I'll admit going into this one I was a bit skeptical. I mean I just wasn't sold on the idea of playing a RTS game on a console. It's a genre that seems to require a keyboard/mouse combo and would just never make the jump off PC's.

Of course, I used to say the same thing about first person shooters

In the short time I had to spend with the game I can honestly say they did a fine job bringing the RTS genre to the consoles. They're certainly not the first to do it, but since the game was developed for the 360 and not ported over gives them an advantage.

The controls were definitely streamlined for the console and worked well. For instance a quick tap of the LB button selected all units at once and moving or attacking just meant placing the cursor where you wanted them. Otherwise hitting A while targeting a unit selects a single unit. Conversely you could hold down A and it would create a halo on the ground that you could drag to "paint" over other units to select them a few. It made it easy to just drag and select small groups of units.

Most units have a standard and special attack and when highlighting enemy units gives you the choice of "X" for a regular attack and "Y" for the special. So for instance the warthogs and faster vehicles would simply run over enemies if their special attack was used. It was nice to have it all mapped to buttons so I wasn't picking and choosing things off on a menu to perform different attacks.

The base building has also been refined, and now happens in set positions for a base unit and additional structures. So you build a central base, then a network of empty spaces appear around that. Those empty spaces are where you build additional buildings, like barracks and supply depots. When you create units like soldiers and tanks, they all come out of one central tunnel, which helps immensely. In old RTS games you had to be wary of rotating each building and making sure doors and all were facing the right way. Here you just have your main base and then supporting structures. It keeps everything compact and to be honest I much preferred it to the old C&C base building style.

The game takes place 20 years before the events of the Halo trilogy and in my short time with the game can assuredly say that fans of the Halo mythos are gonna want to play this game, if only for the fleshing out of the story. I'm not even a huge fan of the Halo storyline and I was kinda hooked in.

I wasn't super psyched for Halo Wars, so I had no expectations going in... but after playing through a few levels I can honestly say it's now on my radar.

Comments (6)

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written by Ryan Hewson, February 02, 2009

Hey, I'm not a particular fan of Halo or it's mythology but this looks pretty interesting to me.

"...it would create a halo on the ground..." that use of "halo" messed me up for a sec

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written by Mark Peachey, February 02, 2009

I don't know what it is with RTS games, but I'm simply incapable of getting into them. I'm terrible at them, really. So no matter how "console-ified" Halo Wars is, I have my doubts it will ever really be able to appeal to the broader console crowd.

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written by utopaline, February 03, 2009

can't wait, and seeing that Dan liked it, or is at least interested, makes me even MORE excited, Thanks Dan you rock as usual

Uto

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written by Dr. Cossack, February 03, 2009

In any case, this is worth noting as Ensemble Studios's last title...

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written by Tralfaz, February 03, 2009

Considering that I loathe Ensemble Studios' other RTS games and have never really fancied anything Halo-related, this is pretty much a pass for me. It does look promising, though, for those with tastes more aligned to either of those two things.

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written by TheBBPS.com (Bits, Bytes, Pixe, February 11, 2009

[...] week, Dan gave us a first hand look at the Halo Wars demo a few days before it hit Live. Now that the rest of us have had a chance to get our hands on it, [...]

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