How can we forget the multiplayer?
And, despite some excellent level design and interesting environments, such as the jungle, industrial cities, the desert and underground bases, many of the indoor levels are visually bland and easy to get lost in as one room or corridor is hard to distinguish from another. This often results in a small number of the interior levels becoming fairly repetitive. This isn't helped by a (very small) number of poorly placed save points, which see you having to go back further than you would have liked to, just to tackle the same segment again.I also didn't experience the kind of 'wow' moments that I did when I played Gears of War (that blind Beserker hunting you down was amazing), so in my view the single player campaign on its own doesn't deserve full marks.
In all fairness, these are minor points in a game that, despite a few irritations, manages to keep you hooked right until the final battle, but still prevent it from being the greatest single player game I've ever played (I enjoyed Bioshock more and Gears Of War).
Click for larger image
Click for larger imageIn Co-op mode, and on Heroic difficulty, Halo 3 is great fun and far better than the solo experience.The ingenious new addition of "campaign scoring mode", called the "meta-game" where you can play the campaign mode gaining points, adds a competitive aspect to co-op play which I've never experienced in a game. The campaign is just one part of the Halo 3, experience and although it didn't quite blow my socks off and have the same impact as Gears of War did the first time I played it, it's the whole package and the immense replay-ability that makes Halo 3 such a magnificent game.
Bungie has stepped up their game when it comes to customisation. The Forge is a real-time object editor, which allows you to customise the multiplayer maps for use online. The applications of the tools it offers are practically endless and it's also a great way to fly over the maps and learn weapon positions and get to know the maps inside out.
Outside of the Forge, you can also create your own multiplayer modes, so in addition to enjoying the likes of team slayer, oddball and VIP, you can make up some stupid games that you find funny, but no-one else does. The other day I played a game entitled Hammer Time, where everyone had to use the gravity hammer and over shields were set to maximum levels. The catch was that the speed of the game was slowed right down to snail's pace. This meant it took us about 3 minutes to even reach our opponent and when we did it took us another few minutes to destroy their over shields before we could kill them. In all seriousness though they'll no doubt be some user created game modes that really catch on, and the great things is that, we'll all be able to share them.
