Halo Wars Review

Halo Wars is a game set in the Halo universe that wasoriginally established in Halo: Combat Evolved. The first thing that Iwould like to mention is that Halo Wars is NOT a FPS (First PersonShooter) like Halo, Halo 2, or Halo 3. It is an RTS (Real TimeStrategy), more like a game in the Command and Conquer series. A viewpeople purchased this game based on the halo name and were disappointed.

HaloWars comes from developer RTS veteran Ensemble Studios, who alsocreated the very popular Age of Empire games. While some may worrybecause this game was developed by someone other than Bungie, the gameactually holds fairly well to the Halo universe, and even includes anunlockable time line that gives an overview of the war between thehumans and the Covenant (an alliance of alien races bent on thedestruction of all humans) leading up to Halo: Combat Evolved. The storyfollows the human ship Spirit of Fire; her commander, CaptainJames Cutter; Sergeant John Forge; and scientist Ellen Anders as theylook into the activities of Covenant forces. The story fits well intothe Halo storyline, telling a new story without creating any major plotholes. Despite this, I found the story to be somewhat forgettable, andabout half way through I wasn't even paying attention to the cutscenes.

Thegraphics and audio in Halo Wars are both top notch. The game world isvery beautifully detailed, and I never had any major problems withframerate during any of my gaming sessions. The cutscenes are also verypretty to look at. The music is great, and very much in line with themusic from the main Halo games. The voiceover work and in-game soundeffects also deliver. The only problem in the audio department is thatthe fighting sound effects can sometimes drown out instructions comingfrom game characters, even during scenes where the player loses cameracontrol. It wasn't a major problem, but still noticeable.

Thegameplay in Halo Wars has both its pros and cons. The system is fairlysimple to pick up on, with the tutorials explaining exactly how toperform all the basic functions to control your army. The tech trees(the order of upgrades for units) is very simple, with one upgrade beingavailable for research at a time. This can be seen as either good orbad, but it does make it easier for gamers new to RTS games to jump in.The game offers a campaign mode and modes where players can battlecomputer controlled opponents or compete with other players eitheronline or through system link. The campaign is on the short side, andshouldn't take long to play through on normal difficulty. Thankfullyskirmish mode and online play help extend the experience by offeringmore battles and challenges for players to tackle. The controls suffer afew setbacks simply because the game is on a console. Whereas on acomputer it is simple to point and click which units to select, in HaloWars one must use a cursor controlled by an analog stick to move aboutthe map and select units and buildings. Although it is easy enough toselect a large group, if you want to select only a few units, it can be apain. Some of this problem is alleviated by the ability to select allunits of one type, but not entirely. This is a problem that is difficultto escape on console RTS games, and Ensemble handled it fairly well.Another downside of the gameplay in Halo Wars is the small army size.For some reason, players are extremely limited to the number of unitsthey can produce, even after upgrading army capacity. While this isnever a huge problem in campaign, it can become very annoying in a largeskirmish battle, as it can be near impossible to defend your bases andattack your opponents at the same time. Although it does have its weakpoints, gameplay in Halo Wars is generally very good, although it mayleave experienced RTS gamers wanting more.

Overall, I woulddefinitely recommend Halo Wars to any fan of the Halo series who likesRTS games. While maybe not the best RTS title of all time, Halo Wars is avery polished game and a solid RTS game for the Xbox.