And for the Halo obsessed, there’s plenty of material here to satisfy you until the next Halo novel. The standard roster of Covenant and UNSC units is remarkably well adapted to this style of gameplay. That’s regrettable, because there’s a lot to like about the game otherwise. ![]() The result of these two systems – simple but drawn-out production and complex but frenzied combat – create a frustratingly inconsistent pace for most of Halo Wars. But with your units’ health bars rapidly depleting with each passing second, you quickly forget about the dozens of controller commands needed to micromanage your army and opt for basic focus-fire strategies instead. It’s clear Ensemble applied a finely tuned system of unit hierarchies in Halo Wars‘ combat: Different unit types have unique roles to fill in each skirmish, with powerful player-activated special abilities that can shift the scales when used correctly. Combat, on the other hand, is usually over in a matter of seconds. It usually pays off to take them early, which is probably why there’s usually one a stone’s throw from your starting location each match.Įven with an extra base in your possession, resources in Halo Wars are slow to accumulate. The A.I.-controlled troops at these locations put up just enough of a fight to be an annoyance at the start of the match, when resources are scarce and you have to decide between building a couple defensive turrets or assembling a proper raiding party. Instead, you must take over strategically located third-party bases to increase your supply of resources without hurting your production capabilities. In Halo Wars‘ skirmish mode, this isn’t a viable tactic. You could construct all the buildings necessary to build and upgrade every unit type, but your supplies would slow to a trickle. The game’s resource-gathering system makes this limitation especially crucial: The bulk of your supplies come from special buildings that pipe them in from an undisclosed, resource-rich location. Halo Wars uses a modular base mechanic that limits the number of buildings you can construct on a single platform. Many traditional RTS elements have been simplified in Halo Wars, but none are more noticeable than the game’s base-building system. It may not sound like a huge problem, but you can trace pretty much every niggling gameplay issue back to this single flaw. By contrast, Halo Wars replaces these everyday gestures with a combination of button presses, trigger pulls and thumbstick movements, and it’s still not as quick or accurate as using a mouse. If you’ve ever rearranged your desktop icons, you have the basic motor skills required to play a PC RTS – selecting units is as simple as dragging a box around them. In fact, the best compliment I can give Halo Wars is that it proved to me, conclusively, that there will never be a console RTS worth playing. The elements of a fun and dynamic multiplayer game are there, but they’re overshadowed by the frustration of simply managing your troops. It’s the Achilles heel of every console RTS, and while Halo Wars was clearly designed from the ground up to be played on an Xbox 360 controller, it’s not enough. ![]() Halo Wars offers a compelling single-player campaign, filled with beautifully rendered cut scenes, varied environments and solidly balanced gameplay, but it’s saddled by one major handicap: You have to play it with a gamepad.
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