HALO WARS

[Eradicator30]

http://media.gamestats.com/gg/image/object/857/857436/HaloWars_Xbox360TEMPBOXboxart_160w.jpg

Halo Wars places the player in command of human UNSC armies as they deploy for mankinds first deadly encounter with the enemy Covenant forces. Halo Wars is an all-new real-time strategy game based on the legendary Halo universe and designed by Ensemble Studios, creators of the Age of Empires franchise.
Genre: Real-Time Strategy

Exclusively on Xbox 360
Release Date: Q4 2008




Features (http://xbox360.ign.com/objects/857/857436.html)
Editions (http://xbox360.ign.com/objects/857/857436.html)


General Features

New take on a legendary world: Experience the early battles between the UNSC and Covenant, in a time predatingHalo. Join the crew onboard the Spirit of Fire, a Phoenix-class colony ship converted for UNSC military use, and guided by the A.I. persona Serina. Discover an ancient artifact during a journey to the planet Harvest, the first planet to be attacked by the Covenant. And then get ready for the wars
Strategic command of armies in large-scale combat: Gamers are in command of the battlefield, playing as either of two unique civilizations: UNSC or Covenant. Counter and crush your opponent by tactically fielding the superior army. Choose among leaders possessing elite skills that can turn the tide of battle. Use various combinations of leaders and units, and create countless strategies tailored to your preferred playing styles
Groundbreaking Xbox 360 strategy game: Since inception, Halo Wars was explicitly designed to bring a typical PC genre to console gamers. Commanding armies is easy, controlling troops and units effortless, and epic battles are smoothly handled using an intuitive user interface. Halo Wars represents the true next-generation experience, combining a masterful control scheme with the award-winning strategic gameplay only Ensemble Studios can provide

[Le Goat]

Editor's Note: Games aren't always serious business. Sure, you've got your coding, meetings, and budgetary concerns, but there's also a fair bit of, well, gaming goofiness. So we asked Ensemble's Dave Pottinger, lead designer on Halo Wars (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3154058), to write an article for us rounding up quirky facts about the game and its development. Here's what he sent our way. No. 1 -- Vampires are better than Gorgons

http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672005&type=lg (http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672272&type=lg) Creating a strategy game based in the Halo universe gave Ensemble the chance to take a rich franchise and flesh it out in new ways. As huge Halo fans, this was awesome for us. And as designers, this was required. The Halo shooter games have put a lot of different units in the universe, but a strategy game has different needs: We have specific unit roles that need to be filled, and we have to have enough units of each type to ensure that even the basic strategies have multiple options.
When we originally spec'd out the Covenant, we gave them a ground-based, antiair unit called the Gorgon (above left) -- a bulbous, biped walker that used heavy Needlers to rip apart thin-skinned aircraft. Once it was in the game, though, we realized that we'd created a recognition problem: was the Gorgon a vehicle or infantry unit? We intended for it to be a vehicle, but the legs were causing problems, since we also said that "anything with two legs that walks is a dude." The final nail in the Gorgon coffin? The Covenant already had too many ground vehicles; we needed more air units.
Enter the Vampire (above right): a flying, antiair unit armed with heavy Needlers. Once we picked an appropriately "ethereal" name, its unique ability became obvious. The Vampire has the Stasis beam that can prevent enemy aircraft from moving; once upgraded, this beam can drain health from the target and heal the Vampire.
No. 2 -- "December Madness" hits Ensemble
(http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672270&type=lg)
http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672009&type=lg (http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672270&type=lg) We have a lot of fun with various pools and tournaments, for events like fantasy football or March Madness. Back during the Age of Empires II days, we started doing tournaments at the end of the game's production. By the end, most folks are playtesting 24/7 anyway, so they get pretty good at the game. Well, by our standards, anyway -- it's a complete myth that most developers are great at their games. Sure, we have a professional balance team that's astoundingly good at playing our games, but frankly, most of us kinda suck.
Our tournaments have gotten progressively more intense and organized. For Halo Wars, we've got actual trophies, are giving away Xbox 360 consoles and Halo Laser Tag sets, and so on. Karen McMullan, one of content designers, has even gone the extra mile this time to prepare Ensemble December Madness brackets. Everyone can put in their brackets to try to predict the winners in each game; we've got 29 teams, so it should be a challenge to get them all correct.
No. 3 -- A soft spot for the Cyclops
http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672014&type=lg (http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672273&type=lg)
The Halo universe has a lot of ranged combat units. That makes sense; it's sci-fi, after all. Strategy gamers want more options, though. When we looked at the UNSC unit list, we quickly realized that the UNSC was severely lacking in hand-to-hand power. Spartans can do ranged and close combat, but we needed another type of fighter more clearly oriented around melee damage.
We bounced around for a while on what the actual unit would be. We tried the lore-accurate Mark1 armor suits -- a precursor to the more modern Spartan armor. In practice, they were just too close to the Spartans and not distinguishable enough in-game. We had to make our new melee unit stand out more, so we ended up with a lumbering mechanized suit that couldn't be confused with the Spartan at all: the Cyclops.
The Cyclops can beat the crap out of anything around him, though his mobility's limited by his speed. In Halo Wars, that's not enough; he has to have a unique ability. In fact, that's where his name comes from. We've got a lot of fond memories of Age of Mythology -- there's a lot of that game in Halo Wars, actually. One of our favorite units from AOM is the Cyclops. He's a big, hulking brute that can pick up enemies and hurl them for extra fun. Thus, the Halo Wars Cyclops takes his name and ability from his Age of Mythology ancestor. Beating your opponent's Scorpion tanks with the Cyclops is a lot of fun, but there's an extra "in your face" element if you can then throw those pieces of debris for extra damage.
No. 4 -- Fun with names

