Halo 3

Halo 3
General Information
Release Date(s)	NA/AU: September 25, 2007 EU: September 26, 2007
Genre	First-person shooter
Platform(s)	Xbox, Steam, Microsoft Store PC
Game Mode(s)	Single-player campaign, Online Co-Op campaign, Multiplayer, Forge, Theater
Distribution Format(s)	DL-DVD
Rating(s)	ESRB:Mature (M) for Blood and Gore, Language, Violence PEGI: 16 for Violence ACB: MA (15+) for medium animated violence
Series Information
Series	Halo (series)
Predecessor	Halo 2
Successor	Halo 3: ODST
Technical Details
Engine	Blam! Engine
Production Information
Developer(s)	Bungie, LLC
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Game Studios
Director(s)	Jason Jones
Producer(s)	James McQuillan, Joseph Tung
Programmer(s)	Paul Bertone, Rob Stokes, Tyson Green, Chris Butcher, Hao Chen, Charlie Gough, Zach Russell, Drew Solomon, Ben Wallace
Artist(s)	Marcus Lehto
Writer(s)	Joseph Staten, Robt McLees
Composer(s)	Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori

Halo 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Released for the Xbox 360 on September 25, 2007, the game is the third installment in the Halo franchise and the sequel to Halo 2 (2004).

The game's story centers on the interstellar war between 26th-century humanity, a collection of alien races known as the Covenant, and the alien parasite known as the Flood. The player assumes the role of the Master Chief, a cybernetically enhanced supersoldier, as he battles the Covenant and the Flood. In cooperative play, other human players assume the role of allied alien soldiers. The game features vehicles, weapons, and gameplay elements familiar and new to the series, as well as the addition of saved gameplay films, file sharing, and the Forge map editor—a utility which allows the player to perform modifications to multiplayer levels.

Halo 3 grossed US$170 million on its first day of release, rising to $300 million in its first week. The game sold in excess of 14.5 million copies and was the best-selling video game of 2007 in the United States. More than one million people played Halo 3 on Xbox Live in the first twenty hours. By March 2009 more than one billion online matches had been played. As of March 2012, Halo 3 collectively with Halo 3: ODST, more than 11.5 billion matchmaking games online have been played.

Overall, the game was well received by critics, with the Forge and multiplayer offerings singled out as strong features; however, some reviewers criticized single-player aspects, especially the plot and campaign layout. Halo 3 is frequently listed as one of the greatest video games of all time.

A prequel to the game, Halo 3: ODST, was released worldwide on September 22, 2009. A sequel, Halo 4, released in November 2012, was developed by 343 Industries. Halo 3 was re-released as part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection for the Xbox One in November 2014 and for PC on July 14, 2020.

Campaign

The campaign consists of 10 levels, of which nine are playable:

Mission	Description
Arrival	"Brace for impact." (Cutscene, tutorial on single player)
Sierra 117	"Rise up. Start the fight."
Crow's Nest	"Clear the base, whatever it takes."
Tsavo Highway	"Mount up. Get to Voi."
The Storm	"Reclaim the city. Make a hole."
Floodgate	"Stop the infestation. Find Cortana."
The Ark	"Search the waste for the Cartographer."
The Covenant	"Breach the barrier. Stop Truth."
Cortana	"Cleanse High Charity. Save Cortana."
Halo	"Light the ring. Destroy the Flood."

Plot

Master Chief and Arbiter meet in the level Sierra 117.

Two weeks after the events of Halo 2, the Master Chief plummets through Earth's atmosphere using a fragment of the Forerunner 'Dreadnought' ship. He crashed into an east African jungle, soon after being found by Sergeant Major Avery Johnson on a rescue mission to collect him. Sergeant Johnson, the Arbiter and a handful of Marines, head toward the extraction point. Covenant forces are sighted in the area and Johnson splits the group to reduce their chances of getting spotted. The Master Chief and the Arbiter continue on their way to the extraction zone with the second squad, fighting off numerous Covenant troops in the process, but upon reaching the extraction zone, Avery Johnson's Pelican group consisting of two Pelicans, are ambushed and shot down by Banshees. Johnson and his men are then captured and taken prisoner by a number of Brutes led by a Brute Chieftain. The Master Chief, the Arbiter, and company fight their way through hordes of Covenant and eventually rescue them, after which a Pelican piloted by "Hocus" arrives and picks them up.

The portal to the Ark opens on Earth.

The Pelican brings them to Crow's Nest which is used as a local base of operations by the UNSC. Here, Commander Miranda Keyes and Lord Hood plan a last-ditch effort to stop the Covenant from activating a Forerunner artifact known as the Ark, uncovered outside the ruins of the city of New Mombasa. If activated, this artifact will activate the Halo Array and wipe out all sentient life in the galaxy. Their plan is to have the Master Chief and a small group of marines punch a hole in Truth's anti-air defenses, so that Lord Hood can initiate a low level air-strike on the artifact. Their planning is quickly interrupted when power is cut and the High Prophet of Truth broadcasts an announcement to all surviving human forces that their doom is inevitable. Soon after that, the Covenant Loyalists discover the facility and mount a heavy assault. After a brief struggle, the outpost is lost and is destroyed by a bomb activated by the Master Chief. Deep underground, the Master Chief regroups with the surviving Marines and makes his way into the African City of Voi, Kenya via the Tsavo Highway. Sometime afterward, the Master Chief along with a handful of Marines destroy the Covenant anti-air defenses, Lord Hood leads the last of Earth's military ships against Truth and the artifact. As Hood mounts his attack on Prophet, Truth activates the artifact and creates an enormous slipspace portal, into which all the Covenant ships retreat.

