Halo 3 is how you conclude a trilogy. Similar to Halo 2, It keeps what works, improves upon that foundation, and built upon it and addresses certain criticisms. Switching between Halo 2 Anniversary to Halo 3 is a tad jarring at first, but Halo 3 is still a beautiful game with amazing art direction. In terms of atmosphere, I think it’s the most well-realised. Beginning with the lush jungles and progressing from there.

This is an odd game because it’s both a continuation of the storyline in Halo 2 and a sequel. It's just as ambitious as its predecessor yet manages to be better. Halo 2 did a fantastic of showing the Covenants perspective, what Halo 3 does best to showcase the common people. There’s a lot of patriotism, but in general, shows a granular look at the soldiers who sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Often seeing soldiers who have broken down, are close to breaking down or feel triumphant. The marketing campaign ties into this underlying sense of hope and belief. The Believe campaign is one of the best marketing campaigns of all time and worth watching, rarely you can say a marketing campaign should be watched before playing the game. It sets the tone of Halo 3 beautifully.

The gameplay felt similar to Halo 2, which is an ‘If it ain't broke, don't fix it’ situation. Besides some additions, which is called equipment. I assume the developers tweaked the shield and HP as I didn’t have problems as I did with Halo 2. The levels are fantastic across the board except one, I think it does the best balance between the appeal of Halo 2 and Halo 1, making it a tad more open while having that cinematic linearity to it. Especially levels 7 and 8, which is the series' all-time best. I should note the final level didn’t disappoint, it’s a cathartic ending to the trilogy. Almost all of the threads are closed in a very satisfying manner, which was Halo 2 biggest weakness (the ending). Also, I’m glad that Bungie removed bosses altogether, it was terrible in Halo 2 and I’m glad it didn’t come back. The driving felt better, the physics was less jank and lastly the music somehow just got better, beautiful work by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori.

In Conclusion, this is how you conclude a trilogy and I understand why this was an influential series.

( I should note I played it in heroic which is the ideal difficulty, especially if you played Halo 1-2 in normal mode).

Reviewed on Mar 22, 2023


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