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Frank Caron - Aug 1, 2007 1:11 pm UTC
The recent rumblings about the possibility of online co-op in Halo 3 were met with equal parts skepticism and worry. Some dismissed the story as a misunderstanding of the leaked source article, while others forecast a possible deal-breaking omission.
To bring an end to the speculation, Bungie has posted an article on the company's official website dispelling the rumors and putting out the cold, hard facts: Halo 3 will ship with four player co-op over Xbox Live and system link, and two player co-op over split-screen.
Rather than simply have Spartan "clones" act as the characters for players two, three, and four, Bungie has decided to "expand the Halo universe" by having the other players take on the roles of the Arbiter and two brand new Elite characters, N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham. Each of the new characters will play what appears to be a significant role in the game's story; Bungie included a fair amount of background information for both in the post.
The post also details some of the mechanics of the mode. The host will enter a lobby and then be able to invite friends to join, after which point the team can start the game fresh or continue from any of the saved checkpoints on the host's machine. Unlike what was previously suggested, players will be able to stray from each other quite a bit: the post suggests that one player could go forward and act as a scout. In addition, players will be able to save replays of their co-op exploits using the increasingly-sweet replay save system.
I know I'm not the biggest Halo fanatic in the world, but four player co-op has definitely helped to push me over the edge; especially if the campaign is going to be as flexible as Bungie describes. Now I'm starting to get excited. Shotgun Master Chief.
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