343 Guilty Spark fixes a message from Cortana.

At the same time, a Covenant cruiser controlled by the Flood arrives suddenly via slipspace and crashes in Voi, the parasite quickly spreads throughout the entire city. As the Human forces attempt to fight the infestation, many are infected by the Flood. The Fleet of Retribution division within the Covenant Separatists, lead by Shipmaster Rtas 'Vadum, arrives at Earth and assists the struggle against the infestation. The Elites inform Commander Keyes that a UNSC construct is aboard the crashed Flood ship, and identified it as Cortana. After retrieving Cortana, the Master Chief returned to the Shadow of Intent to oversee the repairs made by 343 Guilty Spark. However, it is only a recorded message from her. Cortana's message says that the Gravemind is coming to Earth with an army of Flood, and that on the other side of the portal is a solution to the Flood infestation, without having to fire the rings. Lord Hood questions Cortana's plan, assuming that it could be a Flood trap, but the Master Chief firmly tells Hood that he trusts her.

Elites and marines hanging out before the battle on the Ark.

Lord Hood and his UNSC forces remain on Earth to defend it against the incoming Flood invasion while Commander Keyes, the Master Chief, and the Elites journeys through the Portal. Arriving at the Ark, the Covenant Separatist engages the Covenant Loyalist fleet while the UNSC launches a ground campaign. After landing on the Ark, 343 Guilty Spark helps lead the Master Chief and UNSC forces to the Ark's Cartographer, the map room of the Ark, to locate the Control Room of the Ark. In order to access the Control Room, the UNSC and the Covenant Separatists must deactivate three shield generators which are inside three separate towers. While SPARTAN-117 and the Arbiter succeed in deactivating the first and second towers, Johnson radios Keyes, telling her that he must retreat due to the heavy enemy assault. When the Master Chief and the Elites arrived to the third tower, Johnson and his men are nowhere to be seen. After the final shield barrier protecting the Control Room deactivates, the Flood-infested High Charity arrives via slipspace and crashes onto the Ark, releasing many Flood dispersal pods and flood-infested rocks as it falls, causing the Covenant to be even more prone to lighting the rings.

Miranda Keyes against the Covenant

After handling the nearby infestation, the Master Chief leads the remaining UNSC and surviving Sangheili forces via armored vehicles in an assault on the Citadel containing the Control Room, which is heavily defended by Covenant Loyalist forces. Once inside the Citadel, Truth broadcasts his sermon and reveals the captured Johnson to his followers. Just as Truth is about to force Johnson to activate the rings, Keyes crashes into the Control Room using a Pelican. Knowing she can't kill all of the Brutes, Keyes realizes that she must kill Johnson and herself to stop the rings from being activated. From behind, Truth kills Keyes with a Spiker, and then forcing Johnson's hand on the nearby terminal, activates all of the remaining Halos in the galaxy.

The Arbiter and Master Chief fight the Flood.

Just as the Master Chief and the Arbiter reach the top, two Flood Tank Forms confront them. The Gravemind, communicating through the two Flood forms, urges the two to join forces in stopping the initiation of the Halos and Truth. The Flood help the Master Chief and the Arbiter reach Truth, taking out the Covenant defenses. With the Flood's help, the Master Chief and the Arbiter slaughtered all the Covenant forces defending Truth. Upon arrival to the Ark's Control Terminal, they find Johnson mourning over the loss of Keyes, and Truth partially infected. The Arbiter, after a short confrontation with Truth over the true purpose of the Halos, executes Truth with his energy sword, claiming he is too dangerous to be kept alive, just as the Master Chief deactivates all the Halos. Shortly after the deactivation of the Halos, the Gravemind betrays them and prevents the duo from escaping, although Johnson manages to escape using Keyes' crashed Pelican.

Master Chief finds Cortana.

The Master Chief and the Arbiter manage to escape from the Citadel via an access tunnel near the elevator they used earlier. The Master Chief then experiences a hallucination of Cortana and follows the figure to a control panel. He then activated the panel, surprised to see that the Ark was manufacturing a replacement Halo after the destruction of the previous one. Knowing that the threat of the Flood is undeniably apocalyptic, the Master Chief decides he will activate the new Halo. Needing an Index in order to fire the ring, SPARTAN-117 journeys into the crashed High Charity to retrieve Cortana, keeping his promise and knowing that she still has the Index she acquired from the original Installation 04. Once retrieved, Cortana instructs the SPARTAN to overload High Charity's engines in order to destroy the Gravemind. The Arbiter arrives via Banshee to assist the SPARTAN in fighting the Flood. The two escape from High Charity before it explodes using a damaged but still flyable Pelican.

Master Chief activates the new halo ring.

The surviving Sangheili and UNSC personnel return to Earth, leaving only Sergeant Johnson, the Master Chief with Cortana and the Arbiter to make their way to the new Halo. As they make their way to the new Halo's Control Room, Flood forms arrive via Flood Dispersal Pods to prevent the activation of the Halo. From here, they quickly discover that Gravemind is attempting to reconstruct itself on the new Halo. As Sergeant Johnson tries to activate the ring, 343 Guilty Spark fires his defensive laser at him, mortally wounding Johnson, after realizing that it will destroy the installation. The Monitor then turns against the Master Chief and the Arbiter, blasting the Arbiter out of the Control Room, leaving the SPARTAN to destroy Guilty Spark by himself. The Master Chief successfully destroys the Monitor with the Spartan Laser and tries to mend Johnson. Mortally wounded, Johnson urged the SPARTAN to send him out "with a bang."

Master Chief uploads Cortana.

With the Halo activated, the Master Chief and the Arbiter race towards the frigate Forward Unto Dawn using Johnson's Warthog. With no time to reach the cockpit, the Master Chief uploads Cortana into the frigate to start taking off before the Arbiter is able to take the controls. The front half of the Dawn, containing the Arbiter, makes it through the portal. However, as Halo shakes itself to pieces during its firing sequence and damages the Ark, the portal deactivates as the other half of the Dawn containing Chief and Cortana enter it. This causes them to rip off from the other half of the ship and be sent to an unknown area of space far enough from the Halo's blast, however, since they didn't come out of the other side of the portal, they never made it back to Earth.

