Halo 3: Good, Overrated, and Rude Gamers
Ah, the Halo series: a soon-to-be classic in the genre of first person shooters (FPS). To many, Halo revolutionized FPS with it’s story and abilities. This is not to say that it was unique, but rather exceptionally done for its time. There are also those who claim that the original Halo is given way too much credit. Then again, these are the same people who feel the Metal Gear Solid 2 was the best game ever created with the most involved and detailed story line of all time.
So let me start by saying that I completely disagree. Metal Gear Solid 2 was the lamest and most pathetic story I’ve ever had to deal with in a game. Sure, the game play was great, but having to deal with all the movie cuts with a horrible protagonist and cheesy love background made me sick. To be blunt, I refuse to ever play that game again. I’m just glad I never bought it. Man, I remember the day that the guys from GameStop tried to start an argument with me over it. They were irate with the fact that someone could feel that way about their gem. I laughed a lot, and they almost cried. I hate GameStop for that main reason.
Halo 3: the “final” chapter of a sci-fi saga that captured the hearts of almost every Xbox gamer. The story was great, the game play was improved (except for the damn pistol), but the length really annoyed the hell out of me. I’m tired of games that cut the story short. Maybe I’ve gotten too good at video games, but I seriously doubt that is the case. But hey, it’s got multiplayer via Xbox Live. Awesome! Well, kind of…
Now I love the fact that you can play against anyone in the world. It’s a long tradition, if you could the days of Quake 3 Arena a long time ago. And that’s just it: no one on Xbox Live remembers those days, or weren’t into these type of games back then. I’ve been playing console/PC games for about 20 years now, so I’ve got a lot of experience behind me, not to mention I understand the basic online etiquette.
And this is where all the problems that I have with playing certain games online stem from. Back in the day, if you wanted to communicate with your team in the original Unreal, you had to type. This meant that while you are running around with 7 other of your teammates, you had to read how they play and react in a split second. With the introduction of the headsets, gamers have gotten lazy and spend more time trash talking their own team or complaining that someone is cheating. Here’s where my input comes in: “Hey, how about we communicate with each other so we can win instead of bitching?” This usually results in 12-year-old kids shouting racial slurs, dropping countless F-bombs and telling me how much I suck. Thank god for the mute button and the option to avoid players!
While I thoroughly enjoyed playing Halo in matchmaking, I’ve recently tried to avoid it because of all the BS. When I play, I want to enjoy myself and talk to my team so we know where people are, what weapons have spawned, and play a damn good game. Yeah, you lose sometimes, but that’s no reason to complain when the score ended up 49-50. That just means it was an awesome game. I don’t get that anymore with Halo 3. I find myself shutting off my Xbox because I’m pissed at the people I’m playing with. Yeah, it’s pathetic that people push me to that point. It’s not the skill level; it’s the attitudes of all the kids out there (and I mean kids: 12-18). You’d think that after attaining level 30 that all the crap would have finally filtered away… nope.
In sum, Halo 3 definitely deserves an 8.5 at the minimum, but should no way receive a 10 like OXM gave it (what a suprise). The “vast” amount of levels that Bungie bragged about are never there. I’m sick of playing the same 4 levels over and over again. With all the hype that Bungie made about multiplayer and the intense level selection, they obviously let me and many other down. I guess part of this is due to the fact that I waited 3 hours in line the night of the release, so it wasn’t all worth it. Hell, I beat the game in less than a day… Way to go, Bungie.
Multiplayer needs improvement, and I think Bungie should offer the first few maps for free, then charge for the later ones. Overall, Halo was a good game. It just wasn’t what it should have been.
I think Halo 3 deserves a 10 more than the first Halo deserved a 10. The replay/screenshot/clip feature is a revolution for console gaming, as is Forge. And overall, Halo 3 is a very balanced game with fewer glitches and general BS than other online titles (Gears of War, I’m looking at you). For that, it deserves high marks.
