"Halo 3" is some good, clean, shoot-'em-up fun, with lots of replay value.
As is my habit when I buy a new console, I tried out the pack-ins first. I gave each one a fair shake, then put in the "Halo 3" disc. Anticipation built. This was gonna be good. I waited through the opening cinematic, not wanting to be left wondering what was going on. Oooh, beautiful graphics and animation. Impressive music. I suffered through the "calibration" sequence, chafing to start playing. Ten minutes of frustration later, I was playing "Fable 2."
My son took over the "Halo 3" disc. He kept bugging me to play it with him. "No," I kept saying. "I hate that game." Finally, I gave in; mainly to shut him up. He gave me a few tips (such as turning off the look inversion) that made the game much less frustrating. Before I knew it, I was shooting Grunts in the face, smashing Jackals with the butt of my rifle, and tossing grenades at Elites to soften them up. I was having a blast. I even started playing the campaign on Solo, and going online to get my rear-end handed to me by 15-year-olds who had been playing "Halo 3" for the last 3 years -- and enjoying it.
Graphics: 9
The first thing I noticed was that "Halo 3" looks beautiful. The character models -- impressive. The scenery -- gorgeous and varied. You really get the sense of traipsing through forests, snowfields, etc. Most of the animations are incredibly realistic, as if motion capture was used. The only thing that detracts is facial animations on the human characters, most noticeable close-up, when characters are talking to Master Chief, or when Admiral Hood is up on the gigantic viewscreen.
Sound: 9
As noted above, the music is gorgeous. Whatever level you're on, the music unobtrusively evokes whatever you're supposed to be feeling in that scenario, heightening tension when it needs to, and helping you to calm down when you need to. I say "unobtrusively," because the music never gets in the way, and most times you hardly notice it's there at all -- which is how good soundtrack music should be. The sound effects all do what they're supposed to do, which is make you feel that the things going on around you are real. The voice acting is mostly above par, with a few surprises (such as Ron Perlman, as the voice of Admiral Hood, and the "Red vs Blue" cast cameo). Some of the dialogue is a little cheesy, but delivered well. The Grunts' dialogue is laugh-inducing, especially if you've found the "IWHBYD" skull and turned it on ("Have some candy!" when they throw grenades, for instance). The marines always have some interesting observations, especially with the "IWHBYD" skull active.
Gameplay: 7
"Halo 3" has a fairly immersive story; it draws you in enough to get you interested in the game, and enough to keep you interested, but without overpowering the gameplay.
The controls aren't too confusing; many are fairly intuitive. No weird button combos are needed, and every button (except the d-pad) has some function mapped to it. The d-pad is only used in campaign, where pressing "up" will turn on your flashlight in low-light areas, or turn it off. Swapping weapons is easy, and can be done fairly quickly, as is cycling through your complement of grenades. You can carry two weapons (three, if you are dual-wielding your active weapon), up to four types of grenades (frag, plasma, incendiary and spiked), and one piece of special equipment (such as a bubble shield, energy drain or deployable cover). There are also power-ups available to assist you, such as Active Camo, which is a cloaking device that renders you mostly invisible for a short time, or Overshields, which provide a temporary boost to your armor's shields. You also have a choice of inverting the "look" function, which reverses up and down on the right thumbstick (making it more like a flight yoke's controls).
The only thing that detracts from the fun of "Halo 3" is the Flood, which can be overwhelming on the two levels that center around them. After ten minutes of being battered by Flood infection forms on the "Floodgate" level, I was ready to switch off my XBox. And again, on "Cortana."
Replay: 9
There are four difficulty levels to play through, various combinations of game-modifying skulls (which must first be found to unlock), solo and multiplayer campaigns, and online PvP to provide plenty of replay value. In addition, Forge mode allows you to modify existing maps for play with your friends, and you can upload your favorite Forge maps for others to play. You can also download other players' Forge maps to play. With all the options available just for Campaign mode, you can play for a good long time. Add to that all the online options, as well as "Theater Mode" (which allows you to save your favorite sequences as film scenes or screenshots), and there's still a lot of play left in "Halo 3."
Conclusion: "Halo 3" is some good, clean, shoot-'em-up fun, and all the different options for play (Solo Campaign, Co-op Campaign, Multiplayer, Forge, and Theater, as well as all the options to customize them) give this game hours and hours of replay value.