The “Cortana” level, Halo 3

Halo 3 was a fitting end to an excellent trilogy of first-person shooters, with a galaxy-spanning campaign that satisfied the whole way through—well, almost.

“Cortana,” the ninth level of a near perfect Halo title, is agony distilled into digital form.

Outpacing the misery that was Halo: Combat Evolved’s “The Library,” or even all of Halo 5—there, I said it—”Cortana” is visually ugly, with confusing level design strewn across frustrating hallways of hostile grossness. The Flood (mutated, zombie-like creatures that mob you) feels even more impervious to your efforts than usual and never. Seems. To stop. Coming.

Heaven help you if you think the flamethrower is a good idea too, you’ll just burn yourself to death. Oh, and Halo 3’s slightly annoying habit of slowing the gameplay for a brief moment while a character in your head talks to you is even more exaggerated with the “Gravemind” antagonist, who literally screams in your face while your vision contorts and your movement is brought to a crawl.

And to top it all off, the level is just a “save the damsel” trope. All that misery for a worn out cliche. – Claire Jackson, staff writer