ceforga said:
I've played the demo and it was a lot of fun {I've played plenty of real-time strategy games on the PC before Halo Wars} and the controls were very intuitive, almost as good as the mouse and keyboard. I'm going to buy Halo Wars when it comes out.
The game uses the 30 seconds of fun philosophy that Bungie uses in Halo CE and Halo 3, I don't know why no one notices the 30 seconds of fun stuff these days.
Yea, you and me both. I loved Halo Wars' controls. I played the demo for 3 days straight, just replaying that skirmish and trying out every possible tactic, playing around, just getting a feel for it. If it wasn't a Halo game, I'd probably have deleted the demo, but I didn't. I forced myself to play it for a few hours and after a while, I came to absolutely love its controls. I've played Starcraft, Dawn of War, Civ III and IV, Civ Revolution, Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, Fire Emblem, Star Wars: Empire At War and its expansion, Forces of Corruption, Command and Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath, Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, etc... I think the games I like most in that list are Starcraft, Advance Wars (both games), and Star Wars: Empire At War (and its expansion).
[block of text]Now, Empire at War (which is my favorite) limits you in where you can build your bases. You have many different buildings like a barracks, light vehicle factory, heavy vehicle factory, advanced vehicle factory, Command Center, shield generator, research facility, sensor array, mining facility (neutral, must be captured and then built) and resource pads (neutral, must be captured and then built). They all do different things, allow production for different units, and give different upgrades, but their positions are all fixed. Before you start the skirmish (2-9 players, there's 3 factions in FoC, 2 in the original EAW), you can choose to have pre-built bases or not. If not, you have to use your starting units to capture resource pads to fund the creation of your base (if alone, but if you're in a large team, you'll easily have enough money to build all your buildings as soon as it starts. Also, players can give the rest of the team money if necessary). Turrets are also built from special build pads scattered around the map. Some are permanently controlled by a certain faction (like the ones defending the faction's base) and others are neutral (used to reinforce advancing units and push the front line forward. If any neutral structure is destroyed, it can be captured and built on). This doesn't make the game boring, it makes it faster paced and it opens up entirely new strategies. Halo Wars seems like a new and improved version of Empire At War for the consoles and it's set in the Halo universe. [/block of text]
I don't get what the fuss is about since I love SW: EAW and FoC, I love Halo, and I think Halo Wars' controls are great. I guess some people just like it and others just don't. Like the Halo series itself.