http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672015&type=lg (http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672274&type=lg) Most developers work in a few nods to friends and family in their games. We're no different. A sample of the "inside references" within Halo Wars:
--We know there are a fixed number of Spartans in the Halo universe, but they're not all named. With Halo Wars introducing a few more Spartans to the lexicon, we had to come up with new, unique names. One's a nod to our lead campaign designer, Jerome Jones.
--One of our Skirmish maps called "Fort Deen" (above) is named after one of our senior designers, Tim Deen.
--My kids are named Andrew and Thomas. They're young boys and, as such, like pirates a lot. The achievement "Alas, Poor Andrew Thomas" is awarded once you get the first skull in the campaign. After all, what's more pirate-y than a skull? And it's a goofy Shakespeare joke, to boot.
--The achievement "Big Al's Scooter" (awarded for a quick Skirmish win) contains the nicknames of producer Chris Rippy's two kids.
No. 5 -- "The Magic Y Button" fixes failed abilities
http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672016&type=lg (http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672271&type=lg)
For a long time, we had the mantra that Halo Wars was "playable with only the left stick and four face buttons." That was good. I really love simple statements like that. At that time, the mapping for the four face buttons was as follows:
A: Select (in various forms)
B: Cancel (cancel selection, menus, powers, etc.)
X: Move/Attack
Y: Leader Menu (for transporting, powers)
Unfortunately, we had a problem: We wanted to put in an ability system for the units. We knew that'd be fun, but we didn't have a good button for it. As such, when we tried it, the system just didn't go over well. No one used the abilities enough to justify the gameplay bandwidth we'd allocated for them. We tried a few things, but we ended up cutting unit abilities out of the game entirely.
Almost a year later, we kept circling around the abilities idea again, because the game really needed more to do in combat. But we knew we were out of buttons, and we didn't want something as cumbersome as remappable buttons or modifier buttons (e.g., right trigger + X). Abilities needed to be simple and fast.
The "big fix" came when we decided to undo one of our assumptions. We moved the Leader Menu to the D-pad and put unit abilities on the Y button. Now we had something close to a primary and secondary attack with X and Y. Shooter fans "got" that. Awesome. Plus, it tested through the roof. The game instantly got more fun, and everyone was using abilities.
We did lose the "left stick plus button" thing. In hindsight, it would've been nice to save that, but players just don't use the Leader Menu as much as they use abilities. It made more logical sense to put the unit abilities on the Y button, even if that meant sacrificing one of our mantras. Plus, it was just a lot more fun.



