What better way to start a review of Halo 3, than to remake one of the most memorable
and powerful advertisements ever made. I hope I was able to recapture some of that magic
and I hope you enjoyed that bit! But how do I even begin discussing one of the most hyped
games of all time. I mean, with all the other reviews I've done, coming up with a good
intro hasn't been as tough as this. I guess it's the intimidation, the sheer magnitude
and size of this game. So let's start there. I think the expectation is huge. Everybody
I talk to – if you mention 'Halo,' you know, everyone's immediate reaction is:
how's Halo 3? Well goddamn, we all thought Halo 2 was the
pinnacle of video game hype. Pre-orders sold out, record setting sales, media and news
coverage. You probably thought people couldn't get any more excited than that? But you would
be wrong… The world was going f*cking insane for Halo
3, it reached levels of hype bordering on obnoxious hysteria. There was all sorts of
craziness going on! People were making songs and shit. "There'll be lots of happy gamers
wait and see. When the 3rd game with Master Chief is released. The White House has been
alerted. All the streets will be deserted, when Bungie finally gives us Halo 3.
Man, they had this guy playing as a Playstation 3 he goes to a store and starts talking shit
about Halo, then a car drops off a guy in a Xbox 360 costume and he beats the shit out
of the Playstation guy! Like, are you serious? Halo 3 had some damn good trailers and promotions.
They were, dare I say, ICONIC! One of them showed this huge new installation beneath
ground, another showed off the bubble shield and my mouth was wet with anticipation after
watching these. I mean just look at this, and try to wrap
your mind around it. This is the wealthiest man on planet earth, at the time, and he's
at a Best Buy selling the 1st copy of Halo 3. I mean, you got – you got f*cking Bill
Gates in on this shit! The Halo 3 hype train was one of the greatest
moments in gaming history. Not just because it broke records, or it was a climactic finale,
but because everyone and their mother was excited for it's release. Even if you were
one of the rare people that didn't give give two f*cks about this game, you knew about
it either way. People coming together. For a video – yeah
for a video game. Are you excited? Uhhh… I am now. Like, I wasn't before but like
seeing this. Looking back at some these videos and the
happiness, the expression on people's faces is just beyond words. But how did all this
hype translate to the campaign? The epic finale in this legendary Halo saga. Without a doubt
the game delivered on the multiplayer front with forge, theater, etc. But in the eyes
of many, the campaign had some mixed reception. And we're going to find out for sure. So
let's make a girl a promise, team up with Arby, and Finish The Fight.
Let's give some context first. Combat Evolved set up the universe and lore in pretty much
the best way possible; telling a simple story but leaving a lot to be explained further
on. Then Halo 2 expanded upon it with a dual perspective and new characters, and fleshing
out the sides of the villains much more. So when the time came for Halo 3, the game had
some pretty big shoes to fill. I mean, expectations were so high, you thought they'd been hanging
out with Snoop Dogg alongside Cheech & Chong! The buildup to this game was unlike anything
the world had ever seen before. Which is good for generating hype and sales, but unavoidably
the campaign, gameplay and or story wasn't going to satisfy everybody. I'm not one
of those people, but I can see where they're coming from. We'll get more into the negatives
as we go along. This time around, Halo 3 packs a lot more
symbolism and motifs into it's story while also illuminating Cortana & Chief's relationship
a bit more. And we see this in the f*cking awesome intro. They let me pick… Did I ever
tell you that? Choose whichever Spartan I wanted. The music is beautiful, and Cortana's
monologue carries a certain weight with it. Luck and the number 7 were things that had
been built up subtely in the first two games, through easter eggs and all sorts of stuff.
But Halo 3 brings that theme to the forefront. For the first time, we learn Cortana was given
a choice, and out of all the Spartans, Master Chief had something special about him. Because
Chief is such a great vessel for the player, this makes us feel special too. We feel like
we were chosen. While I think this is an incredible intro, one thing has always bothered me. How
did Chief get off the Forerunner ship? What he jumped out?
Why do you always jump? Jump! Might as well jump! Go ahead and jump! Jump!
I mean, it's a pretty jarring transition from the end of Halo 2 to the start of Halo
3. You know, it would've been nice if… we actually saw him jump. JUMP!
But anyways, it looks like Chief is pretty messed up, and the first time playing this,
you're holding your breath. *Sigh… Radio for VTOL, heavy lift gear.