The UNSC memorial service.

Back on Earth, Lord Hood holds a memorial service in honor for those who died in the Human-Covenant war, with the Arbiter and many Marines in attendance. With Truth dead, the Covenant defeated, and the Flood wiped out, the long and devastating war is finally over. Though he says he can never forgive the Arbiter for what the Covenant did to the human race, Lord Hood sincerely thanks him for standing by the Master Chief until the end. After the service, the Covenant Separatists returned to their home planet.

Master Chief goes into cyrosleep while Cortana remains on watch.

After the credits, it is revealed that the Master Chief and Cortana are still alive aboard the rear section of the Dawn in unknown space, which had apparently torn off before going through the other side of the portal. The SPARTAN floats to a cryotube and as he climbs in, Cortana comments "I'll miss you." He replies "Wake me, when you need me." If the last level is completed on Legendary difficulty, the section of Forward Unto Dawn that Cortana and John are aboard is seen drifting a mysterious planet, which was explored in Halo 4.

Characters

Major Characters	Minor Characters
UNSC Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 Cortana Sergeant Major Avery J. Johnson Lieutenant Commander Miranda Keyes Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood Covenant Separatists "The Arbiter" Thel 'Vadam Shipmaster Rtas 'Vadumee N'tho 'Sraom (third playable co-op character) Usze 'Taham (fourth playable co-op character) Covenant Loyalists High Prophet of Truth Flood Gravemind Forerunner 343 Guilty Spark	UNSC Lieutenant "Hocus" Gunnery Sergeant Reynolds Gunnery Sergeant Marcus Stacker Private First Class Chips Dubbo Staff Sergeant Marcus Banks Office of Naval Intelligence Reconnaissance Personnel Voi Factory Workers Forerunner The Librarian (Terminals only) Ur-Didact (Terminals only) 032 Mendicant Bias (Terminals only) Offensive Bias (Terminals only) Forerunner Construct 05-2401 Penitent Tangent

Features

Weapons

United Nations Space Command	Covenant
Standard MA5C Assault Rifle BR55 Heavy Barrel Service Rifle M6G Magnum M7/Caseless Submachine Gun M9 High-Explosive Dual-Purpose Grenade M41 SSR MAV/AW Rocket Launcher M90A Shotgun SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle Spartan Laser Support AIE-486H Heavy Machine Gun LAU-65D/SGM-151 Missile Pod M7057 Flamethrower	Standard Type-1 Plasma Grenade Type-1 Energy Sword Type-25 Plasma Pistol Type-25 Plasma Rifle Type-26 Shade Stationary Gun Type-33 "Needler" Guided Munitions Launcher Type-33 Fuel Rod Gun Type-50 Sniper Rifle System Type-51 Carbine Support Type-52 Plasma Cannon
Forerunner	Jiralhanae
Sentinel Beam	Type-2 Antipersonnel "Spike" Fragmentation grenade Type-2 Energy Weapon/"Gravity" Hammer Type-3 Antipersonnel/Antimatériel Incendiary grenade Type-25 "Spiker" Carbine Type-25 "Brute Shot" Grenade Launcher Type-52 "Mauler" Pistol
Equipment
Bubble Shield Power Drain Trip Mine Portable Gravity Lift Radar Jammer Flare Regenerator Deployable Cover Invincibility Automated Turret Cloaking Active camouflage Overshield Custom Power Up

Vehicles

UNSC	Covenant
Usable M313 "Elephant" Heavy Recovery Vehicle AV-14 "Hornet" Attack VTOL M12 Force Application Vehicle M12 Warthog LRV M12G1 "Gauss" Warthog LAAV M274 "Mongoose" Ultra-Light All-Terrain Vehicle M808B "Scorpion" Main Battle Tank M831 "Troop" Warthog TT Non-Usable Charon-class light frigate UNSC Forward Unto Dawn UNSC Aegis Fate D77H-TCI Pelican Dropship Albatross Heavy Dropship GA-TL1 Longsword-class Starfighter Tractor unit S-2 "Forklift" Traxus Cargo Transporter Cart	Standard Type-26 "Banshee" Ground Support Aircraft Type-32 "Ghost" Rapid Assault Vehicle Type-26 "Wraith" Assault Gun Carriage Type-52 Anti-Aircraft "Wraith" Artillery Jiralhanae (Brute) Type-25 "Chopper" Rapid Assault Vehicle Type-52 "Prowler" Infantry Support Vehicle
	Flood
	Non-Usable Flood dispersal pod High Charity

Difficulty

Difficulties	Symbol	Description
Easy		"Laugh as helpless victims flee in terror from their inevitable slaughter. The game basically plays itself."
Normal		"Face firm resistance from competent, determined enemies, but burn through enough ammo and you will eventually triumph."
Heroic		"Fight against formidable foes that will truly test your skill and wits; this is the way Halo is meant to be played."
Legendary		"Tremble as teeming hordes of invincible alien monsters punish the slightest error with instant death... again and again."

Multiplayer

Maps

On release, Halo 3 was shipped out with 11 multiplayer maps that could be played over Xbox Live. Halo 3 had the smallest number of multiplayer maps released on launch, as Halo: Combat Evolved had 13, and Halo 2 had 12. To combat this lack of maps, many players customized the maps using the new feature, Forge.

The maps Epilogue, Sand Tarp, Boundless and Pit Stop are official re-edited maps by Bungie, which include small changes like the removal of shield doors, weapon spawns and vehicle spawns.

Over time, more maps were released in map packs.

