Seven years later, Halo 3 is still the best Halo campaign

Tied with Halo CE for me, but yes, it is amazing. Some of the best encounters I've ever played in a videogame. So fun, varied and replayable.

Wish more shooters were designed like Halo 3, instead of the lazy, scripted, ultra-linear campaigns with zero replayability that COD4 popularized.

BTW, playing Halo CE and Halo 3 after Destiny is almost sad. What the hell happened Bungie?
 
I feel like it's the most consistent campaign, but it also felt a bit too safe to me. I appreciated the newness of Halo CE and the tweaking of the formula in ODST more than what Halo 3 did, I think. I know I'm using terms that are vague to the point of meaningless here, but if you're a Halo fan you probably get my gist.

The Covenant is definitely in my top three campaign missions across the series, though. The Ark is really fun, too. I like the encounters in Crows Nest a lot, but the art design makes it feel kinda drab and depressing to me, which prevents me from really loving it.

Anyways, amazing game. I already have plans to play it with my buddy when the MCC comes out (it'll be his first time!). :-)
 
"To war."

Is that even a proper order? Where are we going, and you tell us "to war"? Who thought it would be appropriate to promote you Keyes?

CE > Halo 2 = ODST > Halo 3 > Reach >4

First encounter with the Flood, Jenkins' Helmet cam, Silent Cartographer, Assault on the Control Room, 343's betrayal, the Maw, FOEHAMMER!

I have to give Foehammer her own point. Foehammer was this pelican pilot who brought you what you needed when you needed it, took you where you had to go, and was there for you when you needed her the most. A glimmer of hope of you will, a beacon of safety and assurance that you'll make it off this ring alive. She was going to be there for you until the very end, she WAS there til the very end... Dammit Foehammer.
 
It's horrible. Brutes were not fun to fight against. A lousy conclusion to what started in H1.

I feel like when people say they like Halo 3 they're being ironic.
 
I agree, it just brought everything I love about Halo into one title. I must've played through it at least 6 times. Can't wait to play it again in a couple months.
 
Well, it's not just the best Halo campaign, I can't think of any FPS games that I've played since then (and if we ignore Half-Life games and Halo: CE, also before) that really compare. If it wasn't for the Cortana level, it would be practically perfect.
 
I feel like this isn't having as much focus as well--comparing playing the games co-op versus solo.

Halo 3 is hands down the best co-op campaign of the series, just ahead of Reach to me. The fact that each player was a completely different character (as opposed to nameless Master Chief clone) helped out a whole lot too, especially considering there were no Arbiter missions in H3. Campaign co-op actually made sense story-wise in those two games.

As for solo, it's a toss-up between Halo CE and Halo 3: ODST. Both those games have excellent atmosphere for playing by your lonesome. The sense of isolation wandering around New Mombasa at night in the rain, or the cold dark "Two Betrayals" are fantastic. And let's not forget the dramatic "Aliens-esque" introduction of the Flood in "343 Guilty Spark".
 
The Halo CE campaign is still easily the best.

Forget the story, from a pure gameplay standpoint, nothing in any of the sequels has ever come close to topping The Silent Cartographer or Assault on the Control Room.

Halo 3's campaign is better than 2 & 4, but that's not saying much.
 
ebullientprism said:
Yep. H3 wins for The Covenant, Tsavo Highway and The Ark. Yes Cortana is terrible but its just one level in a game where every other level ranges from good to phenomenal.
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I can't help but agree with this. The Covenant level alone puts this game into mythic status. Reach has a special place in my gaming heart though, because it includes all of the Halo factions, and balances them well.

Can't fucking wait to replay the remastered versions in November.
 
Kyouko la Kill said:
I have to give Foehammer her own point. Foehammer was this pelican pilot who brought you what you needed when you needed it, took you where you had to go, and was there for you when you needed her the most. A glimmer of hope of you will, a beacon of safety and assurance that you'll make it off this ring alive. She was going to be there for you until the very end, she WAS there til the very end... Dammit Foehammer.
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God damn, the feels for Foehammer. From the moment you hear her calls of panic when she loses Chief's signal in the swamp and then when Cortana manages to flag her down on the radio at the very end of the game, revealing that, amazingly, she's managed to survive all the shit that's gone down, to her fated crash that you witness with your own eyes...

Damn man :-(
 
ViewtifulJC said:
the GOAT Halo campaign, with the best art, best weapons, best enemy encounter design, best level design, best vehicles, and best Grunt Birthday Skulls in the series
vt48.png


fuck cortana tho
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Wr4YMd1.jpg
 
So atleast all here agree that everything bungie has done done is vastly superior to Halo 4. Seriously that game burned my passion for halo games
 
I loved ODST's soundtrack and gameplay but CE is the best Halo game to date. Silent Cartographer, Assault on the Control Room and Two Betrayals are some of the best levels in FPS history.
 
Scarab encounters >>>> anything.

Halo 3 campaign, as far as gameplay goes, it's simply the greatest thing ever.

4 players coop on legendary with skulls, so much fun.

It's something like L4D for me, replayability-wise.

Can't wait for the MCC.
 
Sojgat said:
The Halo CE campaign is still easily the best.

Forget the story, from a pure gameplay standpoint, nothing in any of the sequels has ever come close to topping The Silent Cartographer or Assault on the Control Room.

Halo 3's campaign is better than 2 & 4, but that's not saying much.
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I could never, and I mean never understand the appeal of The Silent Cartographer. Maybe it's because I came to Halo late, and from a PC background, but it didn't strike me as anything that special. Assault was great, however, but Halo 3 has many moments that compare to it very favorably.


