Halo Wars Review

The good news is that Halo Wars masterfully transports the series' best elements to an entirely different genre, and its unparalleled accessibility makes for an excellent introduction to real-time strategy. The bad news is that its self-imposed limitations take a meaty chunk out of its longevity.

It's quite a change from the Halo we all know and love but Ensemble (R.I.P.) has done a great job. The RTS action is fun, the controls are surprisingly tight and the presentation is great. It won't thrill every Halo fan but it's definitely lives up to the franchise's high standards.

Twenty years before John-117 steps out of cold storage and dons the mantle of Master Chief, the Covenant locks onto the trail of a secret that could give them an insurmountable advantage in the war against humanity. After the first slick pre-rendered cinematic, I'm tearing across snow and ice in a Warthog, gathering pinned marines so I can retake a base. The basic controls become second nature within moments.

The fifteen imaginative missions task you with everything from rescuing civilians to dragging gear up a steep slope, and often underscore the long-term ramifications of your command decisions. This is the spine of any strategy game. Though Halo wars is incredibly user friendly yet it also constrains advanced players by eliminating much of the strategic layer.

This is no doubt a conscious decision that was made in order to ensure balance and user-friendliness, but there are places where Halo Wars' streamlining goes too far. It's hard to imagine the rationale behind unit selection controls that don't allow you to do basic stuff like gather troops into groups, order them into simple formations, or even subtract individual units from your current force. Elaborate attack plans aren't impossible, but they require unnatural contortions that felt unnecessary.

The prequel story doesn't content itself with simple name-dropping, and instead touches on all the science fiction themes that enabled the original trilogy to capture so many imaginations.

PROS: Simple and intuitive controls; superb upgrade system; detailed battles; good unit variety.

CONS: Base and building placement is constrained; poor unit selection tools; limited save system; minor path-finding issues.