No. 6 -- Why do Hunters come in pairs?

http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672017&type=lg (http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672275&type=lg) Any hardcore Halo fan will know that the Mgalekgolo are worm colonies that "bind" together to form what humans call Hunters. The Hunter lore is rich with details. The worm colonies originally begin as a single collected entity. When it grows too large, that colony divides into a pair of colonies. These colonies are deeply tied together as mates, or "bond brothers."
Halo Wars plays off of that lore with the Hunter upgrades. The most obvious upgrade would be to start with a single Hunter and then upgrade it so it splits into two Hunters. That wouldn't work in a strategy game, though, because it'd be too hard to tell what upgrade level an individual Hunter was when you encountered it. Is that single Hunter a low-level Hunter or a high-level Hunter whose mate's been killed? So, rather than go literal with the fiction, we tried to embody the spirit of the Hunter relationship. For example, one of the Hunter upgrades that you can research is called "Spirit Bond." When researched, this upgrade gives a huge combat bonus to your Hunters, but only if both Hunters are alive. When one Hunter falls, it becomes markedly easier to kill the remaining Hunter. This correlates very well with what players expect from the Halo shooters.
No. 7 -- 5,402 lines of battle chatter
If you've ever played Halo, you probably remember the Grunts -- they say some pretty funny things. As the series has evolved, players have realized how much chatter and conversation exists with any of the units or squads in the game. When we did some internal and external research, the sense of life and reality created by that chatter came back as one of the most important things in the Halo universe.
We wanted to knock that out of the park for Halo Wars. With our unit menagerie, we have tons of opportunities to dash off funny one-line quips or comments on the state of the battles. When the battle chatter system went in, our "Halo" feel really started to come together. A nice side effect was that it really improved the quality of the gameplay, too. The battle chatter is great for setting the mood or commenting on the environment, but it also notifies you about important things that are happening in the game.
A few examples of battle chatter in Halo Wars:
--"Aww, I've got Grunt bits all in the grill," usually said after you run over a few Grunts with Warthogs.
--"Grunt! Antifreeze, chair, now," might be heard by the Prophet leader if you're fighting over the Harvest polar regions.
--"Has anyone seen John?" and "That's Mjolnir Armor!" are good clues that Spartans have just entered the battle.
No. 8 -- Biggest comeback feature: Base Jumping
http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672020&type=lg (http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672269&type=lg)
Skeptics wonder whether real-time strategy games can be fun on consoles. Obviously, Halo Wars is our response to that. The concern's still a fair one, though. People need to see the game work; they need to understand that we built the game for consoles. They need to have fun playing Halo Wars.
"Solving" the scrolling screen issue is a huge part of convincing people that they don't need a mouse to play a strategy game. Halo Wars has long had a feature called "Base Jumping." Press left on the D-pad, and we cycle you to your first base -- press left again, and it'll take you to your next base, and so on. This feature worked pretty well, but it was never something that the casual players used enough, which was a problem. We built the game expecting people to jump around the map rather than scrolling. Yeah, you can still scroll around if you want, but the game really is built for jumping around the map.
Base Jumping just wasn't cutting it, unfortunately... until we polished it. Sometimes, a little bit of polish makes all the difference. When you're Base Jumping, we flash the base's number in the middle of the crosshair. It's a little thing, but when you see the "1," you know you're at your first base. "2" means you're on your second base. You get the idea.
We don't just jump straight to the actual base. We jump in a little off to the side, and slide the camera over the base very quickly. The offset move's aligned so that the camera's "sliding in" from the spot on the map where you used to be looking. It's like a "fade in" for jumping. This really helped to orient players spatially on the map.
No. 9 -- Covenant Hot Dropping FTW!

http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672023&type=lg (http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672277&type=lg) A huge goal for this game was to have the UNSC and Covenant civilizations play very differently. The UNSC are the good guys, while the Covenant are definitely very, very evil. We could list out all the differences in how they play, but there's one feature that hasn't gotten a lot of attention: Covenant Hot Dropping.
Unlike the UNSC, the Covenant have their Leader (Prophet, Arbiter, etc.) on the battlefield. The three Covenant Leaders are actually the strongest individual units in the game -- it takes multiple Spartans to counter a Covenant Leader. Hot Dropping allows Covenant players to send any units directly to their Leader's location. Each Covenant base has a Gravity Lift right outside. Imagine there's a Covenant Spirit (the "tuning fork" equivalents of the UNSC Pelicans) parked just out of camera range: send a Grunt squad to that pad, and the Grunt gets that familiar blue glow as he's lifted up to the Spirit, and then instantly flown over to be dropped in next to your Covenant Leader.
Strategy fans can see the gameplay that comes out of this feature. The Covenant are really good at rushing (a quick attack before your opponent has defenses). The Leader can be maneuvered close to the enemy while the rest of the units are training back at the base. When the battle begins, you can start Hot-Dropping in your whole army. An additional twist is that the Covenant Leaders can be "recalled" back to a base via the Gravity Lift. The Covenant Leaders are very valuable, so the best players will rescue their Leaders right before death.
If Hot Dropping seems like a screw tactic, perfect -- it's supposed to feel that way. It's balanced out by other elements of the civilizations, of course, but it has that "evil" feeling we were after.
No. 10 -- Ensemble is very fashion-conscious

