Halo Wars

After spawning three best-selling first-person shooters, Bungie's futuristic universe is branching out into uncharted territory with the RTS title, Halo Wars. The good news is that Halo Wars masterfully transports the series' best elements to an entirely different genre, and its unparalleled accessibility makes for an excellent introduction to real-time strategy. The bad news is that its self-imposed limitations take a meaty chunk out of its longevity.

THE VERDICT by Tae K. Kim Tae K. Kim's Avatar It's quite a change from the Halo we all know and love but Ensemble (R.I.P.) has done a great job. The RTS action is fun, the controls are surprisingly tight and the presentation is great. It won't thrill every Halo fan but it's definitely lives up to the franchise's high standards.

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Twenty years before John-117 steps out of cold storage and dons the mantle of Master Chief, the Covenant locks onto the trail of a secret that could give them an insurmountable advantage in the war against humanity. After the first slick pre-rendered cinematic, I'm tearing across snow and ice in a Warthog, gathering pinned marines so I can retake a base. The basic controls become second nature within moments. The left bumper selects everything, while the right selects only visible units. X issues move and attack orders, while Y tells jeep drivers to run over enemy troops and marines to chuck grenades at hard-points.

Traditionally, the base-building component has been a major hurdle in console RTS titles but Halo Wars pares the process back to its bare essentials. You won't have to find land near resources, you can only build bases in predetermined places, and most resources are flown in. There's also no need to puzzle over the optimal placement of buildings because each base is simply a central fortress consisting of empty lots that you can develop into six different structures; four turret points also helps streamline base defenses.

Halo Wars

Home Sweet Home

The most tangible benefit of this approach is the immediate feeling of familiarity. The tools have changed, and I'm viewing the action from above each explosive battle, but you'll feel right at home from the outset. All the tricky decisions that had the potential to trip me up had already been made for me, and yet I was still given the freedom to erect buildings and train units as I saw fit. The limitations were tight enough to force interesting decisions, like whether to designate the last free slot in my base to something vital like supplies or something luxurious like air support, but it wasn't strict enough to frustrate me-at least, not at first.

There are only a dozen basic UNSC unit types with which to experiment but the superb upgrade system allows for a much appreciated sense of flexibility when it comes to tactics. For instance, I could choose to steadily improve my marines with rocket launchers and upgrade my medics until they became full-fledged ODST roughnecks, or I could go another route by cranking out reactors until I had the technology available to send a huge and deadly Vulture out to cruise the skies. Vehicles, aircraft, and infantry form the time-honored RTS rock-paper-scissors triangle-A is powerful against B and weak against C-but individual units also get special attacks to boost their effectiveness in certain circumstances.

Halo Wars

Comments [31]

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Toneman

I'm not a fan of RTS games at all, but if they made a Zelda RTS game I would buy it in a second. So I could see why fans of the Halo shooter games would wanna get this game regardless. It'll probably get way more sales than actual playtime.

mvp0069

This game is horrible i hate halo now even more dont know wats the reason for this game and it got 4 stars out of 5 no way the visuals r not that good anyway

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fdp0311

I like this game and I have only played the demo. I'm looking forward to playing the full-version. I like how the game controls, it's very simple and straight forward. This is especially a good thing beings the fact that it is on a console and not a PC. I hate complex strategy control schemes on a console controller. It just slows the pace of a RTS game down messing around with bad controls. Also I like how this game puts more emphasis on combat rather than resource gathering and building placement etc. But, I could see where a hardcore RTS player might think this game is a little watered down for their taste. But so far, I like it.

wutisupmon

This disappoints me. Here I thought it would revolutionize RTS gaming for consoles, but instead they've trimmed down the RTS elements, and the depth of a true strategy game is lost. Boohoo.

MikeTheGreat

If you want Revolutionized RTS then go play "Valkyria Chronicles" for the PS3. That game take RTS's and completely turns it upside down. No online play or multiplayer, but the game has loads of depth and is refreshing to play. All "Halo Wars" is is a fun RTS, but not a Revolutionary RTS like everybody wanted.

Akontheorc

Looks great. Hopefully its more revolutional that Valkyria Chronicles -.- The demo is pretty good

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