Halo Wars general thoughts/semi-Review

I’ve owned this game for almost 2 years, but just finally got around to playing it. I can’t really say what took so long. I remember playing the Tutorial and the first stage right when I got it, and enjoying it, but then it just got pushed back as newer games poured in.

For anyone who may not know, it’s a Real Time Strategy game on the 360. It was made by Ensemble Studios, who promptly shut down after completing this game. I’m not sure of the circumstances there. Ensemble also made the ‘Age of Empires’ games for PC, so they were no slouches when it came to the RTS genre.

The game takes place about 20 years before the events of the original ‘Halo: Combat Evolved.’ It follows the exploits of the UNSC ship Spirit of Fire, led by Captain Cutter, Sgt. John Forge (voiced by Nolan North!), a woman scientist named Anders and the AI Serina. The long and the short of the plot involves the Covenant digging up an artifact that ultimately leads them to a fleet of powerful Forerunner ships, with the Spirit of Fire on their tail the whole time trying to prevent them from accessing said ships. If you’re interested, here’s a more detailed plot summary, along with some commentary on the role the women characters play. It also shows off the cut-scenes in the game, which I found to be really enjoyable and impressive, honestly. I recommend watching it.

The game has a few different modes. There is a 15 mission campaign that I quite enjoyed playing. Each mission takes between 20 and 40 minutes on average, with incentives to go back and play on different difficulties and collect skulls, black boxes (unlock “Timeline events” to see some additional Halo backstory). The missions have great variety, with different objectives for each one. You’ll escort civilians to escape ships, build a huge army to take down a Super Scarab, clear out multiple bases, etc. Each mission also has a par time. You earn Tin, Bronze, Silver, or Gold medals for each mission depending on how quickly you go, how many bonus objectives you complete, etc. Corresponding achievements apply for those inclined. Skirmish mode is the standard “Versus” mode where you can play up to 3 v 3. I haven’t gotten to do that, but it sounds interesting.

Moving on to the gameplay, I found it to be a refreshing change from any RTS I had played on a computer. In the past whenever I’ve played a RTS game, I feel pretty weighed down with options. I think Ensemble did a great job paring down for the game to work well with the limited control options on a console. There are bases with 7 spots for additional attached buildings to help build your army. Each building can generally be upgraded a few times to unlock unit upgrades, faster build times, or more supplies. Again, I appreciate that there are a limited number of units. Selecting units is fairly simple. The LB button selects all units, RB selects local units, double-tapping A selects all of the unit type that you have selected. All fairly simple and it works well. My biggest frustration comes from my units not prioritizing their targets very well. What I mean is when I’m attacking an enemy position I have to basically just select every unit on the screen and have them attack the same target instead of “dividing and conquering” or having certain units attack the turrets and some attack Building X and some attack Building Y. I think that sort of thing is much easier to divvy up on a PC game but like I said, this game pulls things off pretty well.

 

I’m about out of stuff to say here. I’ll just close in saying I had a really good time with Halo Wars. It was a nice change of pace from my standard gaming experience. I recommend it to anyone looking to change it up a little bit, or just anyone who loves Halo and the Halo universe.