Arena		Big Team Battle
Image	Map	Image	Map
Launch Maps
	Construct		Last Resort
	Epitaph/Epilogue		Sandtrap/SAND TARP
	Guardian		Valhalla
	High Ground
	Isolation
	Narrows
	Snowbound/Boundless
	The Pit/Pit Stop
Heroic Map Pack
	Foundry		Rat's Nest
			Standoff
Legendary Map Pack
	Blackout		Avalanche
	Ghost Town
Bungie Day 2008
	Cold Storage
Mythic Map Pack
	Assembly
	Orbital
	Sandbox
Mythic Map Pack II
	Citadel
	Heretic
	Longshore

Appearance

Service Tags

The Service Tag is how players can be identified quickly on the battlefield, instead of the long names and complex number combinations which are not suitable for battle situations that require quick tactical orders or communication. The service Tag consists of a letter followed by two numbers. A few examples of Service Tags are K90, C27, A12, S86, D17, and D21.

Certain Service Tags are disallowed, and entering them will yield the error message "This Service Tag is currently in use by the UNSC." Generally, tags that identify Halo characters, trademarks, or offensive words are disallowed. Such tags include: "I17," "N64," "P52," "A55," "P00," "J00," "F49," "A23," and "T17." "O00" is blocked due to its usage in Temporary Profiles. Anything ending in 00 is blocked.

According to Bungie, as of March 14 the most used Service Tags by players of Halo 3 are, in descending order, O07, M16, I69, P26, S80, N99, F18, H20, I87, and D13.

Armor Permutations

There are two player models which players can choose from, the standard SPARTAN model or a Sangheili model. Each model has several armor permutations which can be combined. All armor permutations do not have any effects on gameplay.

Emblems

An Emblem is a highly customizable image that appears on the right arm of a Spartan and the back of an Elite during multiplayer matches, they are there to give a player an identity for themselves. Halo 3 introduces several new emblems for the player to use along with new backgrounds to further customize that emblem.

Colors

There are ten base and primary colors, each with three shades of one another that are used to customize your multiplayer color and emblem. On the armor detail color, there is a small painted VI, most noticeable on Mark VI shoulder.

• Steel, Silver, and White
• Red, Mauve, and Salmon
• Orange, Coral, and Peach
• Gold, Yellow, and Pale
• Sage, Green, and Olive
• Teal, Aqua, and Cyan
• Blue, Cobalt, and Sapphire
• Violet, Orchid, and Lavender
• Crimson, Rubine, and Pink
• Brown, Tan, and Khaki
• Black can still be used but, only in Forge or Custom gametypes, as a forced player color under general settings.
• Zombie a slightly more yellowish version of Green to make players look like zombies. Only available in Forge or Custom gametypes as a forced player color under general settings.

Matchmaking

Matchmaking is where people can play with and against each other through a specially designed search system and multiple playlists. In matchmaking, EXP and Skill can be earned to raise ranks. Also, on some maps like "Guardian" and "Narrows," various equipment such as the Flare and Radar Jammer have been removed due to balance changes.

Playlists

Playlists are lists of different game variations from free-for-all to team games. They are split into Ranked, Social, Hardcore, Community, DLC, Tournaments and Double EXP Weekends.

Veto

The Veto system is a new addition to Halo 3. In a game, after the map and game type loads for each player, a 10 seconds countdown starts. If the majority of players in the match decide to veto, by pressing the (X) button, before the countdown ends, a different map and gametype from the playlist will be selected to be played on.

If a map and gametype is vetoed by a majority of players, the option to veto will be lost during the next countdown. In some cases, players will see the map and gametype change, but players still get the veto option. This is just because the host's connection cannot support the map, or if anyone in the party cannot play the map. When this happens, you still have the right to veto the next map and game type.

Ranks

The ranking system is based on real military ranks. To progress in rank, players must earn the required amount of EXP. For Officer ranks, players must also reach a certain skill level in a ranked playlist. If a player earns a certain amount of experience, but does not reach the required skill level to reach the next officer rank, they will instead be promoted to a higher grade of their current rank (For example, A Major who earns 200 EXP but does not have a skill level of 35 will be promoted to Major, Grade 2 upon earning 300 EXP).

Each Officer rank has a "final" grade which is represented by a unique name instead of a number. Gunnery Sergeant also has this feature. Many players judge others that have the grade 4 rank or "gold bars" as a sign of lack in skill, though not necessarily always true. Halo 3 uses the Trueskill system created by Microsoft to determine skill level in ranked playlists.

Enlisted Ratings

Officer Ratings

Recruit Apprentice (grades 1 and 2) Private (grades 1 and 2) Corporal (grades 1 and 2) Sergeant (grades 1, 2, and 3) Gunnery Sergeant (grades 1, 2, 3, and Master Sergeant)

Lieutenant (grades 1, 2, 3, and First Lieutenant) 10 Highest Skill Required Captain (grades 1, 2, 3, and Staff Captain) 20 Highest Skill Required Major (grades 1, 2, 3, and Field Major) 30 Highest Skill Required Commander (grades 1, 2, 3, and Strike Commander) 35 Highest Skill Required Colonel (grades 1, 2, 3, and Force Colonel) 40 Highest Skill Required Brigadier (grades 1, 2, 3, and Brigadier General) 45 Highest Skill Required General (grades 1, 2, 3, and Five Star General) 50 Highest Skill Required

Custom Games

In the Custom Games Lobby, players are given the option to choose the gametypes and maps players have made and want to play with their friends, these include Custom Game types and Map Variants. Unlike matchmaking, custom games do not give EXP.

