When I tell people I’m majoring in video game design, they often ask me about Halo. The Halo series has penetrated mainstream culture in a way that most games never will. I think it is great that this franchise has made the entertainment industry take notice of the purchasing power of gamers, but I am not a fan of Halo. FPS games aren’t my favorite, since they usually lack the story, characterization, and lovely graphics that keep me glued to RPGs and adventure games.

When Halo 3 came out, I heard the co-op mode was decent. Hoping that this would mean better chances of survival for me, I grabbed a friend who hadn’t played much Halo and sat down with him to play Halo 3.

The opening sequence was decent but not terribly impressive by my standards. I soon found myself controlling an alien who had grudgingly become an ally of Master Chief. I found this somewhat amusing, as I was a taller than the human but much shorter than my co-op partner in real life. It was fun to tower above him and watch him running ahead of me.

The console FPS controls were somewhat confusing compared to the PC mouse and keyboard. This is a common issue for those used to PCs, and those used to consoles will often have the opposite problem. It seems that it’s merely a matter of preference for most people. However, I often found myself running into the ground or swinging the camera wildly in my attempts to determine whether or not the camera was inverted compared to my intuitive idea of controls.

Due to my difficulties in controlling my character, my partner would often run ahead. We established a nice system where he would jump into melee combat and I would stay behind, sniping off some enemies and providing a re-spawn point. This worked well for a while, but soon became somewhat boring.

The enemies were mostly mindless. A certain group of aliens had ridiculous voices that made me laugh at the game…because it was so stupid. I didn’t like the idea of the enemy being completely idiotic. I prefer games where war is about fighting for what you think is right, but you still realize the consequences due to the humanization of the enemy.

The biggest problem I had with this game in general was the fact that I just didn’t care. There was little cover, sporadically placed, but it didn’t seem to matter much if I died. Ammo was in good supply, so I never had to consider conserving my resources. I could just shoot everywhere if I wanted. Also, there was an A.I. controlled team that we first rescued and then joined. They provided little help; I didn’t really notice if they were around or not.

Compared to games like Half-Life, this game was incredibly dull and lacked a decent story. The story was sprinkled in small doses after completing certain objectives, but it wasn’t very interesting. Since I didn’t care about my team and those around me, I found myself lacking motivation.

Finally, I was frustrated with Halo 3 due to its unrefined design. There were enormous enemies with huge shock sticks that were ridiculously powerful. If these enemies ran at you, you would die, even if your partner was shooting them in the back. This type of imbalance is something I aim to avoid in my games. Then there was little guidance in the form of maps, making it hard to figure out where to go. Unlike the refined level design of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the level design in Halo often left me lost.

For such a popular game, I was very disappointed in my co-op Halo 3 experience. I hope that the appeal in this game comes from the multiplayer aspect, because I was sincerely disappointed in the story mode. Halo 3 seems like an unrefined, mediocre experience.