Review
Halo Wars Review (Xbox360)
Halo started life as a real-time strategy game before being transformed into the epic FPS saga that we all know and love, so Halo Wars signifies the closing of the circle in a sense, returning to the very roots from which Halo originally evolved. Although not the first game to attempt streamlining the RTS for the console crowd, it certainly shows that Halo Wars has been built from the ground up specifically for the Xbox 360. Halo Wars’ greatest triumph is the intuitive nature of its control scheme, which allows you to do (almost) everything you can on a PC using a mouse, with a controller. It may not be as fast and precise as a mouse and keyboard set-up, but it’s as close as you’re ever going to get using an analog stick, triggers and face buttons.
There are relatively few commands to memorise when playing Halo Wars, as the interface has clearly been built with accessibility in mind. Selecting all units is mapped to the left bumper while commanding all of your local units is on the right. The A button selects an individual unit whereas holding it down projects a blue area that you can use to paint over as many units as you like. During the early missions, it’s entirely possible to get away with manically jabbing LB to select all units before sending the full force of your army into battle and the soldier AI is such that in small skirmishes they can handle themselves perfectly well. However things get much tougher a lot sooner than you’d think, which you’ll quickly learn calls for quick thinking and a far more considered strategic approach than simply throwing wave after wave of expendable manpower at a target.
Each of the games fifteen missions involves a different challenge, injecting a real sense of variety as you’ll never be sure what you’ll face next. One particularly memorable mission involves a stationary Scarab still undergoing construction that must be destroyed before you can progress. Sending your units in to do the job is suicide as wandering into its searchlight causes instant destruction. After trying to bomb it from all angles with everything you’ve got, you soon realise that destroying the seven heavily guarded nodes powering its active head is your best bet. Eliminating the nodes slows the speed at which the head moves, but doing so successfully is a task that requires careful planning, meticulous resource management and a precise sense of timing to ensure your tanks don’t get blown to smithereens by the menacing Scarab’s death beam. That this mission takes place only halfway through the game gives you an idea of how tough Halo Wars can get, so anyone concerned that just because this is a console RTS, it’ll be diluted and toned down somehow, forget about it. Halo Wars is hardcore, offering as much a challenge as you’d expect from any PC strategy title. Some missions are time-sensitive too, adding an extra degree of panic to proceedings as you formulate the best approach to beat the objective before the clock runs down.
One thing that has been pared down in order to make fighting through Halo Wars’ missions a bit more manageable are the micromanagement elements that give PC RTS games such enormous depth and detail that would simply prove too overwhelming on a console. Instead your primary concern is with building your base, which acts as your hub of operations. A tidy, well laid out grid that you can use to construct supply pads for generating resources, barracks to train marines and vehicle plants to churn out heavily armoured tanks, the core of your base is the fortress, which can be upgraded to open up to seven slots to build upon. Before you know it you’ll have constructed a formidable station from which to mount your war effort.
While not all the single-player missions require you to establish a base, the multiplayer skirmishes positively rely on your ability to successfully assemble an efficient foothold before moving on to wipe out your opponents. With support for up to six players, skirmish brings much-needed longevity to Halo Wars after you’ve exhausted the single-player campaign. There’re six different factions to experiment with, each with their own unique abilities that grant various advantages in battle. Skirmish requires a quick trigger finger to build your army before your rivals do, and then brazenly march upon your opponent in an effort to destroy and win their base. Base sites are predetermined, so the player with the most bases across the map will always be at a greater advantage.
Returning to the campaign is always an option of course, highlighted in the multiple Halo difficulty levels (heroic, legendary etc) and the medals that are awarded upon completion of each mission. There are secondary objectives to fulfil, collectibles to uncover and with it a great deal of potential replay value if you’ve the inclination to earn every gold medal and gather every hidden skull. There’s also campaign co-op, which is great for trading tactics with a like-minded buddy. For most however, the crux of the game will ultimately lie in the multiplayer skirmish mode, and although it lacks the objective based intricacy of single-player, instead giving players a base from which to then amass an army faster than the opposition, it’s still a lot of fun – especially when you’re winning.
Ensemble has managed to execute quite a feat in adapting the action-oriented universe of Halo into a genre not normally associated with high-octane bombast and instant gratification. That Halo Wars not only serves the IP but the genre as well while incorporating a genuine sense of dynamism and action is remarkable. Question marks may hang over the lifespan of a game like this where the single-player campaign can easily be finished after a few days of intense play and the long-term appeal of multiplayer depends entirely upon how much you’re willing to repeat the grind of base building before embarking upon an attack. For those used to the extreme depth of the PC RTS, there may not be enough to chew on here, but for those of us simply looking for an entertaining, all-action strategy game, there’s really no need to look any further than this.
Fans of the Halo franchise are well served with a hefty chunk of backstory and a faithful adherence to the universe with all of the elements you recognise from the popular FPS titles and a lot more besides. It ticks all of the cool boxes too, whether it’s a Spartan jumping onto a Wraith tank and punching their way in to commandeer them, Covenant Scarabs decimating everything in their path, Hornets engaging Banshees in frantic aerial battles or simply an iconic Warthog leaping a chasm whilst firing off grenades, there’s plenty in here to keep any demanding fan happy.
Even non-RTS players and non-Halo fans will be hard pushed to find something they dislike in Halo Wars. The interface is slick, the production values are high and the level of polish renders this a true Halo experience, right down to the menu screens and evocative soundtrack. Halo Wars emerges as not only a great game, but also a significant step in adapting the RTS for home consoles. As such it’s a game that is more than worthy of your time and attention so, what the Halo are you waiting for?
Top game moment: It has to be any moment that involves the Spartans arriving to save your sorry ass.
