Halo Wars (2009)

The writing alone is agonizing. I almost stopped playing just because of that. The pathing especially for vehicles sucks. There's no campaign for the Covenant. I'm tempted to give it 2 stars, but then I would feel guilty for finishing it.

The cinematic are top notch though. The gameplay is somewhat standard, but still not nearly as good as most RTS such as C&C, WC, or SC. I think there's some nastalgia for Halo in there too.

For an RTS spin-off, Halo Wars still stands out as one of the best Halo games, and its campaign is a huge reason why. The story feels like a proper part of the Halo universe, with memorable characters, excellent cutscenes and missions that constantly introduce new objectives and environments. The Spirit of Fire crew were brilliant, and the campaign managed to feel large in scale without losing what made Halo special.

The RTS gameplay was extremely fun and surprisingly easy to understand, even for someone who was not experienced with strategy games. Building bases, collecting resources, upgrading units and creating the right army for each situation all felt natural on a controller. It was simple enough to learn quickly but still offered plenty of strategy.

Skirmish mode gave the game almost endless replayability. Trying different leaders, maps, difficulties and army combinations made every match feel different. You could rush the enemy early, build a heavily defended base or create a massive army before launching a full attack. I spent countless hours playing Skirmish, and it was easily one of the best parts of the game.

The different UNSC and Covenant units were also great, and their models looked incredible at the time. Watching huge armies of Spartans, Warthogs, Scorpions, Hunters, Wraiths and Scarabs fight across the map never stopped being entertaining.

Halo Wars proved that Halo could work perfectly as an RTS. It had an excellent campaign, accessible but satisfying gameplay and a Skirmish mode that provided an unbelievable amount of replay value. A genuinely great strategy game and a brilliant Halo title.

Still has some of the best cinematics in gaming imo. A great, non traditional, addition to the Halo series and it should be an example to follow for the franchise to branch out more and try non-convential spin-offs at times.

Only thing holding it back are the obvious compromises it had to make in order to be an RTS for consoles.

4 / 5 Stars

So less than a month ago, I decided that I finally wanted to play all the Halo games in chronological order, something I've wanted to do for a long time. So I started with the first game in the timeline, Halo Wars... And needless to say, I was sorely disappointed.

So I'm gonna get this out of the way immediately... I've never been able to get into RTS games. I just can never invest myself in them because levels take forever and you end up just watching stuff happen. I'm not trying to say that RTS games are bad. I understand that they appeal to a different audience and that's ok. I'm just saying that they aren't really my thing.

I'll give the game credit, I really enjoy the presentation and the first few levels are actually really fun. It is satisfying to accumulate a large army and wipe the floor with the enemies. However, the game gets really repetitive really quickly. It gets boring and just really unfun. And I find the fact that this game puts you back to the beginning of the level if you fail really annoying. Doesn't help that the levels are very long.

As for the story, it isn't the best... Taking place 5 years after the beginning of the Human-Covenant War, we are at the earliest point in the timeline... We follow Seargent James Forge, a marine leading the battle against the Covenant, Profesor Anders, a civilian consultant. She of course has a wide skillset in science that helps the army, Serena, an AI-led by Captain James Cutter, the Captain of the UNSC Spirit Of Fire. The story doesn't feel important, at best it shows these people discovering The Flood but being unable to contact the UNSC about it. The cutscenes are pretty well made and the characters are fine... Except for James Forge. He's such a douchebag that I can't help but be happy that he dies... And he's not a douche by choice, he is supposed to be this righteous hero who sacrifices himself to save his team... But he's written like a Mary Sue and is just so unlikeable.

Halo Wars is a game that definitely gets a lot of things right... But it gets really boring real fast. Not the best intro to the timeline. Don't take my word for it... I'm not really into RTS anyways.

2/5

Wouldn't Recommend

As of writing this review, I've finished the campaign two times, gotten all skulls and the campaign black boxes. At first I wasn't really enjoying myself during my first campaign run, which I played with a mouse and keyboard. After getting used to how the units work, making my own strategies and going for some achievements, I started a 2nd campaign, again, with a mouse and keyboard, and still couldn't enjoy myself.

Mouse and keyboard controls suck in this game. Leader powers are really annoying to aim, the camera isn't great and the keyboard shortcuts really aren't enough in my opinion. They're better than nothing, and you do get more functionality compared to using a gamepad, but it just feels janky.

Then I tried continuing my campaign with a gamepad and oh my god it just plays so much better. Given the fact this game was originally designed as a "Console RTS" it's no wonder it works better with a gamepad, but I didn't expect it'd change my enjoyment of the game to this degree. Definitely play this one with a gamepad.

Controls aside, the game has some nice Halo lore. Worth playing the campaign just for the "Monsters" cutscene alone, you just gotta love Spartans. You can also get the optional collectibles to fill up your "Halo Timeline" which are some small text which cover the events before Reach and CE, though this involves playing lots of Skirmish besides getting the black boxes in the campaign.

So I'm reading "Blood, Sweat & Pixels" which I highly recommend. In it, one chapter is about Halo Wars and Ensemble Studio's difficulties and ultimate demise.

So I say "You know, I bet Halo Wars is real cheap by now. Let's give it a shot." Sure enough, it's $5 at GameStop. Even better, they had a limited edition copy available at the same price. Nice pickup.

Then I played it. Eh...I really wanted to like it more. But the game is frustrating. I got to a mandatory 20 minute long defense mission which I lost with 48 seconds left, and then AGAIN with 22 seconds left.

Out of sheet fury, I put the game back in it's box and will likely never play it again.