Poll: Why was Halo Wars considered a bad RTS?

[omicron1]

I have mixed feelings about Halo Wars as an entity in its own right, completely separate from its quality as a game. (I have not played it, not having bought into the console concept)

On the one hand, it's the last thing Ensemble Studios ever made... but on the other, it's the thing that killed them. All I can see in this is Microsoft's hand - attempting to mould them into part of its more profitable XBox industry, then killing them off when the result didn't fit with its profit expectations. It's a bittersweet thing, for me; a reminder of what was.

 

[UnwishedGunz]

i haven't read a single comment yet but i can assume most of them have something to do with "its for console" and they'd be right, most of the good RTD's are for the PC for a reason, so you have command your army much easier and faster, they should have made halo wars for the PC instead, im sure lots of halo/RTS fans would wet themselves over it if it was for PC

 

[hutchy27]

I enjoyed it greatly
controls worked very well on the console and quite of the few people who say it was a terrible game, admit they didn't like RTS in the first place.

 

[PoliceBox63]

I loved playing Halo Wars... until I got stuck at the Scarab level because I'm too stubborn to play on a difficulty less than heroic.
Then I began to hate it... with a passion.

It was my first experience of a RTS and as I said I loved it. I'm a Halo fanboy though I quietened down in the past 5 months
A major appeal of the game was the HD cutscenes and any story at all.
I love me some Halo fiction!

 

[CrustyOatmeal]

it was a great RTS for console but an RTS requires the player to do multiple things every second and in a game where the average APM (actions per minute) were probably around 60-100 from good players i just think the player was limited by the controller rather than their skill. compare that to a game like sctarcraft 2 where it used soft counters (not hard counters), used a keyboard, and had an average APM of 300 from pros. i agree halo wars was as polished and good as a console RTS could be it just so happens that the reason RTS's are so good is that they force a player to do so many things at once and when you throw a controller into the mix it slows down the process

 

[direkiller]

It was very shallow compared to RTS or RTT games I normal play. The story is generic(one of the things that RTS should be good at). The strategy had less depth then outer RTS console games,if you can boil the counters simply to a triangle then its not good in the strategy department.

So its not bad its just mediocre.

 

[OldAccount]

Halo Wars was my first and last RTS. I'm just not cut out for the genre.

I do know my friends love that game and still play it regularly.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

It's imbalanced, way oversimplified, and not really very strategic.

Rush Warthogs, you win! x20

 

[TheTaco007]

Because there was no strategy beyond "throw units at the enemy base until someone wins"

 

[Shock and Awe]

Because it could not compare to AAA PC titles. As far as all RTSs go it was damn good, and amazing for consoles. That being said, it couldn't compare to Sins of a Solar Empire, Total War, and others.

 

[BreakfastMan]

I dunno. I rather liked it, and many people I know like it. I did not even know that there was a lot of hate toward the game.

 

[The Rookie Gamer]

3. Frat Boys didn't know that it was a RTS and were enraged LOL.

This is the kind of flamebaiting that saddens me.

OT: Because it was a Halo game, like irridium, and it was on the console. While it was boring, I never had trouble with the controls. They were pretty responsive. But, again, it's a Halo game, so it going to get vitriolic hatred spewed at it.

 

[Blaster395]

Its the best RTS I have ever played that is on console, that itself is an achievement.

 

[Tdc2182]

I'm pretty sure that the "Halo" part was the only thing backing it. In terms of RTS, it was lacking (or so I'm told).

 

[Netrigan]

Because it was a Halo game.

Seriously though, its the best console-RTS there is to be honest. Managed to make the controls not horrible, and was rather fun. Sure it wasn't that good when compared to RTS's on a PC, but its still the best console RTS there is. At least in terms of controls.

World's Tallest Midget.

I get what you're saying that it's the best RTS on a console, but that's not exactly praise for a fan of PC RTSs. Not a fan myself but unless the game adds some cool facet than it's asking for praise for what is considered sub-par by RTS standards.

I think it deserves praise solely for showing that you can have halfway-decent and easy-to-use RTS controles on a gamepad. Yes it needs some refinement, but its still pretty amazing they were able to make the controls not suck.

I think the concern ends up being that a sub-par system will replace a superior one to conform to the console market. The once PC dominated FPS market went this route and many PC fans still complain about the differences (it's a noticeable difference, but the console's love affair with melee combat added a different favor to the genre). The RPG genre is caught in between complex controls accessed through various menus (Dragon Age) and wafer-thin gameplay controls (Fable III)... not to knock either system, but fans of PC style RPGs are clearly concerned their genre will disappear.

Unless a developer can figure out a way to create a RTS that is brilliant *without* the qualifier "for a console", a console-based RTS is never going to get respect from RTS fans. It's simply too wide a divide in quality. "Halway-decent" controls is really faint praise in the grand scheme of things. Halo: Combat Evolve was arguably as good as a PC FPS (mind you, it's usually console fans making that argument, but it's, more or less, in the neighborhood of PC standards), but no one seems to be saying Halo Wars was anywhere close to a high-point in RTS history.

 

[cthulhumythos]

because you have no basis for what a good rts is UNTIL YOU PLAY AGE OF MYTHOLOGY

favorite rts ever

 

[Atmos Duality]

Because it's missing the "Strategy" part of the real time strategy.
It had as much strategy in it as an Episode of GI Joe, and even that might be pushing it.

 

[WildFire15]

I thought it was a decent enough game, especially for a console RTS, but I just didn't get much urge to play more then a couple missions when I rented it (mind you, I tend to drop the campaign and go to skirmishes quickly enough with any RTS)

 

[moose_man]

I'd imagine it was due to the lack of cursor support.

 

[Andrew_Waltfeld]

Halo wars wasn't too bad in my opinion, it set goal markers of "Let's not have our controls suck" and it scored it. They probably could have done more on the units etc, but otherwise, found it pretty enjoyable.