Halo 3 Legendary Edition (Xbox 360, 2007)

After stowing away on a Forerunner spacecraft, the now iconic figure of the early 21st century pop culture, Master Chief, must make his way back to our neck of the woods - planet Earth. He must stop the army of alien zealots, known as the Covenant, who converge around their spiritual leader, the Prophet of Truth.

Let's play a little game called "Lob A Grenade!"

"We go left." Right. "Left." Right.

This chapter in the Halo history reaches its climax as Cortana, Spartan's ethereal female companion, is held captive by the Flood's intelligent embodiment, Gravemind. The Arbiter, leading the "freed" aliens alongside Master Chief must stop the Prophet from firing the Halo rings. Together, they must also eradicate the Flood infection once and for all.

After finishing the single-player campaign in Halo 3, one cannot help but feel as if we've come to the end of a trilogy. Was this the plan after the first Halo came out? I am not sure about that. Has this been the plan since the conception of Halo 2? One can be absolutely sure of this.

And so, with the cliffhanger ending in Halo 2, Bungie deliberately left a lot of things unsaid. They left the players guessing for three years almost. In Halo 3, you can sense that the team had a strong desire to complete this chapter, to let it come full circle.

In that sense, even though the campaign starts in medias res so to speak, the tag-line "Finish the Fight," truly becomes the main theme of the third installment in the series. In fact, once you've completed the story, "Finish the Fight," changes into "Finished the Fight," on your Halo 3 menu screen. As if to accentuate even further that things will come to a climactic resolution.

Additionally, there are a few notable signs that have happened "behind the scenes" that serve as further proof of this. Many of you have surely heard Halo 3 being referenced as Halo 2.5. When we look at the player models and even the AI, technically, it's clear that Bungie hasn't built a new engine from scratch. Halo 3 quite certainly uses a modified version of the Halo 2(1?) code, and although it carries many technological improvements, one cannot escape the feeling that the programmers have just about squeezed the last drop out of a code that's getting a little long in the tooth.

Don't get me wrong though, we are talking solely about the technical side of things, and even on this front, Bungie has done a lot to make this game feel next-gen. To start with, the levels with dense jungle vegetation show off just how far they've pushed the tech. Fancy soft body physics are at work here, coupled with a clever use of advanced pixel shader effects. On the other hand, the character models look dated, with rigid facial animation that offsets the advancements made in the rendering of the environment, and especially in the lighting.

Speaking of which, the HDR lighting is put to amazing use in Halo 3. Bungie does the most spectacular job of leading the player through dimly lit and narrow indoor areas and then overwhelming us with sprawling, sun-lit landscapes since Valve's Half-Life 2.

Furthermore, the physics calculations and all they entail become an integral part of the gameplay; as you would expect in any next-gen shooter.
Overall Rating- 13/10 (Oh Yeah!)