Consolation Prize

Halo Wars may just be the perfect swan-song for Ensemble Studios. Best known for there Age of Empires series, this Microsoft owned development studio whom specialise in RTS games unfortunately shut up shop earlier this year (29th January) after completing work on what could have been there best seller to date given the strength of the Halo fan base.

Set twenty or so years before the events in Halo: Combat Evolved the demo introduces you to the first couple of campaign missions for the UNSC. In addition there are basic and advanced tutorials to help players more familiar with first person shooters acclimatise to the nuances of a real time strategy game, and there’s also skirmish mode to play against the AI on one of the maps.

Firstly, this does feel like an RTS by the numbers approach to the franchise and follows the familiar template - we have a base to construct, units to produce, resources to gather, and of course an enemy to smite. I’m struggling to identify any real innovation, and I’ll admit to not being an RTS connoisseur of late. But if you expect nothing more of the genre, then based upon my time with the demo, you’ll be more than happy with the results here as it is competently handled.

Historically, RTS games on consoles have suffered when it comes to user input, usually as a direct result of trying to map complex controls more suited to a mouse and keyboard to the limited options available on a controller. Fortunately Halo Wars feels like it has achieved the correct balance between simplicity and complexity and predominately uses the “A” button for selections, “X” for movement and targeting, and then the left thumb-stick to highlight options within circular menus and to pan around the screen. The net result is that you’re free to concentrate on the base building and strategy without having to navigate endless menu screens whilst wrestling with the controls.

Importantly Halo Wars feels like it belongs as part of the series. With its subdued and sparse menu screens, the appearance of familiar units like the UNSC Marines and Warthogs; Covenant Grunts, Elites, Hunters, and Wraiths, and not forgetting the unmistakable sound effects of plasma rifles, assault rifles, and chain-guns, you can fully appreciate that Ensemble Studios have gone to great lengths to ensure that the continuity of the Halo universe remains intact.

An impressions post wouldn’t be complete without a passing comment on the visuals. Thankfully Halo Wars doesn’t disappoint as the unit models are nicely detailed and are easily identifiable when fully zoomed out and look fantastic under closer inspection. The CGI used to progress the campaign story also deserves a special mention and is of the highest quality and glorious to watch.

So Halo Wars is shaping up to be an interesting game that should appeal to fans, but perhaps more importantly by setting itself before the adventures of everyone’s favourite Spartan, it could quite easily appeal to non-fans alike.

I went back and played some more skirmish and I’m really starting to like playing as the Covenant. I hope the release Covenant and Flood campaigns as DLC.

For some reason I assumed a Covenant campaign would be included, it’s a shame that’s not the case. That would be perfect DLC though, I’m just wondering who’s picked up the gauntlet from Ensemble Studios?