Within the world of “Halo 3,” Halos are life-destroyers—weapon installations designed by the Forerunners to eradicate life from the galaxy. Based on experience with the game, it’s a fair bet that between skipping classes and blowing off significant others to play, the Xbox 360 killer app could do a fair amount of life destroying in the real world as well.

For the uninitiated, “Halo 3” is the final chapter in a series of first-person shooters following the beloved human savior, a super soldier named John-117, or Master Chief to grunts in the field. The first two games are some of the most iconic games of the last console generation, largely due to the hours and hours dedicated players logged in campaign and online modes. In the jump to the next generation, the game suffers a few growing pains, but overall retains the same wonderful experience as the first time the sacred ring–gaming bliss was seen.

Campaign mode hits the ground running, picking up from the second game’s cliffhanger ending and launching into the last stand of humanity on Earth against the Covenant, a union of alien species hell bent on eradicating the human race as a blight against their religious dogma. The story is engaging, with enough twists and turns to keep players entranced, but players may want to brush up on their Halo history before diving in unless they plan on guessing to what all the names and sci-fi jargon refer.

Your new enemies are smarter than ever before. Brutes, ape-like and super-strong beasties from “Halo 2,” now feature heavy armor and pack-based squad intelligence, allowing a frightening amount of teamwork behind enemy lines. They can rally even the weakest of Covenant ground troops to be fearsome opponents, and the result is some very satisfying firefights. Unfortunately, your allies are not nearly up to the same level, often serving their purpose best by dying to leave you some extra ammunition.

“Halo’s” gameplay is built on a solid foundation of guns, grenades and a nice hard punch with bare hands. These three notes play to the rhythm of the games unique shielding system, which forces players into cover to regain health whenever the firefight gets too intense. This formula of carnage is back with a new element: deployable equipment. Got a sniper on your tail? Throw up a bubble shield to deflect the deadly headshots. Room full of enemies? Toss in a power drainer and watch them scatter as their shields fall to nothing. It’s a tweak, not a reinvention, but it’s still enough to give the already solid Halo formula a little extra pizzazz.

Graphically, the game is a mixed bag. The scale of the game is amazing, with levels in campaign stretching for miles. The bigger vehicle battles are full of dazzling explosions and crowded skies of aerial vehicles locked in dogfights. And the lighting model of the game lends amazing effects to every aspect of the game, large and small. But when it comes to details on the character models, the game is a little lacking, with visuals somewhere between “Halo 2” and “Gears of War.” All in all, the graphics don’t let down the gameplay, and that’s all that matters.

The legendary multiplayer modes return as well, along with new map editing and a goof-around mode called Forge. Beside the opportunity to drop tanks on all of your friends, Forge will allow players to make all sorts of new configurations of the maps included with the game, giving the multiplayer mode near-endless replayability.

“Halo 3” is everything fans expect, and the replayability in the multiplayer modes will keep this game a favorite among roommates for years to come.