Video Game Analysis: Halo 3

Angatar wrote:And what does firing Installation 04 v2 do? There's nothing living on the Ark.

Kills all the Covenant on the ark so that the flood will die.

Gauz wrote:You're right, you fire the ring to destroy the flood. Although the ark was obviously damaged after the unfinished ring is destroyed. That is why Cortana and the Chief are in some unknown space.

An added bonus.

Angatar wrote:They were built to kill sentient life, which indirectly kills the Flood.

Yes, but they were built to kill sentient life so that the flood would starve. Their purpose was still to kill flood, even if they fulfilled that purpose indirectly.

Gauz wrote:Perhaps they could have innovated the plot to not involve the same basic idea of their previous game? I'm talking about Halo 2.

Weren't you just complaining that the story wasn't original enough?

Angatar wrote:Different, better plotline.

It seems like you're just searching for problems now.

Angatar wrote:No it didn't. What about the introduction of the Flood, finding out Halo kills all life, the Prophets betraying the Elites?

Halo: CE was an introduction to everything. Halo 2 had the Great Schism. Halo 3 had the story on the Ark, and the deaths of Truth and Gravemind.

Okay, Halo 3 may not have the biggest twist, but it's certainly not a copy.

Gauz wrote:I do love the series, I like the stories, although it could be better.

Fine, you come up with a story.

Angatar wrote:It's funny, all the people who think Halo 3 is better than Halo CE don't know a thing about story.

Excuse me?

The fact still remains that Halo 3 was a closer. They couldn't add that much because the storyline was already created. All they could do was finish it off. Frankly, I think they did a wonderful job of doing it.

Coming up with a better story is the hard part...

Halo 2 is the only one that needed revision to make Halo 3 good actually. If Halo 2 was different from Halo CE, then it would've made Halo 3 a more epic ending.

How? I don't know, instead of going to the ring, stay on earth and fight more important battles? I don't make canon, so I really can't make a story. Something that didn't involve the flood or the rings would've been better.

I'm not searching for problems, I have said many times Halo 3's story is extremely weak.

For gameplay reasons, Halo 3 kicks CE in the ass. Although, there were some things about gameplay I didn't like. H3's story was pretty good, not as good as Halo CE's twist, definitely not as good as Halo 2's twist.

I liked Halo CE gameplay better...

H3 ruined the plasma rifle and MA5B, the plasma pistol was also screwed over. I want Bungie to remake every H:CE map with improved graphics. Zat would bah niace....

Gauz wrote:Hate is an overstatement, the game was decent I think. I just thought that the multiplayer got boring and I don't want a game that I can only play Singleplayer with. If I played it through once, I don't think I would often pick up the controller to play it again.

All in all it wasn't bad, but it sure wasn't.... really good.

It was over hyped. It didn't have that cool completely new feeling like Halo: CE. They just tried to suck money with it.

I thought it was okay.


I played the campaign the first time through on co-op, so it was really really fun just because I love co-op so much (and slow as hell, those constant betrayals do brings things to a crawl)

Main issue thing that I don't like about Halo3: flood
they weren't fun to fight
they're okay in Halo:CE and halo2, but in halo3 someone really dropped the ball

the pure forms are just bullet sponges, and don't require any real thought except to shoot them with the proper weapon types

the rest of the flood shot at you too much, it was a bit like fighting the covenant
I only ever thought the flood was cool because they were different than the covenant
they way they used to rush you and shoot at the same time was always a contrast to the covenant who would take cover usually

in halo3 they just walk slowly toward you and shoot until they get close enough for a short sprint
/yawn
floodgate + cortana = cry

Other stuff: I didn't really have any problems or praise especially.

I found equipment to be kinda cool if you could find one of the nicer types

the gravity hammer... yay, another melee weapon with a shorter lunge. excuse me while I die from excitement

portable turrets were alright
removing the lock on the rocket launcher was a smart move
mongooses were kinda meh
hornets are nice

the thing is, it's different from halo2, but it feels almost the same in multiplayer


forge was fun to mess around in, but due to my lack of LIVE I never was able to see just what kinds of nice stuff the community was able to create

at least Cortana is not in most of the game OH WAIT! she decides to pop up every now and then to stop time. how thoughtful of her. not really.
this was fucking annoying

Good Stuff
rawr needler
The Ark: all of it. bungie did themselves proud on this level
brute vehicles were fun to drive, despite being rather worthless
probably something else but I can't remember


don't get me wrong, the game was fun, I just remember more of the bad stuff

I wouldn't hesitate to play some more if I had access

Gauz wrote:How? I don't know, instead of going to the ring, stay on earth and fight more important battles? I don't make canon, so I really can't make a story. Something that didn't involve the flood or the rings would've been better.

