We don’t talk a lot about PC games around here, but if you follow me closely enough you’ll know that in addition to loving my Xbox 360, I’m also a big PC gamer. And, if you don’t play WoW (which I don’t) then when you’re playing a game on PC there’s a pretty good chance it’s an RTS. And boy, do I play a lot of RTS games. For a long time I’ve been hoping that someone would master RTS development on consoles and, while EA has made some truly valiant attempts, no one has really nailed it. Ensemble, creators of the Age of Empires series, have delivered Halo Wars to us and are seeking to break the trend of ‘just okay’ RTS games on the Xbox 360 platform. How did they fair? Let’s analyze their demo and find out…
If you look at the wide range of RTS games available today, there are generally two different types: mass army games (Supreme Commander) and small army games (WarCraft III). Halo Wars is the latter, focusing on a small number of units with each unit type having a specific role. At this point, you can only really face the AI and the tutorials don’t teach you the unit priorities, but it appears the usual rock-paper-scissor design only loosely applies. For example, I was moving an army through the Northern part of the skirmish map when I was attacked by a group of Banshees. Since I had no anti-air vehicles I figured I was done for! I jumped to my bass in an effort to build something to help and then jumped back to the battle only to find that my army of Scorpions, Warthogs and Marines had annihilated the opposing force with very minimal losses. Good for me, but it begs the questions, “What good are air units if you don’t need anti-air units to bring them down?” and “Why bother with anti-air units at all?”
Like I said, I wasn’t actually watching the fight as it went down, so I’m not sure which of those units took down the fleet of banshees. If I had to guess, I’d say it was the Marines who had been upgraded several times.
Base-building is the truly unique part of Halo Wars. Think of bases as ‘hubs’ that can only be built in predefined locations. After you’ve called in for your base to be delivered from space you be able to choose from six building types to build. The catch is that you can only build up to a maximum of seven buildings on any base so you’ll need to customize your base to match your strategy. The six building types are as follows:
- Resource node - Needed to generate funds, can be upgraded once to increase output.
- Science node - Needed to build higher level units and structures
- Weapons Research node - Needed to research weapon and commander power upgrades
- Infantry node - Builds, wait for it, infantry units.
- Vehicle node - Builds tanks, artillery, anti-air vehicles
- Air node - Builds air units
The central part of each base is also responsible for building scouts and commander unique units. So UNSC bases build warthogs (which have to be upgraded before they have a rear-mounted turret), and Covenant bases create Ghosts.
From what I can tell, most of the strategy is going to come from purposing and re-purposing your bases as you come across new ones. Converting your home base into a resource or tech focused base, and having the bases closer to the front lines focusing on unit production. Thanks to the low unit capt, armies don’t exactly take long to replenish. This means you’re never out of the action for long.
I could probably go on quite a bit about the intricacies of the gameplay, but I’ll leave that to you to figure out when the demo becomes freely available this Friday. I will say that I did really enjoy my time with it, even if it is a considerably simpler affair than what I’m used to. The retail game, and it’s additional game modes like co-op, and Xbox Live skirmishes will help to shape my final opinion, but for now I’m really digging it.
Everyone always asks me if it’s a “buy or rent” and in this case I’d say that if you’re a fan of RTS games, this is about as good as they’re ever going to get on a console. If you’ve played RTS games in the past and hated them all, well maybe just play some more Halo 3. If you haven’t played an FPS before then give this one a try, it’s forgiving enough that it’s easy to jump into and you just may end up liking it.
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Thanks for the first impressions. I’m really looking forward to trying this. While I’ve put hundreds of hours into the best RTS games on the PC in the past, I just find myself too impatient to get into them on the console.
I don’t know if I’ve changed as a gamer, or if it’s the different controls available pc vs console.
It’ll be interesting to see how this goes for me.
Thanks for the write-up, Jeff. I’ve been dying to get my hands on this, and developers interviews don’t really give you any genuine insight into the actual gameplay.
I definitely miss RTGs, having moved entirely away from PC gaming. But I have enjoyed a couple on the Xbox 360. Most notably, LOTR: The Battle for Middle-earth which I played through twice. Seeing how I enjoy sci-fi more than fantasy, I have a feeling I’ll be playing Halo Wars even more so.
Yeah I’ve been playing it too. Fantastic game. I’m on the fence about the bases, I love the Warcraft style, place stuff anywhere mechanic, but the management of buildings is pretty fun in this one. Should I sacrifice a barracks for more supplies?
Looking forward to the demo, and it sounds like they’re going for a soft-counter system, similar to that seen in Warcarft III, which isn’t really a bad thing. Just means the game is more forgiving as you mentioned.
As to base building, if you’re limited to building in pre-arranged areas, it sounds like more of a through-back to classic RTS titles like Dune II and Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. Again, not a bad thing so long as it’s done right.
The main thing for me is the control scheme. If they’ve nailed that, and it’s easy and intuitive, I suspect the game will rock. At least for me.
Hey Jeff, Great write up man!
Im super stocked for this game, usually i only play RTS games on my PC,but, as Juxtapose said, if the control scheme’s nice,Im definitely gonna pick this one up.
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