Halo 3: Beta - First Impressions

I guess there's not many console gamers that haven't heard of the Halo franchise. Whether it's to mock the franchise or to heap praise on it, the game seems to garner its fair share of both love and hate. So it has been with baited breath that the Halo 3 beta has been anticipated, but does it live up to expectations? Well, in some respects that's hard to answer, this is is after all a beta product.

The beta offers up the multi-player live component of the game only and gives you three maps to play with along with a selection of modes. There are a few settings, allowing you to change the colour, emblem and designation of your Spartan and also the controller configuration to suit your requirements. Matchmaking also has a few options so you can prioritise good connections, closer skill range, or your native language. Thus far I've not had to change the connection priority and all my games have been lag free.


The maps are nicely varied with "High Ground" seeming to be the map of choice for a majority of "rumble pit" matches that I've joined so far. "High Ground" offers a kind of tropical atmosphere so familiar with the prior games with a good selection of internal and external environments, including some military style buildings and bunkers. "Valhalla" seems to be another tropical environment which I've not seen a great deal of and finally "Snowbound", which as the name suggests is a snow covered environment with large open area and various underground tunnel complexes to explore.

The weapons (or tools of destruction) all seem to be balanced with a good selection of close quarter, automatic and explosive varieties to choose from. Something new that has been introduced is the ability to pick up equipment; Whether it's the bubble shield, portable grav lift, power drainer or trip mine all have there uses and I'm still exploring the possibilities.


I wasn't initially overwhelmed with the graphics, I would have to say that they look sharp, polished and very competent but I've yet to have a "wow" moment. Maybe this is because I've not had time to take a good look around at the scenery. If I stop and gaze at the flowers my already short lifespan takes a hit. However it is not the graphics alone that make a game and I cannot fault the core gameplay. It's fast, furious and raises the heartbeat to what I hope is a healthy level.

I've heard reports that this beta feels very familiar to experienced online Halo 2 players and only offers a few noticeable improvements, but this is an all new experience for me as I've never taken the Xbox and Halo 2 online. So far it's been very enjoyable even though I'm invariably in the bottom half of the leaderboard.

I hope to post my final impressions when the beta demo period ends, but it's convinced me enough to have faith and preorder the game, it's just a question of which edition "Legendary" or "Collectors"? I'm now eagerly looking forward to playing the finished article on the 26th of September.