Review: Halo Wars

[Snidenightshade]

Halo Wars looks simple for an rts on the 360 easy but then agian the computer is aswell. i have gotten the hang of the controlls after playing the demo i downloaded from xboxlive. the coverent are abit over powered with their scarbs if you can get 2 of em and an engineer. their will normaly highp it up on pc but not console i guess they wanted to do it a different way. base start layout is great no units to take the emeney base and a unit limmit. unit limmit i hate especaily when it comes to uber units. i reacon its gonna be a good game for the console.

 

[Susan Arendt]

However I am actually more displeased with Susan Art as I believe she calls herself. I am not a women hater and just think that your site is making a mistake when you let her give her piece on anything. It was very clear that not only was she not an RTS fan but i couldnt even find much evidence of her being a fan of video games in general. I realize that your site subscribes to cynicism... case in point Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. Honestly though I feel like one is enough and if you want a sarcastic review of games then please just leave it up to him because he is at the very least FUNNY! She just sounds dry and lonely. Taking a step backwards to a previous statement I once again find myself wondering if she has even ever played an RTS before because if she was even the slightest fan of the genre she would realize that they are nearly impossible to bring to the console and that is what makes Ensembles efforts so profound.

Um...you do realize that this isn't my review, right? Jordan wrote the script and the review, I simply narrated the video. As for not being able to find evidence of my being a fan of videogames in general, if you haven't found it, you haven't looked. Period.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

However I am actually more displeased with Susan Art as I believe she calls herself. I am not a women hater and just think that your site is making a mistake when you let her give her piece on anything. It was very clear that not only was she not an RTS fan but i couldnt even find much evidence of her being a fan of video games in general. I realize that your site subscribes to cynicism... case in point Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. Honestly though I feel like one is enough and if you want a sarcastic review of games then please just leave it up to him because he is at the very least FUNNY! She just sounds dry and lonely. Taking a step backwards to a previous statement I once again find myself wondering if she has even ever played an RTS before because if she was even the slightest fan of the genre she would realize that they are nearly impossible to bring to the console and that is what makes Ensembles efforts so profound.

Um...you do realize that this isn't my review, right? Jordan wrote the script and the review, I simply narrated the video. As for not being able to find evidence of my being a fan of videogames in general, if you haven't found it, you haven't looked. Period.

Don't hate the narrator, hate the reviewer. Or better yet, don't hate.

 

[EvilEngineNumberNine]

Listen!


The game is not a bad CONSOLE RTS.
Halo was not a bad CONSOLE FPS.
Goldeneye was not a bad CONSOLE FPS.
BFME was not a bad CONSOLE RTS.

PC fanboys need to be aware that these games will not ruin your PC RTS' and FPS', and were made to port the experience of these games to the CONSOLE to open up a new market for developers and publishers to rake in some cash. CONSOLE fanboys need to be aware that PC gamers have been playing FPS' and RTS' for decades before you got your hands on a controller, and have already played games of these genres that will most likely be better than anything on consoles for a few years yet. Halo and Halo Wars have the same mission, which is to make the FPS and RTS experience on CONSOLE systems accessible to those who haven't played, or cannot play PC versions of those genres. Simplified versions of largely PC genres for consoles don't bother me in the least. Simplified versions of PC games for PC do. I'm looking at you Blizzard.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

Everybody keeps saying this, as if it means anything at all. It doesn't matter what a series began its life as - when its been changed to a different genre, it is conclusively native to that genre. Originally, the Boeing 747 was meant to be a heavy duty aerial combat vehicle - this doesn't mean that you could take a modern Boeing into a dogfight and expect anything positive.

Yes, i made that up, but the fact that it works as a hypothetical demonstrates my point.

I don't think anyone is saying it means anything. It just reflects on the reviewer when inaccuracies pop up, especially in the same breath as a criticism of a beloved franchise. Especially when the particular comment is not only vague and unqualified, but slightly nonsensical.

Don't get me wrong, I think Halo Wars is a bad game. I've even said it sets back the genre five years. I just want to see it criticized for the right reasons.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

Then don't defend it for the wrong ones (or, better yet, at all). The universe of Halo is different to what it once was intended to be - the factions are not built to be balanced as an RTS, they're built to be skewed for an FPS perspective (i.e. the enemy are all powerful yet stupid enough to get slaughtered by one soldier in armour with no personality).

Eh, sounds flimsy to me. I don't see why the relative abilities of the factions can't be skewed for the FPS perspective in one game and balanced for the RTS perspective in the next. And that argument, if applied in this case, must certainly be applied to all crossovers. Do you just not like crossovers, or is there something about Halo specifically that has not been mentioned yet? Is C&C: Renegade just as ill-advised?

