Halo Wars Review
Darko Perisic
Gamedev 3-9-2009
Although not developed by Bungy Studios, Halo Wars stays true to the Halo franchise aside from some new additions. There are new various types of vehicles that you can upgrade throughout the coarse of the game. The new developer, Ensemble Studios, did a great job to make sure that the action in Halo Wars RTS is as fast paced as the original Halo FPSs. This is usually done by timers in which you have to rush to collect supplies and build structures and units. For a first go at a Halo RTS is certainly not that bad. The only thing that holds it back is the depth at which the characters can be upgraded. Most of these units have one or two separate upgrades that can be applied. This keeps things simple without overwhelming you with all the buttons and upkeep you would have to do. It is certainly simplified for the x box controller thus making those new to the RTS genre more comfortable to pick up and play.
Story.
The events of Halo Wars take place roughly 20 years before the original Halo story. It follows the crew of the ship called The Spirit of Fire and one crew member in particular, Sergeant Forge. With that said your main objectives which usually don’t vary much, include either saving stranded fellow marines or destroying enemy bases in order to build your own on top of them. In connection to the story the missions actually make sense. The objectives usually move in the direction of the story while at the same time you hear chatter from the command of the Spirit of Fire telling you that there are new objectives and other events happening around the universe.
Presentation
Although not quite up to par to the visuals of Halo 3, the explosions and the amount of chaos happening on one screen at one time, with no frame rate issues, is amazing. The best visuals in this game are between mission cut scenes that almost look realistic but not real thus to not take you out of the game like other games would like Command and Conquer. There are also some cut scenes that are done via in game graphics at a vary close range which makes clipping and pixelaton an issue.
Game play
Somewhat repetitive would be the best way to describe it. The units move at their given speed although if you mix the units it moves as slow as the slowest unit in the group. Also, if you want to move a group of units through another group, the units will not stack up to move out of your way in which case you have to manually shift people around in order to transfer another group of units to a different part of the map. Another small issue is the lack of objective diversity you do the same thing pretty much all throughout the game move, fight, build a base, collect supplies and fight some more then repeat. Where strategy comes into play is where you can build multiple bases on one map you can have one base strictly be a supply depot while the other one can be a full on assault platform.
There is also the elephant where you can train infantry units on the move. Although one of my favorite fighting vehicles in Halo 3, the elephant is rally not a good offensive machine. Its really slow and often times is not equipped with multiple turrets to dispatch enemy infantry. One major problem with the game is it doesn’t allow you to make whatever units you want for example you can’t make Spartans at all during the game but in most missions you start out with two or three of them.
The good.
Halo Wars does a great job to immerse you in the halo universe. With a great and simple control scheme it is accessible for anyone to play. The units are vary responsive and you can place them exactly where you want it to. The units visually upgrade and they really do make a difference in combat. Being that its an RTS there are several vary important things you want to consider when you walk into a match. In most cases you will not be just able to rush and gun. You have to have a diverse set of units to cover all angles. Not only that but you will have to retreat, flank and sometimes go in head on with brute force. Thank God there is no friendly fire.
The Bad
The in-game cinematic have a bad clipping issue.
The units often times get stuck behind buildings or other vehicles.
There is only so many units you can have and in some cases certainly not enough.
The story line is entirely too short. It can easily be beaten in 5 to 6 hours.
No real depth in training units.
The base can not be fortified with walls you only have some turrets that do a descent job but more customization would be nice.
No real replay value.
Last but certainly not least YOU CAN NOT TRAIN SPARTANS.
Closing comments
For a halo series it was a little disappointing but still a lot of fun. The game is vary addicting since it pulls you in and doesn’t let you go from beginning to end. There was no appearances from any major halo characters which was sort of disappointing. Also, there is really no extensive look at how or why the war began, it just throws you into the conflict itself. What it does have is a timeline in a menu that lets you look at different events from the war shortly after it started. I had fun with the game it had a vary good flow it was just too short to be worth the purchase.
OVERALL SCORE 6.99ish