Halo 3 [X360]

Watch HALO RETROSPECTIVE: The Story So Far

Call it Microsoft's Lord of the Rings.

With Halo 3, Microsoft and Bungie have completed their grand tripart sermon on alien evisceration. Born six years ago on Xbox, the science fiction-themed first-person shooter Halo has morphed and grown to become a cultural phenomenon of sorts, the rare video game that not so much breaks the wall separating geek culture from mainstream popularity, but rather uses a rocket launcher to blow that thing up real good.

All good things must end, and Halo 3 serves as a delightful conclusion to the saga of Earth's futuristic war with the theocratic alien race the covenant. The game puts players in the role of super-soldier Master Chief, dropping them into what can only be considered humanity's last stand. It opens with the specter of annihilation; the covenant has invaded Earth and established a foothold. Beleaguered Earth forces are seeking to regroup and, somehow, counterattack.

Halo 3's pace is frantic, highlighted by the fact that the Chief will need to storm into installations; do his dirty, dangerous work; and then flee the scene with great dispatch. Epic firefights are set up where Chief and his artificial intelligence-controlled cohorts will need to assault armored behemoths, storm alien strongholds, or simply dig the enemy out of entrenched positions.

This pounding, unceasing intensity hits the single-player adventure's highest note. The developers at Bungie have established a racing pulse for the game, with only the briefest interludes for players to recapture their breath. As the cacophony builds and the threat to Earth magnifies, Halo 3 throws open the gates. The number of enemies increases, the music takes on a newfound fevered tempo and, well, apocalyptic stuff happens.

Chief storms across awesome vistas and impressive battlefields, and Bungie has done the Xbox 360 proud. At one moment, players will be made to stare at an ominous, swirling gray-black vortex appearing over... something... on the Africa plains. The next, they'll be thrust onto an icy wasteland where hordes of enemies come screaming forward in a riotous battle charge. Combat plays out across gorgeous jungles, lush grasslands, and creepy alien installations, with Chief and his allies facing snipers in the trees, grenadiers behind rocks, and huge aliens -- brutes -- shooting explosive death from any piece of high ground afforded to them.

In the face of this enchanting gameplay and more than competent graphic work, it's genuinely disappointing to note the number of missteps in the single-player campaign. As with the previous Halos, the third episode is marred by a series of levels with imperfect design. Many corridors are so similar in their appearance, navigation becomes equal parts confusing and frustrating. Unfortunately, these stages are often the ones players will need to storm into and, later, escape from.

The game's end sequence, to put it mildly, is an eight-car pileup. Fans of the series will recognize it as a poorly veiled swipe of a sequence in the original Halo, a challenge highlighted by a series of goofy circumstances and improbable level design meant to create an explosive end. The end result, however, is fairly absurd, as the whole shebang reeks of game developers wracking their brains to come up with the cleverest, most exciting finish, and shattering the fourth wall in the process.