So, I was bored yesterday and decided, since I couldn't decide what to play, to check out the Halo Wars demo. I've gone on record before as saying I'm not the biggest Halo fan, as the universe is pretty generic and lacks much depth to anyone who reads a lot of (quality) science fiction. Added to that, I'm just not impressed with Bungie's storytelling capabilities. However, I'm still itching for a truly good console RTS game, so I'll give anything a try. C&C3 was OK, Warhammer controlled horribly, and EndWar's voice controls won't work for me at all. Could Halo Wars finally be the game to get it right?
Obviously, I came to the demo as a skeptic, and came away completely surprised by the quality here. The visuals (animations in particular) make Halo 3 look like a bad joke. While the RTS action here is noticeably less complex than the C&C titles or Starcraft, there's still some pretty decent unit variety, and the tech tree is easy to understand and work through.
Base construction is simple, as bases are a hub surrounded by multiple slots you can fit a building into. There's no need to think about where a building should go like there is in the C&C games. All units pour out of the same opening in the base, making finding them easy, and setting rally points is a breeze. With the bumpers, players can quickly select all units on screen, or all units they've built, allowing for quick commands. The d-pad allows for rapid switching from your base to the units doing the fighting, so multitasking combat with production is as easy as its ever been. Armies are limited in their size to about 30-40 units, which I found to be a nice and manageably small number, while keeping the action feeling intense. And with the possibility of 6 players in full battles, competition should get very intense. They even thought to include nice touches, like having groups of units move at the speed of their slowest member, so units stay together, unlike in C&C, where it was tough to keep everyone together. Resource management is incredibly simple, so players can spend more time focusing on climbing up the tech tree, building units, and managing a battle.If tutorial length can say anything about the quality of the controls, Halo Wars fares very well. It took my about a half hour (if I remember right) to get the controls for C&C3 down. Warhammer took over 3 hours (1.5 in tutorial) to get down, and I still never mastered them. I was through everything in Halo Wars, and confident in my commanding abilities, in no more than 15 minutes.
After playing the first two missions of the campaign, and a couple skirmish missions (and DESTROYING the AI on normal... I should probably play on Heroic), I'm completely sold on Halo Wars. Ensemble Studios has finally make THE console RTS game. You can even play through the whole campaign in co-op. When my brother gets back from Spain, I'm forcing him to download the demo and try it out himself. Perhaps I can finally get him interested in an RTS, and we can co-op the campaign... or at least he can ride on the Grand Admiral's coattails lol =)I'm picking up this game, the only question now is when. Do I get it now and play it on my bench weeks in the GSL? Do I wait until after the GSL and get it as a celebration that KOTOR lost? (to my team or any other) I'll have to think about it, especially with RE5 coming soon.
I encourage people to download the Halo Wars demo and try it for themselves. I was extremely impressed.
Well, since you're buying it, that gives me incentive to pick up a copy too, for the co-op. Getting access to the mythic map pack would also be cool, but I'll get those maps regardless when I buy ODST. But hmm, when I have money, we'll definitely add this to our co-op list if I don't hate the demo.
ReplyDeleteI decided to pass on the Halo Wars demo due to its size. I mean, it's not too big but that's a gig I could use elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI am also not sure how I feel about RTS games due to never having played any, mostly because I've never had a gaming PC where obviously the genre is mostly found. I am however interested in the game although I can't quite place why. Perhaps it's because it is a game in the Halo world but then as you say, the (FPS) games are good but nothing too special so maybe not.
Whatever it is, I'm getting the game and it shall be interesting to see what I think. If I like it, then brilliant I may have found another genre that I like. If not, well, at least it comes with the Mythic maps for Halo 3 and I can start working on those damn Achievements again (not that it concerns you but I have 1250/1250 in it now, so that extra 500 or so is really hurting that completion percentage of mine).
I know how you feel about completion percentage. I'm still trying to get to 1250 in Halo 3... just haven't wanted to play a ton of the MP for it or find boosting partners.
ReplyDeleteJust so you both know, I believe early access to the Mythic maps only comes with the limited edition of Halo Wars.