Halo 3 Preview: The Storm

You guys remember the Tsavo Highway Halo 3 update right?An hour-long battle through Covenant barricades into the occupied city of Voi along a badly-damaged Kenyan freeway, Tsavo Highway made for a pretty good introduction to the game. It featured vehicular combat, large-scale encounters and plenty of on-foot action — not to mention great graphics and plenty of ties to the events of the previous game.But variety is a Halo trademark (the original game’s duplicate levels aside), and if mission four — entitled The Storm — is any indication, Halo 3 won’t be found wanting. WARNING: This detailed coverage of Halo 3 may reveal some things about the campaign that you won’t want to spoil yourself for. Nothing really big, but you have been Advised. Unlike Tsavo Highway, a largely open, vehicle-oriented stage set in the countryside, The Storm takes place in more urban areas. The mission begins with Master Chief up in a convoy of Warthogs heading into the city of Voi. At times reminiscent of the Halo 2 level Outskirts, The Storm has its own unique feel to it. Cramped interiors lead into immense open courtyards; tiny little fights become vehicular free-for-alls in an instant. And the mission leads to Master Chief battling it out with two of the biggest foes he had ever faced.   The Storm begins with a ride into Voi on the back of a Warthog, but the action ends up shifting to on-foot.   The difference between Storm and Outskirts is industrialization. It’s set in an industrialized area of Voi. When Outskirts places people in New Mombasa’s residential areas, fighting from house to house, In the Storm it takes places mostly in large factories and warehouses. One thing it’s not is a copy past industrial area. Each area is different from the other. For example, one second you’ll be in a corridor with gun racks, the next you’ll be in a warehouse with high windows reflecting the days weather at you. Or one building is fully made of old concrete, the next just plain old wood. You’ll take down drones in storage rooms, but only after you killed the command leaders in the doorway. It’s just so diverse. It’s amazing! When your inside a building, your fighting strategy is completely different from when you are outside on the streets. You need to change. On the streets cover is VERY limited, and your enemy comes at you in hordes, often on vehicles too. Grunts, no longer serve only as ground units operating gunnery. Now they can pilot GHOSTS AND BANSHEES! When you realize this, it comes at the worst possible moment. When Covenant light ships corner you and a handful of marines in a small open corridor. This situation is going to take all of your skill and cunning actions to defeat. You really will need it, since a Wraith is constantly bombarding you with Plasma bombs from across the way in a courtyard. (May I recommend, getting on Ghost to move at you and then quickly sidestep and high jack it from them. Commence FIRE!) The covenant aren’t the only one with vehicle. The humans will sometimes drop you a Warthog or Mongoose to help you out. And In the sky’s above, countless Banshees find themselves running from the Human’s Hornets. Once you take care of the drones, you will meet up with Marines on Mongooses. They will let you hop on a mongoose and they will lend you their trusty rocket launcher marine to sit at your back. Nice huh? Well then you go and take out some Wraiths. Assuming you succeed in this battle, DON”T party yet! Because a huge Scarab comes in to block your path. So much for winning right?   You and the AI’s working together….beautiful…   Yeah yeah your probably thinking”It’s just a Scarab right? I’ve dealt with these before.” Well think again. In Halo 3 the Scarab has its own A.I. and its own unique set of actions and reactions, which means getting aboard this guy isn’t going to be a picnic. Lucky for you, you can take ti down several ways. You can ride an elevator at the back of the level to the top of an expertly placed crane and aboard the Scarab from the crane; or you can damage the walker’s legs, which over time will cause it to buckle and let’s you reach it from the back; OR(this is a goo done) you can trick it into getting stuck in the buildings and jump aboard from a rock outcropping. Once you reach the inner hull it is a little easier than the Halo 2 Scarab. Alright now that thats done, it’s Party time right? WRONG! Your just getting started… This is where you reach the climax of the mission. Finally your favorite Elite, The Arbiter joins the fight (With Johnson of course.), to help you take out a final horde of Brutes taking cover in a warehouse. Your going to fight about 12 Brutes in this one. All equipped with Brute Shots or the very cool, Brute Mauler. But the factory workers form they Brute taken area join you in your fight. But they don’t last too long against those Brute weapons. Even if they do survive the fierce battle with the Brutes, they most likely won’t survive the two Hunters that Ambush The Chief and his men. Now your usual dodge and shoot tactics would still work, but not as well.The reason being is that Hunters can now Grad their enemies. And if you let the fight go on too long the nearby Brute Chieftain will join the fight. Now this guy not only has his own personal shield. His Gravity Hammer can kill people in just about one hit. Not even a direct hit either, because it can generate scatter field of damage. Your in for one hell of a fight…   Check out how good those graphics look. They make this Brute look HORRENDOUS!   Once he is taken out, your almost to the final objective. The Covenant anti-aircraft gun which is preventing Human craft from reaching the giant gash in the Savannah where the Covenant discovered The Ark. The gun is placed on a small cliff, and the only way up is gaurded by a massive army of Covenants actually Bungie has said that this one battle features more enemies than the entire first level of Halo 1–Wow…just wow. This won’t be so hard to believe once Master Chief, The Arbiter,Johnson,Marine, and a small amount of Civilians rush a Huge group of legion Grunt,Brutes,and shielded Jackals….good luck guys. Your going to need it. There are so many enemies in the area, that ammunition becomes extremely scarce. Especially since one Brute has an Invincibility thing he uses when he gets attacked.Lucky for us we only have to take out the AA gun, not the army. It’s weakness is a small opening at it’s base that become visible after each round. A couple good shots will rid the sky of the AA gun’s terror. And let Miranda Keyes land her huge drop ship..in time to try and prevent the Covenant form reaching the Ark. Sorry guys, but what happens next is kept secret from us by Bungie. I don’t know what happens after the skirmish not to mention what’s in The Ark. Bungie will not tell anyone this until the game has been completed. But stick with Supervgx.com and keep checking back for our Halo 3 updates. Which will now be around weekly. Thanks for reading. ~ZeldaMaster~ (Images courtesy of 1up.com)