Reviewed on March 2, 2009
Ensemble's new Xbox 360 strategy game is heavy on the Halo mythos but occasionally stumbles over its limited control scheme.
Read Brad Shoemaker's full review
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Quick Look: Halo Wars
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Halo Wars Trailer
Halo Wars is a real-time strategy game for the Xbox 360. Join the Halo Wars crew on the UNSC ship CFV-88 Spirit of Fire and engage the Covenant head-on in an attempt to hold on to the recently taken human colony of Harvest.
Halo Wars Overview
Larger scale battles than have been seen in Halo before
Plot
Halo Wars is set in 2531, prior to the events of Halo: Combat Evolved (which is itself set in 2552). It follows the story of a UNSC ship, CFV-88 Spirit of Fire, under command of Captain Cutter, and their command to liberate the planet Harvest from the Covenant. The player will be allowed to control the forces aboard this massive warship, and receive instructions and commands from its AI, Serina. The UNSC sends a massive force to retake their colony planet, Harvest, from the Covenant who have occupied it. The Covenant have been digging in the polar regions of Harvest, and have uncovered an ancient Forerunner artifact. What this artifact is is unknown, but the humans decide it is worth investigating and dispatch a force. It was revealed during Microsoft's TGS 08 press conference that the Flood will be in the Halo Wars campaign in some capacity, although whether or not they will be playable remains unknown. This revelation appears to present a massive hole in the continuity of the series, as both humanity and the Covenant's first contact with the Flood was on Installation 04, Alpha Halo, during the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. How this new story thread will be woven into the overarching canon has yet to be seen.Gameplay
A covenant base is hit with a MAC cannon blast.
Abilities
Like most RTS games, Halo Wars features character abilities. Ensemble studios have said that every character will have special abilities although not all will be game changing. Only some units abilities have been confirmed but Dave Pottinger (Halo Wars lead designer) has gone in to great detail about the spartans ability on the official halo wars website. In short the spartans hijack enemy vehicles upgrading them and making them their own with a couple of back flips for effect. Although most units special abilities won't be as good as the spartans they should provide a certain amount of additional strategy. Although this makes spartans look over powerful Ensemble studios has clearly said that with the right strategy and focus spartans can be killed.UNSC Leaders
Captain Cutter:
- Leader Power: MAC Blast - Magnetic Accelerator Cannon blasts an enemy target.
- Unique Unit: Elephant - A mobile infantry trainer
- Super Upgrade: Marines can upgrade to Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs) and then drop from Orbit anywhere on the map.
- Economy Bonus: Cutter's bases start with more building sites.
Sergeant Forge:
- Leader Power: Carpet Bomb.
- Unique Unit: Cyclops - A multipurpose powered exoskeletal suit.
- Super Upgrade: Grizzly - A superior version of the Scorpion tank.
- Economy Bonus: All Supply Pads on Forge's bases start as Heavy Supply Pads.
Professor Anders:
- Leader Power: Cryo Bomb - Freezes enemies in place.
- Unique Unit: Gremlin - Uses an EMP to stun enemy units.
- Super Upgrade: Hawk - a laser beam upgrade to the Hornet.
- Economy Bonus: Cost and research time for unit upgrades reduced by half.
Covenant Leaders
The Prophet of Regret:
The Prophet starts with a Plasma Cannon attack and the Cleansing ability (which calls down an enerfy beam for an orbiting vessel).
Special Unit: Elite Honor Guard.
Combat Upgrades:
- Blessed Immolation: Upgrades to fuel rod cannons for damage increase.
- Ancestral Perversion: Dual protector units hover near Prophet and defend him.
- Divine Absolution: Upgrades chair so Prophet becomes a full-fledged flying unit.
Special Upgrades:
- Regret's Sentence: Medium cleansing beam which does more damage.
- Regret's Doom: Large cleansing beam for even more damage.
- Regret's Condemnation: Increases damage of beam.
Brute Chieftain:
The Brute Chieftain starts with Gravity Hammer and Vortex ability (a damage field that can further explode for additional damage).
Special Unit: Brutes and Brute Chopper
Combat Upgrades:
- Inheritance: Adds passive stun ability to normal attacks.
- Birthright: Chieftain can pull enemies to him during combat.
- Destiny: Adds an area of effect (AOE) stun to Gravity Hammer.
Special Upgrades:
- Tsunami: Increases Vortex damage and AOE.
- Hurricane: Increases Vortex damage and AOE.
- Singularity. Increases Vortex damage and AOE.
The Arbiter:
The Arbiter starts with dual energy swords and Rage special attack.
Special Unit: Suicide Grunts.
The Arbiter
Combat Upgrades:
- Fiendish Return: Arbiter armor reflects a portion of incoming damage back to attacker.
- Vicious Blades: Adds damage to attack and increases damage reflected.
- Ghastly Vision: Permanent cloak enabled and damage reflection increased.
Special Upgrades:
- Defiant Rage: Health partially restored with every inflicted fatality.
- Spiteful Rage: Rage mode costs less to maintain.
- Blinding Rage: Rage damage massively increased, also increases the attack power of surrounding allies.
Controls
Halo Wars will allow you to play as the Humans or the Covenant.
