Having never played any of the games in Halo series before (yes that right never), it now falls to me to review a game that has had more hype than any other entertainment product in history, funnily enough before playing Halo 3 and even after playing the beta, I still couldn’t really understand what the fuss was about, to me the graphics in the beta were very poor and although it was fun, it didn’t really strike me as anything special, however now that I have played the game what do I think? Well, I can probably sum this up in two words, I’m converted.

Some people will probably laugh, but when I first started the single player campaign I chose the Easy difficulty setting, this for me was a simple choice given that I am absolutely terrible at First Person Shooters, however after trawling through the levels I soon realised that this was too easy for even me, given that there was no option to start afresh I decided to delete my previous save game and start over on the Normal difficulty setting and while this is slightly more challenging, I have the feeling that gamers with more skill than myself will have to crank it up to the Heroic and Legendary levels to get some sort of challenge in the single player mode.

The levels in the single player mode seem quite varied and compared to what I had seen in the beta look very detailed, for example, In the first level as you wander through the jungle you are treated to some excellent looking environments and water effects, there are also some nice effects above you as enemy and allied spacecrafts battle it out in the skies, perhaps these improvements in the graphics can only be explained by the beta being a very early version of the game, who knows, but it was certainly a very nice surprise.

The single player mode sees you aided in your quest not only by a wide range of weapons and vehicles but also by your marine allies, one of the good things about having the marines by your side is that they do actually help you, albeit by distracting the enemies fire while you sneak up behind them and go for the kill. Another one of your allies is The Arbiter and to be fair to this guy, he certainly seems to have a lot more to him in terms of skill, sometimes he actually guns down an enemy or two, however he isn’t really that much use, so you will find that most of his time will be spend respawning.

The enemies in each level seem to offer differing challenges, The Brutes that you will come across in the game are very intelligent, often putting up shields to fend off your fire or setting off a regenerator which glows green and has the effect of healing anyone in it’s radius, one of the things that I enjoyed most about fighting these Brutes is that it feels like you can intimidate them, firing a few shots in their direction and then running around the corner will usually result in them getting angry and following you, this makes you appreciate just how much work has gone into the enemy AI.

Of course there are tougher things to fight against in the game than The Brutes, one of which is a large Scarbe tank that seems to destroy everything in its path, killing it takes a little while to figure out, but once you do it gives you a nice sense of satisfaction.

As well as being able to get through these missions on your own, you are also able to play through them in Co-op mode with friends, this is a very impressive feature and is made all the more impressive by that fact that if you die you will just respawn where you left off, it certainly makes getting through the levels a bit easier than when you are doing it on your own.

While the single player mode is very enjoyable, Halo 3’s strongest point is the multiplayer over Xbox Live, never have I seen a game with quite so many different options to choose from and obviously finding a game to play is never a problem, this is Halo 3 we are talking about after all. Overall there are 9 modes of play including VIP, Slayer, Oddball, Capture the Flag, Assault, Infection, Juggernaut, King of the Hill and Territories, however you are also able to create game variants online if you want to spice things up a little. One of the new modes that Bungie has added to Halo 3 with multiplayer in mind is The Forge, this basically lets you tweak, create and destroy objects on the multiplayer maps, up to eight players over Xbox Live can help you create the map that you desire, meaning that everyone can have some input before the real fun begins.

If you like to play random games with people you don’t know rather than setting up a tournament between friends then the Matchmaking mode is probably the one for you, in this mode you will earn points by doing well in each match, this in turn will help you to increase in rank (called a Spartan Rating). The Spartan Rating basically shows your experience online and ranges from the basic recruit level all the way up to officer levels.

One of the other new additions to Halo 3 is the ability to view films of your matches, this is done by saving a copy of the game you have just played, you can then go into the Theater and edit, rename or take screenshots from your film, this is a very nice addition to the game and I can see it being used by gaming communities in some very inventive ways.

Graphically Halo 3 really looks astonishing, it is a far better looking game than I ever thought it would be, sure it has a few flaws sometimes, like the occasional slowdown, but I have to admire the effort Bungie have put in to make this game look as good as it plays and this can also be said for the sound without which I wouldn’t rate this game so highly, the music has an operatic feel to it and when you enter into a battle the way it raises in tempo sends a shiver down your spine.

As I mentioned earlier, I had never played a Halo game before, this is mainly due to me not really being a fan of First Person Shooters, however having now played Halo 3 I am totally converted, it’s fun to play on both single player and multiplayer, it offers a wide range of choice when it comes to online gaming and last but not least it looks stunning. Quite simply you must own this game, there is no argument about that.

An Alternative view by Magnapop

"I on the other hand I have played both Halo games to death, a massive fan of the first and a little disappointed by the 2nd, even though it had an online mode. Halo 3 nicely sits in between the two xbox originals, the graphics are a massive improvement, as is the already competitive AI, especially in Legendary.

For fans of the series, there are many new additions, most of which fall under the online modes, however, in single player there are also a few new additions. As well as using the mounted machine guns as before, you can now take them from their support, the screen will change to a third person over the shoulder view, and you can then let rip with some serious heavy artillery. Another new addition is the equipment, you can deploy these easily with the touvh of a button and they range from Grav Lifts to Bubble Shields.