 

[L33t Marvin]

See I liked better when it was going to be on pc but wth did they decided it to be on xbox360 i mean just picking your unit sounded hard they are retarded for making it a xbox360 exclusive i hope they will learn and release it on pc

 

[Dogstile]

susan, just so you know, halo was meant to be an RTS in the first place, they had to change it for some reason to FPS

Everybody keeps saying this, as if it means anything at all. It doesn't matter what a series began its life as - when its been changed to a different genre, it is conclusively native to that genre. Originally, the Boeing 747 was meant to be a heavy duty aerial combat vehicle - this doesn't mean that you could take a modern Boeing into a dogfight and expect anything positive.

Yes, i made that up, but the fact that it works as a hypothetical demonstrates my point.

my point was that susan said in her review that halo wars was probably never meant to be an RTS

don't have wild rage fits about it

 

[Susan Arendt]

susan, just so you know, halo was meant to be an RTS in the first place, they had to change it for some reason to FPS

Everybody keeps saying this, as if it means anything at all. It doesn't matter what a series began its life as - when its been changed to a different genre, it is conclusively native to that genre. Originally, the Boeing 747 was meant to be a heavy duty aerial combat vehicle - this doesn't mean that you could take a modern Boeing into a dogfight and expect anything positive.

Yes, i made that up, but the fact that it works as a hypothetical demonstrates my point.

my point was that susan said in her review that halo wars was probably never meant to be an RTS

don't have wild rage fits about it

And again, I point out, it's not my review. It's Jordan's.

 

[Dogstile]

susan, just so you know, halo was meant to be an RTS in the first place, they had to change it for some reason to FPS

Everybody keeps saying this, as if it means anything at all. It doesn't matter what a series began its life as - when its been changed to a different genre, it is conclusively native to that genre. Originally, the Boeing 747 was meant to be a heavy duty aerial combat vehicle - this doesn't mean that you could take a modern Boeing into a dogfight and expect anything positive.

Yes, i made that up, but the fact that it works as a hypothetical demonstrates my point.

my point was that susan said in her review that halo wars was probably never meant to be an RTS

don't have wild rage fits about it

And again, I point out, it's not my review. It's Jordan's.

then i apologise. sorry about that

 

[Spectre39]

The wonderful thing about demos is that you can play in the sand for no cost, and if you like it you can buy the whole sandbox. It's very very obvious that the entire argument of this review is that Halo Wars' controls = teh badzz!!1. That argument can be supported or disproved based on playing the demo yourself. It's free and available for anyone to try.

I've played the demo myself and I haven't been disappointed so far. The controls have been very intuitive so far with neat innovations like the selection wheel. The units are balanced out well and there aren't any over powered units are tactics I've found yet. The game is not by any stretch, terrible.

Give the demo a try before you start brandishing your pitchforks.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

Then don't defend it for the wrong ones (or, better yet, at all). The universe of Halo is different to what it once was intended to be - the factions are not built to be balanced as an RTS, they're built to be skewed for an FPS perspective (i.e. the enemy are all powerful yet stupid enough to get slaughtered by one soldier in armour with no personality).

Eh, sounds flimsy to me. I don't see why the relative abilities of the factions can't be skewed for the FPS perspective in one game and balanced for the RTS perspective in the next. And that argument, if applied in this case, must certainly be applied to all crossovers. Do you just not like crossovers, or is there something about Halo specifically that has not been mentioned yet? Is C&C: Renegade just as ill-advised?

Its just specifically that direction, pulling out from a one-soldier-can-win-this-war perspective to a we-need-every-man perspective. The other direction is perfectly valid, though, as they ussually work to retain the feeling of the impact of others.

Well, since Halo Wars is set 20 years before Master Chief is 'the last Spartan', it seems perfectly reasonable to have a different setup between the two forces. Especially since the UNSC and the Covenant were always meant to be fairly equal at combat on the ground, it's just the Covenant win because of their greater numbers and superiorioty in space combat.

 

[Kevin7557]

Clearly the person they had write this review shouldn't have wrote the review as they don't like concol RTSs. I played the demo and my only disagreement was that it was hard to select single troops. I played Command and Conquer 3 that was harder to play than this. This game plays smoothly and easily and I enjoyed the game whole heartedly and found no problem with the controller. If you don't like concol RTSs don't review concol RTSs. Especially when StormRise comes out.

 

[Stalk3rchief]

It is true that RTS games are better on the PC. I would never want to even try to play frozen throne on any console.
But putting that aside, Halo Wars isn't a bad game.
I decided to try the demo, just to check it out, and I wasn't as disappointed as I thought I would be. Sure, it's no keyboard and mouse, but it's way easier to play than the console version of the command and conquer games.
The flaws I saw in the game were the very low unit cap and the units that are totally unrelated to the game/book series. I'm not a halo fan, but I still they should at least have the decency to keep to the roots of the series.
Regardless of this review or the people commenting on it, I am going to buy this game and will enjoy it.

 

[MercurySteam]

Godammit, when will people learn, that if an RTS is on a console, it will never be the best it can be. Halo Wars is a good game, but without selection boxes or proper unit toggling things can become very frustrating. If you can plug a keyboard into a 360, then why can't they make it so you can plug a mouse into it?