My experience with the Halo series has been a relatively short one. Not having the original Xbox, or knowing anyone who had it, I waited until the acclaimed game hit the PC scene only to be told by my computer that I wasn’t worthy enough to play through the game I just purchased, even though I met all the recommended requirements. It’s a souring start to a relationship, and possibly put us at odds for far too long. Harsh words were spoken and for some time we didn’t even acknowledge each other, making it a bit awkward at parties. We had mutual friends, sure, but any coaxing that was done to try and get us to play nice in the same room often left one of us making an early exit and acting all strange at the next major gathering. And now that I’ve beaten that metaphor to death, let’s talk about Halo Wars.

Halo Wars is the swan song of Ensemble Studios, the creators of the popular PC-centric franchise Age of Empires and first party developer for Microsoft Game Studios. The company is famous for their real time strategy (RTS) games, involving raising buildings, creating armies and micro managing your squads in real time to ensure you accomplish a set of goals, usually destroying the other guy on the map. When the Halo franchise was given to the studio, it turned quite a few heads to see that such a popular shooter would be given such a dramatic change in genre. The fundamentals of the universe are there, in that you are the humans desperately struggling against an evil alien race that would be just as well suited if we were all destroyed. The campaign involves you assuming the role as the captain of a fleet, who instructs ground troops on tactics to take down the enemy by building bases, gathering resources and building suitable armies to reach your objectives. The mechanics work on rock-paper-scissors model, meaning vehicles beat ground, ground beats air and air beats vehicles, leaving the strategy with how to attack and formulate your armies (something you only have a limited amount of time and resources to do) your most important decision.

The campaign almost works on an exploit system. You start a mission by watching a beautifully rendered cinematic sequence, setting up your motivation and introducing what your tasks will be. Your goals often involve getting to one particular side of the map without being destroyed, taking out important targets, or protecting characters or the environment and create a varied and interest set of challenges as a result. There are collectables in the levels, set goals for objective points and par times that will give you plenty of reason to come back and beat your old scores, and the option for co-op play extends that even further. The single player game is also enhanced by a skirmish mode which allows you to set up your own scenarios, choosing the role of the UNSC (goodies) or Covenant (baddies) and playing out against any level of AI enemies. On that note, the difficulty curve can be a bit staggering, with an automatic setting that fluctuates based on your assessed skill level that seems to go from mind-numbingly simple to bone-crushingly difficult at the drop of a hat. It offers a big challenge to the more experienced players while allowing a simple progression for those who aren’t used to the overwhelming feel of a war on more than one front, with no view down a scope guiding your way.

Online, the game works exceptionally well with matchmaking that seems to be on par with how Bungie, the original developers of the Halo series, seem to have it. You pick from standard modes or death matches – 1 on 1, 2 on 2 or 3 on 3 – the same as with the single player skirmish mode, only this time you are facing off against people at a relatively close skill level to you. The only real mismatch can come from playing with someone who is not able, or is indifferent to communication, something that is very important when coordinating attacks and defense in any major strategy game. Playing online with friends is the real strength of the game, and considering the fact that you can play through the campaign with them as well it makes it a strong considering for online fanatics.

Beyond the game design, the mechanics work reasonable well. Once you understand the controls – something that takes a little bit of playing around and perhaps a romp through the tutorials to really get a feel for – you can find yourself easily building up quickly, efficiently and watching your scores progressively improve as you go along. The difficulty level of the AI not withstanding, some of the levels in the campaign are just frustrating hard. While not impossible by any means, above Normal the game can get taxing in parts, although it is doing it in a unique way that breaks from the standard of just being rushed by the opposing forces, including a mission where you escort people from a subway to an escape pod and try not to let them or their getaway ship go up in flames.

The real weaknesses of the game come along with the lack of exploration that is really encouraged. There is a lot to the game, and while it may not match the depth of some of the more long standing PC RTS franchises, there is enough to do that it allows a variety of strategies to be taken to task against each other. The campaign allows you to explore this very minimally, not encouraging you to take the reigns of the opposing forces, something that can take you by surprise in your first match online when your tanks are taken out easily by the Prophet of Regret. The story isn’t great, as nicely as it is presented, but it does encourage you to move forward towards the obvious conclusion. There are very rare, but noticeable slow down issues at busy parts of battles. The canned sound bites from the units and narrator can become taxing over time, but that’s almost a staple of the genre. The game also lacks an option to stay and watch a battle unfold once you have been eliminated from it. I imagine this concept may avoid some level of cheating, but when you are genuinely interested in the results of a war you’ve sunk two hours into it is a bit disheartening to simply be removed when you alone are defeated.

While the concept of moving Halo to other genres can be seen as a stab at some level of desperate fan service, the reason I introduced myself as a non-fan of the series by means of pure beligerence was to emphasis the point that I enjoyed it despite the universe it is set in. In fact, the game actually made me more interested in the previous games and it’s likely that I will take my first real delve into the series as a result. Not being familiar with the canon of Halo, I didn’t expect to be drawn into the cinematic story line that accompanies the campaign mode, but the quality of presentation and the impact that you’re able to see based on your actions make the characters relatable. The whole experience ties together nicely and while it may not be more than an aside for the entire story of Master Chief, it gives you a taste of what you can expect in the other games and is relatively true to the whole universe. The characters are fleshed out in more depth than the Halo games themselves ever gave time to, and while it may seem like a series of insignificant events, you understand the impact they have to your characters. So, fans will enjoy it, but not being a fan will not remove you from being able to soak in the scenery.

So what I’m really trying to say is…
Ensemble hit the right buttons with Halo Wars. They made a competent, good looking real time strategy game on a console that is easy to pick up and has a difficulty curve that will satisfy those that just have to be able to better their peers. There is a lot to do in a relatively short campaign time, including par times and medals based on scores, and even co-op options to get friends involved in the experience. The online multiplayer and offline skirmish offer up a lot of depth of play, giving you enough battle strategies and scenarios to choose from on a wide enough variety of maps to keep players entertained for quite some time. The game won’t necessarily rock the socks of fans of more in-depth strategy games, but is as varied as it is accessible, meaning that players willing to invest the time will still see a major advantage over those who don’t and there’s no one way to take down an enemy. The story is simple, but presented beautifully and is a good extension for Halo fans and perhaps a nice introduction for those not as familiar with the canon.

Halo Wars was provided courtesy of Microsoft Canada and is available in stores for $69.99 (CDN) for the Xbox 360. Game played for roughly 12-16 hours on single player (including skirmish) and about 5 hours of multiplayer. Campaign completed on Normal.