http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672024&type=lg (http://media.1up.com/media?id=3672280&type=lg) Well, sorta. We like stuff with our games on it. We've always had shirts and whatnot, but Halo Wars has inspired some of our best stuff. Three of my favorites: The Spirit of Fire T-shirt, the Halo Wars hoodie, and the Spirit of Fire hat. I'm still waiting for my Spartan boxers, though.

[taters]

I just cant get into playing RTS without a mouse. You lose so much in swiftness and control and accuracy.

[Skybase]

Is this planned to come out for PC?

[Nature's Folly]

I hope so.

[Le Goat]

in 3-4yrs or so

[Weenis]

This game is the very first to be built specifically for consoles. It's not a PC game meant to be used with a mouse ported over. It's a console game.

I'm cautiously optimistic. PEople who have played it say it will revolutionize RTS on consoles.

Civ Rev has gotten be back into the genre, so I'm looking forward to this one.

[InterningIsiah]

Demo should be on Xbox Live today for those who want to try it. Not sure yet if I'm sold on it, I'm sick of Halo and RTS's are either hit or miss for me.

[Pax Britannia]

I'm downloading it now. I predict I wont like it though because RTS games cant really be played properly on a console, no matter how well you map the controls.

[zero]

I just finished playing through the demo and I'm convinced enough to go and reserve and buy it. I was surprised on how fluid it moved for being a console game not the greatest but still pretty good.

[Pax Britannia]

Same here, i'm very impressed with the controls and the gameplay. I've pre-ordered it.

[Weenis]

They do really seem to have got the RTS controls on a console right.

[Bizz]

The only pc games I play are RTS. Halogen, a mod for Command and Conquer Generals was going to be the best mod ever until they got a cease and desist from Microsoft. I want to play the full version, demos are such a cock tease. It has potential.

[Le Goat]

It sucks that Ensemble is no more

[Bizz]

It sucks that Ensemble is no more

How'd that happen?

[Le Goat]

I think the story is above or in the Gen VG News

[Le Goat]

Ok I literally just popped up the demo and jumped into the tutorial. I know that fucking narrators voice from somewhere, anyone else peg it yet? It's bothering me@

[Pax Britannia]

Chris Sabat

[Le Goat]

What do I know him from...

[Pax Britannia]

Dragonball Z?

[Thewellz]

I played the demo and its pretty cool, I like fact that there are new units to play as. But no mouse and keyboard is bad for an RTS.

[Le Goat]

Dragonball Z?

holy fuck he's done a lot of DBZ


thats now where i've heard his voice htough. maybe a voiceover on TV or something

[Thewellz]

It sounded really familiar to me too, to me it sounded like Capt. America/Nick Fury from Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

[Le Goat]

I fucking love the new music. I reminds me a lot of BSG SDTK in that it's the same beat as the other games (seasons in BSG's case), but more somber and purdy

[Pax Britannia]

I dont think I could bring myself to play as the Covenant.

[Le Goat]

They're fucking powerful. I love it.

[Le Goat]

Wow the cutscenes are stunning.

(just started the campaign)

[Pax Britannia]

Scorpion tank rush FTW!

No matter how balanced developers try to make an RTS I can still pull off a good tank rush.

[Thewellz]

I want to play as the covenant too. But I don't like the new music, i wish this was made by Bungie so we could get the sam epic music from the last 3

[Le Goat]

I want to play as the covenant too. But I don't like the new music, i wish this was made by Bungie so we could get the sam epic music from the last 3

you're an idiot

[Le Goat]

Scorpion tank rush FTW!

