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Halo Wars

Information:

	Release Date: March 3, 2009
	Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
	Developers: Ensemble Studios
	Platforms: Xbox 360
	Genre: Sci-fi, Real Time Strategy
	ESRB Rating: Teen (T)
	About Game: A strategy game based on the Halo universe, Halo Wars immerses you in an early period of the storied Halo universe, allowing you to experience events leading up to the first Halo title. With the guidance of Serina, a spirited artificial intelligence (A.I.) persona, direct legions of UNSC soldiers, Warthogs, Scorpions, and more, each group having its own strengths and uses in battle. Adventurous commanders can also call upon ancient Forerunner technology, if they are fortunate enough to find it hidden throughout the battlefield. In campaign mode, command the armies of the UNSC warship Spirit of Fire, with familiar and new UNSC units in its initial encounters against the Covenant, an alien coalition threatening to obliterate mankind. Covenant forces are also waiting for you to lead them into battle in multiplayer skirmishes via the New Xbox Experience. Call upon an arsenal of new and familiar Covenant units such as Grunts, Elites, Ghosts, and even Scarabs to defeat foes on the battlefield.

Trailer:

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Video Review:

Review:

Received From xbox360.ign.com

Bungie Studios has spent the last decade refining its winning formula for first-person shooter success with the Halo series. The epic sci-fi saga about humanity's battle for survival against the alien Covenant collective has now spanned three games on Microsoft's Xbox consoles, and that number will only grow in the years to come.

For the first time, a non-Bungie development studio has tried its hand at expanding the series in the form of Halo Wars, a real-time strategy game set in the universe popularized by the enigmatic Master Chief. And although Spartan warrior John-117 doesn't appear in the game, developer Ensemble Studios has otherwise closely followed Bungie's formula for success.

Halo has always been about intense bursts of run-and-gun gameplay with pretty graphics and a robust and addictive multiplayer component, all wrapped up in a compelling story. Rather than strike out on its own with an approach more akin to its wide-open Age of Empires series of real-time strategy games, Ensemble has stuck to the Bungie formula in Halo Wars. Missions are tightly designed, the action moves constantly forward, and momentum isn't bogged down with complex technology trees, multiple buildings and resource gathering operations. Because of this, Halo Wars serves almost as a "my-first-RTS" rather than as a Halo-ization of more traditional strategy offerings like AoE, Starcraft and Command & Conquer.

Compared to those games, Halo Wars offers you less control over where you set up your base of operations, how you build your armies and the manner in which you achieve your objectives. In stripping the RTS experience down to its core function of creating an army to defeating an enemy, Halo Wars brings something fresh and lively to the console RTS landscape.

Many console strategy games are ports of their PC counterparts, which causes design problems from the outset. Actions that were designed to be managed with the precision controls of a keyboard and mouse are shoehorned onto a controller with a limited number of buttons and a slower system of on-screen navigation. As a result, many of these ports simply don't work as advertised, and gamers end up shaking their fists at an angry and vindictive God. The Ensemble developers seem to have had just that experience, because they took a totally different approach with Halo Wars. This game was built from the ground-up for the Xbox 360, and the control system shows it.

Almost every action in Halo Wars can be accomplished with two button presses, and production choices are made from a Mass Effect-like radial menu that never has more than eight options. On the battlefield, just tap the A button on a unit to select, say, a Spartan super-soldier; move your cursor to a location via the left analog stick; and tap the X button to send him there. If the location is empty, your unit will move there, and if it's occupied by an enemy, he'll attack like the well-trained Marine he is. Most units also have a special attack, which you can execute at the touch of the Y button. Warthogs, for example, can plow over enemy ground forces, which comes in handy as a last resort. Once you use a special attack, it will need to recharge, so use them wisely.

Yes, it really looks like that.

Marines and their vehicles don't train and build themselves, so you'll need to handle that on your own. All of Halo Wars' campaign missions are played from the United Nations Space Command perspective (sorry, no Covenant campaign), and most start you out with a single base of operations, or at least a spot to build one. These Firebases come with three building sites and can be upgraded to support up to four additional sites. In some campaign levels, and in most multiplayer maps, you'll have the opportunity to operate additional bases, but you can only build in designated areas. While some may find this restrictive, I found it to be refreshing approach that significantly streamlined the base-building process, which can be cumbersome to manage in other console RTSs.

Although your base site is fixed, that doesn't take the strategy out of the process. Halo Wars is as much about managing limited resources as it is about blowing stuff up. Each Supply Pad you build as the UNSC, and each warehouse you construct as the Covenant in multiplayer matches, will provide you with a steady stream of resources that you can use to build your army, beef up your base and deploy super weapons. One of the most satisfying things to do in Halo Wars is to fully upgrade the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon on the Spirit of Fire, build up a healthy stash of resources and then spend those resources to unload a group of three pinpoint 600-ton rounds on a Covenant base. Nighty-night, bugs.

Received From xbox360.ign.com

monkeywhistle123	Latest page update: made by monkeywhistle123 , Mar 20 2009, 3:44 PM EDT (about this update About This Update Moved from: New Video Games - monkeywhistle123 No content added or deleted. - complete history)
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