Review: Halo Wars

So here’s my first little post on the site – popping my 7 out of 10 virginity in the process. I’m getting flashbacks of losing my virginity the first time, I can remember it now. A beautiful sunset on a golden beach, candles dotted around the room, and not a cloud in the sky as I made my first fumbling steps into manhood. A night that felt like it lasted forever and afterward involved me holding my new found love in my arms…..

Or perhaps,

A rough night in a cheap Swansea hotel with a leaky roof and no toilet paper?

I’ll let you, dear reader, decide.

So, in the traditional spring/summer drought of games, I’ve been turning to the library to catch up on some gaming back catalogue. The past few weeks has had me playing a spin off title from a little franchise called Halo. It’s called Halo Wars.

Initially, I hated it. I couldn’t get my head around it. Being a snob stuck in his old school PC RTS ways, I found it hard to even accept Halo Wars into my collection. It was just the quickest way to get hold of the mythic maps for Halo 3. It was soon put onto the shelf. But giving it some time has quickly changed some opinion. Its unit capping is a royal pain in the arse. As anyone who’s ever played a Command & Conquer game will know, there truly is nothing more satisfying than running over your opponents base with an army which is about 400 times too large for the job at hand. But, on the flip side, it does create a unique element of strategy- Planning what sorts of balance of units each player is going to need for the battle in front of them.

Leader powers get another thumbs up in regards to mixing up each battle. For the un-initiated, each leader brings particular specialized units or ‘powers’ to their army. For example, playing as the Covenant’s Prophet of Regret will allow the player to control the prophet, Bringing with him the ability to fire a devastating ‘beam’ weapon from the sky, at the cost of your hard earned credits of course. On the UNSC side, playing as Sgt forge will allow you to upgrade the iconic scorpion tanks into Grizzlies, A faster and much more devastating version of the single barreled war horse.

Each level has certain geographical vantage points, along with level specific special weapons or abilities to reward the first player to stuff some grunts into them.

A nice little touch with the AI has been the ranking system skirmish mode will give you. I’ve played quite a few games now against the AI opponents, and your skill level increases with each victory.

However, please dear reader, never, ever play with an AI team member against other AI opponents. I’ve never been so depressed in my life. I’ve watched my two AI team mates in a 3v3 match cripple and fold through sheer retardedness. Its not fun. Not fun fighting in an AI war. With imminent doom sealed by a 3 pronged scarab attack on my fledging little HQ.

Yes, controller did meet floor as for the 4th time in a row, my AI brother’s attack failed because of the gargantuan force of 2 warthogs he’d built up.

So when the game is pitted against itself, it doesn’t fare too well. You feel that your working double hard in skirmishes, just to keep your partner in the game. I have noticed the in-game AI learning from my tactics though.

One evening a few weeks ago, when fishing for the ‘win a game on every map’ achievement, the computer learned! My tactics were simple- rush my computer opponent with warthogs. But after a couple of whitewashes, the computer was quick to build an ample defense to my predictable strategy. I was little taken aback to see how my tactics had been absorbed, and slowly but surely, strategically countered. I played another match after this to confirm it wasn’t just a fluke strategy from the AI, but it seemed to be consistently prepared in anticipation for my little warthog invasion, Kudos to you Ensemble Studios sir. Kudos.

The single player campaign holds its own merits also. The developers have seemed to develop unique and innovative ways of progression through the campaign without repetition. Levels range from the standard build base, blow everything up format, through to the more strategic hold this point or defend this place levels. It’s a really nice way to break up the campaign whilst keeping the challenge and novelty fresh. New units obviously needed to be created for the game also, and whilst my nostalgia tends to force me to stick to the more traditional units, the new additions seem to do all that’s needed to keep the ‘rock, paper, scissors’ balance.

All in all it’s a solid title. It’s not the greatest 360 title you’ll ever play by any means. Or the greatest real time strategy you’ll ever see in your life either. But it is Halo, and it isn’t bad. And if you fancy a change, or have always been an RTS fan, then this is possibly the best title on a console to take the plunge with.