No matter how balanced developers try to make an RTS I can still pull off a good tank rush.

The shield defense and a shit ton of Wraithe are just as formidable of a defense as offense

[Pax Britannia]

The shield defense and a shit ton of Wraithe are just as formidable of a defense as offense

I think you need to school the AI.

When I attack from two directions with a mix of Scorpion tanks, Warthogs, Spartans and ODST's the Covenant dont know whats hit them.

[Le Goat]

those walking building bastards are mean

[Le Goat]

the ***** professor is hot

[Le Goat]

damn the covies body armor is fucking seeeeeeeeeeexy on these CGI scenes.

Makes me hopeful for ODST

[Pax Britannia]

the ***** professor is hot

She's modelled after Anita. True story.

[Le Goat]

She's modelled after Anita. True story.
explains the large bulge in her crotch

[Pax Britannia]

She doesnt have Anita's rich sexy voice though. A fact that is detrimental to the game in my opinion.

[Le Goat]

PROTIP: It's a synthesizer!

[Le Goat]

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay Scarab's!@@!!!!!!!11

[Le Goat]

srsly, the fucking Scarab is a god damn beast. I cant wait to see what the Marines have as their equivalent

[Weenis]

I want to play as the covenant too. But I don't like the new music, i wish this was made by Bungie so we could get the sam epic music from the last 3

I believe the music was done by the same guy who did all teh Haloez...

[Weenis]

Wow the cutscenes are stunning.

(just started the campaign)

Yeah I thought that too. Plus the story seems pretty compelling so far.

[Le Goat]

Yeah I thought that too. Plus the story seems pretty compelling so far.

Yeah, when the Captain was on the Observation Deck my jaw dropped.

I dig the story too, mainly cause it's fucking fresh and not drawn out feeling like Halo 3 was. I just grabbed Halo 3 cause I knew the MP would be fun. This will be SP first THEN MP. I love the 3v3 MP game though. I cant wait to see how HUGE that map is. Did anyone else see how many maps there were? Holy fuck yeah BLOOD GULCH! Also look at the SP Missions tab. A LOT OF SPACE! So hopefully that means lots of levels.

[Pax Britannia]

I've ordered the limited edition. It comes with:



Three New "Halo 3" Multiplayer Maps - Be one of the first to experience the Mythic Map Pack from Bungie which includes three new maps, "Assembly," "Orbital" and "Sandbox"
"Halo Wars: Genesis" - a beautiful graphic novel by Phil Noto, Graeme Devine and Eric Nylund chronicling the first military campaign against the Covenant.
Unique In-Game Vehicle - "Honor Guard" Wraith
Six Leader Art Cards
>Spirit of Fire Crew Patch

[Le Goat]

The MAC gun pwns

[Weenis]

I've ordered the limited edition. It comes with:



Three New "Halo 3" Multiplayer Maps - Be one of the first to experience the Mythic Map Pack from Bungie which includes three new maps, "Assembly," "Orbital" and "Sandbox"
"Halo Wars: Genesis" - a beautiful graphic novel by Phil Noto, Graeme Devine and Eric Nylund chronicling the first military campaign against the Covenant.
Unique In-Game Vehicle - "Honor Guard" Wraith
Six Leader Art Cards
>Spirit of Fire Crew Patch



Anyone notice how every limited edition comes with a patch now? Are patches in again?

[Le Goat]

I have every Shuttle Patch. So yes.

[Pax Britannia]

I have a military coat I like to wear down the pub, i'll probably get it attached.

[Le Goat]

I have a military coat I like to wear down the pub, i'll probably get it attached.

Oh god, you'er one of those guys

[Pax Britannia]

Awesome guys, yeah.

[Le Goat]

anyone else get the ODST Troops? I think they grow in number with each use, or something I dunno. I somehow ended up with like 8 or 10 pods being available to drop.

[Pax Britannia]

I noticed my marines being upgraded to ODST's but I didnt know they could be dropped.

[Le Goat]

It's an upgrade on the base I think. or special power menu... I just know it's awesome in a pinch.

[taters]

I wonder how the standard maps will work, being that it looks like you cant build bases just anywhere, but in set spots.

