Halo Wars Review:

Ladies & Gents I give you, Greatness!

by GrathiusXR

©2009 Arthur Kotsopoulos CE (Community Editor)

Fundamentally Real Time Strategy Games (RTS’s) don’t work best on a console mainly due to the constraints of the  controller. While on the PC it would take a mere few seconds to do most things, on a console it could take double or sometimes triple the time. In the world of an RTS, this delay means defeat.

Why? Because your opponent has most likely already created an army, tech’d up his units and has a sturdy base defence that would take a while to get through. In Halo Wars this is absolutely not the case. Built from the ground up for the Xbox 360 by Ensemble Studios, it features a control scheme that everyone should take note of, for RTS’s on consoles the bar has been raised.

Set 20 years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo Wars follows the crew of the Spirit of Fire in the search to find out what the Covenant are really up to. Just think of it as Halo 1,2 and 3 combined but on a much greater scale of battle.

In terms of missions they are pretty straight forward and don’t require as much intellectual power as your standard Skirmish match. They have a very easy pick up and play sort of feel to them, so not only are the hardcore RTS fans engrossed, but also new gamers to the genre. Each mission isn’t always the same basic principal though.

One mission sees you saving civilians from a city under attack by Covenant forces whilst another will see you trying to break through a Covenant mega shield. Each mission continues to surprise as you progress, not only in map layout or mission structure (rest assured, the missions do get more epic as you progress), but Covenant tactics. One mission saw me building a base in a huge crater fending off the Covenant as they relentlessly advanced on my position.

Technically I thought easy stuff, until I discovered that my barracks were being continually destroyed. With my ODST troops garrisoned behind downed Pelicans and the Spartans guarding the main entrance, the opposition were strategically eliminating my buildings from another secret location. A narrow highway on the far side of the map which ended at the hill next to my base was the culprit.

This shows the Covenant use the map to their advantage, varying up attacks during each mission, so finding a good counter attack strategy is imperative.

Exploration on the other hand not only rewards you with resources (with crates scattered around the map), but you may also find another way to tackle an objective. You may find a group of Marines that need help, or a backdoor to the Covenant base which would be easier than rushing in, rambo style. So there is a key advantage to exploring the terrain ahead.

Since co-op and multiplayer weren’t included in the demo many have been pondering how Co-Op would work? Simple. You and another player over Xbox Live share the exact same base, the same resources, yet you each control your own specifically trained units.

If  you were playing co-op and decided to build some Warthogs and your partner had a penchant for Spartans, you would each be controlling the individual units. In that sense, Co-Op (as the name implies) really revolves around communication and team work to complete each mission.

Multiplayer as well works best with communication and team work. The cream of the crop in multiplayer is 3 vs 3, where you can choose any of the 6 available commanders and go forth and wreak havoc on your opponents. In the demo only Capt. Cutter and the Prophet of Regret were available, and both featured uniquely significant advantages, this is the same case with the other commanders.

If you were to choose the Brute Chieftain, instead of Elites, you train Brute soldiers and Brute Choppers would replace the Ghosts, and the same applies to the Arbiter, Forge and Prof. Ellen Anders. Many will be buying Halo Wars solely for its Multiplayer strength, rest assured, the different commanders add enough unique units and strategy to the mix to keep things varied and interesting.

Once you have completely upgraded your units, the game dynamic changes with the inclusion of the Y button that acts as a secondary attack for almost all units. If manually upgrading isn’t your thing, then Deathmatch would be the perfect choice. With a smaller unit cap and a multitude of initial resources, this mode is all about being on the offensive, you even gain unit upgrades after a set time period to spice things up.

Resource share is also a feature in multiplayer, so if your team mate needs a few thousands resources, it’s as easy as opening the menu and transferring them over. It’s a good feature and will definitely help in those tight situations, just remember to horde some for your own use.

Playing the Campaign on Heroic or Legendary really helps you to improve your play style in terms of strategy, some of the latter missions on these difficulty settings are intensely challenging. For the Halo fans that want a difficult yet rewarding experience, Ensemble deliver on all aspects.

Slightly detracting from the experience were the occasional frame drops when the camera was being repositioned. Though not a major detractor, it was noticeable when moving the camera at a fast pace. Graphically the game is vibrant and captures the almost cartoon like essence of the previous games. Individual units are clearly distinguishable with the view closer to the action when compared to other RTS’s.

Whether it’s the gorgeous vistas that rival those of Gears of War 2, the frantic battlefield of 3 vs 3 combat, inclusion of skulls to make it more interesting, or the amalgamation of old and new music, Ensemble studios have created the ultimate Halo game and at the same time crafted the definitive RTS experience on the console to date.

Halo Wars is a worthy addition to the Halo franchise, and on its own stands out as the current pinnacle of RTS’s on consoles.

“9.0/10

©2009 Arthur Kotsopoulos CE (Community Editor)

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