A glimpse at Halo 3’s single player campaign

By Dan Zuccarelli . July 12, 2007 . 6:17am

Single player and a sweet in-game movie viewer. Two vastly different aspects of the Halo 3 demo but both very interesting as far as game elements. First up the single player campaign.

I made it pretty clear during the Halo 3 beta that I was never huge on the multiplayer aspect of Halo 3. Personally I'm much more interested in the single player campaign. During the demo I saw today I was able to take a look at a portion of the opening level of the single-player campaign, called Sierra 117.

They started the demo after the initial plot outline… so we're still unsure on that full plot. The level was a lush jungle, and included Master Chief and about 5 AI controlled teammates that moved along with you for fun.

I was instantly impressed with the team banter going back and forth during the team fight, and was well placed contextually. I heard someone yell out "good shot" after a well placed brute shot round. The banter also included threats thrown at the enemy and other general pumped-up type moments. With a surround sound system this one is gonna wake the neighbors.

The graphics have been refined and smoothed out, and the game just looks gorgeous. Sadly they can't stray to far from the core Halo game style since it's so widely loved and played. Wisely Bungie it seems decided to focus on refining and tweaking game play, as opposed to outright changing it.

Though when I asked about the difficulty of the games for veteran players, I was told people that have played Halo before more than a few times will want to start on at least Heroic (kinda like hard). Medium will simply be too easy, and if you want the most challenging you'll have to go for Legendary. Legendary I was told isn't necessarily easier than before but "it's fair" now. Extremely difficult but not cheap, I like that.

I learned nothing about the Halo 3 plot but we got to see some good killin' and that's good enough for me. Next Up Halo 3 "Saved Films!"