Computer game review
Xbox 360 Microsoft
Release date Out now

The improbably named Master Chief returns to save the Earth from the Prophet of Truth and zombie-like alien race, the Flood. Again.

The Halo games hold a special place in the hearts of Xbox gamers as one of the few great games originally exclusive to the console. Halo 3 very much follows the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” formula; the graphics don’t seem to have been updated that much and the controls are near identical.

The single player game follows the “shoot things, drive things, blow things up” action movie formula, and while there are no great surprises in the format, there are some nice set pieces, including aerial dogfights and gripping jeep chases. Still, given the depth of story in the current crop of videogames, there really should be something more than just having supporting characters shout incomprehensible nonsense about “Halo Arrays” every few minutes between the shooting.

The lion’s share of the work on Halo 3 seems to have gone into the multiplayer game, and that’s where Halo 3 really comes into its own. The new matchmaking system is clever and intuitive, and while there’s still no “I don’t want to play games with trash-talking, racist twelve-year-olds” option, the game does pretty much everything else. Players can jump into everything from straightforward shootouts to recreations of pirate boarding pirates or spreading zombie infestations. After the match players can rewatch matches from multiple moveable angles, although this does seem to be an option that gets old quickly.

A new area, “The Forge”, allows players to change and mould the game while playing it, creating a completely new playing experience. The level of customisation here is amazing, and this is a game that will take months to give up its secrets. Ned Hartley

VERDICT: 9/10
A slightly derivative single player game can’t bring down a truly revolutionary multi-player game.