|
Walking into
Bungie HQ, you'd never guess you were entering the birth chamber
of 2007's single hottest entertainment property. There's no
neon sign out front, no bronze statue of Master Chief to greet
you in the parking lot. Next door is one of the better places
to get breakfast in the Northwest, where patrons scarf down
apple pancakes having no idea that virtual Covenant forces
are being readied for combat right on the other side of the
wall. But this Saturday morning, we were in Kirkland, Washington
for a different kind of treat—the first chance to play
single-player Halo® 3.
Recreating
the moment where I met the guard in the Bungie parking lot
inside Halo 3.
The area where
the real work is done is top-secret, off-limits, and the door
laughs at my Microsoft cardkey that even gets me into the
building where BillG works. But despite Bungie's "skunkworks"
mystique, the veil of mystery was coming down this weekend.
We sat down to play three levels of the campaign, learn about
the new Forge, and get updates on the multiplayer and recorder
features.
Going
Solo
As we launched the first mission of our demo session, Tsavo
Highway, it was quickly apparent that Bungie's warnings not
to judge Halo 3 on what we saw back in May's multiplayer beta
test were worth heeding. Upon exiting the ruins of our base
in our Warthog, we saw what Bungie had been holding back.
The terrain features lush foliage and a level of detail not
seen in the beta. Most striking, though, is the lighting engine.
Drive out of a dark cave and the light appears intense and
overexposed, then adjusts as your eyes get used to the brightness.
The shadows, textures, and reflectivity are all stunning and
convincing, and even the air is enhanced by subtle effects
such as distance haze and blowing sand.
Okay,
just a little more environmental detail than the multiplayer
demo.
Halo 3 is an
audible treat as well. Bungie created nearly 55,000 sounds
for the game—and nearly 40,000 of those are dialog.
That means your teammate Marines have comments for just about
everything (wreck your Warthog and hear a soldier reassure
you that it took his sister a while to learn how to drive),
and that the odds are really slim you'll encounter annoying
repeats of the same dialog (or Covenant taunts) during combat.
The game cries out to be played on a surround sound system.
The game's physics simulation even extends to the audio. When
a weapon is fired in your direction, you'll hear the 3-D whiz
of the bullet flying by your head, then the actual crack of
the gun going off a moment later, due to the bullet flying
faster than the speed of sound. It all makes for a wonderfully
immersive audio environment.
Tsavo Highway
is a "get there" mission, where you face off against
a variety of enemy forces as you attempt to reach the city
of Voi. Here, Covenant forces are excavating a huge Forerunner
Ark from beneath the ground. I got a chance to commandeer
a Brute Chopper, which may be my favorite game vehicle ever.
This maneuverable but lightly armored mount is essentially
a huge motorcycle with a giant, spiked wheel up front. It's
fast enough to just blow past enemy forces if you want to
reach your goal, and well-armed enough to put the hurt on
them if you'd prefer to stick around and thin their ranks.
Brute
Chopper 1, Warthog 0.
Once we made
it through the level, it was on to The Storm, where we took
on Covenant forces in a huge factory complex. The highlight
of the mission came when we encountered the giant, spider-like
Scarab. In Halo® 2, the Scarab was a scripted, predictable
object. Here, this building-sized weapons system is an intelligent
A.I. that will come after you—and keep after you. And
defeating the Scarab isn't a "find the Achilles heel"
puzzle. Bungie says there are dozens of ways to kill it. In
the three levels we played, it was very obvious that Halo
3 is less linear than previous installments in the series,
letting you find your own way to approach missions and plan
attacks.
Pleased
to Meta You
The last mission we took a look at, Sierra 117, was the most
visually rich. It starts under a jungle canopy, which opens
up to reveal a heavily populated Covenant encampment. It was
here that we were introduced to the MetaGame. You can play
the MetaGame solo or cooperatively. It's essentially the campaign,
but with extra rewards for completing levels in skillful,
challenging, or stylish ways. You'll get score not just for
how many enemies you kill, but how you do it. Combo kills,
consecutive kills, speed runs, headshots, and so on ratchet
up the score.
It's
hammer time!
The MetaGame
also features a variety of hidden skulls that, when activated,
can change the nature of the gameplay, and multiply scores
as well. The Iron Skull, for instance, sends both players
back to the most recent checkpoint if either dies. Other skulls
might make enemies change their attack tactics, or make them
more powerful. Multiple skulls can be active in the same game,
combining their effects to twist gameplay even further from
the expected.
What's
New?
One of the biggest announcements following the multiplayer
beta was the game's support for four-player co-op in Campaign
mode. A single Xbox 360™ still supports just two players
in split-screen, which makes sense, as even a big TV splitting
the screen four ways would make the action too small. Additional
players can join in via System Link or over Xbox LIVE®.
(Split-screen is optional. You can still play co-op with every
player using their own Xbox 360.) You'll be able to start
the game from the beginning, or from any of your saved checkpoints.
The
new treetop Guardian multiplayer level is definitely not populated
by Ewoks.
Bungie has plenty
of other surprises that we didn't get to see in the multiplayer
demo. The Theater mode is greatly enhanced, with the ability
to fly freely around the battlefield to take in the action,
to cut and save individual clips of your favorite moments,
and to send screenshots to Bungie.net. Watch Xbox.com in the
coming weeks for more Halo 3 coverage.
>> Back
to More Reviews
Article
by Denny Atkin
|