We're not leaving him here. Yeah. You're not. That's my f*cking boy! That's my
f*cking BOI right there! This whole intro is just so magical. The reunion
with Johnson, memories of Cortana being left on High Charity, the promise he made, and
if you haven't noticed, every Halo game up to this point has started with a focus
on Chief's armor, and him falling from space. This is the first of many parallels in Halo
3. But then oh shit! God damn I love this scene,
and how Chief doesn't hesitate at all after falling god knows how far. It's like a light
switch, he just goes straight into badass mode. Puts the gun up to Arby's throat and
he's like, "bro, make a goddamn move and I'm gonna pull the trigger"
Meanwhile Arbiter's just sitting there like, "Do it. F*cking do it, dude! I don't give
a sh*t what you think." The testosterone levels here are at 100% right
now and then homeboy Johnson settles them down, and Arbiter drops the f*cking mic. "Were
it so easy" Bow-wow-wow yippy-yo yippy-yay suck on these
nuts, nigga suck on these nuts. I tell em, bow-wow-wow yippy-yo yippy-ya suck on these
nuts, nigga suck on these nuts. It's funny how one line of dialogue and
a little bit of action is all that's needed to maintain this great dynamic between Arbiter
& Chief. Halo 3 has pretty much the perfect beginning, but even though the game is a step
backwards in some ways from Halo 2 and Combat Evolved, the game absolutely kills it with
the Level Design.
Do you remember the first time you played this game? Well in my experience, I was at
my buddy's house playing co-op, and when we started out in the jungle, I ran into some
plants and my jaw dropped. You can shoot the plants and they react! You – you can walk
into them and they move! I was like "SWEET JESUS! This is the future right here!" In
fact, there was a post on the Halo subreddit of how Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal
Gear games, reacted to Halo 3. I'm not sure if this is legit but his reaction was pretty
much the same as mine. This comes from, Ryan Peyton. "Ever since
I played Halo: CE I've been a massive fan of the franchise. When Halo 3 came out, I
had it overnighted from Seattle to Tokyo, and the next day I brought it to the studio
and made sure that everybody – including Hideo – looked closely at the game. I knew
Halo 3 was a landmark game for the industry. Some folks were really interested in the gunplay,
others were more interested in the graphics, Hideo gets motion sickness, so he wasn't
able to look at the game much. I remember he asked me to shoot a plant near the start
of the jungle level. When it reacted, he nodded in affirmation and walked off. I remember
wanting to show him more of the game…" It might be the smallest of small points but
you gotta admit that's a polished game right there. This level of detail was mind-blowing
and might've paved way for future games to emphasize their environments more.
One thing Halo 3 does really well is tell these 'mini-stories' throughout the gameplay.
The first two Halo's always had cool stuff that happened during gameplay when you had
control, and so does Halo 3. But the game goes that extra mile by making those moments
happen more often. And making them more cinematic. Some of these events, you can change the outcome
of. For instance, when you round this corner you see this marine getting interrogated and
if you watch like some non-helping douche, he dies. But if you shoot your way through,
you can save the marine and you get a bit of dialogue.
"Brute Chieftain. Phantom. Pinned us down. Killed my men…"
There's this really f*cking cool part near the end of Ark, where you see a pack of brutes
all crowded around a hammer Chieftain, and you have the option of fighting him one on
one. "Raaaah! Fight me! I'm right here!"
Like you're battling to see who is best to lead the pack. Or you can blast the shit
out of everyone if you got huge balls. These mini cutscenes and stories introduced a feeling
of realism we hadn't seen before. It's not always just a bunch of enemies walking
around waiting for you to shoot em anymore. The grunts talk in their sleep, there's
that Brute that takes a fat leak, and best of all were the terminals. I don't know
whose genius idea it was who came up with this, but bravo, dude. It was always fun to
read through these even if you didn't quite understand what was going on at the time.
It was great fan service to the lore fanatics who wanted something more – something more
intricate and behind the scenes, and it offered things to hunt for within each mission. Combined
with the skulls, easter eggs and the mini-stories, it turned Halo 3's levels into something
that you could get a lot out of just by taking it slow. It's the type of campaign where
you really can stop and smell the roses. Aside from all of that, Halo 3 returns to
the Combat Evolved style of level design. You know, gigantic freaking areas with tons
of stuff going on. Now, one of the disappointing aspects of Halo 2, for me, was how most sections
were in tight, close corridors, or elongated paths. It never felt as grandiose as the first
game. But Halo 3 makes each level have a sense of scale. I guess with the advancements in
technology they could afford to up the ante on the number of enemies and allies in each
fight. And they nail the corridor sections down really well when they need to. The levels
were more open and epic than we had ever seen or imagined before.
