NOTE: I am not a huge Halo player. I've played and beaten Halo: Combat Evolved, but I have not beaten Halo 2 or Halo 3 (even though I do own both, I have never played either extensively). So please be gentle if I have no idea what a bunch of stuff in Halo is.... mainly because I don't have any idea.... Also I did NOT get the mythic map pack with my review copy so please don't ask me how the mythic map pack was.

Many of you are probably excited to play Ensemble Studios final game, Halo Wars. Perhaps you're just getting it for the early access to the Mythic Map Pack for Halo 3, maybe you're a huge RTS fan, or a huge Halo fan, or you think for some reason it's going to be a first person shooter (trust me, I know there are people out there that think that. But no matter the reason, Halo Wars is going to be played by massive amounts of people.

It's not the greatest console RTS nor is it the greatest Halo game but it is solid in gameplay and is one of the best console RTS's out there. Ensemble did a great job streamlining the controls and making everything as easy as possible with the limitations of the Xbox controller. That said it is still a controller and I find myself missing a mouse and keyboard combo a lot while playing it.

The single player campaign focuses on Seargant Forge, under the command of Captain Cutter and his Spirit of Fire (and his pwnage MAC blast) along with Professor Anders (the three make up the Heroes for the UNSC side of the skirmish mode, more on that later on), and takes place 20 years before Halo: CE. The missions are fairly varied in terms of landscape but essentially boil down to build base, gather resources, kill covenant, although that is standard fare for most RTS's. The storyline is one of the best I've seen in any RTS that I've played and the cutscenes are well done, a rarity for an RTS. I felt at points like I was watching a movie and playing it at the same time, which can be bad in some situations but it works well for Halo Wars. While the single player campaign ends fairly sequal-proof, the game leaves the player up to their own mind of what happens. I wouldn't really be suprised if there was a sequal made by Robot Entertainment (the guys who abandoned Ensemble now work for Robot). It's a short, sweet campaign, and leaves you wanting for more, but at the same time, it allow you to move on to skirmish mode, which I forsee will be the most played mode of the game.

Skirmish mode is the meat and bones of the game (as it serves as the only multiplayer component of the game, and let's face it, most Halo players didn't even know Halo games had a campaign mode), users are able to play as either the UNSC as Sgt Forge, Capt Cutter, or Proffessor Anders, or the Covenant under the Arbiter, the Brute Chieftan, or the Prophet of Regret. The Rock, Paper, Scissors basis is well held even with the heroes's special ability. I felt the Arbiter's rage mode was devastating (as was the Prophet of Regret's cleansing) but both were countered with a blast from the MAC (assuming you were playing as Cutter). While some argue that the MAC is over powering (and yeah, it is) I remain optmistic that it will get balanced out later in patches.

Games can be played 1v1 or 3v3 as teams but cannot be 1v1v1 or any other variation of that. In the few times I got to play against a human opponent I played as the Arbiter and destroyed them within 5 minutes with rage mode, hopefully that will get fixed too in a patch. Players can start off with several thousand resources at the beginning (Deathmatch mode) or start straight up with no resources (Standard mode). I felt that most of the game was less resource gathering, more battling, which I enjoyed. Gathering resources can be achieved by either sending units to gather them manually by moving them onto them, or by building supply pads, which generate supplies.

The AI was generally good and did have an variable AI mode (automatic) that would adjust to your gameplay to always keep you on your toes. I only played about 12 skirmish matches (5 of which were against other humans) and I did notice that the AI adjusted to me after about the 10th match.

Graphics wise is standard fare for an RTS, it's landscapes are drop dead gorgeous and the units still look good even when fully zoomed in. Some fine details are lacking but that is expected in RTS games. The sound was great too and I felt that it didn't get overly annoying as RTS games often can when all you hear when you select a unit is 3 different sounds. Each unit had about 10 sounds it rotated through for any given phrase or effect.

Controls were among the best for a console RTS however there is no minimap, and you cannot easily group or manage a large amount of troops, luckily you are capped at a fairly low amount of troops throughout the game. The only special grouping you can do is to select all units you have or to select all units on your screen, you can then further select units by pressing the right trigger, which rotates the kind of unit you are focusing on. When building or creating units or researching, a circle menu comes up and you can use the left stick to select your choice.

You can zoom and rotate the map with the right stick, move the map with the left, and select units with either LB, RB, or A. It worked fairly well and I never felt that I couldn't control my troops in the heat of battle. Sometimes I would have to zoom out and jockey the left stick to get over to a battle taking place on the opposite side of the map, which made me miss my mouse, but usually I had a base close enough to the battle I wouldn't have to go very far.

The AI is fairly smart and will take cover and attempt to flank you at various points. Enemies can setup snipers that will see you before you see them, however are fairly easy to kill as they cannot move once they are in the sniper position. The Rock Paper Scissors element is alive as infantry can kill aircraft easily (which is akin to paper somehow defeating a rock), ground vehicle can kill infantry, and aircraft can kill vehicles. I've never personally seen a ground troop ever in real life take down any amount of aircraft, but its standard fare for most RTS and without the balancing it'd be too much sided to the air (Side note: I have never seen aliens before ever, but one time Andy said he did).

Overall the game isn't a bad choice, and is a solid game all around for both RTS players and Halo players alike.

Final Grade:
7.5 out of 10.