Halo Wars Review
Ensemble Studios went out with a bang!  

Review by Coxster

I’m not going to sit here and waste your time and write an opening paragraph that goes on about how popular and successful the Halo franchise is, I think we can all leave that in the ‘that goes without saying’ category.  Instead let us focus on Ensemble Studio’s swansong, Halo Wars, the last game they did before their doors were sadly shut forever.  Might as well go out with a bang hey?

On paper, setting a RTS game in the Halo Universe may sound like money in the bank; in practice…well Ensemble’s naysayers should stay well within the shadows as Halo Wars does a great job at marrying the two together.

Now before you read any further, hardcore RTS gamers are going to be in for a bitter disappointment as Halo Wars is a basic take on the RTS genre.  There are very limited options and micromanagement is pretty much absent.  You can’t build your bases anywhere you like, and the areas where you can build a base are all very contained in one little area.  You can’t build turrets anywhere you please, instead you’re limited to just four, one on each corner of your base, and there is a very restricted cap on the population you can have on screen.  The paintbrush tool is toddler proof, resource gathering is a breeze and tech trees are as complicated as tying your shoelaces.  Most conflicts are only won when you throw all your forces at the enemy and the maps are all pretty rudimentary.  Sorry Mr Hardcore RTS guy, but you have much to complain about.  Before you complain too much though let’s look at what Halo Wars does right. 

KABOOM!

First of all Halo Wars reflects the Halo brand perfectly, from the menu system to being able to find hidden skulls that unlock modifiers for matches, everything looks and feels one hundred and ten percent Halo.  The warthogs move just like they do in the FPS games, the units, scorpions and aircraft are authentic and look superb.   Let’s not forget that Ensemble are widely respected for their RTS games, so their reimagining of the genre for this particular franchise and the audience they are trying to capture, has been pulled off with more attention to detail than just about any studio that could be trusted with such a beloved series.

While I did rant before that everything was so simple and limited, this actually plays to Halo Wars strengths.  This is a game about building quickly, and sending those forces in hard.  Rock paper scissors all the way, but it’s such a speedy game that actually amassing you squads ends up being quite good fun.  This is a game that focuses more on conflicts and the art of war rather than building a base with a million small options that really don’t mean much at the end of the day.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing to strip the RTS genre right down to its very core, because for the Xbox 360 platform and introducing people to what could be their first RTS game, Halo Wars does exactly what it sets out to achieve and does it very well.

The main campaign is largely forgettable, which is a little disappointing for a universe so rich, but the cut scenes and characters are excellent and I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t choose to do a movie entirely of CG rather than a live action one.  The whole story takes place 20 years before the events of the very first Halo game and while Master Chief doesn’t appear here, there are plenty of Spartans in the mix.  There are a few liberties that have been taken with the timeline here, but it’s forgivable because only your hardcore Halo fan is going to know any different. Oh and the campaign is largely a collection of escort/rescue missions with your occasional boss thrown in for good measure.  Actually I found the whole single player campaign to be a boring and the AI are tad too forgiving.  It’s a tight package for sure but for my delicate tastes I wanted something a bit more.  It was a short campaign that didn’t flesh out a lot of ideas and certainly had its fair share of plot holes, something a bit more epic would’ve befitted this franchise more.  

PEW PEW!!!

I might sound like I’m being quite negative here but don’t let that stop you from thinking that Halo Wars is worth the price of admission because it’s probably the best RTS game I’ve had the pleasure of playing on the Xbox 360 yet.  The streamlined management and resource gathering as well as sharp responsive controls that anyone could pick up and learn in a small amount of time, really do show how much planning went in to making this game so accessible to the masses.  Like any Halo game this game really shines when you take it online.  Seriously, this is one of the most addictive online games I’ve ever played, I’m going to put it up there with Call of Duty 4 for its level of addictiveness. Not only in my second online match did I completely destroy some random American (always good fun in my books) but I somehow managed to unlock an achievement for highest score on Xbox Live (WOOT!).  Every time I played it, the experience just got better and better and with over forty thousand people playing this at any given time, there is never a shortage of chaps to play against.  The online options are once again very simple, but the code is solid and the games are fast and furious.  I remember playing matches of C&C 3 that could take over an hour, wrestling power back and forth, but here it’s about quickly building, quickly deploying, quickly kicking major arse.  It’s far more fun than it has any right to be.

AWW Pretty...BOOM!

Overall:  

If you’re a RTS veteran, Halo Wars has quite a few shortcomings that you might find hard to forgive, but if you’re a RTS virgin, you’re going to love this game.  The main campaign is pretty average but the production values are worthy of a game built in the Halo universe. There isn’t a Covenant campaign or even a flood campaign which could have been heaps of fun, let’s hope that these ideas pop up in some future downloadable content, which I’m sure Microsoft will do now that Ensemble have closed up shop.  Online multiplayer is heaps of fun and lengthens a game that is short enough as it is. 

Everything from the graphics and the gameplay are handled with care and you should really do yourself a favour and check this one out.  I’ll see you online peoples! 

Who would’ve thought that making less would end up giving more?