Some Multiplayer Flaws

As impressive as everything Bungie has packed into Halo 3 is there are some problems. I've already mentioned the criminally short campaign mode, and while Bungie did a great job at extending that mode with co-op and campaign scoring, it doesn't alleviate the fact that it is still a very short experience artificially extended by level backtracking. The other problems are actually multiplayer specific. Some of the unlockable armors and achievements are linked to specific events happening in free-for-all ranked playlists, this has caused an influx of people achievement "boosting" (attempting to set up a game where they can gain their achievements), which in turn damages the play experience of those that actually want to play ranked free-for-all. Some of the weapons in multiplayer are a slight bit unbalanced, the Assault Rifle will take you out with a couple bursts from across the map but the Mauler (a sort of sawed of shotgun weapon) can empty a whole clip into someone and still not take them down.

While the SMGs have been rendered almost worthless since Spikers pack a bigger punch yet carry comparable clip size and rate of fire. Melee attacks are scattershot, despite Bungie insisting that Melee is fair and that the person with less shields / health will lose in a simultaneous melee exchange. I have encountered numerous times where I was at full shields and health while my opponent's shields were already down and they won the melee battle. Furthermore there have been numerous complaints that the Sniper Rifle doesn't work. Bungie's official response is that the Halo 3 iteration of the weapon is harder to use than Halo 2, being as I can't hit anything with the Sniper Rifle anyway I won't comment. However all these flaws are minor and will do very little to hamper your overall experience with Halo 3 and being as they are multiplayer problems, Bungie will fix them if they deem them truly detrimental to the gameplay experience.

Bungie.net

Despite it not being an in game feature, I would be remiss if I did not at least touch on the integration of Bungie.net into the overall Halo 3 experience. Bungie has taken the idea of a gaming community to a whole new level with the release of Halo 3. In addition to the standard forums and news pages, Bungie.net fully integrates each Halo 3 player onto their site with a detailed service record that includes your medal chest, achievements, rank, campaign progress, kill count and details of all your matches played on XBOX Live. The player service record on Bungie.net is a statisticians dream as you can sort statistics in all sorts of ways. Bungie.net also features a linked feature to the theatre and forge modes in the game. Using the file share you can upload film clips, map creations, game variants, and screenshots to Bungie.net for everyone on the Internet to see and/or download; best of all it is very user friendly. While not everyone will use the Bungie.net features, those that do will be getting an extra-added level of unrivaled interactivity.

As an overall package Halo 3 is very close to perfect. However if you are looking for a single player offline experience it may not deliver for you over the long haul, which is what Halo 3 is built for. It is the killer application for the XBOX 360 and utilizes almost every possible feature on the console and then some off of it. If you are a gamer you owe it to yourself to play this game, even if you have been living under a rock.