REVIEW: Halo Wars

Developer: Ensemble Studios | Publisher: Microsoft Games Studios | Format: 360

Reviewer: Craig Jay Gallagher

Microsoft’s decision to shut down legendary strategy developers Ensemble Studios has seen a wave of dismay wash over it’s fans. After delivering classics such as Age of Empires the developers swan song Halo Wars makes the decision to shut them down even more idiotic. In all the years of RTS console titles this marks the first occasion in which the gamer feels like the controller in their hand is all that’s needed.

Simplicity is what the games does well. There are none of the usual modifier keys present, you can’t play around with the AI there’s no need to spend ages collecting resources in a bid to build infrastructure. No, Halo Wars is a streamlined RTS which works so well that it gives one hope for the future of console based RTS gaming, well that is as long as other developers can successfully ape Ensemble Studios format.

The gameplay is quite basic when compared to the PC variants, there is no need for the tedious tasks gamers are usually faced with. Base building, resource gathering, etc are nowhere to be found leaving you instead to concentrate on formulating your strategy. This alone makes Halo Wars the single best RTS available on any of the consoles.

Single player is quite interesting and very re-playable. You can attempt it on a number of difficulty settings, try to collect all the skulls and score higher and higher on the leader board. The 15 missions in total tell a story of Halo 20 years before Master Chief placed that infamous armour on. The AI is slightly disappointing and sours the game when offline skirmishes are rather easy to finish. When played online the game really comes alive. Nothing beats going toe to toe against another human being.

Halo Wars is at times a very basic RTS stripped of most of the features so defined by the genre. But it is this that truly makes the game and as their final game, it really does Ensemble Studios proud.