Halo Wars Review

March 3rd, 2009

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I’m a huge fan of Halo 3, I play online with other super popular and cool people almost nightly, but when they announced Halo Wars I was skeptical about a top down strategy game (RTS), mostly because I couldn’t figure out how you were going to “tea bag” someone you just p0wned. After playing the Halo Wars demo I am no longer skeptical. The good folks at Ensemble Studios managed to take your typical top down strategy game (Command & Conquer) and add some excitement.

Exciting?!

Yeah dude! Exciting! After the super quick and easy tutorials you start the game by driving your warthog units through the snow and ramming grunts to death! As you build your base and grow your army you start attacking all the usual covenant characters; jackal snipers, hunters etc. It’s a lot like playing the Halo 3 campaign but instead of dying and respawning you’re building new units and researching new technology. It moves way faster than I expected and quickly sucked me in until it was past my bedtime… yes, I have a bed time!

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It Looks Amazing!

The cut scenes look so good they could be from a movie, seriously; and the in game graphics are the best I’ve seen from a top down strategy game. You can move the camera in 3D and you can see each of your units shooting and throwing grenades. I spent as much time looking around at all the little details as I did playing the game.

Online Multiplayer

Yes, after you’re done with the campaign, Halo Wars turns into an excellent multiplayer experience; exactly what you’d expect from something carrying the Halo name. You can play a co-op campaign with a friend, or you can jump into a skirmish against a computer or real people. There are 2 different modes; Standard and Deathmatch. Standard starts off small and you have to build a base, it’s the longer game type of the two. Deathmatch is more about fighting than building and is much shorter than Standard. Matchmaking and ranking are all very similar to Halo 3 and there are 14 different multiplayer maps. I imagine less trash talk than Halo 3.. ha.

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Get It?

I’m gonna buy Halo Wars and if you’re a fan of Halo and RTS games you should too. Halo Wars hits store shelves today, March 3rd 2009. Grab the limited edition for a few bucks more and you get a wart hog with a flame job, Xzibit would be impressed.

Tags: game reviews, games, halo, halo wars, reviews