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A long time ago, in a
galaxy far, far away... Hang on, wrong epic universe,
let me try again. Several hundred years in the future,
but 20 years before the previous... no, I'm just
confusing myself now. Screw it, welcome to Halo Wars.
Halo Wars is the final game to be produced by the
legendary Ensemble Studios, so no doubt that they wanted
to go out with a bang. They should be pleased to hear
that they did go out with a bang, but unfortunately not
quite as big a bang as they would have wanted, or as
their fans may have expected.
First off, let me say that Halo Wars is amazing,
easily one of the best RTS games I've ever played, and
that alone is an achievement. The fact that this game is
a console-only RTS and that the controls don't hinder
the player too badly is yet another reason for Ensemble
to be proud. The game looks fantastic, especially the
graphical effects with weapons and explosions. The
colour palette used in Halo Wars is incredibly
varied. There are colours in there that I haven't seen
in a video game for ages, including yellow - you know,
that bright colour that the sun apparently looks like
(go on, draw back your curtains and take a look, I'll
wait. Blind now? Don't worry, your eyes will readjust to
the darkness of your room soon enough. But why am I
writing this bit? You can't even see it!).
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"Shows
great respect
for the Halo universe" |
As nice as the visuals
are, you can't zoom in far enough to get a really good
look at the unit models, which is a shame. The camera is
also restricted to how far it can zoom out, so quite
often you find that the action overflows out of your
view, which makes control of your units slightly more
awkward. The controls themselves, however, are generally
well-designed for the Xbox360, with easy shoulder
button presses to select all or only local units. By
pressing a direction on the D-pad, you are whisked away
to your base, or your units, or where the action is, all
depending on the direction pressed. Selecting units can
be quick with the aforementioned shoulder buttons, if
you're not picky about what your selecting, but
selecting specific units as a group can be awkward. You
can't group them together, and although the spherical
select tool and individual selection allows you to
choose which units you want to control, after you
deselect them you're back to square one. One way on
overcoming this hindrance is to simply move the selected
units to a different area so other units that you don't
want in that 'group' are off-screen, then when you want
to select this 'group' of units, simply move the camera
over them and press the 'local units' shoulder button -
so although there is no grouping of units per
se, it can still be done.
The story of Halo Wars is very well thought out,
and in no way compromises the original Halo
trilogy. Ensemble Studios have shown great respect and
love for the Halo universe by being so careful to
protect the integrity of the current stories, both in
terms of the games and the books. The story is set 20
years before Halo: Combat Evolved, and follows
the ship The Spirit of Fire, as she and her crew attempt
to liberate the planet Harvest, having lost the planet
to the Covenant five years earlier at the beginning of
the war. Next thing you know, you make a discovery on
Harvest which begins your quest for answers on two
further planets. While it's a good story, it's also
incredibly short, spanning only 15 missions. As a saving
grace, however, the missions themselves are rarely short
and are very varied, which is seldom seen in RTS games.
Each one is introduced with a cut-scene, and trust me
when I say they are some of the best cut-scenes I've
ever witnessed, in quality and in content. Without
spoiling it for you, let me just whet your appetite with
this: three Spartans verses a squad of Elites.
Complementing the fabulous cut scenes are some solid
performances from the cast of voice actors, at no point
sounding cheesy or forced.
Unit variation is another strong point for this game,
with a vast selection of units to choose from for both
the UNSC and the Covenant. Included among the units are,
of course, the Spartans - no Halo games would be Halo
with out Spartans. The Spartan units are conveyed very
well, and exist in numbers that is true to lore: at no
point do you encounter more than nine Spartans, and when
you have full control over them you have no more than
three at your disposal. Fans of the Halo trilogy will no
doubt be pleased with Ensemble Studios for not
overplaying the Spartan card, and true to their infamous
brother, the Master Chief, each Spartan is
overwhelmingly equipped for combat - possibly
over-equipped. The Spartan units have the ability to
jump on and commandeer enemy armour, just like you could
do in the Halo FPS games, but you wont have to
worry about the dangers of getting close enough to do
this, because the Spartan is incredibly resilient. It
takes a sizeable force to take one down, and even then
one can be revived by securing the immediate area around
him or her. That right, boys, I said her. In Halo
Wars, accurate to lore, there are female Spartans,
and they're just as tough. Insecure, much?
"Solid
performances
from the voice actors" |
Those of you who are
aware of the story, or have simply heard or read rumours,
will no doubt be aware that the Flood make an appearance
in Halo Wars, but fear not fellow lore masters, the
addition of the Flood is relevant and in no way
compromises the previous Halo stories. The Flood,
however are not a playable race - neither are the
Covenant - you only play the missions as the UNSC. The
idea of leaving the Flood and Covenant without a
mission-based campaign makes sense, as no one really
wants to play as the losing side and multiple endings
would severely screw up continuity, but it still would
have been interesting to play as the other races, just
to experience more of the game. Luckily, the Covenant
are playable in multiplayer, and are well enough
balanced to stand toe to toe with the UNSC.
Multiplayer is great fun, and is where most RTS games
get their longevity from. Halo Wars will only
allow 2 vs. 2 or 3 vs. 3 battles, no addition of
free-for-all, which is a real shame in some respects
because playing with others doesn't always work out
well. On the other hand, playing co-operatively with a
friend or two, against three other pals, can be
brilliant. (But who has that many friends really? I sure
don't.) Co-operative skirmish can be great fun, but
co-operative play on the campaign is even better. Having
a friend give you a hand can really help out whilst
trying to complete the missions, and although on normal
the missions are pretty easy, the help is much
appreciated if you knock the difficulty up a notch.
I'm finding it slightly difficult to rate this game. Its
quality is overwhelming, but there are flaws, and the
ultimate shortness of the campaign certainly damages the
game. Without a shadow of a doubt, it can proudly wear
the Halo title, and it's easily the best RTS on a
console. Perhaps the promised DLC will add more missions
and content to push this game up to the highest level,
but on its current merit, I can only go as far as saying
Halo Wars is top quality game trying to meet the
unreasonable standards set by previous Halo titles; one
that's unfortunately hindered by its console platform.
Buy it, and be sure to savour the moment, because
although Halo Wars is short-lived, every second
is worth it.
87%
Excellent,
but would have been even better on the PC.
About
our scores...
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