[Review] Halo Wars

When I first heard then news of a RTS game in the Halo Universe, I was very interested. But when I heard it was made by the guys who made Age of Empires, I actually was excited to take a look at this game.

Just before I received it, I heard Halo Wars will be the last release from Ensemble Studios, which makes me a little sad inside.

In Halo Wars, you play as the crew members of the UNSC vessel, Spirit of Fire, the setting is 20 years before the events of the original Halo. Long before Master Chief was the last remaining Spartan.

Oh yes, you get to see the Spartans in their heyday. And they certainly fuck shit up.

Now this is going to be my first attempt at a review that isn’t filled with spoilers, so bear with me.

The game itself is a simplified version of a PC style RTS, more tailored to those who don’t have a lot of experience with PC based gaming. The base building is limited to site only building and you can only build bases on specific places.

The 14 mission single player campaign is fairly linear, but still maintains to provide a decent challenge. A perticular highlight was one mission where you have to take on an unfinished Super Scarab that can one shot anything it sees. There’s also a few “puzzle” type missions which helps to keep things fresh.

The game feels like a mixture of a solid RTS and a Halo game. There are some sweet visuals, there are moments that you’d expect in a Halo title, moments that brought back some memories. Like seeing your Marines mowing down Grunts, watching the Warthogs plowing into Elites or Spartans jacking Wraiths. In fact, anything the Spartans do pwns.

Another nice touch is how on both sides of the conflict, the Covenant and UNSC (You play as UNSC-only in Single-Player, you can play as Covenant in multiplayer/AI skirmishes) both feel very different from each other. It’s an interesting way to keep the game fresh and exciting but not enough players use the Covenant online, in my opinion.

There are a nice amount of fully rendered cinematics, which I loved (Halo Movie Anyone?) and I hope are intergrated in any future Halo titles. Cinematics in games are something I really love, it helps with epic story aspect and this game doesn’t disappoint. I could see a whole movie like this. They were fucking awesome to watch and the good news is you can watch them over and over in the built in Movie Viewer mode in the main menu.

Here is the best cutscene in any Halo Game. Warning, don’t watch it if you don’t want spoilers.

Spartans Fucking Pwn!

Conclusion: In my time, I’ve played a large amount of RTS titles, there were a few things that annoyed me about this game. The inability to create control groups and the necessity to go back to your base to adjust production rather than pull up a menu wherever you are, like in other RTS titles, frustrated me and it takes you out of the battles. In fact, micromanagement isn’t really a factor. You can usually adapt a similar strategy for the missions, mass a huge army and march them forth.

Halo Wars is a solid RTS, though it has a few faults. At the end of the day, it’s less a RTS game designed for a console and more a PC-style RTS that’s been streamlined for the console.

I wouldn’t go out of my way and say it’s a great game, but I did enjoy it. The missions were fun but there wasnt enough of a challenge for me. It seriously needed a Covenant campaign to be honest. 14 missions simply isn’t enough. I’ve got my fingers crossed for some decent DLC. I was thinking a playable Flood faction or an extention of the single player campaign would rule.

A fitting, if not sad ending to Ensemble. I’m sad to see them go.

Rating: B

Lastability: The single player campaign is far too short. 14 missions can be blasted through if you have any skill in RTS fairly quickly, though the additional unlockable content, like History of the conflict was a really nice touch. I want to replay it again if only to get all the lore. Yeah that’s right, I’m a dork like that.

The multiplayer was fun, but I had issues getting together a decent game at time. Over all it’s a lot of fun, but only short term.

Platform: XBOX 360

Developer: Ensemble Studios

Cost: Halo Wars is available for $79