new edition is in vehichle combat where even the all mighty scarab cannot blast through a bubble shield. When on foot with all sorts of vehichle armageddon going on it cant hurt to have an ace up your sleeve.
An argument could be made that the equipments impact in missions isn't keenly felt due to the player only being able to carry one at a time and the lack of any with direct damage capabilities (the exception being the trip mine and even then it has clear limitations). However this rarity incentivises more intentional use making the moments where a strategy pays off all the more satisfying. Halo 3's core balance of gunplay, grenades, melee and vehichles would probably suffer if another big factor were thrown into the mix, as it stands it doesn't take centre stage but then I found myself missing them when going back to CE.
Enemies stay largely the same from previous games with the biggest change being the prominent role Brutes now take. They largely fill the role of Elites, they never felt as mobile as Elites darting around freely in CE. The closest Brutes come to this will be with charging chieftens or those with jump packs. Still they retain a sense of self preservation - unless armour is destroyed - and will back off when needed.
Brute vehichles are mostly analogous to both human and covenant vehichles, Chopper is basically a Ghost and the same goes for the Prowler and Warthog. They are enjoyable to use but dont substantially shake up vehichle combat.
Although not controllable by the player, the Scarab is where vehichle combat differs most from CE and 2. Large moving enemies or playspaces are a powerful tool if done right, like with Shadow of the Colossus or Outer Wilds, dealing with and navigating on these behemoths is a rush and thankfully a mostly smooth experience, the general rule is to somehow get on the Scarab and fight your way to it's weak spot. They do unfortunately have a pretty limited area to manouver, usually they end up circling a fairly small area yet somehow remain intimidating and good focal point for a host of vehichles to fight around.
Visually while an overuse of bloom is present as with many games from the mid 2000's, Halo 3 is still easy to appreciate. With its mix of the more grounded human side with the exagerrated covenant, each level is full of the specatcle of each side battling against the backdrop of massive forerunner structures and endless vistas of planetary bodies and alien skies.
A through line of Halo 3 seems to be variety. Variety of locations, visual themes, level design, enemies, friendly NPC's, weapons, vehichles and scenarios. One moment you are ducking and weaving a better armed foe, the next you are demolishing them in a tank.
There are some issues, a handful of times I found the usually competent AI to fail and simply stand around till I took them out. The story while unintrusive with mostly well written dialogue and cinematic moments, could still feel underdeveloped, for example Johnson appeared out of nowhere at the end only to get killed off moments later which felt overly contrived. It's nice that the letterboxed moments play out in real time if "skipped" yet it's disappointing the scripted moments like a chieften kicking Johnson can't be interrupted. I get why that could be a tall ask to plan for but then it's a bit of an own goal to show players a moment involving typically interactable aspects like enemies in-game that they cannot interact with. Perhaps this feature wasn't worth the middle ground of gameplay and cutscene it represents and the developers should have simply picked a lane in these moments.
Still even with it's faults Halo 3 pulls off the challenging task of making a roller coaster campaign without the rail.
I hadn't played Halo 3 since around it's release and I went into the MCC (Master Chief Collection) skeptical that it was as good as everyone made out, planning on just trying it out and screwing around only to find myself motivated to finish the fight yet again.
Whatever a red flag is in a game, this is the opposite. The game wastes no time in getting you into the action and with each scenario I found subtle ways to influence the battle so much so that a death resulted in barely any frustration (other than Jackal snipers which force themselves into being a no1 priority in a way that feels at odds with the Halo sandbox). Dying was simply another chance to tackle the fight in a different way. Would I go in duel wielding, alternating fire on each weapon so I can continuously shoot. Or would I hang back with the BR. Or would I chuck a sticky grenade into an enemy dropship only for the mounted gun to become detatched in the explosion allowing me to pick it up and take on a whole squad of covenant. All this with a soundtrack that can perfectly harmonise with the battle on screen, a favourite of mine being a moment during the track 'Released'.
The last combat example happened on a recent playthrough and highlights the variety of ways fights can play out in unpredictable ways.