I disagree about the story being too short. It took me several days to complete, and I’m glad it didn’t take me much longer than that—honestly, I wanted to spend more time with multiplayer than slogging through repetitive and backtrack-laden levels. Still, Halo 3 is the best of the bunch, with 4-player online co-op and a wonderfully crafted story with some really neat cutscenes. Ultimately, it’s a 10 for what it offers: a ton of multiplayer customization, smooth controls, (fairly) balanced weapons, a quick way to connect with other folks for a quick game (even if they’re complete social retards, as you mentioned), and a solid story experience. It may fumble from time to time, but it’s definitely a polished and worthy gem.
i think h3 is highly overrated. it horribly reppetitve & the character designs suck i mean 4 goda sake the main character is called master cheif(real original) & is supposed 2 a super alien warrior yet all he does is shoot things just like everyone else. halo is the worst game sereis ive ever played
i take it the geezers who called it game of the decade never played COD4 or resistance.they r MUCH BETTER GAMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Halo is overrated, it brings nothing new to FPS games. The guns are all generic :missile, smg, pistol, shotgun, etc. Same guns you’ll find in Doom. If you want story, read a book. If you want fun, play a video game. Metal Gear Solid WAS a revolution, it brought in the modern 3d stealth genre, Halo brought nothing. People say that games are copying Halo, well how is that possible when Halo is just like Unreal or Doom 2. In fact, Halo probably copied Unreal, same music, same looking levels, similar monsters. RFOM at least had innovative weapons: flame thrower, bullet wall spawning gun, exploding blob gun, shoot-through-walls gun, plus all the needed things like the shotgun and smg. Halo is a definite rip-off of Unreal, you start in a building that has been attacked, alarms going off, you escape, next level is a field, see? Tell me how Halo didn’t copy Unreal.
Yes, Halo 3 is overrated. Is the original completely original? No, but it did a good job of creating a different spin. Here’s the thing about originality with video games: it’s most likely already been done before. In response to halol’s comment, you are right that it can be viewed as a “rip-off” of Unreal. Unreal can be viewed as a “rip-off” of Quake 3 Arena. Quake can be viewed as a “rip-off” of Doom. Doom can be viewed as a “rip-off” of Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
In addition, Metal Gear Solid was not the first stealth game ever created. If memory serves me correct, the original Castle Wolfenstein was the first game to introduce the idea of stealth.
Now one can view these as “rip-offs” if they choose, but it’s quite a negative way to look at the entire gaming industry, as pretty much every game out there is then considered a “rip-off.” A better view (in my opinion) is that games borrow features from previous games and try to adapt them, evolving those ideas into a new game for the masses. It’s all a matter of how you look at it…. I think I’m going to need to make a new post about this.
Overrated? Maybe a little. But yeah, its still one of the better games this year.
Agree with you on them retards in matchmaking. They trash talk, blame everything on all the other teammates if we lose a game, and cuss a lot. I’ve played with kids that was more mature than a lot of the adults. Then you have the kids that scream into the mic and killing there own teammates.
lolz unbiased xbox 360 reviews huh? **** you. Do you know why you think Halo 3 is so good,cause without it the xbox 360 would be in quite short supply of any real good games. MGS 2 sucked? I don’t know, never played it but if you say MGS 4 sucks then you can’t be taken seriously but then again MGS 4 is PS3 exclusive and you have an xbox 360.. Are you on a Microsoft payroll? I’ve played both Halo 1 and Halo 2 on PC and I can tell you that Halo ******* sucks compared to any other PC FPS
NOTE: this comment was editted due to foul language. Those colorful metaphores have been replaced by *. All other content was left alone.
First up wtf is zzzz talking about, the arguement could be flipped on it’s head, let me show you.
The orginal…
“Do you know why you think Halo 3 is so good,cause without it the xbox 360 would be in quite short supply of any real good games. MGS 2 sucked? I don’t know, never played it but if you say MGS 4 sucks then you can’t be taken seriously but then again MGS 4 is PS3 exclusive and you have an xbox 360.”
A quick edit…
Do you know why you think MGS 4 is so good,cause without it the PS3 would be in quite short supply of any real good games. Halo 2 sucked? I don’t know, never played it but if you say Halo 3 sucks then you can’t be taken seriously but then again Halo 3 is 360 exclusive and you have a PS3.
I don’t actually agree with the argument, i don’t really like Halo 3 anymore and im sure MGS 4 is great but just a quick note.
Anyway i liked Halo alot but then i bought Call of Duty 4, and what a multiplayer (the story was good, but i didn’t like the gameplay of the single player, just my opinion).
Also I’m guessing George Bush doesn’t know much about his own Navy if he doesn’t know that master Chief is a rank…
Nothing in Halo (3 especially) is new. Many other games including Half-Life, Doom, and more were ripped off to produce Halo. All Halo did was take old concepts and (arguably) polish them for newer technology, it didn’t even “evolve” them at all. Halo is a rather well polished and fun game but it is nowhere near revolutionary.
PS: The story is HORRIBLE. Did you guys even graduate high school? Ever read a book?