Halo Wars

How Halo Wars is taking care of the Halo fanboy
11/17/2008 10:38 PM | 1 Comments | Page 1 of 3

Reading Halo novels, playing the original three first-person shooters -- those are the easy (and fun) parts. Converting all of that "research" into a real-time strategy game that won't cause Halo fans to run away screaming like a Covenant Grunt with plasma grenade stuck to its butt? That's the challenge Ensemble Studios had to face. With our recent hands-on time with the Halo Wars campaign and skirmish modes, however, we can tell the developers have done their homework.

"At the beginning of development, we had to learn to love Halo," says Lead Writer Graeme Devine. "There's no point in doing a Halo game if you don't love the canon!" The team visited Bungie Studios, the developer of the original series, every other week to discuss Halo fiction, Halo gameplay and just about anything Halo that's out there. The result is as much fan service as anyone could ever ask of a spin-off title.

Halo Wars, due out Feb. 2009 for the Xbox 360, is a very streamlined, very made-for-consoles RTS (all console RTSes say they're "made for consoles," but this one means it). It therefore won't have quite the same depth as The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II or Universe at War: Earth Assault -- but what made people take notice of this game is that H-word in its title. And when players take to the battlefield, they won't feel a bit like they were misled.

Move it like you mean it

Take the animations, for example. Just about everything moves, drives, and shoots like it should -- it's as though we zoomed right out of Halo's first-person view and went straight into the sky for a bird's eye view of the exact same scene. Warthogs glide over small chasms and land with the bounce one would expect from the jeep's springy suspension (they can splat enemies by ramming them, too). Hot, pink Needler crystals stick in their victims before dissipating. Jackals garrison grav-lifted sniper perches. Fusion coils explode when shot. Even Grunts retreat from battle, arms flailing, if things aren't going their way.

The only notable exceptions may be the giant, crab-like Covenant Scarab and the Banshee aircraft. The Scarab, for RTS gameplay purposes, is more nimble and quick than its lumbering FPS counterpart, while the Banshee will be less vertigo-inducing for its pilots. "We tried for a long time to have the Banshees fly around like they do in Halo," Lead Designer Dave Pottinger tells us while drawing imaginary squiggly lines in the air with his hands. "But it got to be a pain in the ass to target them, so we had to ditch that. Now they hover when they're not being commanded. But we got back that Halo vibe because the Banshee's special ability is boost -- so they move really fast to get into combat or to dodge."

The different weapons in Halo's universe appear in Halo Wars as special attacks (performed with the Y button) or upgrades. UNSC infantry start off with basic battle rifles as their default gun, with frag grenades as a powerful Y-button backup (they're timed, so players can only use them so often). Those grenades make way for rocket launchers as the UNSC side pays for upgrades. Even the infantry soldiers can eventually be promoted to ODSTs (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, as seen in Halo 3 and Halo 3: Recon) status if that tech research branch is available (depends on the starting general that the players pick).