Effective randomness (randomness generated out of a physics interactions or a high number other variables instead of a dice roll) is often seen as a negative yet in Halo 3 the core gameplay is so dynamic that it imparts the feeling that any unforseen moment is just par for the course. If I can benefit from an unpredictable result of my actions or friendly AI then it only feels fair that I can be on the flip side of that coin from time to time. Of course on higher difficulties this may be harder to swallow (I only played on Heroic) however I feel with the right mindset, many out of the blue deaths will be met with a laugh instead of a flying controller.
Level design this time is a big step up, even with indoor areas there are many changes in elevation and flanking routes, sometimes routes that let you circumvent large areas and get directly behind the enemy like in Sierra 117's finale. Couple this with the still generally great ai and you will be making constant decisions about how to turn the fight in your favour.
Equipment makes an impact here as well, while enemies rarely make good use of it they now present a new wrinkle to the sandbox.
Combat can now be altered by the smart use of these tools like accessing higher vantage points with the grav lift or providing a buffer between you and the enemies via a bubble shield or regenerator. Offensive tools like the flare, trip mine and power drain fill the role of hampering enemies defenses.
Perhaps the biggest impact made by this new edition is in vehichle combat where even the all mighty scarab cannot blast through a bubble shield. When on foot with all sorts of vehichle armageddon going on it cant hurt to have an ace up your sleeve.
An argument could be made that the equipments impact in missions isn't keenly felt due to the player only being able to carry one at a time and the lack of any with direct damage capabilities (the exception being the trip mine and even then it has clear limitations). However this rarity incentivises more intentional use making the moments where a strategy pays off all the more satisfying. Halo 3's core balance of gunplay, grenades, melee and vehichles would probably suffer if another big factor were thrown into the mix, as it stands it doesn't take centre stage but then I found myself missing them when going back to CE.
Enemies stay largely the same from previous games with the biggest change being the prominent role Brutes now take. They largely fill the role of Elites, they never felt as mobile as Elites darting around freely in CE. The closest Brutes come to this will be with charging chieftens or those with jump packs. Still they retain a sense of self preservation - unless armour is destroyed - and will back off when needed.
Brute vehichles are mostly analogous to both human and covenant vehichles, Chopper is basically a Ghost and the same goes for the Prowler and Warthog. They are enjoyable to use but dont substantially shake up vehichle combat.
Although not controllable by the player, the Scarab is where vehichle combat differs most from CE and 2. Large moving enemies or playspaces are a powerful tool if done right, like with Shadow of the Colossus or Outer Wilds, dealing with and navigating on these behemoths is a rush and thankfully a mostly smooth experience, the general rule is to somehow get on the Scarab and fight your way to it's weak spot. They do unfortunately have a pretty limited area to manouver, usually they end up circling a fairly small area yet somehow remain intimidating and good focal point for a host of vehichles to fight around.
Visually while an overuse of bloom is present as with many games from the mid 2000's, Halo 3 is still easy to appreciate. With its mix of the more grounded human side with the exagerrated covenant, each level is full of the specatcle of each side battling against the backdrop of massive forerunner structures and endless vistas of planetary bodies and alien skies.
A through line of Halo 3 seems to be variety. Variety of locations, visual themes, level design, enemies, friendly NPC's, weapons, vehichles and scenarios. One moment you are ducking and weaving a better armed foe, the next you are demolishing them in a tank.
There are some issues, a handful of times I found the usually competent AI to fail and simply stand around till I took them out. The story while unintrusive with mostly well written dialogue and cinematic moments, could still feel underdeveloped, for example Johnson appeared out of nowhere at the end only to get killed off moments later which felt overly contrived. It's nice that the letterboxed moments play out in real time if "skipped" yet it's disappointing the scripted moments like a chieften kicking Johnson can't be interrupted. I get why that could be a tall ask to plan for but then it's a bit of an own goal to show players a moment involving typically interactable aspects like enemies in-game that they cannot interact with. Perhaps this feature wasn't worth the middle ground of gameplay and cutscene it represents and the developers should have simply picked a lane in these moments.
Still even with it's faults Halo 3 pulls off the challenging task of making a roller coaster campaign without the rail.