Play Halo 3 for the Campaign! Here's why.

Why you should play Halo 3 for more than just the multiplayer.

What do you think when someone says Halo 3? Do you think of the numerous disappointing reviews? Do you think of the awesome multiplayer? Or do you think: “Wow, man that is one great game?” Not many think the latter. However. I do. Although I regularly play on Xbox Live, I don’t actually have it on my Xbox, never have done. That means that ever since I started gaming, I bought games for the campaign, not the multiplayer action. After all, the in game story line, bots and music are what makes a game. People spend hours praising and criticizing the Halo 3 multiplayer, and the only thing they mention about the campaign is that “It’s a bit short.”

Ok, first off, it’s really not. The Ark and The Covenant are hugely long super special awesome levels. They take ages, and have two rally points in them. (Places to start the level apart from the beginning) This post is hopefully to either get you rediscovering the campaign, or if you’re one of those people who play online but never campaign, this should show you what you’ve been missing. Because I’ve been playing the campaign of games continuously since the age of 8, I’ve come to appreciate what makes a good campaign. Halo 3 certainly delivers, and here’s why:

The campaign starts with a fantastically rendered cutscene. If you’ve played Halo 2, you’ll realize the Chief is escaping from the Forerunner Dreadnaught ship. In Halo2 there was supposed to be a level where you fight on that ship, after the quote “sir, finishing this fight” but Bungie ran out of time. Assume he took easily escaped the ship. Cortana talks about the Chief being lucky, which is a direct reference to the first Halo novel, “the fall of Reach” by Eric Nyland. When he lands, once again, the rendering is spectacular, and Johnson’s new look is vast improved. Once you start playing, you’ll notice you can cleverly see where the peripheral lines of his helmet are, and the shield bar is now in a more convenient position. The landscape is beautifully decorated, even to the point that the trees sway as you run past them. Once you get into combat, you’ll realize how much more fun it is to kill Brutes rather than Elites. Grunts and Jackals are still existent, but Brutes have permanently replaced the role of Elites.

The terrains in this game are truly spectacular. Once the rift has opened [oops, spoiler, oh well] look up into the sky during gameplay, it’s jaw dropping. Notice the change in surroundings throughout The Storm and then during Floodgate, the level where you go back the way you’ve come, except for it’s now infected by flood. The difference is staggering. Bungie have added so much detail to the background that uninteractable banshees and hornets have dogfights about your head, an example of hyper realism. This is one of the games where the A.I are intelligent, yet of course sometimes succumb to daftness, but this makes the game comical, not annoying.

Of course there are also weapons you can use and vehicles that can’t be used in multiplayer, for example, the warthog with no gun, the fuel rod cannon etc. The hornet is also only available in Forge and campaign, so that’s good too. Especially the massive dogfights [oops spoiler, oh well] And besides, it’s a lot more gratifying for grunts’ heads to explode when you shoot them, rather than constantly shooting another Spartan until the Lag kills you. Sticking a bot is humourous also as they actually react to you condemning them to a supposedly gory death.

Now, about the length of the campaign. Each mission takes awhile, it’s only really quick if you play on easy. As I play it (Mythic with most skulls on) it takes me at least 45 minutes per level. If you’re not quite good enough for Legendary or Mythic, even playing it on heroic with a couple of skulls on adds to the playing time. Saying that, each mission is so absorbing, it’s possible that it may seem short. The plotline and visual effects mixed with action packed gameplay and a cracking soundtrack keep you enraptured at all times. Time flies when you’re kicking alien ass. Anyways, The Ark and The Covenant are massive levels, certainly over an hours gameplay on those missions, without breaking a sweat. They are also MASSIVE. They actually borderline Sandbox, that’s how big those levels are. Yet, detail is never lacking. If you don’t believe me, go onto Forge mode and examine the landscape, it’s exquisite.
If you like multiplayer, hook up another Xbox and do system link co-op. (or over Xbox Live if you prefer.) Four player co-op on legendary difficulty is funny because you pwn everything. Co-op itself within the Halo series has always been a humourous affair, no one takes it seriously, but four player co-op takes the laughs to a new level. For example, stick a buddy and send him to a room packed with covenant..Aah, good times…

The skulls in Halo 3 make the campaign worth playing. The Grunt birthday Party skull owns in, (it makes grunts explode when you headshot them) and the skulls get you achievements anyway. Playing with the skulls on adds to the difficulty which is especially good in the new Meta game mode, in which for every kill you get a certain amount of points, and point bonuses for time and completing the level with skulls on. This is fun, as for example, splattering a grunt will get you some points, but you’ll get more points if you powerslide into them. Once again, these can lead to achievements, which of course are the main incentive to replaying the campaign, but I think the reasons above are incentive enough.

Now, the storyline is possibly one of the best ever devised, in my opinion. If you don’t understand it, that’s fair enough, but, being a massive halo fan, I know the ins and outs to the WHOLE storyline, and it rocks. Try reading the books if you want to know more. This alone is enough to keep you glued to the screen; except I can’t watch Miranda die any more…it hurts so much… [oops, spoiler. Meh, I don’t care.] The music to this game also kicks ass. I have the whole soundtrack on cd, and it’s absolutely perfection. By the way, if you hadn’t guessed, I rather like Halo. So anyway, Halo 3 has a campaign, people, Play it!

There’s something therapeutic about slaughtering grunts, but hey, that might be just me. ;-)