Halo MCC Play-Through Part 3: Halo 3

Back again! Now it’s time for my to share my thoughts on the third Halo game and the first one that I played as a fan.

I first played through Halo 3 on a co-op campaign, I was the Arbiter. I owe it to this game for sparking my interest in the story, the Elites and just the Halo universe in general. Following the events of Halo 2, Master Chief arrives on Earth and teams up with the Arbiter to stop the Prophet of Truth. After evacuating a UNSC base, the humans learn that Truth has found access to reaching the Ark and unfortunately even their epic aerial assault doesn’t stop him from opening a portal to where the Ark is found and a spore of Flood delay the company from entering the portal when Chief suspects Cortana might be on there and Rtas ‘Vadum glasses the city. (YAY!) Soon the humans and Elites pursue Truth on the Ark and one of the most epic moments is first when Miranda attempts to rescue Johnson from Truth and his Brutes (who are still blinded!) but gets she gets shot in the back, the Gravemind makes a truce with Chief and the Arbiter only to betray them again after the Arbiter kills Truth which was one of the most badass scenes ever. “Asshole, you must be silenced!” *stabs Truth and roars triumphantly* It never occured to me at first that Chief would want to light the remade Installation 04 that the Ark was making, but when he found Cortana I was happy to see those two together again. Still a better love story than Twilight hahahahaha! I swear, at the end of the game I thought that Chief was dead until I saw the post credits scene where Forward Unto Dawn was torn in half.

Gameplay? I like the usage of equipment. Active camo has always worked best for me in this game, so I often use it to sneak past the wave of Brutes to arm the bomb in Crow’s Nest. Unlike in Reach where you only turn completely invisible if you don’t move or move little, because otherwise if you walk normally you’ll be slightly visible. I guess back in the day, active camo tech still wasn’t as advanced yet. Power Drain, Bubble Shield and Restoration are also my way to go. Flares annoy me to the core. My favourite level(s) are The Storm and The Covenant because they are the most exciting. My least favourite? Definitely going with Cortana, because you’re alone in High Charity now Flood infested, they can come at you everywhere. Those spider-like Flood always flee you unless they turn into those big ones that spit out little ones or they get spikes and shoot at you while clinging onto walls. The quickest way to kill those big ones is an energy sword. I want to be able to drive an AA Wraith. One time my brother managed to do that. I think there’s a glitch or skull that allows you to do so, I have to look into it.

 

And here are Thel & Rtas. My two favourite Elites in the whole wide world. I love them both so much. (well I try to love them both equally but my heart has still made me love Rtas more than Thel these days) I’ll admit, I didn’t fall for Rtas until I saw him in this game and knew who he was. I was once googling pictures of Thel and I think at one point the name Rtas ‘Vadum popped up. I forget where, it was either on a Halo Wiki or in Google images. So I looked up Rtas, saw the pictures and recognized him as the Shipmaster of Shadow of Intent. From there the rest is a mystery of how I came to love Rtas, but for Thel that’s easy: I was attached to him right away when I played Halo 3 for the first time. I don’t know why, but I prayed hoping that he would live at the end of the game and he did. “Were it so easy.”

Well that’s it for now, Halo 3 had impact on me as a fan but it’s story did not impact me much on times when I want to learn about a certain species. Halo 2 made me love the Sangheili even more and Halo 4, made me love another species even more. What species is it? Stay tuned….

-Emily