It's f*cking fantastic to fight alongside Elites against the Flood and Brutes. And how
mind-blowing was it to be allied with the Flood, even for just a moment? I mean who
the hell saw that coming?! There's so many unique sections, Halo 3 just offers incredible
variety and you don't have to play each area the same way. I loved the part where
you have 4 mongooses each with a marine carrying a rocket launcher on the back. That shit is
so crazy and fun. Like I said, Halo 2 had so many sections that
just kept pumping in enemies from outside, whereas Halo 3 ditches that concept for the
most part. They got a lot more creative, making use of drop ships and much more unnoticeable
spawning. Every level looks incredible, with diverse
locations, set pieces, and backdrops. The graphics for Halo 3 are timeless, they were
cutting edge back then, but no matter how many years it's been, this game has and
always will look great. The level design is basically perfect as far
as I'm concerned. But before we get into the depth of the story, lets take a look at
the gameplay. Halo 3 alongside Star Wars: Jedi Academy,
were two of the first games that really made me appreciate the weapons and sandbox in video
games. The enemies are all fun and satisfying to shoot at, and the guns are all fun and
satisfying to shoot with. The weapons are all viable even on legendary, and can be used
in most scenarios. Add onto this you've got dual-wielding, 4 types of grenades, alongside
equipment, heavy weapons and it creates a campaign with a lot of depth. Honestly, they
really innovated like no other. You know, some equipment wasn't as useful
as it was in multiplayer but to the creative-minded, they can be utilized in unique ways. Some
flanking routes and areas can be accessed by using the Grav Lift. The Bubble Shield
was like a get out of jail free card. The power drain was great against brutes. Active
camo returned as equipment and if you killed a Brute Chieftain fast enough, you could get
a short term invulnerability. Ever since Halo 3, the series has been looking for a 4th leg
to stand on, and equipment could impact the gameplay greatly, but it wasn't something
that altered the core of Halo's design. Which made it a perfect addition to the sandbox.
Spike and firebomb grenades were really fun to use, even though firebombs were hardly
seen in campaign, I've always thought most Halo games have played it too safe with grenades
and really should've experimented with new types of grenades.
This game has the best weapon variety in the series, hands down. And I don't care how
stupid or unviable it is to go Spiker & SMG, I'm f*cking doing it and pumping them full
of lead! You know why? Cuz I got TWO weapons and you don't, b*tch! Dual-wielding evolved
into something spectacular, so many combos to try! Some good, some not so good. And it
was always fun just being able to experiment with them.
The ability to use heavy weapons like the missle pod was f*cking epic as well. Or ripping
a turret right off it's legs and going to town is so freaking satisfying! Halo 3 simply
improved upon the weapons and sandbox from the last two games in every way possible!
And that's something most game series can't seem to nail: a consistent improvement in
the gameplay with every sequel. The enemies have all undergone massive changes
for the better, and battles have much more troops in them than before. THANK GOD those
FREAKING JACKALS have a headlight around and don't respawn 14 F*CKING times – ehhh…
sorry. Brutes are no longer the bullet sponges and boxing champions they were in Halo 2.
They basically took on the roles of Elites but their shields don't come back when the
armor is destroyed. Grunts can now go crazy, pull out two grenades and try to suicide bomb
you ALLAHU ACKBAAAAAAAR!
And Hunters are pretty much the same. The Flood and Drones have massively increased
numbers and will swarm the living hell out of you, but are much weaker individually.
Now, one thing that always bugged me about Halo 3 was how the Flood are weak to melee
hits. I always thought because Combat forms are basically space zombies, that they had
no care for the condition of their bodies, and thus broken bones or damage caused by
melee attacks weren't enough to slow them down. But here, it's like they're all
made out of paper mache and die in one or two hits. Would've been cool if guns like
the Brute Shot and Spiker were the only weapons that could reliably kill combat forms with
melee. Enemies with predictable and avoidable patterns
was something Halo 2 sorely lacked and Halo 3 is truly a return to Combat Evolved type
of enemy design. Pure flood forms were a nice twist when fighting the flood, as they could
change forms at will to suit the circumstances. Unfortunately, Halo 3 has no real boss fights
like Halo 2 did. Sure the Scarabs were fun to take down and Guilty Spark was kind of
a boss, but I was really disappointed they didn't expand on this concept. Perhaps it's
something that just doesn't jive with Halo's formula.