Standard Game Types

Custom Game Types

Slayer - Kill your enemies. Kill your friends' enemies. Kill your friends. Oddball - Hold the skull to earn points. It's like Hamlet, with guns. King of the Hill - Control the hill to earn points. Earn points to win. It's good to be king. Capture the Flag - Invade your opponent's stronghold, seize their flag, and return it to your base to score. Assault - Carry your bomb to the enemy base, plant it, and defend it until it detonates. Territories - Defend your territory and control the land. Teams earn points for territories they control. Juggernaut - If you meet the Juggernaut, kill the Juggernaut. Infection - The timeless struggle of human versus zombie. If you die by a zombie's hand, you join their ranks. VIP - One player on each team is Very Important. Take down the enemy's VIP for points, but take care of your own.

In Halo 3, there are a number of options that can be changed for custom games. By pressing X in the pregame lobby the host can change the default options, to whatever the player chooses and can save the changes when finished by pressing X again to save as custom game type. Options that can be changed: Damage resistance Shield multiplier Shield recharge rate Immune to headshots Grenade counts (Grenade Regeneration, on or off) Infinite ammo Weapon pickup (Enabled, Disabled) Player speed (25%, 50%, 75%, 90%, 100%, 110%, 125%, 150%, 200%, 300%) Player gravity (50%, 75%, 100%, 200%) Vehicle use (Full Use, Passenger only, None) Motion tracker (off, friendlies only, normal, enhanced) Range (10m, 25m, 75m, 100m, 150m) Indestructible vehicles (On, off) Player forced Colors (Like Black or Zombie) Meaning all players in game will be forced to the color of your choice. Over shields and active camouflage can be given to a certain team/player or everyone on spawn or re-spawn.

Forge

Forge is an "object editor" that can be used to edit multiplayer maps. It does not allow as much freedom to edit/make maps as a PC map editor, such as the Halo Custom Edition and Halo 2 Vista editing kits. Players can, however, edit objects, spawn points, weapons, teleporters and properties of objects on the map, etc. While in a forge map, players may start editing maps by press up on the D pad; when a player goes into edit mode they take on the appearance of a Forerunner Monitor similar to 343 Guilty Spark. The player now obtains the ability to spawn weapons, vehicles and objects in-game, as well as move and adjust them. New DLC maps like Sandbox and Foundry will allow a player to make their own map using the amount of objects included in the map. While the forge may not allow as much freedom as other map editors, it makes it easier for a player to make a map with "simple" objects.

Theater

The Theater mode allows players to save films from the Campaign, Multiplayer, and Forge, and also get film clips and screen shots. This feature of Halo 3 has been exploited for making Machinima videos and Montages.

Saved Films

Saved Films allow a player to view any game, campaign or multiplayer, from any angle. It uses game data to re-create the games, which makes file sizes very small (5 MB for a 15-minute multiplayer match). In the film, players can either watch themselves play through an entire mission or match, or use a bird's eye view to see the bigger scope of how the match or mission plays. Players can go anywhere they want, within the limitations of invisible barriers, so that players cannot fly as high as possible or go very far from their character. In multiplayer matches, players can fast forward or rewind the film. Campaign films cannot be rewound for technical reasons. Only the previous 25 games will be saved under the recent films category on the Xbox 360 console. Older films will be deleted.

Clips

When playing a film, players can record a particular part of the film from any angle they want. Doing this allows players to look back at their saved clip without having to watch the entire film. Players, however, cannot record clips of campaign films due to unknown technical reasons. If players are in a party viewing a film, they will not be able to record clips, nor take screenshots. Also, players may find that when viewing a film clip in a party, the film will not load until there is only one player left in the party.

Screenshots

Screenshots can be taken in any sort of film; all screenshots taken by Xbox Live players are sent to Bungie.net via the Internet. You must be in single-player theater or film to take a screenshot. Screenshots that are favored by many or impress Bungie employees may be uploaded to Bungie Favorites.

Soundtrack

Soundtrack Cover art

Released on November 20, 2007, the Halo 3: Original Soundtrack, composed and produced by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori, is a two-disc set much like the Halo 2: Original Soundtrack. The Halo 3: Original Soundtrack was released in one set rather than separate volumes like its predecessor.

Comprised of melodies, chants, and trumpets, the Halo 3: Original Soundtrack is broken up into chapters which correspond to in-game levels.

Disc one is broken up into into the beginning levels of the game, and splits at about midway though the campaign. Consisting of 15 songs of longer length, disc one runs slightly longer than disc two. Consequently, disc two is broken up into the latter levels of the game, while including four bonus tracks. One of these bonus tracks is "Finish The Fight," the track present in the Halo 3 Announcement Trailer, with the exception of the dialogue.

To hear more about this album, listen to the September 20th Bungie Podcast.

Marketing Promotions and Release

Viral Campaigns

Beta and Epsilon

The Halo 3 Beta was a phase in the development of Halo 3, produced by Bungie Studios and organized by Microsoft. A public version of the beta was released to the public for three weeks to give people an early chance to play the game and to test amounts of stress on the servers.

Several months after the Beta was closed down, Bungie released Halo 3 Epsilon, an internal-only Halo 3 build, to Microsoft employees. The Epsilon featured Campaign (both single-player and cooperative gameplay) on the level Tsavo Highway, as well as Forge and multiplayer on six maps: Epitaph, High Ground, Last Resort, Sandtrap, Snowbound, and Valhalla.

Iris glyph

Iris

On June 11, 2007, at 10:26AM PDT, the viral marketing campaign for Halo 3 started, with a believed "hacking" of Bungie.net's forums throughout the next several months fans followed the various clues and hints to unlock "servers" which would reveal the final moments of the Forerunners. Cradle of Life: The Cradle of Life is a short flash animation web comic, and is one of the first parts of the Iris campaign.

