coolbeans

User Score
8.5

Presentation - 9.0
Gameplay - 8.0
Value - 8.5

More than a year ago, Halo Wars was introduced at E3 2008 and it certainly had fans going about revolutionizing Console RTS to actually not be called just carbon-inferior copies to ones on PC, while it does sharpen and change how console RTS' should behave on a console, it doesn't take the quantum leaps Halo: Combat Evolved did because of some not-so-deep tactics involved in the gameplay.

Okay let me be the first to say, this is your absolute best bet of getting the best RTS on consoles.  Unfortunately, anyone fan of RTS plays their's on PC and won't find the deep experience and strategy found on good PC RTS but it's worthy of admiring how streamlined the button layout and overall gameplay really are.  The layout is pretty simple, you have your bases which makes supplies, aircraft, tanks, marines, etc. and tranversing through other bases is mostly done through your D-Pad. 

^Don't expect things to get that hectic in the campaign.  Possibly MP

Other controls are quite standard, you have X and Y for attack and special attacks and bumper buttons for choosing specific squads.  You can upgrade those classes by researching stuff to give your guys the edge which can play out tensely in MP because you're always wondering if your opponent is taking that same time or getting troops in to stop you early but in the campaign, don't expect as much intelligence.  Sure the Covenant will come with a supply to halt things for a while but it doesn't do much beyond that.  Not to say they're bad AI but some things could've been tweaked at higher difficulties like more support when you were heading to one of their bases.  Another thing that was found odd was the limit you had to your squad which made fights feel underwhelming, but there again AoE hits like tha "Mac Blast" and Stealth Bombers shredding a line of enemies never got old. 

^Expect all cutscenes to look this sharp

What I was truly hit by in Halo Wars were the CGI cutscenes that out perform any other console games cutscenes, yes I am saying it's cutscenes are better looking then Uncharted 2's or anyone else out right now and stay that way until early 2010.  As much as I liked the cutscenes, I was a bit underwhelmed by the gameplay graphics.  Any aircraft look great and there's zero framerate hitches (which is quite rare with the stuff that can go on) but stuff like the tanks and people all basically looked the same and since you couldn't fidget with the camera too much you couldn't get a close-up to see if they were all the same bunch of soldiers or not. 

While Halo Wars can't be compared to what Starcraft, Command and Conquer, and others did,  it certainly made it's mark on the RTS genre for consoles.  It has a good variety of gameplay types on MP but (except for the Halo vehicles) probably nothing you haven't seen before, excluding DLC gametypes.  The variety of maps and support is pretty solid and th"perks" your choosable MP character get are nice.  The campaign is full of CGI-bliss with some nice venues (story's done alright and characters aren't rememberable but certainly nice to see some new faces) and set pieces.  Overall, Halo Wars is a great looking RTS with a bunch of fun options but with a little more work on the overall gameplay, this game could've been something quite extraordinary.