While the gameplay is strong, there are a few nagging problems. The single player game is very short. In fact, I bought the game at midnight on Monday night/Tuesday morning and I beat it just as Law and Order: Special Victims Unit started Tuesday night at 10 p.m. For a game that was supposed to be the best ever, the single player falls way short in the length department. This is made worse by the fact that the second to last level in the campaign is the polar opposite of fun. I won't describe the level because I wouldn't want to spoil anything, but I'd read previous to playing the game that one level was a real drag. About two minutes in, I thought, "Oh… this must be the level they were talking about."

Another problem I had was Master Chief's ability to jump. It felt "off" in the two previous games and here, it seems even less relevant. Master Chief has jumping skills that would make Samus Aran jealous. For a game with so much time and energy poured into it, one would think that the powers that be might have recognized the fact that Master Chief isn't Peter Rabbit. Some FPS games that allow jumping fall short with not enough height; Halo 3 gives you way too much. In a feverish firefight, hitting the jump button essentially kills any immersion you'd had in the game. One minute you'll be thinking, "I gotta find cover!" and the next minute you'll wonder when Gravity Boots became standard issue for Spartan warriors.

Length and jumping on the same level as Peach from Super Mario Bros. 2 aside, the single player is good, but if you set aside the hype, the online and the rabid fandom, Halo 3 is a very good FPS that doesn't last very long. Speaking of the online portion, that is what we'll be discussing next.

In the first segment of my Halo 3 review, I mentioned that online games just aren't my forte. I've never liked multiplayer games, online or off. Even as far back as the original Contra, when a friend picked up the second controller, I immediately set mine down; I'd rather not play than have to play with someone else. Before you ask, no, I'm not an only child, but I do have a healthy distaste for a good segment of the population.

About four days after I picked up Halo 3, fell in love and finished my single player review, I was asked to go back and review the online portion of the game. With my strict "single player only" preference, I really didn't want to. After a few deathmatches and trying my hand at the level editor, my opinion on online gaming has changed, and it is all Halo 3's fault. I'll never understand why anyone would buy a game solely for online and/or multiplayer, but Halo 3's online features do serve as a nice companion to the outstanding, albeit short, single player campaign.

You probably already know about all the features Halo 3 boasts with its online game, but just in case, we'll go over them anyway. There are four main pillars to the online Halo 3 experience: co-op, video sharing and level editing and, of course, deathmatch. Some work, some don't and one aspect in particular of the online game, the voice chat, is truly terrible; the feature is often so unbearable, the online modes are left drained of any fun they might have contained.

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