Believe

Believe was the marketing slogan and campaign for Halo 3 developed by both Bungie Studios and Microsoft. The word "Believe" appears to be honoring the legacy of SPARTAN-117, citing him as a hero of Humanity whose brave actions inspired other servicemen of the United Nations Space Command during the final days of the Human-Covenant war. Its been noted that the Believe trailers took place about 50 years after Halo 3's storyline.

Trailers

Announcement Trailer

Announcement

Halo 3 was officially announced via a cinematic trailer rendered in real-time, on May 9, 2006 during the Microsoft press conference. The reveal utilized real-game assets, fiction and locations. The trailer shows the Master Chief walking through wreckage of the New Mombasa space elevator with Cortana appearing at several intervals. He then stops at the edge of a cliff where the Covenant forces are hovering over a Forerunner structure. The trailer ends with the structure opening and firing a beam of light.

Starry Night

The Starry Night trailer was released on December 4, 2006 during Monday Night Football on ESPN. It shows two children staring at the stars talking about whether there is life out there in the universe, before switching to a dazed the Master Chief recovering from some form of blast. Once back on his feet, he picks up his helmet and then uses a Bubble Shield to defend himself from an incoming Wraith's plasma mortar. He then quickly charges forward, eventually jumping over a cliff into a swarm of Covenant Loyalists. It is speculated, yet left to interpretation, that the two children are the Master Chief and Kelly-087 when they were young.

Halo 3 ViDoc: "Et Tu, Brute?"

ViDoc: Et Tu, Brute?

The Et Tu Brute ViDoc was released before the end of 2006 and was a behind-the-scenes look at the development of Halo 3, specifically focusing on the Brutes in Halo 3. This 7:03 min clip interviews various Bungie employees about the Brutes, their development and flaws in Halo 2, and how they were expanded upon in Halo 3.

Halo 3 ViDoc: "Is Quisnam Protero Damno!"

ViDoc: Is Quisnam Protero Damno!

The Is Quisnam Protero Damno ViDoc was released several months before the release of the Halo 3 Beta. The video focuses on the multiplayer in Halo 3. This 7:12 minute clip interviews various Bungie employees about the development of the various multiplayer aspects of the game.

Halo 3 ViDoc: "Cinema Paradiso"

ViDoc: Cinema Paradiso

Cinema Paradiso is the third and final ViDoc released by Bungie before the release of Halo 3. Released on September 20, 2007 the 7:13 video interviews various Bungie employees about the development of the theater and forge features of the game.

Halo 3 trailer from E3 2007

E3 2007 Trailer

Revealed at the end of Microsoft's E3 press conference on July 11 this trailer was the final trailer to show off the actual game itself and unlike the previous trailers, the Halo 3 E3 2007 trailer focused on showing various gameplay and cinematic clips. While the trailer did little to further knowledge about the Halo 3 plot, it confirmed many speculations about the game, the least of which was that the Arbiter and the Master Chief will fight alongside one another in the game.

The Halo: Landfall trilogy

Halo: Landfall

Halo: Landfall is a trilogy of short films that were designed to promote the release of Halo 3. Directed by Neill Blomkamp with props and costume design by WETA Workshop Landfall tells the story of two ODSTs on a mission to coordinate Master Chief's rescue.

Rereleases

• 2014 - Released as part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection for the Xbox One in November 2014 and for PC on July 14, 2020.
• 2020 - Released as part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection for the PC on July 14, 2020.

Retail Editions

Comparison

Features	Standard	Limited Collector's	Legendary
Image of contents
Game disc and manual	Yes	Yes	Yes
Poster	Yes	Yes	Yes
Interactive Xbox 360 disc	No	Yes	Yes
Bestiarum compendium book/DVD	No	Yes (book)	Yes (DVD)
Legendary DVD	No	No	Yes
Master Chief helmet case	No	No	Yes

Standard Edition

The Standard Edition contains the game disc, manual, and a small poster with the game's control-map and artwork.

Limited Collector's Edition

The Limited Edition, contained in a metal case, contains the game disc, manual, poster, interactive Xbox 360 bonus disc with several featurettes, and a hard cover bound "Bestiarum", which is a collection of information and art covering the species, cultures, and civilizations of Halo 3.

Upon release, some of the Limited Edition versions of Halo 3 were found to have a defect in the hub that kept the discs in place, which could lead to scratched discs. Microsoft confirmed the problem and offered to replace scratched Halo 3 Limited Edition discs free of charge until the end of January 2008. This was not a problem in either the Legendary Edition or the Standard Edition.

Legendary Edition

The final version was marketed as the "Legendary Edition", which contains the game disc, manual, poster, interactive bonus disc, Bestiarum (on one of the DVD discs), Legendary DVD containing special content exclusive to the Legendary Edition, and a scale replica of the Master Chief's helmet as a case for the three discs. The slip-cover packaging unfolds into a large heavy-stock poster of Master Chief. Gamestation stores in the UK also offered a limited edition Master Chief figurine only available to the first 1000 pre-orders.

Development

Creation

Halo 2 was a critical and commercial success, but its development had taken a toll on Bungie. The game's development was fraught and rushed, resulting in the final act of the game's campaign being cut. Bungie was openly critical of the game's shortcomings, and viewed a third Halo game as a chance to do right by fans for Halo 2's problems, as well as the final Halo game the studio would make before moving onto other projects. Lingering dissatisfaction with Bungie's acquisition by Microsoft in 2000 and a desire for more favorable profit-sharing on Halo 3 led to an agreement where Bungie would become an independent studio after shipping three more Halo games. The games were originally going to be Halo 3, filmmaker Peter Jackson's now-cancelled Halo Chronicles, and Halo 4. The games that Bungie eventually created were Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo: Reach.

