The fact that the latest Halo title is a real-time strategy game is weirdly appropriate, actually: When Halo came out for the original Xbox, there were countless PC gamers who felt jilted because the game, originally intended for Mac and PC, had ended up on a console. But now, five years after the first Halo—and now that the massively popular series has established shooters can work as well on consoles as on PCs—the new Halo game is… well, an RTS, one of the last genres that PCs still maintain a stranglehold on. On one hand, it seems weird that a first-person shooter series should now be exploring RTS territory; on the other, this is hardly the first time the Halo franchise has taken what’s supposed to be a PC-only genre and pushed it onto consoles.
So how does the Xbox 360-exclusive Halo Wars hold up? Hit the jump for some quick impressions based on the first three levels of the campaign.
First, an ass-covering disclaimer: I’m the opposite of an expert on the RTS genre. I might’ve had a brief dalliance with another console attempt, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II, but other than that, I’ve haven’t ever had the means or the interest to delve into the genre. What I have played a shit-ton of, though, is the Halo series, which hooked me long ago thanks to bombastic stories, gorgeous environments and production design, and intuitive controls. I know it’s not like this series needs any more accolades, but there are some pretty good reasons why it’s so goddamn popular.
So the question, for me at least, was if the Halo games’ settings, mythology, and tone could still work in a whole other genre. And if the first few levels of Halo Wars are any indication, the answer is mostly yes. Plot-wise, Halo Wars is set 20 years before the first Halo, but little is different—there are more Spartans running around, sure, but humans are still fighting the Covenant, and all the technology and vehicles look and work the same. Turns out that regardless of what futuristic decade you’re ostensibly in, its still fun to run over grunts with a warthog.
Console gamers will be glad to hear that developers at the now-defunct Ensemble Studios have done a pretty smooth job building a console RTS, too—as befits a Halo game, the controls are easy to learn and remember, and offer just enough depth and versatility to let you do what you want without getting overwhelmed. I have little doubt that PC RTS fans will find fault with all that you can’t do in Halo Wars, but it’s worth noting that for me at least, Halo Wars feels less like a dumbed-down RTS game and more like a very elegant one—simplified, yes, but not in any ways that immediately stand out as frustrating or crippling. As I strategized commands for my on-foot soldiers, ground-based vehicles, and flying vehicles, I felt like the spirit of the RTS genre is embodied here, but it’s been tempered with pared-down controls and the poppier, more visceral elements of the Halo franchise. (I mentioned you can ram grunts with warthogs, yes? And that awesomely cheesy guitar is still here, too.)
The other thing worth noting is the presentation: Ensemble might’ve gotten their pink slips just as they finished up Halo Wars, but the level of polish they put into this thing is pretty amazing, and it makes me grumpy that the first game I’m playing from them is the last one they made. The solid, engaging presentation stands out best with the excellent cutscenes (which put the “real” Halo games’ cutscenes to shame) and the level of detail—Halo Wars looks fantastic, whether you’re watching the chaos of the battlefield from high above or you’re zoomed in as close as you can go.
As an RTS, Halo Wars is hardly going to be held up as the apex of the genre, but for casual RTS fans—or just those who dig the Halo universe—it’s pretty hard to argue with a game that’s this enjoyable.
Halo Wars was developed by Ensemble Studios, and comes out March 3 for the Xbox 360.
