Everyone has their own favorite Halo game, which is a testament to how consistent and varied each entry has been throughout the decades-long franchise. For some, the classic Halo: Combat Evolved experience is their favorite, while others prefer the excellent multiplayer experience from Halo 2. Others will prefer the unique twists on the experience that came from Halo: Reach and Halo 4, while others prefer the wildly different experience that came from Halo 5. However, for many fans' favorite, Halo 3 was the definitive experience from the Halo series, with many sharing memories as the original Xbox 360 multiplayer servers go down for good this week.
Several hardcore fans returned to the original Halo 3 release on Xbox 360, in the weeks leading up to the game's server shutdown, to celebrate the third entry's legacy. Granted the servers for The Master Chief Collection version of Halo 3 are still alive and well, but the original experience (on its original console) said goodbye on Thursday, January 13, 2022. Many fans hold a deep reverence for the original Halo 3 experience, because at the time it was a multi-faceted and feature-rich multiplayer experience. Gameplay modes and mechanics featured a ton of variety, and the original Halo foundation had been honed and improved into the best version yet.
Halo 3: Building Off Of Halo 2 With Custom Content And File Sharing
Halo 2 and the introduction of Xbox Live on Microsoft's first console are often credited with innovating online multiplayer for gaming consoles. That being said, while Halo 2 certainly laid the foundation for the Xbox 360, Halo 3 expanded and perfected that framework into something we even greater replayability. At first, this was the inclusion of new game modes like Infection and VIP, as well as the eventual inclusion of Red Vs. Blue's own Grifball. Infection in particular was originally based on a fan game mode in Halo 2, which added some zombie-esque flair to Halo 3 multiplayer, but it wasn't until fans got a hold of Forge where Halo 3's multiplayer truly became special.
Primarily, file sharing and user-created content were pivotal to the long-term success of Halo 3. Custom maps, custom modes, and all the additional versatility of Forge mode brought with it made Halo 3's multiplayer just as unique and innovative. While previous online multiplayer games on PC had seen similar offerings, Halo 3 was the first time when a console game had a wealth of additional content ushered in by a healthy community of players. Classic custom maps and modes for Infection, like "Fat Kid" on the Foundry map, "Duck Hunt" on the Sandbox map, or "Jenga" on the Standoff map, there were a ton of unique
Halo 3: A Halo Game Unlike Any Other Before It
Forge, in tandem with file sharing and all the other methods of sharing custom content lead to a Halo community, and a Halo game, unlike any other. Mods on PC lead the charge on custom content for the niche Halo playerbase, but this was the first time Bungie had added a first-party map editor for Xbox players (Halo 2 had a traditional PC map editor, not Forge). As the game lived on, Forge expanded the capability of Halo 3's gameplay foundation far beyond what Halo was initially capable of: Custom game modes grew from iterative to revolutionary with things like challenge maps and other genre-bending modes, while Machinima creators had even more control over their art.
Of course, all of this was on top of the already-stellar gameplay experience of Halo 3. Fans played through the long-anticipated conclusion (at the time) of the Master Chief's story, "finishing the fight" just as Microsoft's marketing encouraged them to. Even after the Chief's story was over, fans were entertained for hours on end via playing campaign co-op and the evergreen multiplayer offering as well. A varied blend of game modes, both competitive and casual, were provided at launch, and expanded over time as Bungie supported its most popular Halo multiplayer yet. Halo fans were eating well in those few years following its launch in 2007.
Much of that experience has been preserved with The Master Chief Collection, even if certain UI and community elements are in a different format now compared to the original Xbox 360 release. Despite this, thousands of fans busted out their old Xbox 360 consoles and booted up Halo 3 just to get that last moment of nostalgia before the servers shut down. Halo: Reach also received the same treatment as well, with thousands hopping on the classic spin-offs multiplayer servers before shutting down as well. Halo 3 is a special game in many players' hearts, and the original server shutdown was a bittersweet goodbye for one of the most impactful multiplayer games of all time.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.