By: Jay Aphale
Review: Halo 3

The enormous impact Halo 2 had on online console multiplayer is undeniable. The matchmaking system, sending voice clips, the party system, and an array of features for custom games were truly groundbreaking. So would Bungie do it again and not only make the leap to but instead define “next-gen” online play?

Well, not exactly. Don’t get me wrong, Halo 3’s multiplayer is remarkable and there are several improvements from Halo 2. But it seems that they could have just done so much more. For example, let’s talk about the matchmaking playlists. Well there are only two types: ranked and social. The ranked playlists are the same as the Halo 2 playlists that did not end with the word “training.” Oh, and there’s also less of them. Yes, Halo 3 actually contains fewer options for ranked matchmaking game types. Where’s the Team Hardcore? And how can there not be a Big Team Battle ranked playlist? Why are we forced to play by ourselves or in teams of four in order to rank up?

Well, to add variety, there’s also the social playlists. These offer more of a variety to gameplay, except again, there were more in Halo 2. What happened to Team SWAT and Action Sack? It seems like with everything you choose, you’ll only see Slayer, CTF, Assault, Oddball, and King of the Hill. I want to see some Pit of Joy action or Schwatgun CTF.

If you want to really see what Halo 3 can offer, it needs to be done in custom games. And custom games are still not joinable through matchmaking, so you have to rely on your friends list. Since you need at least six people to have a pretty good custom game, you’d pretty much have to rely on five other friends being online at the same time. This really doesn’t happen all that often, and forces people to play all those repetitive matchmaking playlists.

But maybe I’m being a bit too harsh. The Forge feature is actually very interesting. Although the system is very limited, there are a lot of unique things that can be done which result in quite a few humorous and memorable moments. But again, it would have been so much better if there were publicly joinable custom/Forge games.

The saved film feature is probably the best part of the experience Halo 3 brings to the table. Even if you can’t really rewind, it’s a great way to hone your skills as well as watch your favorite moments. The fact that every film is automatically recorded and stored temporarily makes it even better.

And in the end, it’s still Halo multiplayer, that incredibly fun console multiplayer that most other games can’t even come close to reaching. So we pretty much do get what we expected. The disappointment comes from the fact that we didn’t really get anything unexpected.