Game Review: Halo Wars
Posted by Doc Winters on March 11, 2009
“Wars aren’t Fought by one man Alone” – Halo Wars tagline
Oorah Marines. Halo Wars made landfall about a week ago, and I had hoped to have a review up before now, but I was in Melbourne when it was released, and I spent the time between returning to the real world with a horrible case of writers block, coupled by an immensely unreliable internet connection thanks to Telstra. However that has been addressed, and I give you the DocNetworks review of Halo Wars.
Publisher: Ensemble Studios (after launch support: Robot Entertainment)
Platform: Xbox 360
Players: 1-2 Co-op (System Link/ Xbox Live) (Multiplayer current 6 (as per map restrictions) Xbox Live)
Halo Wars, the spiritual prequel to the ever popular Halo Franchise from Bungie Studios, and will also be the last game made by Ensemble Studios before closing shop. And from all looks of it, Ensemble went out with a bang on this one.
Despite being made by a completely Different developer than the original Trilogy, Halo Wars still captures the core of a Halo Game, It looks like a Halo Game right down to the way Warthogs handle, and the cussing from UNSC Marines, it even Sounds like a Halo Game, with a number of scores by Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvitori (Bungie Audio Composers on the original games) involved in the games soundtrack.
I have said in an earlier post, that Ensemble, the makers of groundbreaking games like the Age of Empires series, may have finally grasped the elusive Console Strategy Game, after playing the game, I can say without hesitation, that they have found that title. It has been said that Halo CE showed that a First Person shooter can work on the Console; Halo Wars proves that the RTS can also work on the Console.
Instead of porting a game from the PC to the console and trying to adapt to the lack of interfaces, Ensemble built a design interface that was from the ground up, intended for the Xbox Controller, instead of the confusing multi-click interfaces of other console RTS’s everything on Halo Wars adheres to what they call the Rule of 8. The Rule of 8 is the circle interface that corresponds to each of the directions the thumbsticks move in. Building and Unit Construction, including the Use of Special Powers use this method; everything else uses the D-Pad.
In order to allow players quick access to their bases, Construction is restricted to a 3,5 or 7 pad base, with starting ‘Firebases’ starting with just three independent build pads. Each build pad can build any of the available buildings, as long as they have the required tech level and supply points. Both the UNSC and the Covenant are supplied by their separate Ships in orbit of the planet via supply pads on the UNSC and Warehouses on the Covenant. The UNSC ship, the Spirit of Fire, allows the deployment of bombers and use of the ships MAC Cannon to the battlefield, as well as the rapid deployment of UNSC ODST Shock troops, while the Covenant ship, allows users to the deadly ‘cleansing beam’.
Compared to other RTS’ there are only 15 playable levels, all of which are UNSC, now considering that there are three races in the game (UNSC, Covenant and the Flood) this is an odd move, but with the addition of DLC via Xbox Live, it doesn’t mean that in the long run, there won’t be expansion levels that let you play as the Covenant. While I would like to play as the Flood, the simple fact that the Flood is what they are, I can see why the developers chose to not include them as a playable faction.
Overall, this game plays both on a single player, and a multiplayer experience, with the option of Skirmishes between human and AI opponents as well as having multiplayer battles against all human, and human/Bot teams, the option to be purely resource management, and fund your allies is also present, as the AI here actively defends your bases if you are not building units, and will send you resources if you’re running low. As you play, the AI develops a you do, meaning as you get better, the AI gets tougher, while the AI may start using one tactic initially, it will learn that if your countering it, that that tactic doesn’t work and will try something new. It will use multi vector attacks, and will test your defences before launching massive unit attacks.
I stand by my early statement that this game is for everyone, not just for Halo Fans, as this is a good RTS to start with, and have the competitive AI enough for more seasoned RTS players.
