Halo 3 review round-up
Critics lavish praise on the Big One
With a number of prominent online publications waiting until the weekend's conclusion late last night to publish their Halo 3 reviews, it is with the Monday morning still bleary in our eyes that we're able to sit down and dissect the critical response to Halo 3 thus far.
More often than not, it seems, Halo 3 is living up to the vast quantities of hype, delivering in spades. Reviews occasionally point out the unevolved nature of the gameplay - which is never broken up by the more thoughtful moments present in BioShock and friends.
Beyond this, and it seems Bungie have delivered the best title of the series, and made good on dozens of lofty promises, especially with regard to the multiplayer side of things and the new user-generated content features.
Here's out round-up of some of the reviews published so far, alongside a few extracts, then:
9.5 / 10 IGN.com
"...the sheer weight of hype alone brings inevitable disappointment. It would have had to have troubled the very best single-player games ever to reach for those highs but it doesn’t."
"Bungie’s innovations have pushed the boundaries on not only what multiplay does, but what multiplayer is..."
9.5 / 10 GameSpot.com
"Halo 3 is every bit the sequel you would expect it to be..."
"...it's the addition of the Forge level editor and the saved films that give the game an even longer set of legs..."
10 / 10 1UP.com
"...no one aspect of the game is life-changing on its own, but perhaps the package as a whole is."
"...every co-op game we've played over Xbox Live, whether it's two, three, or four players, has been fairly-to-incredibly laggy."
"Where Halo 3 does surprise, however, is in the other modes of play, stuff that may not seem like that big a deal on a bulleted list on the back of a box. A map editor? Co-op play? You've been there -- but you haven't done that."
10 / 10 Eurogamer.net
"...the best game yet in one of the best FPS franchises of the era."
"...the flaws are so minor that even the most churlish of reviewers would be hard pressed to mark the game down."
9.7 / 10 Computerandvideogames.com
"It's not going to revolutionise the genre - it's not meant to - it's meant to be great fun, which it is."
"...an incredible gaming experience that offers many different ways to play it, alone with your mates, or against the global community."
10 / 10 GamesRadar.com
"The single player is bigger and brawnier than anything that's been attempted on a console before."
"The new features - Forge, Saved Films, Coop - are frighteningly addictive."
8.5 / 10 Destructoid.com
"Halo 3 is the new hotness in terms of console multiplayer."
"While many of my hang-ups from previous games have been mended, Halo 3’s campaign suffers from a similar overreaching ambition that seeks to accomplish just a bit more than it actually can."
Comments