This review contains spoilers
“Wake me…when you need me.”
Halo 3 is and was meant to be the final game in Chief’s story. The other two Bungie titles, Halo 3 ODST and Halo: Reach both follow different characters at different times in the chronology. As such, Halo 3 is the culmination of all the events of CE and 2, and picks up right where 2 left off.
Chief crashes down on Earth and is recovered by Johnson, the Arbiter, and a team of Marines. This will be the first time Chief and the Arbiter meet directly. The last Prophet, Truth, has invaded Earth with the Covenant. They are excavating a Forerunner artifact in an area close to New Mombasa, a city in East Africa. This artifact will allow them to reach the Ark, the Forerunner installation that will allow them to simultaneously fire the Halo Array that has since been put on standby during the events of Halo 2. What ensues is the final stand, that ends up making its way to the Ark, where Chief and the Arbiter, along with their respective armies, must launch an assault on the Core, to stop Truth before he activates the Array.
They succeed, but the Gravemind now has the upper hand, and it’s up to Chief and Arbiter to put an end to the Flood once and for all. What ends up happening is a new Ring is constructed by the Ark to replace the one Chief destroyed in CE. He decides to activate it as a means to eliminate Gravemind and the Flood. Chief reunites with Cortana, who has the Index, they get to the Control Room, and face off against Guilty Spark (who doesn’t want them to destroy its shiny new ring). They activate the Ring and flee on the human frigate “Forward Unto Dawn”. Once the pulse fires, the ship enters slipspace. However, the ship is cut in half, and the half containing Arbiter returns to Earth, while the half containing Chief and Cortana ends up floating in deep space. The game ends with Chief having no other choice but to enter cryo-sleep and wait to be found. On Earth, a service is held for all who perished in the fight. This includes Keyes and Johnson. Afterwards, the Arbiter and the Elites finally head back to their home world.
This campaign was my personal favorite. The epic scale of it, the overwhelming odds humanity must face to survive, the alliance between humanity and the Elites…it was all done so well. The visuals in this were stunning, too. Even though subsequent games had better overall graphics, Halo 3 had some of the most well-crafted visuals in terms of artistic direction. And the grandiose soundtrack to top it off made it clear that when Halo 3 released, it was the gaming event of a lifetime. I didn’t experience this in its heyday, but the closest thing I can compare it to, in terms of the feelings it evoked, was when I went to go see the final Harry Potter movie in theaters. The realization that this was the end, that it was the final battle, after all this time…it was awesome. Granted, I can only imagine how fans of Halo felt, especially ones who had played CE when it came out, and had been following the series ever since.
Narrative aside, the game plays much the same as Halo 2, but introduced equipment, which are extra abilities (aside from Active Camo and Overshield) that can be held one at a time. Halo 3 also introduced the wildly popular Forge mode, which is a map editor. Halo 3 plays very smoothly, and the level design is on par with Halo 2’s. For me, there is very little to criticize about Halo 3, maybe aside from some enemy encounters that felt a little unbalanced and maybe a couple of one-liners that missed the mark. It takes about 9 hours to beat, so it’s par for the course.
Halo 3 is and was meant to be the final game in Chief’s story. The other two Bungie titles, Halo 3 ODST and Halo: Reach both follow different characters at different times in the chronology. As such, Halo 3 is the culmination of all the events of CE and 2, and picks up right where 2 left off.
Chief crashes down on Earth and is recovered by Johnson, the Arbiter, and a team of Marines. This will be the first time Chief and the Arbiter meet directly. The last Prophet, Truth, has invaded Earth with the Covenant. They are excavating a Forerunner artifact in an area close to New Mombasa, a city in East Africa. This artifact will allow them to reach the Ark, the Forerunner installation that will allow them to simultaneously fire the Halo Array that has since been put on standby during the events of Halo 2. What ensues is the final stand, that ends up making its way to the Ark, where Chief and the Arbiter, along with their respective armies, must launch an assault on the Core, to stop Truth before he activates the Array.
They succeed, but the Gravemind now has the upper hand, and it’s up to Chief and Arbiter to put an end to the Flood once and for all. What ends up happening is a new Ring is constructed by the Ark to replace the one Chief destroyed in CE. He decides to activate it as a means to eliminate Gravemind and the Flood. Chief reunites with Cortana, who has the Index, they get to the Control Room, and face off against Guilty Spark (who doesn’t want them to destroy its shiny new ring). They activate the Ring and flee on the human frigate “Forward Unto Dawn”. Once the pulse fires, the ship enters slipspace. However, the ship is cut in half, and the half containing Arbiter returns to Earth, while the half containing Chief and Cortana ends up floating in deep space. The game ends with Chief having no other choice but to enter cryo-sleep and wait to be found. On Earth, a service is held for all who perished in the fight. This includes Keyes and Johnson. Afterwards, the Arbiter and the Elites finally head back to their home world.
This campaign was my personal favorite. The epic scale of it, the overwhelming odds humanity must face to survive, the alliance between humanity and the Elites…it was all done so well. The visuals in this were stunning, too. Even though subsequent games had better overall graphics, Halo 3 had some of the most well-crafted visuals in terms of artistic direction. And the grandiose soundtrack to top it off made it clear that when Halo 3 released, it was the gaming event of a lifetime. I didn’t experience this in its heyday, but the closest thing I can compare it to, in terms of the feelings it evoked, was when I went to go see the final Harry Potter movie in theaters. The realization that this was the end, that it was the final battle, after all this time…it was awesome. Granted, I can only imagine how fans of Halo felt, especially ones who had played CE when it came out, and had been following the series ever since.
Narrative aside, the game plays much the same as Halo 2, but introduced equipment, which are extra abilities (aside from Active Camo and Overshield) that can be held one at a time. Halo 3 also introduced the wildly popular Forge mode, which is a map editor. Halo 3 plays very smoothly, and the level design is on par with Halo 2’s. For me, there is very little to criticize about Halo 3, maybe aside from some enemy encounters that felt a little unbalanced and maybe a couple of one-liners that missed the mark. It takes about 9 hours to beat, so it’s par for the course.