I’ve never been one to hunker down and play a RTS (Real Time Strategy)
game. Mostly because I enjoy actually playing video games and I’m also
not allergic to natural sunlight. But I’m a huge tool who enjoys the
Halo series, and I may or may not become giddy when I see Spartans on
the cover of a game. Those fuckers piqued my interest, hooked me and
opened my goddamned wallet. I’m such a loser.
I am a very stupid
individual. This comes from years of playing videogames, I imagine.
This is one of the reasons why I assume RTS games have completely
bewildered me as a genre. I could never really get into them. That’s
not to say I haven’t tried to get in on this genre before. I’ve played
a good number of them, Command & Conquer, Starcraft, Age of
Empires, and more recently Company of Heroes. Aside from just
name-dropping, I’m letting you know that these games kicked my ass.
After CoH, I kept my distance from the genre, assuming from that point
on, RTS stuff wasn’t for me. Then I started hearing about a new Halo
game…
I
feel like the crew here on the Internauts are part of a small group of
people who are fans of the Halo story, rather than just the multiplayer
experience. This probably means we’re nerds (and by “probably” I
actually mean “definitely”). Not to say I’m above tea bagging 9 year
olds X-Box Live, but I’m pretty sure I finished the campaign before
jumping into Matchmaking. That being said, I was only slightly
interested in Halo Wars, it was a RTS after all.
The cut scenes
in Halo Wars look phenomenal, giving a genuinely cinematic feeling.
Unfortunately, the gameplay graphics suffer a bit. Most of the game
looks great, but when you’re in the heat of an epic battle, every so
often you’ll get clipping, slowdown or graphic hiccups. None of this is
ever a big enough issue to hinder gameplay or ruin your experience.
I
can’t help but stress how awesome some of the cut scenes are in this
game. I have a hard time considering the events of an RTS as being
epic, or even investing myself into the genre at all. The cut scenes in
Halo Wars, oddly enough, helped keep me invested in the actual game.
Even if you don’t buy or rent the game, I want you to go on Youtube and
find the FMV that happens before the final level. Halo fan or not, you
won’t be able to deny how badass it is.
As interested in the
game as I might have been, I was apprehensive about the online
multiplayer experience. Halo is a series that is heavily built upon a
foundation of amazing multiplayer experiences, and this was completely
against the “norm” in that respect. The first few matches I played on
launch day were actually really entertaining, and fun. I have never
played an online match in a RTS game that I can classify as fun. Halo
Wars also has a co-op mode for the story campaign, so I went back
through and played the game with another person. In doing so, I was
able to find way more shit that was just scattered across the maps
(skulls, energy, etc.). The downside to playing the game like this is
how quickly you’ll find yourself completing missions; the game really
just becomes a breeze to complete, lacking the difficulty curve that
should be expected.
The game seems to be very streamlined in
comparison to other RTS games, and this leads to a lot of the issues
people have with it. A lot of people seem to be either completely
against this “dumbed-down” RTS game, or against the fact that it’s on a
console. This really shouldn’t be such an issue, considering the fact
that it is an incredibly decent game, one that was handled by a company
other than Bungie, and it was handled really well. This streamlined
style helped me not be completely turned off by the gameplay. I didn’t
feel ostracized, or made to feel like an asshole because I hadn’t spent
my life playing games in the genre. It was a welcoming experience; one
that actually made me want to play other RTS games, and invest more
time into titles I had previously attempted. Sure, the Halo story
hooked my interest, but the gameplay ensured that I pressed on and was
able to finish the game (even when being brutally raped without
lubricant in online matches).
Halo Wars isn’t a completely
traditional RTS game. People complain that it’s too easy, that the
mechanics are dumbed down, but it could prove to be the gateway drug
into other RTS games. I found the game incredibly endearing, leaving me
wanting to get strung out on other titles in the genre. I can obviously
recommend the game to Halo nerds (not so much the fanboys who were
expecting another FPS), but I’d also recommend this game to anyone who
has had negative experiences with RTS games in the past… This might be
exactly what you need to give the genre another shot.
