Roughly twenty years before the Halo event took place, Halo Wars revolves around the start of this all too familiar war with the covenant and takes the trilogy away from the first person shooter style that Halo’s fans fell in love with and takes on a new real time strategy scenario.  After five long years of battle on the covenant controlled planet of Harvest, the human race has finally taken control over the war-stricken planet, but the covenant aren’t all too happy with this reality.  There is something on Harvest that they aren’t going to let go of easily. 

After a graphically eye pleasing cinematic cut scene the game starts (as is usual with the Halo series) with you right in the heat.  But this time, instead of lurking behind the mask of the infamous Master Chief, you maintain a bird’s eye view of the battlefield with control over an entire army rather than a single soldier. Very similar to Blizzard’s bestsellers Starcraft and WarcraftIII, Halo Wars gives the player control over almost everything that occurs in this RTS Halo environment.

The wide selection of units to choose from consisting of Scorpion tanks, Spartan soldiers (yes there is more than one!), marines, warthogs, flamethrower marines, cobras, wolverines, and many others, makes it possible to create any sort of army you please.  You also maintain the ability to customize your base and conquer either neutral, rebel, or covenant controlled bases around as well.  Be careful though, the longer you wait trying to build up your own army, the bigger and more powerful the covenant’s force becomes as well.  With a simple button layout and lack of dull moments, Halo Wars gets your adrenaline pumping as you fight off waves of covenant forces in your attempt to destroy the heart of their operation.

Halo Wars’ online play looks to be a very fun experience as well.  Although it is unavailable in the demo, a little taste of the Starcraft and Warcraft III-like custom matches gives a little insight on Ensemble’s ideas.  With the option of 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3 battles, players can engage in either online or local play against 3 human opponents or simply AI assigned covenant forces.  But no matter the enemy, each team has to combine their RTS talents in army and base building in order to defeat any opposing force.

With all these new additions in the Halo series, some may worry that Halo Wars will drift from the Halo reputation that has been created over the years.  Not true.  Even though game play has shifted to RTS, plasma grenades, vehicle jacking, rocket launchers, etc. are all still present in the game.  So don’t worry, when playing this game you won’t forget the fact that you are still involved in the human vs. covenant conflict that we’ve all come to know.

With real time strategy experts Ensemble Studios behind the design and development of this game, and the Halo reputation backing it up, Halo Wars is hoping to grab hold of the fan base and popularity that Bungie has created, but that’s A LOT to live up to.  Taking all this into mind, I would give Ensemble and Halo Wars an A in the development so far and look forward to purchasing this game the day it comes out.

Screenshot credtit: IGN