Halo 3 Single Player Impressions Thread (AKA: NO GRAPHICS TALK)

[Kzin]

The dialog is simply hillarious. I was riding the tank and fired into a covenant camp. The was a sniper tower, exploding barrels and a whole lot of grunts were flying everywere. So i cleared out the entire camp with one blast. One of the marines said "that was a whole lot of people dying at once". And he didn´t say it with a "yeah, freaking cool"-voice. It was more like a simple observation.

Or when another marine shot the corpses he said "Yeah, i know, its a waste of ammo, but i just cant help myself!".

 

[Dave Glue]

The dialog is simply hillarious. I was riding the tank and fired into a covenant camp. The was a sniper tower, exploding barrels and a whole lot of grunts were flying everywere. So i cleared out the entire camp with one blast. One of the marines said "that was a whole lot of people dying at once". And he didn´t say it with a "yeah, freaking cool"-voice. It was more like a simple observation.

Or when another marine shot the corpses he said "Yeah, i know, its a waste of ammo, but i just cant help myself!".

Funny (well no, that's the problem) - that's one of the aspects of the game I don't particularly care for. I rarely crack a smile at anything they say, it just becomes a string of catch-phrases and nerd attemps at witticisms that are at complete odds with the story (and the advertising campaign) trying to create this sense of gravitas to the proceedings. I head there was (supposedly) a ton of dialogue and you would rarely hear the same things twice, certainly not in my case.

The gruns screams were cute in the first Halo, but as the storyline and technology progresses I wish the writing would have as well.

 

[Kzin]

Dave Glue

I like that the game doesnt take itself to seriously. Kinda like Fable. Feels more like im playing =)

 

[rbushner]

I like that the game doesnt take itself to seriously.

Yes, that's how I feel, it's one of the things that made Halo different from the half million other sci-fi aliens invade games.

 

[AntShaw]

For anyone that actually doesn't own Halo 3 yet, you can get the Legendary Edition on Amazon today for $59.99 w/free shipping. Yowzers.

 

[Mobius1aic]

Something about the game's shooting doesn't feel right. Maybe it's the sound+recoil that doesn't do it for me, because you wouldn't think it, but those two things add alot to the overall feel of the game. Compare firing the Battle Rifle to lets say the SMG from Half Life 2 or the M16+Grenade Launcher replacement for the SMG in the Half Life HD Pack. They feel like they pack real punch. Halo's weapons really don't IMO, and that's a big issue. The game is fun no doubt, but Halo 3 being GOTY worthy? I think not. Honestly I think it belongs to games that go more out on a limb and create just overall more fun experiences.

 

[AlNom]

The dialog is simply hillarious. I was riding the tank and fired into a covenant camp. The was a sniper tower, exploding barrels and a whole lot of grunts were flying everywere. So i cleared out the entire camp with one blast. One of the marines said "that was a whole lot of people dying at once". And he didn´t say it with a "yeah, freaking cool"-voice. It was more like a simple observation.

Or when another marine shot the corpses he said "Yeah, i know, its a waste of ammo, but i just cant help myself!".

Was that with the IWHBYD skull turned on? I can't play the game without it turned on now; the lines uttered by both sides just crack me up.

 

[Deepblue]

Something about the game's shooting doesn't feel right. Maybe it's the sound+recoil that doesn't do it for me, because you wouldn't think it, but those two things add alot to the overall feel of the game. Compare firing the Battle Rifle to lets say the SMG from Half Life 2 or the M16+Grenade Launcher replacement for the SMG in the Half Life HD Pack. They feel like they pack real punch. Halo's weapons really don't IMO, and that's a big issue. The game is fun no doubt, but Halo 3 being GOTY worthy? I think not. Honestly I think it belongs to games that go more out on a limb and create just overall more fun experiences.

Are you crazy? HL2's SMG was the least satisfying weapon I've used in an FPS. To me, there's nothing quite like firing a shotgun in Halo 3.

 

[Dave Glue]

Are you crazy? HL2's SMG was the least satisfying weapon I've used in an FPS. To me, there's nothing quite like firing a shotgun in Halo 3.

I agree - but the Combine gun (forget what it's called) is one of the best.

Bouncing disintegrating energy-orbs secondary-fire FTW.

(Note that the Cinematic Mod 4.0 changes the weapon power, so a few shots even with the SMG will down a combine, as it should. Makes it far more realistic IMO.)

