Halo Wars - 360

[SIZE="5"]Halo Wars - Xbox 360[/SIZE]


“All Units” for someone who has never played Halo Wars before, it would be a weird quote, but people who have, it will be stuck in there heads. I once had to sit down and pause the game for a while playing halo wars to stop from ripping someone’s head off. You see whenever you press the left bumper on your Xbox 360 controller an American voice shouts ALL UNITS! Which in return can bloody annoy you, so to the game, Halo Wars is set 20 years before the halo event and readers of the Halo novels like the Fall Of Reach, Contact Harvest etc., will pleased to know that it fits into the Halo universe. There is no Master Chief before you ask, but as people know, the Spartan 2 program has been finished and there are many Spartans to play with.

The story starts out with a narration from Captain Cutter the captain of the spirit of fire (a UNSC ship)“Five years. Five long years that’s how long it took us to take harvest back”. It then cuts to a battle presuming on harvest, which brings me to a point about the cut scenes in this game. The cut scenes are amazingly beautiful and look something straight out of a big movie blockbuster, to the dirt on the ground to the laser fire just looks so realistic and makes you want more. The scripting for the cut scenes is pretty good and sometimes a little bit cheesy and unoriginal which can be a problem. The story begins with the spirit of fire and its crew sent to investigate what the covenant have been doing down on harvests surface. It is later found at that they have excavated a forerunner facility, a map. The story continues at a good pace and comes to a conclusion which won’t cause any unrest.




Anyway to the Pro's and Con's. The main pro is the controls which for a console RTS have to be easy and simple to use. Easy and simple is just what you get with Halo Wars.


Here is a detailed look at the controls:

As you can see the controls are simple which is a bit of a downfall, but that's what makes it good. On the visual side of things the graphics are average for a modern game and good for an RTS. The settings are varied, ranging from the shiney blue of the covenant to the brown and yellows of the flood. As you see by the title it’s a Halo game and it has the same fell and atmosphere of a Halo game. The skulls, co-op, difficulty settings, music and even some of the maps are some of the things you will see in halo wars that are similar to its FPS brothers.

To the con's, yes there are some hiccups with the game, but not many. Number one is the stereo-typing of the characters. You have Capt. Cutter as Capt. Jacob Keyes, Serina as Cortana, Anders as Dr Halsey and Forge as the Master Chief or Johnson. You can’t avoid them in games but this is a bit over the top.

Another thing is that you can not play as the flood which many people were annoyed by, but to be honest realistically how can you control zombies? My last con is that when the characters speak they are usually loud and aggressive when they don’t need to be and this gets very aggravating. The AI are not very smart and are bit too easy even on the higher difficulties. In multiplayer when I first played there was something called the “Warthog Rush”, this consists of someone with a UNSC character and having lots of supply pads and reactors and churning out warthogs fully upgraded within a short amount of time. There is a new DLC to specifically stop this tactic.


That brings me to the features of the Halo Wars. You have new vehicles like the vulture, and old vehicles, like the scorpion and warthog. Each unit has a special ability which can really help in battle (e.g. the marine grenade). In skirmish or multi-player you have normal enough buildings for an RTS. You have supply pads for supplies, barracks for infantry, specific buildings for vehicles and etc., that slots all nicely in a base. The only thing different is that you have reactors, which allow you to build specific units and buildings. The mission objectives differ from saving civilians, securing a base and even destroying a scarab.

In the campaign you do have Spartans and do get to command them but they are limited. If you do have difficulties you can always have a friend help with co-op where you share resources and it makes it easier to handle. To the skirmish you can have bots offline, or online with real players where you can 1v1 or 2v2 or 3v3. 3v3 is probably my favourite just because of the scale and the need for teamwork and tactics.

The multiplayer is one of my favourite things about Halo Wars and can keep you playing for much longer then you would normally. You have 2 modes deathmatch and standard. Standard is the normal wipe everyone out on the other team kind of game. Deathmatch is where you are fully upgraded, 15000 resources but you have 15 max population. You have 6 leaders to choose from 3 UNSC 3 Covenant, Each with unique units and abilities (e.g. Capt. Cutter has his Mac blast). The good aspect with multi-player is that like many games these days you need teamwork together, you can’t just go on your own because you will just be destroyed. The interface and controls allow you to work together, even if you or the other people don’t have mics.

There’s still a lot to mention with black boxes, DLC and the limited edition version of the game. Overall, Halo Wars is a good game with some hiccups but it will keep you busy with the story, collectibles, achievements and the multi-player. If you like the real time strategy genre and you are fan of the Halo series, its the one to get.


[SIZE="3"]Game score - 7/10[/SIZE]



[SIZE="3"]Written by - PieInTheSky[/SIZE]

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