But out of all the campaigns, Halo 3 is the most fun, in my opinion. Just because of how
varied each of the levels are how many weapons you can use, and the number of ways you can
approach any situation. Only thing that keeps the gameplay from being perfect is that Legendary
difficulty still had some annoying & unfair elements. This is mostly apparent in vehicle
sections because enemies will literally shoot YOU out of the vehicle. And you can withstand
so little damage that often you die in about a second.
But if that stuff doesn't bug you then it's probably perfect. And the skulls allow you
to nail just the right difficulty if the standard ones don't work for you.
The fact that you could play Halo 3's campaign with 3 other people on Xbox Live was simply
incredible! The ability to look back on your footage and actually see things from a different
perspective in the theater was a really great addition and you could actually find some
hidden things you couldn't have seen otherwise. Like, at the start of Floodgate, you can kind
of see what's going on to the right of you. But if you take the theater camera you can
actually move and see marines engaging flood right there.
And all the vidmaster challenges gave gamers a seemingly insurmountable task to achieve.
It's like every aspect of Halo 3 could be played with 4 people or more. How many games
out there actually allow that? I can literally only think of Classic Battlefront 2 .
Overall, the solid gameplay mixed with brilliant level and enemy design, makes it one of THE
best FPS campaigns ever made! But how does the story hold up after all this
time? Is Halo 3 the climactic finale it was advertised to be? Yes… and no. Lemme explain
the no first. Once again, it's not so much wrong with Halo 3's story itself, but moreso
how Bungie had built up our expectations so high. Combat Evolved had the air of mystery
around every level. It switched things up when the game took Cortana away from you in
the 2nd half of the game and left you on your own for a bit. And then Halo 2 gave us more
insight and depth into the universe as a whole. The first time I beat Halo 2 back in the day,
I thought to myself: "how in the Sergeant Johnson are they gonna be able to top THIS
story?" And unfortunately, Halo 2's story was better
in my opinion. It felt like every single moment, every line of dialogue, every cutscene just
sucked me in. From start to finish there wasn't a moment in Halo 2 where I lost interest.
The change in perspectives was always interesting, and to see the story progress through 2 points
of view was brilliant. Halo 3 just had a few moments that didn't feel as interesting
as they could've been. Perhaps there was just a bit too much military dialogue about
what's going on. But I think it's also because we don't
see the Covenant side of things as much and without a sub villain like Tartarus, or the
other two Prophets, the Covenant in general don't feel as imposing or threatening as
they did in the last two games. We don't see as much of the civil war which was one
of the coolest things about Halo 2. And Truth also seemed like a downgrade from his cunning,
manipulative depiction in Halo 2. Not to mention the change in voice actor but I'll get to
that later. And Arbiter felt like he got demoted to a
sidekick, instead of the relatable protagonist he was in Halo 2. "Tartarus… the prophets
have betrayed us." Maybe it's just because Combat Evolved and
Halo 2 both revealed so much to the player that by the time Halo 3 came along there wasn't
much to elucidate about the universe. Of course it would've been hard to work in a way for
the player to see the Gravemind again, but seeing him through these visions kinda turned
him into just a threatening voice. And I must ask, why why WHY was it necessary
to stop the gameplay in it's tracks to listen to dialogue.
(Cortana talks in the background) Yeah okay, gotcha! Still gotta save you, Cortana. (Gravemind
talks in the background) Oh yeah, Gravemind, you're the bad guy! Don't worry I didn't
forget about you! (Cortana talks louder) Yea that's enough
with the voice thing (Gravemind talks louder.) Can – can you stop now? (multiple overlapping
voices) Can you just let me enjoy the game? (GRAAAAAAHHHH) CAN YOU JUST SHUT UP?! God…
f*ck that was annoying. I think it's unanimous that those sections are annoying and those
dialogue sections could've been handled in a much better way.
Again in Halo 2, he felt far more threatening, mysterious and deceptive. In general, the
characters are all slightly weaker version of what they were in Halo 2.
But in the grand scheme of things, those complaints aren't too bad, because Halo 3's story
is beyond epic! There's no other way to put it.