 

[TurnDragoZeroV2G]

Meh, I'd put Half-life 2's SMG at the bottom of any weapon list. I wish Halo 3's assault rifle sounded more like Halo 1's, and the metal-on-metal sound flat-out sucks in the game ( as well as quite a few others), but on the whole I'd still put it well above Half-life 2 of all games.

Combine rifle is indeed quite nice, though.

 

[Deepblue]

Also the new SMG sound is much better. Then there's the subtle touches, like on the sniper rifle reload.

 

[AlNom]

I thought the SMG was a huge improvement too, and it sort of reminded me of the lancer assault rifle from Gears of War with the rapid firing metal noise. I was only really disappointed in the assault rifle. There was just no "oompfh" to it.

I finally got around to finishing the game on legendary, single player. It wasn't as insane as I thought it would be, particularly the Flood, but I guess that's what the skulls are for. There were a couple spots that took me forever to get past, such as during Tsavo Highway at the section just after you ditch the warthog. The main problem was that I had trapped myself behind a bunker with 36 shells for the shotgun, and about 40 rounds for the covenant carbine. I had a fuel rod cannon lyring around with 4 rounds in it too. There were about 10 or so brutes (two with fuel rods, two with the grenade launcher, rest had spikers) and the wraith tank out there. The real kicker is that the weapons locker with the generous amount of battle rifle ammo was knocked over, so I couldn't even use that unless I teased the wraith and fuel rod cannon brutes to fire at it. I think after that encounter, I've never been better at getting headshots on AI characters.

The other place that really sucked for getting past was the double scarab battle. The hornet would fly me to one of them, I'd take it down, but the hornet would get blown up or not pick me up --> how the heck do I get onto the other scarab without a warthog or mongoose? I had to use the tank to take out the scarab's legs, but the timing was a bit messy since I needed to avoid getting blown up by that same scarab. It also didn't help that I got frustrated and accidentally restarted the level at one point.

 

[dlm]

The other place that really sucked for getting past was the double scarab battle. The hornet would fly me to one of them, I'd take it down, but the hornet would get blown up or not pick me up --> how the heck do I get onto the other scarab without a warthog or mongoose? I had to use the tank to take out the scarab's legs, but the timing was a bit messy since I needed to avoid getting blown up by that same scarab. It also didn't help that I got frustrated and accidentally restarted the level at one point.

Stay in the Hornet. Problem solved

 

[TurnDragoZeroV2G]

The other place that really sucked for getting past was the double scarab battle. The hornet would fly me to one of them, I'd take it down, but the hornet would get blown up or not pick me up --> how the heck do I get onto the other scarab without a warthog or mongoose? I had to use the tank to take out the scarab's legs, but the timing was a bit messy since I needed to avoid getting blown up by that same scarab. It also didn't help that I got frustrated and accidentally restarted the level at one point.

No "shoot the back until it blows off, exposing the core to fire from mah aw3s0me hornet missiles/tank rounds" ?

 

[AlNom]

No "shoot the back until it blows off, exposing the core to fire from mah aw3s0me hornet missiles/tank rounds" ?

The tank was too slow and the scarab kept turning around. It was "smart".

 

[dlm]

The tank was too slow and the scarab kept turning around. It was "smart".

I found that as long as you shoot out the knees first, there's generally plenty of time to get behind it and take it out. Taking a few extra potshots at the legs seems to keep it down longer as well.

 

[AlNom]

By that point, I just hopped off the tank and boarded the scarab. I'm kickin myself for not doing the obvious.

 

[Kzin]

Was that with the IWHBYD skull turned on? I can't play the game without it turned on now; the lines uttered by both sides just crack me up.

No, i havent found any skulls. There is a skull for unlocking more funnier dialoge? What do they say then?

 

[Kzin]

I was playing the new blacksite demo, the part were you ride the helicopter, like in the graw games. It realy gave a sense of scale, and i thought halo 3 should have had something like that. Sure, some of the backdrops are huge, but since the playable part of the levels are so confined you never gte the same kind of scale. The sence of scale you get seem artificial in a way. A first person dropship ride were you cover some distance would have been nice (but no on rail shooting please).

 

[NRP]

No, i havent found any skulls. There is a skull for unlocking more funnier dialoge? What do they say then?

Yes. The IWHBYD skull makes the AI talk a lot more. Some of it is rather "salty" too. I love it. I always enable this skull when I go back and replay the SP campaign.