SOLID 'HALO 3' FLEXES XBOX 360'S GRAPHIC MUSCLES.

Byline: REDMOND CAROLIPIO

>LA.COM 

If you're going to ask me whether "Halo 3" lives up to the hype, I'll tell you no.

But take this into account: At the Sept. 25 midnight release at Universal CityWalk, a guy dressed as the Master Chief showed up. Amid the cheers, a fan standing in line trembled -- and then kneeled, we're-not-worthy style, in front of him. You'd have thought the Chief walked on water. No game can live up to that kind of worship.

But while "Halo 3" isn't a religious epiphany on disc, you can certainly count it as one of the better total first-person shooter experiences you can find on a console.

I started with campaign mode, which attempts to wrap up the story of the Master Chief and his battle with the alien race called the Covenant.

Like the previous two installments, the game visually plunges you into a variety of rich, vast environments. If you're not shooting Covenant foes in a subterranean base, you're blasting apart creepy-crawlies in a slimy space cruiser.

The game does a pretty good job of flexing some of the 360's graphic muscle, especially in large-scale battles -- your first confrontation with the walking Scarab tank is one to remember.

I also liked some of the new weapons, my favorite being the "gravity hammer," good for one-hit deathblows and the occasional sight of the enemy flying into the air. I also liked rolling around in the Brute Chopper, a motorcycle with a huge front wheel that can annihilate things it runs into at full speed.

What I didn't like in the campaign mode was the constant backtracking. For some missions, I kept having to return to areas I already visited, either to kill some more enemies or hit some kind of button that activated something important.

Seasoned gamers will note some interesting similarities to other shooters that beat this game to the shelves.

For instance, there are times when a voice invades the Chief's head, and you get subjected to some camera trickery, reminiscent of "The Darkness."

While the campaign is solid, the real meat-and-potatoes of the game is in its arsenal of online options.

First off, you can send photos and share movies of your exploits (like highlight reels) with the rest of the Xbox Live community with the "theater" feature.

There's also the "forge" option, which lets players customize (not build) the game's maps, giving them control of everything from spawn points to the kinds of weapons that are available (and where). Players can then hop online and give the retooled map a spin, adjusting the map as they play. You could literally spend a day just messing around with this with your friends.

Another outstanding feature is "custom games," which lets you create unique online matches. Within the first two days of playing, I found myself games called "rocket race" as well as a match reminiscent of a duel between pirate ships.

As far as the total package goes, few games come as fully stocked as "Halo 3." Die-hard fans will probably look past its flaws. I will keep playing it, and keep enjoying it -- but my knees are staying off the ground.

Redmond Carolipio, [phone]

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HALO 3 - Three and one half stars

>Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios

>Platform: Xbox 360

>Rating: M for Mature

>In a nutshell: Finishes the fight with flair.