- Left-stick - Moving around
- Right-stick - Zooming In & Out
- A button - select a Unit (hold down to select with a circle)
- A button (Double click) - select all units of the same type
- X button - target enemy, move units
- Y button - Alternative Fire
- Right Bumper - select all units on-screen
- Left Bumper - select every unit on map
- D-Pad- Each direction on the d-pad is mapped to a somewhere with one direction cycling through your bases, one cycles through your troops, another shows you all known enemy units, and the last calls brings up the leader powers menu or if playing as Covenant goes directly to your command unit.
Halo Wars Maps
There will be 14 maps available in Skirmish, and likely more to come out sometime after the release of the game. The maps are as followed:- Chasms (available to play in the demo of Halo Wars as of 2.5.09) {1v1}
- Blood Gulch {1v1}
- Pirth Outskirts {1v1}
- Release {1v1}
- Tundra {1v1}
- Beasley's Plateau {2v2}
- Crevice {2v2}
- The Docks {2v2}
- Labyrinth {2v2}
- Repository {2v2}
- Terminal Moraine {2v2}
- Exile {3v3}
- Fort Deen {3v3}
- Frozen Valley {3v3}
Halo Wars Limited Edition
In addition to the standard edition of the game being sold in stores, a limited collectors edition will also be available. The package, which will retail for $79.99, includes:- The Mythic Map Pack for Halo 3, which contains the maps Orbital, Sandbox, and Assembly
- Halo Wars: Genesis, a graphic novel about the Spirit of Fire's campaign against the Covenant
- A unique, in-game Honor Guard Wraith
- Six "Leader Cards" with pictures and information about major characters in the game
- A Spirit of Fire crew patch... which is more of a rubber coaster.
Announcement and Release
Halo Wars was officially announced on September 27th 2006 at Microsoft's X06, and was released in Japan as well as Australia on February 26th 2009, in PAL territories on February 27th, and in North America on March 3rd; contrary to when Robbie Bach misspoke during CES keynote 2009, saying that Halo Wars would be released on February 28th. Microsoft closed Ensemble Studios before the games release, but Robot Entertainment(founded by former Ensemble employees) continues to support Halo Wars through updates and DLC.Playable Demo
During CES Microsoft announced that a playable demo of Halo Wars would be coming out before the general release of the game. During late January and early February 2009 codes to allow the demo to be downloaded were given out through gaming blogs and as prizes in competitions. On Febuary 5th the demo was released to the public via Xbox Live and Xbox.com. The demo includes two campaign missions, where you and a band of UNSC soldiers fight the Covenant forces to rescue your stranded troops, a Tutorialm and a Skirmish mode. In Skirmish you can play as either the UNSC (Captain Cutter) or the Covenant forces (Prophet of Regret) on Easy, Normal, or Heroic difficulties. Only one map is available in the demo, which is a snow map called "Chasms." There is no online multiplayer available in the demo. The demo set a Xbox Live record for having 2 million downloads. The previous record was set by the Resident Evil 5 demo with 1.8 million downloads.
Downloadable Content for Halo Wars
Despite the fact that Halo Wars is the last game by Ensemble studios, Robot Entertainment have confirmed that they will continue to support the game and have DLC planned for release. The first DLC for Halo Wars is the "Strategic Options" pack which includes three new Game Modes and four new Achievements. The Strategic Options DLC was released on May 19th, 2009. The three new Game Modes are:
- Keepaway Mode: In this adaptation of Capture the Flag, teams battle it out to capture and hold a free-roaming Forerunner Sentinel to score points before the other team. The number of Sentinels needed to win scales with the number of players.
- Tug of War Mode: Players must build a stronger army than their opponents to succeed. Defeating enemies is essential, but success is determined by a combination of the army, buildings and resources left standing in the end.
- Reinforcement Mode: Players must adapt their tactics and use the ever changing set of units to outwit and outlast the enemy, all the while facing successive waves of incoming enemy units.
The four new Achievements are:
- One and Done (30 points): Score the winning point on a game of Keepaway against the Legendary A.I.'s
- Pull Hard, Pull Deep (20 Points): Win and never trail in a Tug of War game
- Freak on a Streak (20 points): Gain at least 15 population from a single wave in a Reinforcement game
- Living Loving Bug (30 points): Obtain a Scarab during a Reinforcement game
Halo Wars Soundtrack
A Halo Wars soundtrack is available to buy. It contains a soundtrack CD, and a bonus DVD. The CD contains the following songs:- Spirit Of Fire
Halo Wars OST - Bad Here Day
- Perspective
- Money Or Meteors
- Flollo
- Just Ad Nauseum
- Unusually Quiet
- Flip And Sizzle
- Put The Lady Down
- Six-Armed Robbing Suit
- Action Figure Hands
- Staus Quo Show
- Part Of The Plan
- Work Burns And Runaway Grunts
- Freaked Out
- Rescued Or Not
- Best Guess At Best
- One Problem At A Time
- De Facto The Matter
- Part Of The Problem
- Fingerprints Are Broken
- Out Of There Alive
- Through Your Hoops
- Under Your Hurdles
- Insignificantia (All SloppyNo Joe)
| Game Name | Halo Wars |
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| Publisher(s) | |
| Developer(s) | |
| Genres |
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| Themes |
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| Original US Release |
March 3, 2009
need a fuzzy date? |
| Original US Release |
February
2009 know the real date? |
| Aliases | HW |
| CERO |
CERO: B
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| ESRB |
ESRB: T
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| PEGI |
PEGI: 16+
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Black Box and Skull Guide
A guide to finding all of the black boxes and skulls in the campaign of Halo Wars.
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