what i believe to be a nearly-perfect game. the levels are all TONS of fun (yeah, even cortana) and the sandbox is bigger than ever with tons of cool new vehicles and weapons added from halo 2's already vast and exciting sandbox. the gameplay feels as good as ever, and the story is super enjoyable (i just wish we saw more shipmaster)

if i had to say ONE bad thing about halo 3's campaign, it'd just be that i wish we had health again, so it could pave the way for a more balanced legendary difficulty, and considering legendary is still eons better than halo 2's and tons of fun, it's hardly a bad thing.

having played only symphonia and vesperia beforehand, the combat is a HUGE step down imo, and a really unfortunate and unavoidable downside to the game that instantly weighed it down from the start of it. the story isn't anything spectacular for like, the first whole half of the game, but during the second half and most specifically the last few hours of the game, the story gets GREAT and even my least favorite characters of the party had good moments. for the first half especially, the party is a weaker point as well but not nearly the downside the combat is as there are still some great characters. if velvet was more interesting as a character (she's amazing story-wise but pretty boring for a main character) and we had more traditional tales gameplay, i'd have easily rated it higher.

outside of the ABHORRENT legendary difficulty balancing and dumb and unfun boss fights (and that FUCKING elevator sequence in one of the flood missions holy fuck why is it so LONG), this game is a true sequel to halo ce and expands upon everything in such a beautiful way that it makes a grown ass man want to cry.

i guess the ending kinda sucked lol but it's not an actual issue in 2020 since it only sucked due to it being a cliffhanger and halo 3 is right there available on multiple platforms now

one of the most explosive starts to a game series of all time, halo ce comes at you instantly with escaping the maze-like pillar of autumn and crash landing onto a gorgeous landscape located on an artificial "planet" of sorts known as halo. from there on, you explore some of the most iconic levels of all time with some of the most satisfying gameplay an fps has ever seen (not to mention how innovative the console controls were for its time). the game is truly a timeless classic, and, while it's not perfect by any means (the library is fun the first time and painful during any replays, having to backtrack through 3 different levels isn't exactly the greatest level design), it's DAMN fun and should get anyone hooked on the halo series.

while it still retains a solid chunk of the core halo gameplay (the only reason this game isn't just straight up BAD), it still has some hard miss points in the gameplay, with the prometheans just being MUCH less fun to fight compared to the covenant. the story is just, silly, honestly. a bunch of characters not present in any bungie halo game come in and act important with no personality whatsoever, cortana's arc is just silly and made me laugh at multiple points, but the level design wasn't bad (i thought the piloting part at the beginning of the last mission was kinda ass and the pelican section was just SUPER underwhelming though) and fighting the covenant was quite a joy, much to my surprise. i recommend big bungie halo fans to play this game cause it was fun ENOUGH for me personally.
don't touch the multiplayer though lol

update 10/14/21 im replaying through it solo legendary after finding out theres an achievement for it and i was too nice to this game lol