By the Will of the Prophets - Matt On Halo Wars

When I first saw the teaser video for Halo Wars I remember thinking, "Fuck Yes," which I've heard was a pretty common response. Playing the pre-release demo, however, I noticed the cons of RTS being particularly prevalent in the game. Limited tech trees, Unalterable base locations, and an extremely limited faction selection all suggested one thought - why would I want to play this for more than one or two games? Sure, it's fun to watch a defenseless Warthog transform into a mobile Gauss Cannon/Rocket platform, but the novelty lost its appeal once you upgraded everyone to their max potential.

With these thoughts in mind, I passed on the game's purchase (even the promise of additional Halo 3 maps couldn't allow me to ignore our current economic state). I did, however end up renting it - in part to allow Mike to accurately gauge the multiplayer, and partially because I felt the Halo universe deserved at lease four of my precious dollars, if not the full $60 retail.

I ended up keeping the game an extra week (won't be going back to that Blockbuster any time soon) and becoming frustrated when Mike moved on to a different game - it had that kind of pull. The weaknesses on the demo hadn't been patched, but they'd become their own strengths - I never had to worry about the other person pumping out something completely off my radar, I took comfort in the knowledge of base location and Halo Wars' expansionist strategies, and I much preferred the impeccable attention given to the UNSC and Covenant over five or six incredibly bland faction selections.

I also found the storyline and cutscenes to be amazing (God, the cutscenes!) and a number of the single-player missions to be quite creative (Scraping Flood off the ship was never something I'd expected myself to be doing in an RTS), but the co-op campaign was a mess.

Giving two people - any two people - control over everything is like giving them control over nothing. Neither person ends up being able to utilize a cohesive strategy - I need more supplies for my Vultures, but my buddy just grabbed the last chunk I've been saving up to pump out another Rhino. Even with good communication and self-assigned areas of influence, Mike and I kept bumping heads on resource allocation, troop deployment, defensive strategy, and mission objectives. Unlike Halo the FPS, where a human teammate with human eyes is a blessing in sighting pesky alternative targets, having two humans in a "god" position is next to impossible. You're both working in a confined space with limited resources, and with no manual labor to do yourself, we're both relegated to management positions. And what good is a multi-person management structure except for the exchange of ideas? In an RTS where time is of the essence, there is no room to banter about what to do and why - there's only action and reaction.

I agree with Mike about most of the other aspects of the game's presentation - especially in that Halo Wars is a good RTS. It's not groundbreaking or incredible, but nor is it terrible and unplayable. It succeeds at what it set out to do, and only fails when people give it expectations they usually reserve for Halo in the FPS realm.

Bottom line? It's a great rental - incredible if you're a Halo afficionado - but I've still got my PC for RTS' and Halo 3 for my Halo-related gaming urges.

-- Matt

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On Halo Wars

I love Halo Wars. I've spent the past two weeks trying to decide what to say about this game, and this is simply all that I could come up with. I f***ing love Halo Wars.

When talking about Halo Wars, it is easy to become preoccupied with discussions about its status as the first truly successful RTS on consoles. Many enthusiasts, myself included, have a tendency to take Halo Wars as a proof-of-concept, as evidence that the RTS genre can find a home on a platform other than the PC. PC enthusiasts, in turn, seem to enjoy rebutting this statement by pointing out Halo Wars' relative lack of depth and still sub-par controls when compared to contemporary PC-exclusive RTS titles. Yet, this back-and-forth detracts from Ensemble's true accomplishment in Halo Wars - making a f***ing enjoyable game.

The reason I'm stressing this point so much is because, at its core, Halo Wars is a flawed game that manages to deliver tons of fun due to sheer gameplay and personality. Though the game's relatively shallow tech and unit trees are often brought up as a flaw, they actually work as a strength, as they make the game more easily accessible to new gamers and allow matches to play out over an hour as opposed to half a day. Even more significant, however, is the fact that the subtle nuances of base-building, resource harvesting, and tech leveling are simply not the main focus of the game. Bungie created a universe with dynamic characters that were interesting to watch and fight. Indeed, part of the allure of playing Halo's campaign was the sheer variance of behaviors and movements of each enemy and vehicle, from the Grunts' hobbled run to the arching arm of the frenzied Hunter to the fish-tail of a Warthog taking a turn at full speed. Bungie populated Halo with characters that were as fun to watch as they were to kill, and by simplifying or eliminating much of the micromanagement traditionally involved with real-time strategy, Halo Wars allows the players to savor every small skirmish.

This is where the game truly shines. For Halo enthusiasts like myself and Matt, the banter of UNSC marines or the combat actions of a sword-wielding Elite Honor Guard are treats to behold, and Ensemble provides plenty Halo eye and ear candy. Indeed, I can't help but be impressed at the level of detail Ensemble was able to attain. Grunts' methane tanks occasionally rupture when they're killed, sending the unfortunate creature zipping through the air like a deflating balloon. Hunter pairs form into a two-man phalanx before engaging, creating a wall of energy beams and armor just like in Halo's campaign. The game even features special fatality animations, allowing the player to savor a Spartan kill by having the Elite throw the super soldier off-balance with a series of sword swipes before impaling the Spartan on his energy sword and discarding the broken corpse into the snow. Indeed, when Matt and I can hop into match in Halo 3 and notice that the Guardian turrets on Snowbound are the same as those found in Halo Wars, you know that Ensemble has done something right with the game. Halo is all about savoring the thirty seconds of combat that comprise its core gameplay, and Halo Wars' simplified gameplay allows players to savor Halo's combat every time their armies clash.

Ultimately, this is all the game truly has. Does the game manage to solve all the control problems that have plagued console RTS's? No. Ensemble's control scheme is merely the latest iteration of an evolving series of control scheme refinements dating as far back as EA's Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2. It exists as a mere refinement, albeit a particularly elegant and effective one, that is still far from perfection. Is the game our long-awaited proof that the RTS genre is viable for console platforms? No. The game's particularly elegant and still flawed controls come at the expense of the deep level of strategy that have become par for PC strategy games, and with the long-term success of this one game still uncertain, it is impossible to use Halo Wars to prove the viability of strategy games on consoles. What Ensemble accomplishes through Halo Wars is simply to give its players a great experience that stays true to Bungie's vision of Halo, and I can't wait to jump into my next skirmish.

-- Mike

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