Date played: January 27th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10
Having recently completed Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 from the Master Chief Collection, I decided to continue the adventure with Halo 3. I played through the prologue and 4 levels. After the events at the end of Halo 2, Master Chief crash lands in an African jungle and meets up with Johnson. He also finally meets the Arbiter properly, having been enemies when they first met with Gravemind. The group heads through the jungle to reach an extraction point and leave the area.
The first level is set in that jungle and acts as an introduction to the changes made from the previous game. Immediately obvious is the big change in the interface. The HUD is cleaner and easier to read overall. The graphics are better than 2 of course, but I really miss the cut scenes from Halo 2 Anniversary. The Needler can no longer be dual wielded, but is now much more powerful. One of the new weapons, the Spiker, is a great little automatic pistol that Brutes use. The Brutes are different in combat too, as I must now remove their armor before killing them in most cases. At the end of the level, there was a nice segment where a bunch of Brutes, Jackals and Grunts defended the extraction point. I picked up another new weapon, a large melee hammer that hits real fucking hard.
We left the jungle and went back to a large base where I met up with Miranda Keyes. The prophet of Truth is leading the Covenant assault on Earth, He sent troops to attack our base. Crow's Nest is a mission that's all about defending the base from the Covenant. I fought dozens of enemies and got a chance to play with the new deployable equipment including shields, jump lifts and more. The problem with that stuff is that it's very situational and is only available as a random drop from enemies, making it hard to use consistently. At the end of the level, Master Chief escaped through the hangar at the bottom of the base.
Tsavo Highway is one of the coolest levels in the entire Halo series. At the base of the hangar, Master Chief and some marines hop into some Warthogs and head out to Voi, where the mysterious Ark is buried. The level is focused on vehicles, including Warthogs that have new weapon types, some Wraiths and the fun, but hard to use Brute Chopper. Every vehicle handles better than ever in Halo 3, the Warthogs in particular.
The next mission, The Storm, has Master Chief and his colleagues take down anti-air defenses to allow the UNSC to bring ships and kill Truth, stopping the activation of the Halo rings. This level introduced the awesome Mongoose vehicle, a small, 2 person ATV. A marine with a rocket launcher hopped on to my Mongoose and we went to town on some Wraiths and Grunt driven ghosts. That's when the Scarab showed up...
The Scarab battle was fucking awesome. The large Covenant vehicle was a challenge, as I had to shoot it's leg joints with rockets until it buckled under it's own weight and I was able to attack it's power supply, destroying it. We then encountered more Brutes, but also the first Hunters in the game, which I promptly shot with rockets. We were finally victorious, allowing the UNSC to attack Truth's ships, forcing the Covenant to flee Earth. They had an ace in their sleeve though... A Flood infested Covenant ship was sent to Earth...
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10
Having recently completed Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 from the Master Chief Collection, I decided to continue the adventure with Halo 3. I played through the prologue and 4 levels. After the events at the end of Halo 2, Master Chief crash lands in an African jungle and meets up with Johnson. He also finally meets the Arbiter properly, having been enemies when they first met with Gravemind. The group heads through the jungle to reach an extraction point and leave the area.
The first level is set in that jungle and acts as an introduction to the changes made from the previous game. Immediately obvious is the big change in the interface. The HUD is cleaner and easier to read overall. The graphics are better than 2 of course, but I really miss the cut scenes from Halo 2 Anniversary. The Needler can no longer be dual wielded, but is now much more powerful. One of the new weapons, the Spiker, is a great little automatic pistol that Brutes use. The Brutes are different in combat too, as I must now remove their armor before killing them in most cases. At the end of the level, there was a nice segment where a bunch of Brutes, Jackals and Grunts defended the extraction point. I picked up another new weapon, a large melee hammer that hits real fucking hard.
We left the jungle and went back to a large base where I met up with Miranda Keyes. The prophet of Truth is leading the Covenant assault on Earth, He sent troops to attack our base. Crow's Nest is a mission that's all about defending the base from the Covenant. I fought dozens of enemies and got a chance to play with the new deployable equipment including shields, jump lifts and more. The problem with that stuff is that it's very situational and is only available as a random drop from enemies, making it hard to use consistently. At the end of the level, Master Chief escaped through the hangar at the bottom of the base.
Tsavo Highway is one of the coolest levels in the entire Halo series. At the base of the hangar, Master Chief and some marines hop into some Warthogs and head out to Voi, where the mysterious Ark is buried. The level is focused on vehicles, including Warthogs that have new weapon types, some Wraiths and the fun, but hard to use Brute Chopper. Every vehicle handles better than ever in Halo 3, the Warthogs in particular.
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| Fighting the Scarab was awesome! |
The Scarab battle was fucking awesome. The large Covenant vehicle was a challenge, as I had to shoot it's leg joints with rockets until it buckled under it's own weight and I was able to attack it's power supply, destroying it. We then encountered more Brutes, but also the first Hunters in the game, which I promptly shot with rockets. We were finally victorious, allowing the UNSC to attack Truth's ships, forcing the Covenant to flee Earth. They had an ace in their sleeve though... A Flood infested Covenant ship was sent to Earth...
