Enemy Down

Halo Wars Preview

War is Hell (but fun with a friend)

Posted by Dekko on Feb 9th 2009 11:23

When news spread forth from Microsoft's frothy information nozzle that not only was a Halo Real Time Strategy game in the work sack but also that the dev duties would be carried out not by the Alpha and Omega of all things Master Chief, Bungie but rather by Age of Empires supremos and big hat wearers Ensemble.

Wow, what a shocker and out of the blue to boot. Now we know that Halo was originally conceived as an RTS but that was way back when, before bullets were whizzing over our heads as we live the dream.

Ensemble, while great at the RTS genre (Age of Empires 3 being a personal favourite, the box set was sublime) were by no means Bungie so how would their cumbersome PC-centric hands handle our fragile behemoth John 117?

Halo is a pure adrenalin based action romp with all guns blazing, switched to eleven, in short it is the joys of fu**ing war!

If your FPS credentials are Persil standard whiter than white then you will of been more than interested to see how the boys and girls at Ensemble (with the overview of the all seeing Bungie and no doubt Benevolent Uncle Bill) have managed to squeeze all of that eye popping action into an RTS, a genre which is by its very nature more of a grand build up of resource gathering and skirmish chess moves leading up to a big rush to destroy the other guys base.

I am both a fan of Real Time Strategy games and the Halo universe so will the pH balance between eye popping action and the tactical balancing act of RTS game play be met?

With that in mind True Believers consider this; "What will be will be" sang Vera Lynn and long has the wait been to get a hands on with Halo Wars to see how the cocktail mix of genre has been handled; shaken or stirred?

First impressions count and as soon as you clap eyes on the menu screen you instantly think and feel 'HALO'!

This bodes well.

In game it all looks like Halo but from a distance, a Warthog moves as it would in 'the trilogy' except the camera is set further away while the colour palette is authentic Bungie paint by numbers and this is to the credit of Ensemble, who know the series well recognized signatures and use them rather than try to play around them.

The sound effects instantly place you centre stage of the Halo universe; the gunfire sounds just like any other Halo game, as do the motors on vehicles, Spartan shield regeneration, Grunts voices, you name it.

I don't know why it comes as such a pleasant surprise that these things are this way, after all this is a Halo game I think it is just the attention to detail that makes the effects stand out.

It really is Halo in miniature.

And just like Halo 3 if you want a challenge then you have to take the game up a notch from Normal and play against Heroic AI.

Anyone with an ounce of RTS experience could dangle the games normal AI from a high window while mocking its Mothers taste in lamp shades, you'll be walking all over its army and it'll really be a case of keeping the game going as long as you want by not destroying the main base in one fell swoop.

AI difficulty aside you'll naturally be pondering on the main sticking point with any console RTS, that bugbear we all cringe at; the control scheme.

Have no fear for it is no drunken fiend, with everything mapped out to three main face buttons; ‘A’, ‘X’ and ‘Y’.

‘A’ selects units, ‘X’ confirms a move or confirms an attack when placing the cursor over an enemy, ‘Y’ performs a 'special action' whether it be a marine throwing grenades or a Ghost ramming a Spartan, each thing has a special action and Y performs it. Simple.

The left stick moves your cursor and it is quick enough as to not be a chore while the camera, although not panning out a great distance does not impede the game play.

As for that all important cocktail mix? Well sirs, resource management is not the name of the game so much as a means to an end, you do not have to mine or any other such means of finding income as you control a large, well equipped army who has regular supply drops, your income replenishes quickly so you'll never be waiting long for that extra buck, leveling up La Grand Armee will not take you hours rather tens of minutes.

The basics of the game are RTS standards though so don't expect a great leap or anything; you start with a base, you have to build supply centres for your resources to gain which will allow you to build an army and research new technologies, it is all very simple and conducted by one button and a menu wheel.

There is no 'build a refinery to be able to build a lab to be able to build a factory' type gradient to the tech unlocking, if you have the resources and the reactor power and have built the relevant vehicle, air or infantry building then you can build and research for that area easily with extra options available from the base but all very simple, very clean and very easy.

There is a problem here though; perhaps it is too easy. Yes Halo Wars wants to be action based, to get you fighting battles as soon as possible but to be able to just build an army so easily without having to focus on any other aspects, to focus on sending in an army against your opponent as quickly as possible really simplifies not just the user interface but also the game play making the game one big glorified tank rush and there isn't really another style of play.

Let's hope that playing against a human foe amps up the tactical side of things. Certainly the co-op sounds intriguing, whether it will work well is another question.

Move and counter move it may still be against people, I can see the special abilities of certain character classes coming in to play more with a real life enemy to fight, not just that but the game has a leader class, whether it is a general or a prophet and each one you can select has a different special ability, whether it be it use of the UNSC Elephant or a particularly singeing MAC blast.

One special ability I can see becoming annoying fast is the Spartans 'hijack' option where they can steal any of your vehicles. Sigh. Similar things have been implemented before with base hijacks and all but this seems too easy to me with a 'walk up and get in' GTA vibe rather than a fight to take said vehicle. Repeated play tests will see how this turns out.

So let's see how these options will stack up against a flesh and blood bad guy to face off against, if there is not more depth then I can't see the game having much longevity and for all the care in making the experience action packed it may be a hollow one with it without the solid back bone of army regulating along with management strategies.

As with most things only time will tell. Time and a full play test. Watch this space.

The demo for Halo Wars is out now. Have it download to your Xbox Live account the next time you log in by going here.