I love the fact that you dont have to gather or collect anything ala C&C. I dont like that it feels inbalanced. Not that one side is more powerful, but each side has 'megapowerful' units or abilities that pretty much destroy everything with almost no weaknesses. Reminds me of old school nuke wars on Red Alert.

It does kick ass though, and Ill definitely get it when it comes out.

[ry.ry13]

I'm sure it won't take 3-4 years for it to come out on to PC. someone like myself will try to rip the files and adapt them for the PC controls, then most likely use a second computer as a server and host games. i'll say maybe 5 months before the studio releases a PC version to make more profit off of

[Le Goat]

http://www.1up.com/media?id=2905621 (http://www.1up.com/do/my1Up?publicUserId=5380025) By Thierry Nguyen (http://www.1up.com/do/my1Up?publicUserId=5380025) 02/20/2009
> Reviewer's Blog (http://www.1up.com/do/my1Up?publicUserId=5380025) > Review Crew Profile (http://reviewcrew.1up.com/#5380025)
http://www.1up.com/images/game/ratings/reviewratings/1up_B.gif
If you told me 10 years ago that the guys who made the awesome Age of Empires II (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=2007838) would be making a console-only real-time-strategy game based on a sci-fi shooter, I probably would have at least bitten, if not consumed, my hat at the time. Yet, not only has this come true, but Halo Wars (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3154058) is also Ensemble's last game; so in addition to be needing to be on par with other RTS titles out on the market, it also carries the burden of being held up to the lofty standards set by Ensemble's earlier, and most excellent, titles. There's the whole "make an RTS game that a Halo (http://www.1up.com/do/search?st=Halo) fan would enjoy" aspect to it as well. While I wouldn't say that it succeeds on all fronts, it does, for the most part, play and feel like a very newbie-friendly RTS game. Put simply, Halo Wars is a very traditional RTS game, streamlined for people who don't really play RTS games. There's base building, but it's on a fixed floorplan, and you can only establish bases on existing base sites. The economy is just based on magical space bucks generated from a specific building type, flowing from unlimited coffers into your production queue. All units have a clear upgrade path with no confusing tech trees. Units have just a single special ability, not an array that you'd have to heavily micromanage. These kinds of decisions are a pretty good way to help ease people to the genre, but it also makes the game feel a bit scaled down from my perspective.


http://www.1up.com/media?id=3684063&type=lg (http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3154058&sec=IMAGES) Click the image above to check out all Halo Wars screens.

What's been considered the largest hurdle in console RTS development is the interface. On PCs, hardcore players use their hotkeys so much, the constant click-clacking from the keyboards make the matches sound more like intense IM sessions than game scenarios. For Halo Wars, Ensemble manages to boil down the typical RTS interface into core actions, with each core action corresponding to a single button on the controller. It's essentially a refinement of the circular menu you'd find in EA RTS titles (Battle for Middle Earth 2 (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3147040), Command & Conquer (http://www.1up.com/do/search?st=Command+%26+Conquer) series), but made even simpler. You have a decent array of selection options: tap A to choose one guy, double-tap A to choose multiples of a specific unit type, hold down A for paintbrush-style selection, right bumper for all units on-screen, and left bumper for all units, period. Always use X to specify a target or a location, and always use Y to activate a special ability. The D-pad jumps you to specific parts of the map (bases, armies, latest alerts, etc.). Because the controls are so streamlined and focused, that while it will never rival the Actions-Per-Minute style of RTS play on the keyboard, getting things done via the gamepad is pretty damn easy.
A quick reminder on the story, since the "Halo" name carries with it lore that's been developed through three titles and several novels and comic series: you control the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire as it investigates some Covenant shenanigans. It takes place 20 years earlier than Halo, and without getting into spoiler territory, let's just say that some stuff Halo fans take for granted is encountered and treated as new or mysterious, and that there are multiple Spartans. Also, the overall plot is decent, for both a Halo title and an RTS game, and occasionally uses fantastic-looking prerendered cinematics that I hope will be considered for use in future Halo titles. If anything, my main problem with the story is that I'm not fond of the ending, but I won't say more.

