Overview

Like any self-respecting shooting game, Halo 3 starts with the traditional mouth-watering, with the first settings to be configured by looking up and down to see if everything is working properly. All right, the Master Chief has passed the interview; everything seems to be to "finish the fight," as Bungie's slogan says so well. Finally, at last, we're walking, running and a good half-dozen marines accompany us! The exhilaration communicates itself to our brain, which serves an uninterrupted flow of dopamine to our minds. And there's the drama: the game is ultra-linear. Suddenly, doubt sets in. You move forward in a group straight ahead, with only a few meters wide to move, you shoot blindly and barely work out how to approach the enemy. So Bungie opted for simplicity, the simplicity of the traditional shooting game. The situation worsens as the minutes go by, with boredom beginning to set in, despite a good Level Design and lots of new weapons to try.

We begin to hope that all this is just a bad dream, we pinch ourselves to check that we are awake, we say to ourselves that it was only an introduction but the second mission is already there to bring us back to this hard reality. Once again, Bungie opts for long bland corridors, which are not without reminding the atmosphere of Halo 2. Once again, the game is extremely linear, and the developers seem not to realize that making us pass three times in the same place is not a good idea.

Already the third level is starting. The revelations begin to fall, and the eyes can no longer move, a visually perfect game catches the gaze, the ears listen only to the voice of the Master Chief. All this was just a bad dream - the excitement returns. Our child's eyes rediscover the Halo myth, and little by little, the atmosphere of the first part makes its big comeback.

Gameplay

Everything that made Halo a success is back. That good old machine gun that had given way to a toothpick lance and a three-shot rifle is back in the game. The rocket launcher too, the sniper, to which are added many new exclusive and particularly well thought out weapons. We get back in touch with the Warthog (the jeep), which recovers its rights as a base vehicle, we take the tank to sow chaos among the Grunts, and we try again with the many available new vehicles. The quad is simply breathtaking with its double seat and its arcade gameplay that is not unlike the Warthog. The Hornet, a fighter ship, proves to be an excellent counterpart to the Banshee of the Covenant forces. Finally, UNSC forces are taking power on all fronts with various incredibly practical vehicles on the battlefield. For its part, the Covenant is not to be outdone with a few new vehicles with a particularly inspired design and rather strange playability. Therefore, the arsenal is more than substantial and offers plenty of room for maneuver in battles that will vary depending on your tactical choices.

Halo 3 seems to have changed things. Bungie has indeed made a real return to basics in terms of the levels crossed and the scenario, which becomes much more credible than in the second part. Halo 3 was a worthy successor to Halo! The vast plains are back, the environments are varied, the clashes are gigantic, and the finale is simply breathtaking.

Graphics

Since the launch of the Xbox 360, many gamers would have noticed that a large number of the games released are graphical updates of older titles available on the original Xbox. From our first steps in the adventure, we feel immense happiness with a charm that operates at first contact, breathtaking special effects, dozens of characters that appear on the screen, and the use of the famous Havoc physics engine. Of course, there are always a few minor flaws, such as the human modeling, which remains rather limited, or a few effects that are a little less successful. Still, overall, we must acknowledge the enormous amount of work done by Bungie, both in terms of Level Design and the many graphics engine improvements.

You'll notice right from the introduction scene that the Master Chief's armor has been reworked with rather impressive attention to detail. For the rest, as is often the case, it's the small details that make a great game, such as the huge debris that escapes from the ships when they explode, the tracks left in the snow, the real-time transformations of the enemies, and a whole bunch of other little ideas. This is more than positive from an aesthetic point of view since the solo adventure holds some very good surprises, especially in terms of the scenery.

Sound

Finally, we will end this review with undoubtedly the trademark of Bungie's, namely the music. Once again, Microsoft Games aimed very high with melodies of rare poetry, oscillating between lyricism and patriotic exaltation and accompanying the player throughout the adventure. The whole is interspersed with a few quieter phases during which the player will be able to use his observation and spying powers to detect the slightest noise of enemies. The soundtrack is particularly well-conceived and is in the same vein as the first two parts, with a few additional themes are extremely beautiful to listen to.

Conclusion

At the time when many feared that Bungie would deliver a purely commercial product, as Halo 2 was in its day and its huge awkwardness, Bungie managed to surprise us with an exciting single-player mode, a cooperative mode allowing four players to help each other, lots of online game modes with a solid reputation and a real return to the roots of gameplay. Beautiful, fluid, and addictive, Halo 3 was undoubtedly one of the biggest titles of the Xbox 360.