"Brute ships! Staggered line. Shipmaster, they outnumber us 3 to 1! Then it is an even
fight. All cruisers, fire at will! Burn their mongrel hides!"
It's got this air of "Let's f*cking GO, dude! Yea let's go f*ck shit up on the
ring! Let's DO IT!" The hype between each mission is perfect because
the game delivers those epic moments of gameplay that it hypes up!
But it also has a lot of quiet, emotional moments that slow things down. Guilty Spark's
betrayel just happened at the worst possible time, but in a good way for the story! Johnson's
death just left me like…. Damn *sniff Damn…. One of the best parts of the story for me,
was really seeing Cortana and Chief's relationship fleshed out. "But why didn't you like
Halo 4 as much then, Act MAYNE??" Because they took it too far too quick! The first
two Halo games were taking small steps as they showed us more and more of their relationship.
And in Halo 3 you, the player, care as much about Cortana as Chief does. Again, because
Bungie wanted you to be immersed as the Chief, you're looking through his eyes instead
of being outside looking AT him. There's just enough emotion and subtlety between the
two characters to really make you care about it, whereas in Halo 4 it feels forced. Maybe
that's why they call it Halo 4.' And most importantly, the relationship of
Chief and Cortana was a part of a bigger story, as opposed to it being half the focus like
it was in Halo 4. "Earth is all we have left. Do you trust
Cortana that much?" "Sir! Yes, Sir!"
"Well this is either the best decision you've made or the worst. Hell of it is, Chief…
I doubt I'll live long enough to find out which."
What I love most is how the Humans and Covenant team up, even though they don't really want
to. "You barely survived a small contamination."
"And you, Shipmaster, just glassed half a continent! Maybe the Flood isn't all I
should be worried about…" There's this huge amount of tension between
both sides and then you got Guilty Spark in the middle who's like, totally clueless.
The way Lord Hood and Shipmaster bicker back and forth paints this scenario as pretty dicey.
This alliance could turn ugly at the drop of a hat. But both sides manage to put aside
years and years of conflict, hatred and history for the greater good.
"The greater good." The scene when Arbiter and Johnson are gearing
up for One Final Effort is goddamn glorious! You see how the UNSC and Covenant are separated.
They're talking amongst themselves, probably making racial jokes about the elites and vice
versa. And then Johnson starts grabbing Covenant weapons, this elite stands up and he's like,
"bro the f*ck are you doing?!" And Johnson doesn't even give a sh*t. The
marines over there are like, "woah dude, Johnson has some serious balls." Then Arbiter
picks up some human weapons, and the marines are like, "man… I'd say something, but
I'd rather not piss this guy off." Then both walk past each other, hand out the
guns, and it's just a perfect scene. It shows two sides coming together. Everyone's
gearing up for this big finale. The stage is set.
Halo 3 is all about stopping Truth from activating the other Halo rings at once with the ARK.
Somehow, Bungie managed to elevate the tension and drama in this situation. One Halo Ring?
Oh sh*t! That'll destroy everything in the galaxy! But 6 or 7?! JESUS MARY!! We don't
even want to think about what'll happen if they all go off! The Flood in general are
much more threatening, even without the Gravemind around because we see them flying ships! When
you see that you're just like, "my gehd! They're learning! Pretty soon they're
gonna have their own schools!" So Halo 3 does a real good job of raising
the stakes, which ties in with the epicness of the narrative.
The story has some real nice buildup, and just like the other games it truly has the
atmosphere of a military sci-fi shooter, something that I now realize is a criminally underrated
aspect of Halo. The marines play a big role in the gameplay,
they're pretty much around you at all times. As well as telling you about the next objective.
Since Cortana isn't with you for most of the game. The marines make you feel like a
badass because they always love getting your help.
"We're with you, Chief!" "Yeah! Get some!"
They sing endless praise for you and since there's so many of them, you stick out like
a sore thumb. At the risk of going on a Hidden Xperia-type
tangent, I just wanna say the art style of this game is fantastic. Everything is stylistic
and beautiful. Forerunner architecture is the best it's ever looked. And the Ark was
such a great place to explore. The Flood are even more grotesque, and you REALLY get to
see how they evolve and take over their hosts and High Charity. I bring up the art style
because it's such a critical piece of why Halo 3 has such incredible atmosphere throughout
it's campaign. Now, I'll talk about the ending at… well
the end of this video because it's the most impactful part of Halo 3's campaign so for
the moment, let's move on to some characters and dialogue.
