Halo 3 Beta Play Review

Being one of the lucky one's to get an invite from Bungie.net to review the Beta before general release, I feel compounded to share my views on the most antasipated games ever...!!!

I will break them down into 5 area's for ease...

DASHBOARD...

On loading the game you enter an unfamilar zone.. It is a very well thought out area to be.. I only took my a few minutes to know my way around and felt as if i had used it for years....

Rating 10/10

MAPS...

You get to play 3 maps... High Ground, Snow Bound & Vanhalier..

High Ground gives the impression of an deserted Army Fort... it has lots of area to hide and surprise the opponent.. It has lots of trees that are easy to find routes to the top of... & with the addition of portable lift the are ledges that you get get some real height on...

Snow Bound is a Alien base plonked in the middle of a snow covered abyiss.. It is surrounded by parimiter guns, which auto lock on a shoot the merry hell out of you if you leave the area.. The are to bases, linked by several tunnels... Not to keen on this one due to the sniper spawns on one side and the devisator on the other.. two very diffrent weapons.. If you are blue then you will get the snipe and usually win!!

Vanhalier is my favirote map.. It is a vaste forest area with a stream link to bases together.. Both bases have man cannons which shoot you high in the air for instant battle and routes at the side to sneak around into battle.. the best thing on this map is the portable chain cannon.. it rocks.. even if it does make you move slow.. but if you have some cover you will own..

Rating 8/10

GRAPHIC'S....

These are still in Beta mode but the overall feels it not bad.. the colours are rich and you can feel the depth and scale of the map.. Im a little disapointed on the physic engine.. there is not damage to the surrounding areas for you battles and if you see someone when you have the sniper and you target goes red and they are behind a leaf or a wall but you can see are part of the body, when you shoot them it will not hit them.. Does need some work. But general very well worked...

Rating 8/10

PLAYABILITY....

Well i could go on about the for hours, but i'll keep it short... I could and have played this for hours and note got bored and thats only with 3 maps.. So the full release could last and last...

Rating 10/10

SOUND....

This is probably the best improvement.. the gun fire sounds like a battle in Saving private ryan.. The shoots echo around the maps and give a real sence of direction.. Vehicles sound rich and powerful and explosions sound like a WMD...

Rating 10/10

OVERALL...

This is a very good game dont get me wrong but there are several bugs that need to be fixed.

1: To use your radio you need to press the D-pad.. This is very annoying when you are in the heat of battle and need to give out instructions or to repsond..

2: Again with the radio.. Every time you press the D-pad you get a strange metal spring noise in you ear when you click and when you finnish talking... Damn it's annoying and loud..

3:There are several grenades for you to use, why not swap the left bumper for comms and the D-pad directions to throw diffrent type grenades.

Other than that i am enjoying every last minute of this game and look forward to the full release with the Campaign side included..

Total Rating

46/50

92%