Halo Wars Review: Can an RTS work on 360?
When a franchise dips its toes in an unfamiliar genre, the result is seldom pretty. When Command & Conquer, the unstoppable titan of Real-time-strategy (RTS) ventured in to the world of First Person shooters (FPS) in 2002 with Renegade it was buried by brutal reviews, now the vaunted FPS world of Halo makes its debut in the land of RTS. A risky move, made even riskier by the poor track record of RTS on console (the woeful Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth 2 comes to mind). With the odds against them, it comes as a welcome surprise that Halo Wars is surprisingly good.
Mindful of how poorly PC RTS designed with a mouse in mind play on a 360 controller, Halo Wars has been designed for console from the ground up for the 360. Expecting a replay of Lord of the Rings’ clunky controls to render unit selection and map navigation a frustrating chore, Halo Wars keeps it refreshingly simple. Group selection is handled with an easy click of the shoulder buttons and a pull of the trigger.
In fact, keeping it simple could be the motto of Halo Wars and it is a philosophy that serves it well. Tech trees and unit variety may seem limited to console offerings, but the basic rock-paper-scissors relationship of infantry-air-vehicle allows for a wide range of tactics without bogging the player down in micromanagement.
The plot is the usual Halo B-grade space opera hokum, the evil Covenant are after a super-weapon to further their plans for galactic domination and only our heroes: Stubbly anti-authority guy with a heart of gold; frosty scientist girl who likes him but pretends not to; and Captain wise-old-father-figure. If you are a fan of the Halo mythos, you will be in your element, but even if you’re not, it isn’t so cheesy or full of ‘insider-canon’ stuff to alienate the newcomer.
On the downside, good as the game is, it hasn’t achieved the critical mass of regular players tp rival its FPS cousin. Halo Wars on X-Box Live, while by no means dead, is rarely overflowing with players. This is a shame, as it plays well in multiplayer and there are a lot of good maps on the disc.
This short-coming aside (which is largely beyond the maker’s control), Halo Wars is undoubtedly the best RTS on the 360 and the first to make a real effort to tailor gameplay for the console controller.
Bring on the Sequel!
