- Title: Halo Wars
- Publisher: Microsoft
- Developer: Ensemble Studios
- ESRB Rating: “T” for Teen
- Genre: Real-Time-Strategy
- Pros: Nice presentation; great cutscenes; easy to learn controls; fun gameplay; Blood Gulch; manually throwing grenades
- Cons: Not super deep; A.I. never really puts up a fight; kind of a beginner-level RTS
The story in Halo Wars takes place during the initial encounters with the Covenant. It is before the events of the first Halo game, so there is no Master Chief (but there are Spartans) and no actual Halo world. There are, however, a lot of surprises and little winks and nods that players who are familiar with the Halo universe will recognize and appreciate.
That is a key point. If you aren’t a fan of the story and mythos and overall Halo universe, Halo Wars isn’t going to do anything to change that. In fact, it’ll just confuse you more. But if you already love Halo, then being able to command groups of Warthogs and Scorpion tanks or ODST troopers or Spartans is pretty darn awesome. Likewise, getting your hands on the Covenant and being able to rip up UNSC bases with a couple of Scarabs or slicing up Spartans with energy sword wielding Elites is just plain cool.
Features
You will also find, of course, standard RTS competitive battle modes. Up to six players (you can also add in A.I. players to fill all of the slots) can play in team modes. The two modes include standard mode where you have to research everything and slowly build up to powerful forces. And deathmatch mode where you start with tons of resources, fully researched units, and the idea is to build an army very quickly and rush your opponents. There are a decent variety of maps in various sizes, including the return of Blood Gulch.
Gameplay
Halo Wars will ultimately be judged on its gameplay, and for the most part it is pretty good. Honestly, there is very little truly negative to say about the core gameplay. Selecting units is fairly easy (you can pick all of one type, individuals, drag a marker through enemies you want to select, or all units onscreen) and directing them wherever you need them is very simple. With the d-pad you can jump between groups of units (say you have two or three groups in various areas of the map) as well as jump back to your main base. Little touches like being able to manually target structures or enemies and have your units throw grenades or use special attacks is also really cool and helps keep you a bit more actively involved. We also like the hands off approach to resource gathering where you build supply pads and have an endless stream of income.Unfortunately, the whole experience is about as deep as a puddle. There just isn’t all that much to it. There are only a handful of buildings and a handful of units and upgrades for each faction (UNSC and Covenant) so you see it all pretty quickly. Also, the A.I. barely puts up a fight unless you play on Heroic or Legendary difficulties, and even then it isn’t too difficult.
I almost hate to say it, but Halo Wars is a beginner RTS. It doesn’t require complex strategies or offer a complicated research tree like other games. It is fun and simple and easy and a good way to ease into real-time-strategy games, but for genre veterans it doesn’t have all that much to offer. Shallow, mindless fun is still fun though, right?
Graphically, Halo Wars is a pretty nice looking game. The framerate isn’t ever a problem and everything moves along smoothly. The units and buildings aren’t super detailed, but look good enough. The maps look good overall, and it is really pretty cool to see a lot of the same architecture and settings we usually run around in first person from such a radically different camera angle. The CGI cutscenes also deserve praise and are absolutely stunning.
Sound
The sound is pure Halo. The same sound effects for weapons and vehicles and enemies and everything else is just as it should be. The music is also fantastic.
Bottom Line
In the end, Halo Wars is a highly polished, well put together real-time-strategy game that represents the brand well and is another great exclusive for the Xbox 360. It stumbles a bit, however, in that in an effort to be user friendly and accessible it will come off a bit shallow and mindless for longtime RTS fans. It is a rather conflicting experience because it is near flawless in its execution, but there just isn’t a lot of meat to really sink your teeth into. With that said, I still have to recommend it. Halo fans will love it. Casual RTS fans or newcomers to the genre will love it. And it is good enough that RTS vets will still enjoy it even if it doesn’t blow their mind. Halo Wars is definitely worth playing.