I talked about Chief and Cortana a bit so I won't reiterate myself here, and I'll
be saving Arbiter for the end. Now, one of the few problems I have with Halo 3 is some
of the dialogue and characters. And again, it's really not Halo 3's fault, it's
just that CE and Halo 2 were damn near perfect in this regard. For one, Truth is a completely
different character. This pissed me off more than anything because he was a conniving,
smart, cunning type of villain. He lets Mercy die and after that tells the Covenant through
the intercom that he and Mercy are on their way towards the Forerunner Ship.
"Noble Mercy is here by my side." I mean, that's pretty f*cked up! I always
thought of Truth as the kind of bad guy who wouldn't display his motives, he'd rather
kill you in your sleep than openly threaten you.
But in Halo 3 he's changed into a totally maniacal, batshit crazy Zealot. It's the
complete opposite of what he was in the last game.
"The council decided to have you hung by your entrails and your corpse paraded through
the city, but ultimately the terms of your execution are up to me."
"-And not even your Demon will live to creep, blackened from it's hole to mar the reflection
of our passage." His dialogue is good but he's not the same.
The voice actor was changed which I imagine Bungie had to do at the time, but it doesn't
make sense as a trilogy. There was no character development that would turn Truth into this
type of bad guy. Miranda also has a new voice actor who isn't
bad by any means. But my point is - and this is true for any series - when you change the
voice actor of an established character it disrupts the immersion and it just feels weird.
Only show I've seen get away with it was Avatar: The Last Airbender with Uncle Iroh.
Ehh there's a few cheesy moments that could've been handled better.
"Ma'am, squad leaders are requesting a rally point. Where should they go?"
"To War." N-no seriously, ma'am. We're running a
goddamn military here. How about you stop trying to look like a badass and actually
talk strategy. Where the f*ck do you want the troops to go?
Now, Halo 2 has the most memorable dialogue out of any fps game I've ever played. MAYBE
Bioshock is just as good in this regard. But I felt like the writing in Halo 2 was a 10/10
and in Halo 3 it's kind of more 7 or 8/10. And again, it's simply because Halo 3 is
a sequel to that game, that I'm comparing it like this.
You know, one thing that's actually really impressive is Sergent Johnson gets captured
like 7 times throughout these games. He's attacked by the Flood, barely makes it out
alive, gets captured, gets captured again. Yet somehow throughout all of this he still
remains a f*cking badass. I think it's remarkable you can write a character who routinely gets
his ass whooped, but not make him any less cool because of that.
"How ya doin?" "RAAAAAH!"
Seeing Guilty Spark and Chief meet up again was really satisfying. Sh*t went down in the
first game and Spark seemed like he didn't know what the f*ck to do. So it's surprising
to see him not that angry at Chief at first. And just like the other games, Halo 3 goes
for a 'less is more' style of dialogue. There's plenty of great, comic relief moments.
And that's always a good sign when a grandiose story like this can give you a few laughs
here and there. Lord Hood and Shipmaster fulfill their roles
nicely as the leaders of both factions. And though they don't talk much, they play off
each other nicely and raise the tension of the story.
There's a lot of good character moments and dialogue in this game, and though it's
not on the same level as Halo 2, it does the job very well.
In so many ways, Halo 3 represents the culmination of Bungie's work. From the countless Marathon
symbols throughout, to the inclusion of Bungie employees as Easter eggs. All the quality
of life additions like being able to equip skulls beforehand, the re-introduction of
the scrapped Flamethrower, addition of the gravity hammer, and of course from their very
own vidocs. "It's the return of Master Chief."
"This is the end of our trilogy." "This is gonna be the end of the story."
"At the end of Halo 3 you won't just finish one fight, you'll finish all of the fights
you started in Halo 1." Bungie really captured the feeling of finality
with this game, they envisioned this as the end of Halo, or at least of Master Chief's
story. You can tell they felt they made several mistakes with Halo 2. The cliffhanger ending,
the content, bugs, the list goes on and on. So it's like they went into this with the
attitude of putting out the absolute best game possible. Every rock they had stumbled
on before, would no longer be a hurdle for Halo 3.
"Halo 3 is all about the things that we wanted in Halo 1 & 2."
The creators made sure to give players a real sense of nostalgia for the old games. There's
so many moments that are reminiscent of Halo 2 & CE. Not to mention, a buttload of parallels.