If this didn't happen, then how would we know of the multiple installations? How would we learned about the ark?

The thing that killed Halo 3 for me was what BB said, the flood. Its like their AI was completely revamped for the worse. ONE MORE THING, anyone hate how fucking fragile they are? In the other games you could slam a rifle butt into one's face and it would barely do anything. Now they fall apart into random pieces.

ONE MORE THING, the cartoonish graphics killed the seriousness of the game. I liked Halo 2's graphics because they had more of a grungier feel to it which made levels like "Sacred Icon" and "Quarantine Zone" to be just that more epic.

ONE MORE THING, Legendary mode was a joke in Halo 3. They barely added any more enemies to it where as in Halo 2 the enemy count in Cairo Station where the covenant appear from inside their boarding craft went from three waves to about five or six with at least one or two high ranking covies in all. Sniper alley, holy fucking shit I cried myself to sleep after finishing that. Halo 1 did Legendary mode successfully as well. More enemies that do uber amounts of damage.

I didn't really have any problems with the story as thats what Halo revolves around, finding forerunner artifacts, fighting over them, awaken something that you didn't mean to, stop so and so from getting the key and firing the doomsday weapon, and make the occasional awkward alliance.

Hell its fun no matter how unoriginal it may be.

Hmm.... Halo 3 was a disapointment. They hyped it waay too much. Out of the trilogy, this is the weakest, and I think we can all agree on that.

First off, the story was paper thin. I think a lot more of the game should of been on Earth, with only a few levels on the Ark. I never understood why High Charity and the Flood army didn't just take over Earth, as they had to go through the Portal back on Earth, so it would of been very easy to infect the planet and get some reinforcements.

And the Cortana Moments. I liked the idea, In theory, but it's very jaring to gameplay. I would of prefered it if it was a little more subtle. I know no one who liked them.

The Covenant were pretty unmenacing this time round. Brutes just couldn't fill the gap left by Elites. The Halo 2 Brutes were just bullet sponges that berserked on you. In Halo 3 they are a poor man's elites. Power armour that can be destroyed, leaving the user vulnerable. Nice idea, but I would of been better if you could only weaken it, not destroy it completely if you so much as sneeeze on it. Hunters were easier as their armour was destructible. Jackals were Easy, and grunts were the same.

The Flood are the worst hit, as they no longer felt like the flood we have fought before. Plasma weapons are now far to powerful against them, they can be killed in a single melee strike and they seemed to stop attacking you en masse, forcing you to backpedall as the horde came at you. Pure Forms were a mistake as they just meant you were constantly pestered by ranged forms, are super fast stalkers.

Legendary was piss easy on this game as only the amount of damag and the enemy ranks were changed. I remember in Halo 2 on Delta Halo on Legendary after I cleared the Landing Zone, a addtional phantom came and dropped Spec Ops elites with swords. That never happened in Halo 3.

All in all It was okay, but I don't think it was fully realised.

Yeah, I just can hope ODST and Reach will be better. After that, though, I will leave halo behind.


Kinda ironic: we were brought together by Halo, and now we leave the thing that... made us.

Halo didn't have sex with my parents then give birth to me...

I enjoyed Halo 3


as per... everyone else... the Flood killed it for me...

I remember trying to melee a combat form to death in CE... it took 8 hits to kill it, and sometimes it wouls stand back up.... in halo 3 I punch a Combat form and it pops into 8 million peices.

i dunno... the flood just kinda seem tacked on... "Hey we destroyed covenant thing... YAY! wait a second ,FLOOD, OH TEH NOES!"

halo 3's campaign was designed to be easier, because its target audience was no longer people 17 and up, despite what the label on the front said.

Well they did have to close that story with the Gravemind and Cortana.

I think they should of handled that differently. A bit more time with Cortana would of been nice, and I think a final showdown with the Gravemind would of been a more effective final boss (Guilty Spark was pathetic.)

Wolverfrog49 wrote:I have mixed feelings on it. The campaign was a total let down, compared to the story-lines of the previous two. While it had better gameplay than Halo 2, it felt like an expansion to it. It wasn't an original story, and didn't tell us too much either. CE set the scene for the whole series, and Halo 2 told us about the Covenant, and somewhat brilliantly had the Elites being betrayed.

Halo 3 was just...dull. Stop the Covenant from firing Halo, and then kill the Flood. I also didn't like the way it seemed that the UNSC was now wiping out the Covenant, whereas in the first two games it felt like your back was up against the wall, and only you, the Master Chief, could stop them.

Halo 3 had plenty of story, didn't you stop shooting aliens long enough to go off the main path and look at things?

