Halo Wars Review
Ensemble’s hotly anticipated console RTS Halo Wars is finally upon us. And we are all asking the same thing: can an RTS work on a console? Breathe a sigh of relief when I tell you, yes. And not only does the game work, it works well. There is one other big question surrounding this game, how does the Halo franchise work when put in the hands of someone other than Bungie? Incredibly well.
Halo Wars takes place 20 years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, meaning all new characters and settings, which is far from a bad thing. Ensemble creates a wonderful story that hooked me more than either Halo or Halo 2. You start on Harvest, with the Humans and Covenant still fighting over the planet. Anyone who has delved into the Halo lore is going to love this game for showing you some of the things it does (don’t worry, no spoilers here). And people new to Halo, or who never really got that into the story, will love how accusable the history of the universe is made. As if a grade A original story weren’t enough, a Halo Timeline can be found in the extras menu, with key historic points in time to be viewed once you find them (represented by black boxes) in the Campaign maps.
Game play wise Halo Wars is quite an accomplishment. Many have tried, and failed, to successfully bring a Real Time Strategy game to home consoles. Of course, almost all of these games have been ports of PC games, and of course trying to compress a keyboard’s worth of controls to the ten or so buttons a console has is not going to work. Ensemble took the only logical step and built Halo Wars from the ground up specifically for the Xbox 360 controller. While this results in a more simplified RTS than genre fans might be used to, it in no way produces a shallow or empty game.
For Halo fans the big draw to Halo Wars will be the campaign for it’s story and what it adds to the Halo Universe. For RTS fans, the main draw is going to be the online multiplayer, which works flawlessly. You have the choice of 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3 game types for either offline (with AI) or online play. The game also supports system link, if anyone still does that. As I said, the online play comes off near perfect. Match making is quick and pairing opponents by talent level results in fair fights, usually. Gamers have the option of 6 different leaders to choose to play as, all with their own unique abilities and units. The end result is variety, as rarely will two games ever go the same way. With a good selection of maps, and I’m sure more to come, multiplayer seems to be able to provide an endless amount of play time.
Final word on Halo Wars is that it is worth the $60, both for Halo Fans, and RTS fans alike. Anyone who has been dying for an RTS on the Xbox has finally gotten exactly what they wanted. Although the campaign is a bit short, it was still very enjoyable, and I have no doubts I’ll play through it again. Did I mention that the campaign is Co-op? Online multiplayer is amazing and very fulfilling. The game looks and sounds absolutely amazing, and the cut scenes are some of the prettiest I have ever seen. Ensemble really could not have ‘ended’ on a higher note.
The Final Stage 
Leave a comment