Halo 3 - First impressions

by: Chuck - posted: 9/25/2007 1:44:00 AM

After leaving the CD101 event I hit the local Best Buy to pick up my copy.  I got there right after midnight and proceeded to the end of the line.  It turns out the long line I was standing in was for the people who had pre-ordered the game and that there was a second line for those who were just picking up the game.  A second, much shorter line.  So I got in the shorter line, skimmed past the line of impulse buys that Best Buy had set up (not really sure how you're cross selling  the Knocked -Up DVD to people buying Halo 3 but it seemed like it was working).  I picked up my copy of the game, purchased it, and then headed home.  I felt bad as the pre-order people I initially stood behind were just now making it into the store.

Firing the game up was a bit of a treat.  While I'm not the biggest Halo fan in the world I was looking forward to seeing how Bungie was going to wrap the story up.  I made the mistake of starting the game at the Heroic level and didn't make it far before Master Chief bit it for the first time.  I played a little further through the level and managed to die a few more times before giving up for the night to finish Heroes.  I'm going to re-start the game tomorrow on normal and see if I have any better luck.  So far so good though and the game does look like a big step up from Halo 2 graphically.  The game still plays like a Halo game and there are still set paths that limit where you can go in the game (which is ironic given that the first level is set outdoors).  There are some other cool moments that I don't want to spoil but I am looking forward to playing more of the game at a more reasonable hour.