LH Justin wrote:

Wolverfrog49 wrote:I have mixed feelings on it. The campaign was a total let down, compared to the story-lines of the previous two. While it had better gameplay than Halo 2, it felt like an expansion to it. It wasn't an original story, and didn't tell us too much either. CE set the scene for the whole series, and Halo 2 told us about the Covenant, and somewhat brilliantly had the Elites being betrayed.

Halo 3 was just...dull. Stop the Covenant from firing Halo, and then kill the Flood. I also didn't like the way it seemed that the UNSC was now wiping out the Covenant, whereas in the first two games it felt like your back was up against the wall, and only you, the Master Chief, could stop them.

Halo 3 had plenty of story, didn't you stop shooting aliens long enough to go off the main path and look at things?

That's not story...

And the story, sucked.

LH Justin wrote:

Wolverfrog49 wrote:I have mixed feelings on it. The campaign was a total let down, compared to the story-lines of the previous two. While it had better gameplay than Halo 2, it felt like an expansion to it. It wasn't an original story, and didn't tell us too much either. CE set the scene for the whole series, and Halo 2 told us about the Covenant, and somewhat brilliantly had the Elites being betrayed.

Halo 3 was just...dull. Stop the Covenant from firing Halo, and then kill the Flood. I also didn't like the way it seemed that the UNSC was now wiping out the Covenant, whereas in the first two games it felt like your back was up against the wall, and only you, the Master Chief, could stop them.

Halo 3 had plenty of story, didn't you stop shooting aliens long enough to go off the main path and look at things?

If by "looking at other things" you mean glitching yourself out of the map, then no I haven't.

Zaki90 wrote:That's not story...

And the story, sucked.

No the story was great...................the first time round. Second time it was alright. Third time it got kinda old.

You practically have to rely on the books for Halo's story. Same thing with Gears of War. The games leave way too many unanswered questions, some of which get explained in the novels.

Yeah, but they are left there to give that element of mystery.

I liked Halo 3, and still do. I believe series goes like this (in terms of storyline)

Halo CE had an epic journey feel to it

H2 had the best plot twist 3V4R

Halo 3 had some good story, but no real interesting plot twists that made you want to go out and look at Forerunner artifacts and shit. Multiplayer and gameplay wise though, Halo 3 roxsace

Vigil wrote:Well they did have to close that story with the Gravemind and Cortana.

I think they should of handled that differently. A bit more time with Cortana would of been nice, and I think a final showdown with the Gravemind would of been a more effective final boss (Guilty Spark was pathetic.)

I wanted a chase with Guilty Spark, and then you corner him. And then the Gravemind pops up behind him and Guilty Spark's voices changes into one of pure evil and he explains the Truth that the Truth was the good person, and the Humans were the problem.( Which is true)

Master Chief realizes Cortana knew all this time and was using him to defeat the Gravemind. Master Chief realizes his mistake. He pulls off his helmet and throws it. His true face shows and a tear is seen drizzle down his cheek.

He tells the Arbiter horde all the remaining Elites into the Ark. Master Chief runs back to the control panel after being attacked by Marines, Sentinals, Flood, Brutes, Grunts, and Hunters.

At the Control Panel he locks the doors.He has a mind duel with Cortana, but finally overrides the rampant A.I. He controls Cortana into giving he the Index and takes out the chip with Cortana on it and steps on it. ( breaking it)

When they finally break through the doors they see Master Chief sitting there injured.

He marks the words, " See you in Hell " and the entire ring activates. (It is not broken in my version) The ending sequence is the Arbiter and the rest of Elites looking from the Ark at all life being destroyed. And then in the credits, you see the Elites walking down the scorched Earth and finding Master Chief's helmet, and scribbled in visor you see "117".

Copyright 2009 Zaki Alattar


Anyway, thats is how it should have ended in my opinion. It would fighting for destroying everything you helped in the first 2 games.

Mind duel?

MC having a face?

Gauz wrote:Mind duel?

MC having a face?

He has a face...

That is good ending my terms.

Not really a mind duel. It would be a struggle in cinematic. It would be like 5 seconds.

That's worse than Halo 3, Zaki...

CivBase wrote: thought-out storyline and physics.

don't make me laugh.

if by thought out you mean 'recycled more times than the Power Rangers plot' then you'd be correct.

and SSB:B made better use of HAVOK than Halo 3. You can't say a game has good physics when this can happen:

that stretch is used in almost all forms of media for animation

it lasts one or two frames... faster than the eye can see it. It is used to show speed and impact


the only reason it is even seen in halo is because of the forge mode being able to preview single frames at a time...

its not a glitch, but a tool used to make the impacts and speeds seem more real