When development for Halo 3 began, there wasn't a project lead due to Jason Jones going on sabbatical, and Jones nor Pete Parsons (then-Microsoft executive at Bungie) gave someone the title, so in-fighting began. Staten ended up taking a sabbatical himself after fighting with Lehto, while Bertone took a break six months into production. Eventually, Max Hoberman became the multiplayer lead until he moved (Tyson Green took over), Paul Bertone and Rob Stokes become the campaign design leads, Marcus Lehto became the art director, and Jaime Griesemer became the gameplay design lead. The team decided to print out a cardboard cut-out of Jones and put it in the corner, using it during meetings.

During this time, Bungie didn't have a lead writer for Halo 3, so a story committee was formed to create an outline based off of Halo 2's cut third act, but characters from Halo 2 were missing, including Lord Hood and Miranda Keyes, and there were no surprises. Marty O'Donnell wrote some plot points after watching the movie, Serenity, to make the player feel that the Master Chief was at risk. His outline killed off Miranda Keyes and Sergeant Johnson, and 343 Guilty Spark (who killed Johnson), and that was incorporated into the story committee's outline. When Staten returned, he worked with Stokes, to write up drafts and make the story as good as it could be.

As a result of Microsoft's new console launching in 2005, the Xbox 360, Halo 3 would launch only on that platform. The Xbox 360 took Halo 2's multiplayer features, such as matchmaking, having a friend list, sending messages, voice chat, and sending invites, and incorporated it into the system. This meant that Hoberman wouldn't be able to use any of those features in the game, so multiplayer would have to be rebuilt. He and his team spent a year getting feature parity with Halo 2 in the online feature set, mostly trying to figure out how to have party system in the game while the 360 was offering it separately on the console. Hoberman left Seattle in early 2006 and moved to Austin, Texas. Tyson Green took over as the multiplayer lead, while Homerman continued work on the online systems. He also starting working on DLC maps for Halo 2. Around Christmas 2006, he officially gave notice and started a new company, Certain Affinity, to continue working on DLC maps independently.

While the story was being figured out during pre-production, Griesemer came up with five or six gameplay prototype improvements in the hopes that the team could incorporate a few into the game, which included the Scarab, equipment, and Flood that could change into different types. Because they all worked and people were invested in them, all of them were added. Bertone also felt that the campaign needed something more competitive in it, so campaign scoring and medals were added. This was the foundation for what would become Halo 3: ODST's Firefight mode.

On May 5, 2006, Frankie, Bungie's then-community manager, hinted that the team was working on a "big project." The following week at E3 2006 on May 9, Bungie announced Halo 3 with a real-time cinematic trailer telling players to "finish the fight" in 2007. In their blog post, they called this "the third and final game in the Halo Trilogy" and "the best kept secret ever." They noted that everything in the trailer was being rendered in real-time on the Xbox 360, using the current version of their Halo 3 engine, and called out that the "HDR lighting, self-shadowing, GPU-run particle system and many other effects should make it intact (and more) to our final game," which didn't occur during Halo 2's development.

Around this time, Jason Jones returned, and instead of working on Halo 3, ODST, or Reach, he, Griesemer, and a small team of engineers and artists began working on the game that was codenamed Tiger, which would eventually become Destiny.

Bungie was more transparent about Halo 3's development than Halo 2's, revealing that the game was divided into single player and multiplayer builds, making debugging and testing quicker. Multiplayer was previewed throughout 2006 and 2007, and Bungie offered their first ever public beta test of the multiplayer from May 16-June 6, which included Saved Films and File Sharing four months before release. The first campaign screenshots appeared for the first time on July 6, 2007, one day before Bungie announced their independence from Microsoft.

Engine

The Halo 3 Engine is the game engine developed for and implemented in Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST. Its unique features include advanced graphics technologies such as high dynamic range, global lighting, and depth of field effects within cutscenes.

Artificial Intelligence

In Halo 3's AI system, squads are given a set of tasks, with each task having priority levels and sub-tasks. Squads are "poured in at the top" of a tree of tasks, and "filter down" through that tree. The effect is that individual combatants are assigned to complete the most important tasks first, with leftover personnel being assigned to less important tasks.

Individual tasks can "turn themselves on and off"; when a high-priority task is turned on, squad members are reassigned as necessary to ensure its completion. When a task is completed (and turned off), the squad members that were working on it are reassigned to any other tasks that need completion.

In addition to specific task trees, there are also three general stages of battle: advance, retreat, and make a last stand.

The behaviors of an individual AI-controlled combatant are also represented as tree structures where each node is a self-describing behavior, such as "throw grenade" or "melee". The root node of the tree is simply the beginning of a combatant's decision-making process. That node's children are the general tasks that the combatant is performing ("hide", "fight", etc.). Those nodes' children are specific behaviors.

Collision Detection

Halo 3's engine uses a posteriori collision detection. The collision detection engine does not account for movement between two frames of animation, a fact that is clearly demonstrated by the Panoramic Camera's ability to accelerate and clip past a level's boundaries in Theater.

Physics Engine

The Halo 3 physics engine runs calculations on every frame of animation, similarly to the collision detection engine. The engine is capable of calculating, among other things, elasticity on portions of character models; and bullet ricochet.

Character models are elastic at some points, a trait that is clearly demonstrated by the Character Stretch Glitch's presence in the game. The elasticity helps to improve realism at slower speeds. Only some parts of a character's model are elastic; if you look closely at screenshots of the aforementioned glitch, you will find that the rigid parts of Spartans' and Marines' armor do not stretch.

The physics engine utilizes an optimization found in many video game physics engines: objects that remain at rest for several seconds are temporarily exempted from physics calculations (but not collision detection) until they are disturbed again; this is why floating Crates and Fusion Coils can remain floating in the air until the round is restarted or the items are disturbed. An object is considered "disturbed" if it is moved, picked up (in Forge), or if something collides with it. The optimization is likely based on the premise that an object that isn't moving now isn't likely to move in the near future unless something moves it or it moves on its own.