Fezan said:
So atleast all here agree that everything bungie has done done is vastly superior to Halo 4. Seriously that game burned my passion for halo games
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Yeah, no. Halo: CE and Halo 3 were quite a bit better, but Reach was slightly worse, and Halo 2 and ODST were significantly worse, although still pretty good in their own ways.
 
Kyouko la Kill said:
First encounter with the Flood, Jenkins' Helmet cam, Silent Cartographer, Assault on the Control Room, 343's betrayal, the Maw, FOEHAMMER!

I have to give Foehammer her own point. Foehammer was this pelican pilot who brought you what you needed when you needed it, took you where you had to go, and was there for you when you needed her the most. A glimmer of hope of you will, a beacon of safety and assurance that you'll make it off this ring alive. She was going to be there for you until the very end, she WAS there til the very end... Dammit Foehammer.
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Foehammer is my favorite Halo NPC, and we never even saw her face!

Cimarron said:
Nah. Reach was everything that was great about Halo sans Flood.
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Reach felt so flat to me. I can't think of a single encounter that felt truly thrilling to me. I liked the Firefight-like encounter under the glacier right before the team meets Halsey as well as the level where you board the Covenant Cruiser, but other than that, it all felt mundane. Not bad, just unremarkable.

But damn near everything else about the campaign was fantastic. Amazing art, environments, enemy redesigns, music, atmosphere, last level gimmick... They did a lot of great things with Reach. The gameplay and encounters just felt relatively stale to me.
 
Absolutely agree with you OP. Halo 3 is my favorite Halo game followed by Halo CE.
Love the scale of the battles, the beautiful, giant environments (It still give me chills when Forward Unto Dawn lands on the Ark and you're on the ground), the skyboxes <3, the sound design and the music.

And its true, it was one of the most hyped games in history. I still fondly remember the E3 Trailer, the super bowl ad, the diorama, the ARG. I'll leave it at that cuz i feel that i could keep going.

Happy 7th anniversary Halo 3.
 
the hype was at an all time high when that game released, i remember being a freshman in college and rushing home to play it after a 3 back to back class schedule that day, smh was halo blocked

that end level/scene was just the best. good times, so many years ago

i hated reach, odst was ok.
 
Halo 3 had a great campaign. But nothing has topped Halo 1's campaign yet. For me the only one that comes close to matching it is Reach.
 
Y2Kev said:
Completely agree. Absolutely love halo 3. The middle of this game is flawless. Really felt like bungie knew exactly how to make the perfect shooter. Odst is good too but not as good.

Tsavo highway until cortana vaginal is without flaw and I did not lie.
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Now see, I actually rather like Sierra 117 and Crow's Nest as well. I think Sierra 117 is a great opener; it got nice outdoor environments to show off their lighting and water and skyboxes, sets a good tempo with the encounters, smaller skrimishes giving way to heavier areas, jackal sniper forest to a more vertical area, etc. Wide open areas to play around with, more variations in environments than Pillar of Autumn or Cairo Station. The Chieftan capturing the troops sub-plot builds to a really cool climax where you have to infiltrate their base and prioritize targets. And I love the music! The tribal, early morning kind of vibe.

I think Crow's Nest really works considering its placement between the more open environments of Sierra 117 and Tsavo Highway. A large variety of close quarters and medium range firefights, intelligent and coherent backtracking through the base, a showcase for its weapons sandbox, etc.

Like, the story itself isn't all the great, but the pacing and variety of the missions themselves, how they've been crafted with various peaks and valleys, how Bungie was able to work around the Golden Triangle of Guns/Melee/Grenades, the scale and design of enemy encounters, or (Cortana aside) how they utilized backtracking compared to CE/2 is really quite sharp. It feels like they were really disappointed how rushed and forgettable Halo 2's campaign turned out, so this time they REALLY focused on making the best Halo campaign they could. What works about Halo, what are the options to give the player here, what is the audio/visual feedback when players shoot enemies, just how many ghosts should come flying out that gate considering the Scorpion tank's movement and firing speed, etc. Obviously they ask these questions on the other Halo games, but I don't think they ever got so many things so right like they have with Halo 3.

Cortana aside, of course
 
Sorry OP, but I think you're wrong. Best Halo campaign is still this one

halocombatevolved530.jpg


Halo 3 was well done, but I think both the original and 2 are better. Halo 3's best moments are when they're invoking nostalgia for Halo 1
IMO
 
It may be just me, but after ~3 playthroughs of Halo 3 (all in coop at least with one buddy) I still do not understand the story and what's happening. (Granted I did not play Halo 1 or 2 prior to these playthroughs.) Why are we rescuing Cortana 2 times? I always get confused about that one. And don't get me started on the "The son inherits the sins..." I hate that part.

The shooting and cooping on Legendary is fun though. Storywise, I was not sold on Halo 3. I much prefered Reach over it. But the best Halo story for me was ODST. It had a pretty awesome feeling to it and a clever way to tell its story, IMO.
 
Afraid I'd have to completely disagree with you. Combat Evolved far and away has the better campaign, while I find that Halo 2 had the best multiplayer. Opinions man
 
Yeah, I agree, Halo 3 feels the most balanced of all the campaigns. If Halo 1 would have a consistent quality and would not have reused so much it might have won for me.

The Cortana interruptions are so terrible though, the Cortana level itself would be much better without them.
 
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