Editorial: Halo Wars Online

Apr 15, 2009

It's not like Halo Wars needs a lot of help. Since it was released in early March, it's had no trouble selling, with 1 million copies purchased worldwide only weeks after release. It did have a few things going for it, after all. One of biggest names in gaming today comprises half the title, so automatically there's interest from the massive Halo fanbase along with a more casual audience familiar with the brand. Then they find out it's a real-time strategy game and maybe interest dips, but based on current sales figures and the fact that upwards of 100,000 matches are being played every 24 hours, there's got to be more here than a brand and pretty graphics.

I'm one of those people trying to rank up in 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 competitive online matches in my hours away from work. It's not something I initially thought I'd get into, even with Ensemble's name on the box. I tried the demo and it just didn't really grab me enough to make a purchase. Then IGN's Erik Brudvig and Dave Clayman wouldn't stop talking about how much fun it was online, so I took the plunge and here I am, a few weeks later, convinced it's one of the better examples out there of how a real-time strategy game can work on a console.

In case you weren't swayed by Ryan Geddes' review and are looking to dig into something a little different in this relatively slow month of April, hopefully this article will give you a better idea of how the game works online and why it's fun to play. For more on our time with Halo Wars, you can also check out the video below where Dave, Erik and I outline in a broader way why we're still playing.

Editorial Roundtable - Watch or download the video here (HD available).

First off, you should know Halo Wars is very much a traditional real-time strategy game. You build your base, gather resources, amass an army, and assault enemy positions. The camera can be zoomed in and out, but it'll stay fixed above the battlefield, and there's no EndWar-style capture point gameplay or unit-locked camera angles. For competitive online matches you must select either the UNSC or Covenant forces, and from there you have a choice of three variations that alter the kinds of special powers you'll have access to as well as which types of units you can build. Both factions play differently, and the way the class system has been set up helps to encourage multiple play sessions so you can see all the types of units and powers. Though the two aren't mirror factions, you won't find the kind of dramatic differences of play styles you might be familiar with if you tried out Petroglyph's Universe at War: Earth Assault.

While enjoyable RTS games on consoles are far from anything new, it seems the best are those designed specifically for a control pad. It seems Ensemble's philosophy for how to go about doing that was to go back to the basics, reaching back into its own PC-centric past. Instead of trying to flaunt some kind of fancy mechanic like whip select in Creative Assembly's Stormrise or make an attempt to ride along the leading edge of the overall genre's evolution, it made sense to take a step back and focus on what's already been proven to work. In other words, Ensemble recognized the difference between an RTS and a console RTS, and the result is something wonderfully playable.

To do that, Halo Wars needed to be built with a number of considerations in mind. For instance, how is the action kept manageable and entertaining while providing enough depth to make it an experience worth returning to again and again? How is the amount of time required for fiddling with controls and unit or building micromanagement minimized across a constantly changing and evolving battlefield? How does the game let you feel like you're fighting an opponent instead of fighting a control scheme?

Halo Wars feels like an Xbox 360 game because of the way bases are set up in the game, the way resources are collected, and the way units are controlled. If you're mostly unfamiliar with how traditional games in this genre work online, the gameplay is broken down into two main categories: base management and army management. Base management incorporates the need to continually bring in resources to fuel unit production, ensure you're researching the proper upgrades to supplement your tactical approach, and to keep an eye on how you can expand your operations to strengthen your economy.

In something like Supreme Commander, a real-time strategy game from Gas Powered Games defined by its level of complexity, the scope of the game can be exhausting, even with the PC version. It required players to balance rates of resource accumulation and structure micromanagement to a degree that encompassed a significant portion of the overall experience. Ensemble created a much leaner game with Halo Wars, simplifying and centralizing the process of collection and production into one multipurpose base.

After each base is built on UNSC or Covenant sides, you're given access to a number of set slots on top of which can be built additional structures. Some will work to produce units, some will be used for technology upgrades for additional special abilities or to boost combat effectiveness, and you can also upgrade your base to allow for more slots to open up around it up to a maximum limit. It's sort of like the plastic that holds soda cans in place, only in Halo Wars you're fitting the cans back in instead of ripping them out. That there are a pre-set number of slots flanking your main base strips out any kind of consideration you'd need to give to its shape. You don't need to choose what structures to build, then subsequently choose where to place them. The only decisions that need to be made are which types of structure you want filling each slot, which can best fit in with different types of battle strategies, and if you want more valuable structures at the back of the base so they're not immediately vulnerable in case of an attack from the front.

Eventually you'll need to expand your operations, something Halo Wars makes easy. The general idea behind building a second and third base is to boost your resource collection rates to allow you to afford more research and production. In Halo Wars, you'll need additional bases not only because there's quite a bit to spend your resources on, but also because you'll run out of base slots. The question of where to expand isn't a complicated one, as there are only a few, easily identifiable spots on the map on which bases can be built. Since the system of resource collection is also fused into the base, there's little else you need to worry about when starting a new facility aside from its position on a map relative to where your opponent is situated. Though you can find little packets of resources scattered around maps to speed resource accumulation, the primary method of accumulation is a structure whose supply is never exhausted.