Halo Wars 'Video Documentary' 3 (http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/23684)
The linear 14-mission story campaign is fairly decent gameplay-wise, providing a mix of typical "build up a base and demolish the enemy" to a few decent "puzzle" missions. One mission, you're tasked with destroying an under-construction Super Scarab that scans the area and one-shot kills anything in its line of sight. Another mission takes place directly on the outer hull of the Spirit of Fire, where you have to juggle with taking on one foe while another one initiates a special attack within a specific time cycle. Another nice touch is that the campaign can be played in co-op -- great if you're a Halo fan who might need a bit of help from a more RTS-savvy bud.
In terms of "feel," the game strangely oscillates between feeling like a genuine Halo title and feeling like a typical sci-fi RTS. Moments that you'd expect in a Halo title, like Marines shooting Grunts or Warthogs crashing into Elites or Spartans jacking Wraiths are pretty spot-on. Another nice touch to the atmosphere is that the Covenant and UNSC (while the story is UNSC-only, you can play as Covenant in multiplayer/AI skirmishes) both feel very different from each other. Heck, the Covenant feel like previous Age of Empires (the Covenant upgrades technology using Ages, à la Age of Empires) titles with a dash of action-gaming (you control Leader powers, such as the Prophet of Regret's Cleansing Beam or the Arbiter's Rage, via direct input of the analog sticks and buttons). Yet, when you involve the semi non-canon units like the UNSC Cyclops or the Covenant Vampire in battles, Halo Wars starts feeling like Just Another Generic Sci-Fi Game instead.


http://www.1up.com/media?id=3684064&type=lg (http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3154058&sec=IMAGES) Click the image above to check out all Halo Wars screens.

As someone who's played a fair number of RTS titles, two things stand out that aggravated me...a lot: the inability to create control groups and the necessity to go back to your base to adjust production (rather than pull up a production menu wherever you are, like in other RTS titles). If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you should be okay with the compromises made for these two inadequacies; the former is somewhat handled by how Down on the D-pad toggles through your "armies" (which the game determines). The latter was decided as to not overwhelm the new player with too much going on. The lack of defined control groups means that finesse maneuvers, such as having Scorpion tanks approach from one angle while Orbital Drop Shock Troopers engage from a different direction, are more difficult to pull off than they should. That in turn leads to a general side-effect of most skirmishes being solely about having a decently mixed array of units just rushing towards each other, with very little time dedicated to maneuvering and targeting. Actually, I just remembered a third thing that really aggravated me: pathfinding. It ranges from "OK" on most maps to vehicles taking three times as long as they should to figure out how to get around an obstacle any time a hill or incline or outcropping of rock or bush is involved.
Halo Wars is a solid, if somewhat uninspired and simplistic, all-around RTS package with few faults. Ultimately, it's less a RTS game designed for a console (unlike, say, Tom Clancy's EndWar (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3158955)), and more a PC-style RTS that's been adapted and streamlined for the console. I wouldn't venture to say that it's either a great RTS game or a great Halo game, but it's a really solid beginning towards what could be a really good console RTS. I'm hoping that this good foundation is built upon with further downloadable content (maps, units, playable Flood faction, or, heck, a new Covenant campaign, please!) -- and maybe people who enjoy this game might be inspired to grab a legitimately awesome Ensemble game like Age of Mythology (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=2007843).

[Weenis]

I guess this pic is somewhat relevant...

Hottest Halo Wars fan (http://www.ukresistance.co.uk/2009/02/uks-hottest-halo-fan.html)
http://www.ukresistance.co.uk/pics6/hottest-halo-girl-5a.jpg

[Le Goat]

Gamespot- 6.5 (http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/strategy/halowars/review.html?tag=topslot;thumb;2)

[Pax Britannia]

I completed this last night. After playing through the campaign and a few skirmishes I think Gamespots score of 6.5 is very harsh. The campaign is fun and action packed, the cutscenes are spectacular and the control scheme is superb.

The again Gamespot gave Resistance 2 9.0 and that game fucking sucks.

[Bizz]

I'm doing a run on Legendary and it's pissing me off. The controls on this game are terrible for a RTS game and the difficulty comes from controlling my units. I need my micro management of Generals Zero Hour and I'd fucking rape this game all day.

[Bizz]

pwnt (http://live.xbox.com/en-US/profile/Achievements/ViewAchievementDetails.aspx?compareTo=DGZ%20Bizzle&tid=%09%5D:%15%18*iN%08%7C)

I worked this game for a rental.