When I first beat this game, I genuinely felt like Bungie closed the story arc and ended the trilogy. This made me sad. They did a good job of doing so, though!

Of course, years later, it turns out that this story arc was just getting warmed up. I have mixed feelings about that...this is the last true Master Chief game, as made by Bungie. 343 Studios has done a decent job continuing the series but it just doesn't feel the same.

Anyways, this game added quite a lot of things over Halo 2...first off, much refined visuals (on the Xbox 360! I purchased Crackdown just to access the Halo 3 Beta), improved audio/sound effects/soundtrack quality, much more dynamic enemy AI, many more multiplayer options (including character customization), Forge mode (allowed you to construct your own maps/gametypes), online co-op, and some other things I'm forgetting to mention here. Bungie really amped it up a notch compared to the first two, which are of course still near and dear to me.



The story revolves around Master Chief trying to find and use the Ark, which can create and destroy Halos. It gets a little intense around certain parts, but ties up most of the loose ends pretty nicely. It did leave it somewhat open to more interpretation later on which of course happened with Halo 4 and 5 as of the time of this review, and eventually Halo Infinite.



My only real complaint is that there was a lot of kill stealing online (imagine chasing someone and gunning them down for 5-15 seconds to take down their shield, then a teammate comes in at the last minute with a single bullet, getting credit for the kill) and XP progression was depressingly slow. 1 XP per match, or 2 if you win. I felt as if this could have been a bit more elastic for people who constantly carry their teams, or vice versa for those who don't contribute anything but deaths. This was pretty easy to get over but it did result in rage several times throughout hundreds of hours of gameplay.

Overall, this is definitely an epic futuristic sci-fi first person shooter. I would highly recommend it if any of those buzz words sound appealing to you!