When up and running, the bases work as entirely self-contained collection and production facilities. There's no need to worry about harvester units, no concerns about maintaining supply lines, and few decisions to make when considering how to lay out the base. It's all standardized like it just rolled off an assembly line, and because of that, it frees you up to focus on the field of battle and your military's assault tactics. It's also great because of the proximity of your structures to your main base. Quickly cycling your view through your bases, accomplished with the D-pad, allows you easy access to the production facilities and research centers because they're directly next to it, minimizing time wasted by scrolling your cursor. Some games, like the console versions of Supreme Commander and Red Alert 3, offer an all-purpose radial menu for handling just about everything in-game, yet they still require players to consider placement positions while setting down buildings, which eats time. By standardizing the layout of everything in a base and facilitating resource gathering, Ensemble retained the feel of a traditional RTS while molding it into something distinctly console-centric.

The real key to what makes it work for me is how so many systems are simplified and automated. Halo Wars only has one type of resource, and it fuels everything from the construction of new buildings and units to the use of special powers.

The game also handles unit selection well. It offers options to highlight all or only local units with the bumpers, along with a C&C-style area select circle that can be swept over units onscreen. Cycling through armies of mixed unit types is done with the pull of a trigger, and setting off their special powers is accomplished simply by hitting the Y button, which conveniently can be used to imitate the special attacks of every unit in a mixed group. Considering a large percentage of special attacks are offensively orientated, you're not really forced as much to micromanage which unit is using which superpower in the same way as in Red Alert 3, where the unit powers have a far wider range of uses. Recharge timers are also visible onscreen so there's never a question of when the ability might be available again, meaning there's no need to waste time scouring the screen or a menu system for cooldown data. All the powers unique to leaders and special units, such as the UNSC's cryo bomb or ODST orbital drop power are easily accessed and initiated, and their effects are always across large areas instead of precise strikes, meaning they're more fire-and-forget and can be aimed and activated with minimal frustration.

Yet despite the number of selection options, from my time online I've found only the select all and select local units commands to really be useful. Most of the tactics in battle have more to do with what types of units you bring in than what you do with them, aside from hitting the Y button for a special attack. But that's just fine, for now, for this traditional style of game. If I wanted an experience that requires frantic micromanagement to master, I'd power up my PC. Or, perhaps, wait for another developer to try out a different model of real-time strategy, one more akin to something focused more on strategic powers than unit tactics such as Massive Entertainment's World in Conflict.

Even with all the positives, there are still issues with the game. Unit pathfinding, particularly with something like an army of Grizzlies, isn't so great. If you're trying to move through tight quarters this can get annoying as units get confused and bunch up, making them even more vulnerable to area of effect special attacks. Using a thumbstick to drag your cursor across the screen, even with an option for acceleration and ways to instantly snap to locations, can still be somewhat unwieldy at times. There's got to be a way to move away from using thumbsticks to mimic the precision of mouse and keyboard camera controls, but that's for somebody much smarter than me to figure out. Some of the research options are also strangely compartmentalized within each structure, an issue which works itself out once you learn the UNSC and Covenant layouts but can be bothersome when trying to settle in. At least the radial menus for building and researching are broken into small chunks, making for easier and more precise selection compared with larger selection wheels in other games. And though the majority of this article is about the online play, I should mention from what I've played of the single player I can't say I'm all that thrilled with it, though those cinematics sure are pretty.

Fixes are on the way, despite Ensemble's dissolution. In case you missed the story, late last year it was announced the venerable developer was to be scuttled following the release of Halo Wars. Despite the unfortunate news, the game was still finished, and thereafter the remaining team members moved on to other places around the industry as well as the newly formed Bonfire Studios and Robot Entertainment. The latter has been contracted to continue support on the game in the form of gameplay patches and additional downloadable content. This means anyone who was rightly worried about post-launch support for Halo Wars shouldn't be overly concerned, at least for the near future.

If you're one of those gamers either nervous about dipping into the RTS pool or wary of this kind of genre on consoles, don't be afraid of Halo Wars. Even over a month after from launch it's still got loads of players online so there's always someone to play, even if it takes a while to get a game going. Those that are playing seem to range from experts to beginners, so within the community right now there's room to fit in and polish your skills. It's a game deeply rooted in the traditional style of RTS and one that doesn't take many chances, but what's here is another solid step in the right direction for the future of this genre on consoles. It's experienced a lot of popularity at stores so far, and from my time online, it deserves it, and makes me hopeful about the future of the genre on this platform.

So what do you think about Halo Wars at this point? Let us know in the comments below.