Despite some of the oft-heard "not as pretty as Gears" remarks, GameSpot thinks Halo 3 looks pretty good:

Halo has always had a very strong artistic vision, and the graphics have always been just good enough to convey the necessary imagery without becoming huge technical powerhouses. That's not to say that the game isn't technically impressive, because it maintains a smooth frame rate throughout, and looks very sharp overall with plenty of great lighting and other nice effects. But the visual design overpowers its technical side and really stands out. Given that the game takes place in a wider range of locales than the previous two games, you'll see a lot of different, colorful environments, including deserts, snow, jungle settings, great-looking building interiors, and more. The enemies, many of which are returning from past games, also look great.

Isn't it nice when technology serves art, and not the other way around?

GameSpot gave Halo 3 a score of 9.5 out of 10.

The Geekend blog at TechRepublic was pretty taken with Halo 3:

Then, something happened that I did not expect. I got caught up in the storyline in a way that I hadn’t since Halo:CE. I didn’t even realize how immersed I was until I “came to” about four hours later with my stomach rumbling and a mild (lack of) caffeine headache because I hadn’t even stopped long enough to wet my whistle with my Live Wire. As I wolfed down the taco salad they catered in for us, I actually started to feel relief that I wouldn’t have to write an article panning one of my favorite games.

They don't give the game a score but do go to the trouble of listing vehicles and weapons.

Warning-- this review spoils the first cutscene!

GameDaily ranks Halo 3 pretty highly, giving it points for improving on its predecessors:

Halo 3's single-player adventure surpasses its prequels by combining the best elements from the previous games. Like to the original Halo, this action unfolds in varied large-scale environments, and like Halo 2, Master Chief can board enemy vehicles and toss off their drivers. Though the environments are larger than before, Halo 3 still doesn't qualify as a free-roaming sandbox game - once you move into an new area, there's generally no turning back. Even so, the game lets you tackle missions in various ways, sniping enemies from afar, flanking them on either side or simply running them over with a vehicle of choice.

GameDaily gave Halo 3 a score of 9 out of 10.

1Up finds Halo 3 has something almost everyone can love:

It's hard to imagine a feature of this game that someone won't love (we didn't even get to talk about the robust file sharing, where you can swap gameplay screenshots, edited game films, game setups, and maps). Or you can just look at it as a sum of so many quality parts, that value-wise, Halo 3 is as sure a thing as it gets. Sure, no one aspect of the game is life-changing on its own, but perhaps the package as a whole is. After all, Halo 3 has enough content to keep you stuck to your controller for weeks, if not months or even years.

1Up gave Halo 3 a perfect score, ten out of ten.

FiringSquad says that Halo 3 mostly delivers on the expectations built up by the previous two installments, providing a fitting conclusion to the trilogy:

So has Halo 3 lived up to the massive attention and hopes for fans of this franchise? Based on playing the single player campaign and checking out its community and editing features we would have to give it a qualified "yes" but again we will have a separate review for its online multiplayer features.

FiringSquad gave Halo 3 a rating of 92%.

Most everybody likes Halo, but not everybody loves it. They don't have to. Some find things they enjoy, and ignore the rest, like Kotaku's Brian Crecente:

While Halo 3 doesn't reinvent the genre, it doesn't need to. What it does instead is provide fans of the trilogy a sort of satisfying ending and a much more satisfying experience.

I've always held that one of the things that attracts fans of Halo to the game is its plot and characters. While Halo 3 does deliver on its promise to wrap things up, I found the plot a bit too convoluted to either follow or really care about. Sure, I wanted to see what happens, how it all ends, but that's not what drove me to complete the game. Instead the experience of playing the game was my main motivator for beating it.

When pressed, Crecente commented that he'd rate Halo 3 a B.

True to their nature as a technical site, what impressed Ars most about Halo 3 was its solid framerate:

The truly laudable aspect of the presentation is the solid framerate. There are times when you'll be fighting in a congested environment, full of enemies moving and firing of their own accord, only to see overhead Pelicans and Phantoms weave through the air, dropping off more enemies and blasting at each other. Or perhaps you're coming over a crest with a crew of Warthogs following you before a pair of Scarabs fall from the heavens, landing on an encroaching horde of Wraiths and Grunt-driven Ghosts. During these intense moments, the game never loses a frame. Even in the most intense sequence of the entire game that comes as a climax just before the ending—which includes countless explosions, tons of enemies, and some insane environmental destruction—the game's pace stays rock-solid.

However, Ars found other flaws, such as "deceptively small environments" and the shortness of the campaign (they played on Normal, keep that in mind) and rated the game only a 7.