I remember the months leading up to the release of Halo 2 still clearly. The date of release was firmly entrenched in my mind. After playing the Halo 1 campaign for three years all I could think about was that date. To be frank I was sadly disappointed. Thankfully for the third installment I had low expectations and now I am very glad of that.

When it comes to Halo 3 I don’t really know how to explain my feelings about the campaign so first I will just explain the way I feel the story was constructed. I can see the creative team sitting at the round table at Bungie. Each member asked to brainstorm for ideas. One by one they recount what was good and what was bad about the last two games. What worked and what didn’t. New ideas are floated and a general feel of the content is established.

Let’s put in some scarabs, they were cool. It would be great if we could take down drop ships. New and unique vehicles are a must and so forth. My problem with this is that I really believe the story was negatively affected by Bungies willingness to try and appeal to YOU. Yes you, the Halo fanatic, you know who you are. Bungie did what they thought you wanted and most probably did. With each mission they added what you want. Not original content just reprocessed content and story elements that mimicked the first two games.

Now this isn’t all bad. After all it’s Halo 3. Bring back Guilty Spark. Throw the flood at us in greater numbers. Do all that and more. However in the end the game is to full of plot twists or rather villains that change sides and come and go as they please. I can see clearly why the casual or first time Halo players are so confused.

My second run through the campaign I played co-op with a friend who played both Halo 1 and 2. He almost gave up playing because of this. I almost gave up playing because of his questions and the lack of my ability to answer them. The cut scenes needed to be three times as long to explain the story in all honesty.

One thing I was looking forward to was the way the new AI affected game play. I saw the interviews with the Bungie team. All that talk about Brute behaviour. If one throws a grenade the other do etc. The only intelligence I saw were Grunts retreating when they were alone. The rest of the Covenant brings nothing new. Brutes might as well be entrenched in concrete. They move only when devoid of their armor. The encounters seem scripted with pockets of enemy scattered here and there. More often then not watching on as their Covenant brothers get killed from the safety of the next rock.

In the end the icing on the cake was the last mission titled Halo. The final Hog run was simply too much for me. I don’t know if I was more offended by the mimicking of the original or the falling tiles that looked like place holders. For a moment there I thought I accidentally got an unfinished French beta version of the game.

I've decided I need time to play more multiplayer and access the balances and features before judging anything but the campaign. Perhaps there I will find what I'm looking for or rather what I have lost in terms of fun from this series.

I’ve probably given you the impression that I didn’t like the game. I’m sorry if that’s the case. For you see I did enjoy it. Much more then Halo 2 and more then a lot of games I hand over hard earned cash for. Perhaps that’s my problem, I’m a harsh judge. I almost always expect more then I get. Even when I have little to no expectation.