Title: Halo Wars
Genre: RTS (real-time strategy)
Developer : Ensemble Studios
Platform: Xbox 360
Rating: M (Mature)
Product Link: http://www.amazon.com/Halo-Wars-Limited-Xbox-
360/dp/B001F6KSDM/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1237081771&sr=8-1
Website:
Source Link: http://halo.xbox.com/games/halowars.html
Despite being considered a pillar of PC gaming, the RTS genre has always struggled to establish itself on console platforms. After decades of lackluster ports, we are presented with a RTS built from the ground up to work exclusively for the Xbox 360 console. Set in the well-recognized Halo universe, Halo Wars takes a brave step into dangerous territory.
The presentation is excellent with crisp, theatrical cut scenes in between missions. These cut scenes are well acted and make you wish that Ensemble Studios was in charge of generating cut scenes for the original Halo trilogy. During game play, the graphics are startlingly detailed with bases building themselves and airships delivering resources to depots. The interface is clean and easy to navigate. Individual units are also impressive but, given their tiny size, it is hard to make out exactly what units are on screen especially when some vehicles look identical to one another. The battlefield is also a victim of choppiness and slowdown when there are too many units on screen at once.
Halo Wars’ audio can best be described as familiar yet sorrowful. Sound effects are ripped straight from the original Halo games complete with low shield sirens and squeaky grunt yelps. The music is decidedly more somber with a heart wrenching score that feels dramatic while still clinging to the core elements of the Halo orchestral theme.
The biggest hurdle that most RTS games face on the console is the control layout. Although the game tries its best to maneuver multiple units, there is absolutely no better alternative than the PC mouse and keyboard setup. Nintendo has made a name for itself for releasing hardware for the sole purpose of playing one or two titles the way the developers originally intended. Why is it so unfathomable for Microsoft or Sony to release a mouse and keyboard set of peripherals for the sole purpose of playing RTS games the way they were meant to be played? Halo Wars’ attempt at an intuitive control scheme performs adequately but is ultimately clunky. Choosing between local units and all units is inefficient and often leads to accidentally leaving key locations defenseless.
The pitfall of the controls creates a domino effect that causes the core game play to suffer. Because so much energy was devoted to eliminating a mouse and keyboard, much of the resource management has been oversimplified. You cannot arrange turrets outside the four corners of your base, buildings cannot be adapted to the strategic layout of the terrain, and the overall strategy element is washed out. We are left with an arcade-like RTS that works on the most rudimentary levels of what a RTS should be. This makes the game greatly accessible to people not familiar to the genre but will no doubt alienate those who have mastered much stronger RTS mechanics found in games like Starcraft or Sins of a Solar System.
The single player campaign is too short with no mission lasting over twenty minutes to complete. It is strange that we are allowed to play as the Covenant in the multiplayer mode yet the Covenant do not have their own campaign to play through. This would have effortlessly doubled the length of the single player campaign and given us more time to appreciate the differences in unit types. Don’t be surprised if a downloadable Covenant campaign emerges in the next few months—for a fee of course.
Halo Wars is a fun, appealing RTS game that is simply not ready for the console arena. The fundamentals are solid, but the intricacies that make RTS games enjoyable over time are weakened and have dissipated somewhere in the transition of PC RTS game to console RTS game.
Overall Rating: * * * / 5
M. Michael Chwedyk "The Gamekok" - MuzikReviews.com Video Game Review Staff
March 15, 2009
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