It's really quite impressive and makes Halo 3 feel like a sendoff.
For instance if you take this side path in the final mission, you see those all too familiar
circular rooms from Assault on the Control room. There's only 1 though and not 40 so
it's not exactly like Combat Evolved. The alarm sound effects in Crow's Nest are
nearly identical to the ones on the Pillar of Autumn.
Just like the first two games Johnson has different dialogue in the opening scene depending
on difficulty. Of course the Warthog Run is similar to the
one in CE but an extra layer of detail was revealed courtesy of A-butler. He shows an
overhead view of The Silent Cartographer and the Warthog Run in Halo 3. Since you're
on the Halo ring that was meant to be a replacement for the one you destroyed, you're actually
driving around the same island! That's pretty crazy.
Arbiter once again kills the guy who's trying to activate the rings.
And of course there are many parallels between the dialogue.
"keep your head down! There's two of us in here now, remember?"
"Just keep your head down. There's two of us in here now, remember?"
"A construct in the core? That is absolutely unacceptable!"
"Unacceptable! Unacceptable! Absolutely unacceptable!!"
"We're not gonna make it! "We'll make it."
"If we don't make it…" "We'll make it."
"After I'm through with Truth – "Don't make a girl a promise… If you
know you can't keep it." "Don't make a girl a promise… If you
know you can't keep it." "She stayed behind."
These are just some of the examples but they also extended this to the soundtrack. Marty
O' Donnel, praise his name knew just the write chords to strike for maximum nostalgia
and emotion. I think there's a big difference between
milking nostalgia for fan service, and paying homage. Paying respect to the art you created,
that so many people fell in love with. Some might argue these are cheap, recycled moments,
but I disagree. You're still playing through a brand new Halo game that looks and feels
entirely new! Bungie envisioned this as the finale, the end of the Master Chief's story.
And in order to drive that sense home to the player, they mirrored a lot of those moments,
sounds and music from the first two games. It doesn't feel forced, it feels just right.
And it makes Halo 3 all the more epic, because this time, you've got the memories of Halo
2 and Combat Evolved right there with you. And so it is, that an epic story deserves
an epic ending. And Halo 3 does not disappoint. The final mission is my 2nd favorite in the
series next to Two Betrayels. And it's the most magical of them all. Throughout the game
Chief and Arby have been working side by side. The best thing about these two characters
is how little is said between them. But how they feel about each other can be inferred
simply through their actions. They're essentially two sides of the same coin.
"We trade one villain for another." And Arbiter has matured a lot as a character
since Halo 2. He's no longer plagued by doubt and he's much more confident in his
actions and what he's doing. Like, when they both jump onto the ship and the warthogs,
scropions and crates are all crashing about, Chief jumps out, glances to the side and looks
at Arbiter, who nods. And that – that's all you need! Here's
what the characters were thinking in this moment:
"Oh Jesus Christ! Sh*t is going down right now! But hey – hey, homeboy! Where you at?"
"Dawg, I'm right here, bro." "We getting through this together!"
"Fuck yeah we are, dude." "Fuck yeah we are."
And it's like, you – you can infer so many things just from this tiny sequence.
Anyways, at the start of the final mission you fight through several waves of flood to
get to the control room of The Ark and when you're about to finish things for good,
Spark betrays you and goes crazy. What ensues is a satisfying, yet brief fight with the
monitor and you put him down once and for all.
"WaaaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHH!" Can't help but feel a bit sad for him. Guilty
Spark was such a cheery character with a somewhat tragic end. You wonder if things could've
worked out better. But after that Johnson is dying and the player,
Chief, doesn't want to let him go. Before he dies, this courageous, badass Sergeant
asks us for one last thing. "Ugh! Send me out… with a bang."
For you Johnson, anything. Chief then books it the f*ck outta there as
the whole place is gonna blow soon! After that you mount up in a warthog with Arby on
the gunner in a spectacular warthog race against the clock! The music is what makes this ending
so freaking awesome. And simply put, it can't be described in words…
"Halo, it's finished." "No I think we're just getting started."
"But you did it! Truth and the Covenant, the Flood, it's finished."
"It's finished." And as the trilogy concludes, Master Chief's
story ends the way it started. Waiting for the moment, when the world and Cortana needs
him once more. "I'll miss you."
"Wake me… when you need me."
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