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.”