Rendering Technologies

Numerous advanced rendering technologies were employed with the new Xbox 360's processor. Within cutscenes, depth of field effects were utilized. motion blurring effects, initially absent from the beta version of the game, were added in the release version. Normal, bump, and parallax mapping were all used to increase surface and lighting detail without increasing models' polygon counts. Mostly-unused functionality for real-time reflections is also present. The game has a draw distance of roughly ten miles (sixteen kilometers).

Audio

Halo 3 utilises Waves audio plugin which allows audio to be processed in real time as the game engine generates the audio calls.

Halo 3: ODST

Halo 3: ODST was originally intended to be campaign extension that covered the events of the Battle of Earth, and ends roughly one month before Halo 3 begins. However, during its development, ODST quickly evolved into what was essentially a full game in its own right. In ODST, the player takes control of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper as he navigates though the Covenant occupied New Mombasa trying to discover the fate of his fellow squad members.

Reviews and Reaction

Aggregate Score
Metacritic	94/100
Review Scores
1UP	A+
Edge	10/10
Eurogamer	10/10
Famitsu	37/40
Game Informer	9.75/10
GameSpot	9.5/10
GameTrailers	9.8/10
IGN	9.5/10
Official Xbox Magazine (US)	10/10
X-Play	5/5

Halo 3 was called the most sought-after video game of 2007. and to be one of the most hyped video games of all time. Prior to its launch, Halo 3 was expected to be one of the biggest entertainment events of the year, and among the biggest entertainment releases of all time. Additionally, Halo 3 was expected to stir the sales of the Xbox 360 console - being a "killer application." The craziness of the Halo 3 launch was compared to the madness of the iPhone, Harry Potter books and Star Wars movies releases.

Exactly like its predecessors, Halo 3 was a very prosperous, record-breaking game. Accompanied by its record-breaking 1.7 million preorders in the U.S, few expected it not to break any records. 24 hours after release, however, Halo 3 had generated a record-breaking $170 million in the U.S, beating the $155 million that Microsoft was expecting. Although Microsoft never released a 24-hour sales figure, it is estimated to have sold in the region of 2.4 - 2.5 million copies within 24 hours of availability in the U.S. - approximately 1.8 million units after 8 hours - with that number increasing to 3.3 million units, 12 days after release. Within 24 hours, over 1.1 million gamers had played Halo 3 on Xbox Live. One week after release, over 2.7 million players - nearly one-third of the total Xbox Live members at that time - had played it on Xbox Live. As of November 17, 2008, Halo 3 had reportedly sold 8.8 million copies worldwide.

Halo 3 has received mainly positive reviews from both the online gaming sites and country specific magazines. Each review has praised it, stating "the winning formula is still apparent" with "multiplayer constantly surprising and engaging", while new features of Forge and Saved Films were singled out as particularly interesting new features. Halo 3 has also gone on to win a number of awards and top review scores from:

Awards
Spike TV Awards	Best Multiplayer Game Most Addictive Video Game Fueled by Dew
TIME	Game of the Year
Visual Effects Society	Best Real Time Visuals in a Video Game
Gametrailers	2007's Best Xbox 360 Game of the Year Best Multiplayer of the Year Best First Person Shooter
X-Play Presents "G-Phoria"	Game of the Year
EDGE	The Edge Award For Interactive Innovation
IGN:	Xbox 360 Best Online Multiplayer Xbox 360 Most Innovative Design

Trivia

• At precisely 6:36pm PST on February 28, 2009, in a three-minute and nineteen second game of Infection on Foundry, four players participated in Halo 3's one billionth match. In comparison, Halo 2 had 800 million games played at the time.
• As of March 1, 2009, the total amount of online Matchmaking time accounted to 2,023,153,340,764 seconds, equal to 64,109 years of playtime.
• For Christmas 2006, Microsoft and Bungie gave U.S. Troops in Iraq a chance to play the Halo 3 multiplayer alpha build of the game.
• On the Cops & Robbers commercial for the Xbox 360 at the Xbox Live Marketplace, one of the license plates says HA LO307, or Halo 3 07.
• The game has 39,377 lines of dialogue, most of them randomly triggered during game play.
• Halo 3 before the Auto-Update 2 patch contained 49 Achievements, which is a reference to seven (7x7=49).
• Argos, a UK retail store, started accidentally selling copies of the game one week prior to the actual release date. All Halo 3 products were removed from shelves when the store realized its mistake. However, a number of copies still made it into the hands of the public and a video showcasing the ending made it onto YouTube.
• Halo 3 multiplayer was shown at the Penny Arcade Expo as the final round of the Omegathon and showed the level Guardian before its release date.
• Halo 3 has been referenced in various examples of outside media. Footage of Halo 3 can be seen in an episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, an episode of Glee, and an episode of CSI: Miami, as well as in the feature films Jumper, Bride Wars, and Knight Rider, although in Jumper and CSI, an original Xbox controller is used. Also, Halo 3 game play is featured in music videos for the songs 'Beggin' by Madcon and 'Riverside' by Sidney Samson. In addition, in the movie Eagle Eye, the two main characters venture into a Circuit City, where they receive shocking news. In the background before they enter a room, one can see a Halo 3 promotional poster behind them. This poster can also be seen in the background in The Day the Earth Stood Still.
• If you've played on this game with your current LIVE account, you will unlock the Halo 3 nameplate in Halo: Reach.
• Halo 3 was released for free on the Xbox Live Marketplace from October 16-31 in 2013.
• During development, Bungie staff planned out where all the missions take place on the Ark, including cut content. This was done to assist level designers with the creation of skyboxes among other things for the game.

Links

• Wikipedia article on Halo 3
• Halo Alpha article on Halo 3
• Bungie's Official Halo 3 Project Page (archived)
• Halo 3 Credits