I came into Halo Wars with high hopes and dreams of a masterly crafted RTS, and I expected it to be a bit dumbed down because hey it’s a console real time strategy game. There was a lot of stigma attached to Halo Wars for that reason, and for the reason that a lot of people expected it to fail because they believed the Halo audience didn’t have the patience for Halo Wars. Halo Wars didn’t make it out as well as Halo 3 did, of course anyone could predict that. However the question remains.. is it good?

Some people will dismiss it without playing it and those people suck, if you’re going to bash a game, at least try it first. That being said, Halo Wars, believe it or not, is a good game. The missions are interesting, and even challenging, and everything just seems right. Let’s run through some of the strong points.

Strong Points:

• Great Controls/Easily Accessible: Now I want to get this out of the way because as I mentioned before, a RTS is all about the controls and the functions. Though Halo Wars lacks some extra features (hot keys, patrol, etc.), the game has essentially everything to make it accessible. This does involve a select all button which many hardcore RTS fan despise, but I highly doubt hardcore RTS fans are the target market for this game. That is to say that, yes, this game is somewhat easier than the conventional PC RTS, but it is in no means easy on higher difficulties.
• Everything just fits: This applies both to the graphics, music, levels. The units look amazing and very clear, and also match the Halo realm, which I find surprising, add to that visually stunning cutscenes and you’ve got some nice eye candy as battles go on. The music is the same type of orchestrated pieces that you would find in other Halo games, and to be honest it suits the game better than the Halo games. The orchestrated music brings a feeling of a grand scale, the feeling that you’re involved in something epic, and that is what Halo Wars is about.
• Varying Missions: Though there are the usual “go here, destroy base” missions, you’ll find there is often evac/escort missions, specialty type missions, and the occasional dodge the fucking scarab that kills you one hit mission, that thing is a beast to take down on legendary.
• Co-operative Campaign: This was the basis of my co-op article because the game is barrels of fun when you play with a friend. You would expect that things would get confusing and frustrating with two people sharing one base, and you’d be wrong. Yes you share resources, no you are not bound by what another person does (in most cases). What you build is yours to command, though you can also select to transfer units to the other player, and this comes in very, very handy in most cases.
• Unlockables: The skull system returns again in Halo Wars, along with optional objectives, if the skull system works like it did in Halos 1-3, then you could have one hell of a time using all of them on legendary.

Weak Points:

• Units don’t know when the fuck to stay still: This may be a pet peeve but it really annoys me to no end, if I command you to go somewhere, I don’t expect you to be moving in the opposite direction due to one group of grunts being there.
• Human Campaign: This was covered by Gamespot but the fact is you can’t play as the Covenant or the Flood in campaign, it’s a bummer I know, but there may be definitely will be DLC including their campaign. You can play as the Convenant in Skirmish mode though, so if you’re iching for some alien play, head on there.
• Where’s the story: Maybe I’m just slow, but it seems to me that there isn’t a huge story regarding Halo Wars, it seems to just jump into the Halo universe and follow the events of one John Forge, I was expecting a little more out of it in terms of story, that’s all.
• Progression: It seems the game never really confirms itself, even past half way through the game you’re still being introduced to new units that only have a one time use or one mission. I’d prefer the first maybe 5-6 missions was with introducing new units, and the rest was how you play it.

All in all, Halo Wars is an amazing game that has lived up to it’s hype in my eyes (probably because there wasn’t too much hype), and it’s worth a look over from any Xbox 360 owner. It has challenge to offer to the hardcore RTS group while remaining accessible to the newbie RTS folk. If you are planning to buy it, go for the mythic map pack bundle because even if you don’t use it yourself, you can sell it on ebay for about 40 dollars USD.