There are relatively few commands to memorise when playing Halo Wars, as the interface has clearly been built with accessibility in mind. Selecting all units is mapped to the left bumper while commanding all of your local units is on the right. The A button selects an individual unit whereas holding it down projects a blue area that you can use to paint over as many units as you like. During the early missions, it’s entirely possible to get away with manically jabbing LB to select all units before sending the full force of your army into battle and the soldier AI is such that in small skirmishes they can handle themselves perfectly well. However things get much tougher a lot sooner than you’d think, which you’ll quickly learn calls for quick thinking and a far more considered strategic approach than simply throwing wave after wave of expendable manpower at a target.
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| Sgt. Forge is the macho hero of Halo Wars. He's no Master Chief, although he is a bit more chatty. | Top tip: deactivate the bridge here to send Covenant Grunts to their death and earn a 5G achievement while you're at it. |
Each of the games fifteen missions involves a different challenge, injecting a real sense of variety as you’ll never be sure what you’ll face next. One particularly memorable mission involves a stationary Scarab still undergoing construction that must be destroyed before you can progress. Sending your units in to do the job is suicide as wandering into its searchlight causes instant destruction. After trying to bomb it from all angles with everything you’ve got, you soon realise that destroying the seven heavily guarded nodes powering its active head is your best bet. Eliminating the nodes slows the speed at which the head moves, but doing so successfully is a task that requires careful planning, meticulous resource management and a precise sense of timing to ensure your tanks don’t get blown to smithereens by the menacing Scarab’s death beam. That this mission takes place only halfway through the game gives you an idea of how tough Halo Wars can get, so anyone concerned that just because this is a console RTS, it’ll be diluted and toned down somehow, forget about it. Halo Wars is hardcore, offering as much a challenge as you’d expect from any PC strategy title. Some missions are time-sensitive too, adding an extra degree of panic to proceedings as you formulate the best approach to beat the objective before the clock runs down.
One thing that has been pared down in order to make fighting through Halo Wars’ missions a bit more manageable are the micromanagement elements that give PC RTS games such enormous depth and detail that would simply prove too overwhelming on a console. Instead your primary concern is with building your base, which acts as your hub of operations. A tidy, well laid out grid that you can use to construct supply pads for generating resources, barracks to train marines and vehicle plants to churn out heavily armoured tanks, the core of your base is the fortress, which can be upgraded to open up to seven slots to build upon. Before you know it you’ll have constructed a formidable station from which to mount your war effort.
While not all the single-player missions require you to establish a base, the multiplayer skirmishes positively rely on your ability to successfully assemble an efficient foothold before moving on to wipe out your opponents. With support for up to six players, skirmish brings much-needed longevity to Halo Wars after you’ve exhausted the single-player campaign. There’re six different factions to experiment with, each with their own unique abilities that grant various advantages in battle. Skirmish requires a quick trigger finger to build your army before your rivals do, and then brazenly march upon your opponent in an effort to destroy and win their base. Base sites are predetermined, so the player with the most bases across the map will always be at a greater advantage.
 |
 |
|
| Fraught encounters like this can turn into long battles of attrition if you're not careful. | A full-sized UNSC base in all its glory, turrets and all. The incidental animations on the buildings are nice too. |
Returning to the campaign is always an option of course, highlighted in the multiple Halo difficulty levels (heroic, legendary etc) and the medals that are awarded upon completion of each mission. There are secondary objectives to fulfil, collectibles to uncover and with it a great deal of potential replay value if you’ve the inclination to earn every gold medal and gather every hidden skull. There’s also campaign co-op, which is great for trading tactics with a like-minded buddy. For most however, the crux of the game will ultimately lie in the multiplayer skirmish mode, and although it lacks the objective based intricacy of single-player, instead giving players a base from which to then amass an army faster than the opposition, it’s still a lot of fun – especially when you’re winning.
Ensemble has managed to execute quite a feat in adapting the action-oriented universe of Halo into a genre not normally associated with high-octane bombast and instant gratification. That Halo Wars not only serves the IP but the genre as well while incorporating a genuine sense of dynamism and action is remarkable. Question marks may hang over the lifespan of a game like this where the single-player campaign can easily be finished after a few days of intense play and the long-term appeal of multiplayer depends entirely upon how much you’re willing to repeat the grind of base building before embarking upon an attack. For those used to the extreme depth of the PC RTS, there may not be enough to chew on here, but for those of us simply looking for an entertaining, all-action strategy game, there’s really no need to look any further than this.
 |
 |
|
| The results of a Scarab attack. One of these beasts can easily decimate a large army. Take them down fast! | Harvest is a planet that's been transformed into a desolate snow-covered wasteland by the Covenant. Make them pay! |
Fans of the Halo franchise are well served with a hefty chunk of backstory and a faithful adherence to the universe with all of the elements you recognise from the popular FPS titles and a lot more besides. It ticks all of the cool boxes too, whether it’s a Spartan jumping onto a Wraith tank and punching their way in to commandeer them, Covenant Scarabs decimating everything in their path, Hornets engaging Banshees in frantic aerial battles or simply an iconic Warthog leaping a chasm whilst firing off grenades, there’s plenty in here to keep any demanding fan happy.
Even non-RTS players and non-Halo fans will be hard pushed to find something they dislike in Halo Wars. The interface is slick, the production values are high and the level of polish renders this a true Halo experience, right down to the menu screens and evocative soundtrack. Halo Wars emerges as not only a great game, but also a significant step in adapting the RTS for home consoles. As such it’s a game that is more than worthy of your time and attention so, what the Halo are you waiting for?
Top game moment: It has to be any moment that involves the Spartans arriving to save your sorry ass.
Videos
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Movie Trailer
01:32 | 8,436 views | 5 comments -
Alpha Base Walkthrough
05:14 | 2,820 views | 8 comments
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