Love it or hate it, at some
point anyone who has owned
an Xbox has played a Halo
game.
Since the end of Halo 3
many fans were questioning
if that was the end of the franchise
itself. Well, developer
Bungie answered with an
announcement back in 2006
that the game that would continue
the Halo universe
would be Halo Wars, a realtime
strategy game, which
would be released for the
Xbox 360 and the PC.
Halo Wars takes place
roughly 20 years before the
events of the first Halo.
While this is definitely a
departure from the usual
first-person perspective, Halo
Wars offers a ton of entertainment
that both Halo fans and
RTS fans can both enjoy.
The demo that was released
on Xbox Live gives a not so
quick glance into both the
campaign and skirmish
modes, both of which will
offer hours of fun to any player.
The campaign mode that
was available was pretty
straightforward. The
Covenant and the UNSC have
been fighting for several
years now, with the Covenant
gaining ground in every battle.
However the Covenant
seems very keen on keeping
one particular system in their
control when they uncover
something important.
Basically the game is about
who can build the most combat
units in the fastest time
and destroy the other player.
It’s a pretty simple concept
but it requires an amount of
tact and ingenuity in order to
win.
The game’s simple premise
aside, the reality is that for
the first time, you will be able
to control the armies of both
the UNSC and the Covenant.
You can build dozens of
tough-skinned Marines, agile
Warthogs, and of course the
all-important SPARTAN
super soldiers.
As the story in
the campaign
mode progresses
it will no
doubt unlock
some of the
secrets as to the
war before the
events of Halo.
As far as an
RTS on a console
goes, Halo
Wars is pretty
impressive. The
controls aren’t
as complicated
as on a PC so
anyone can
learn how to
play. The maps
feature some
familiar terrain
that players
from the other Halo games
will appreciate like Blood
Gulch.
The game is really fast
paced too; if given 15 minutes
you can pretty much create
an army from nothing. The
battles, like the rest of the
game are really fast too. If
you have 30 soldiers and you
go against your AI counterpart,
you may end up with
five limping soldiers by the
end of it.
Another great part about
this game is that it’s really
pretty to look at. Not just the
art direction but everything
from the maps to the battles
to the individual soldiers
looks like they were painstakingly
drawn to be different
from the rest of the units.
Overall, the demo of the
game played really well, in
spite of it being for a console.
The whole game will be
released in a few weeks and
hopefully will live up to the
lore and the expectations set
before it by the previous
games.