Did Ensemble die of shame after making this game? It's not bad,exactly, but it's a far cry from their halcyon days.
If you take this game for what it is, however-an interesting way to add another layer to the Halo universe-than there's definitely fun to be had. In fact, once I started seeing Halo Wars as a distant third-person action game, I came to enjoy it quite a bit.
Halo Wars is, in many ways, the end of a noble experiment. Developers have been trying to port the RTS genre to consoles for years, with little success. By 2008, it appears the argument has been decided in favor of the naysayers. Ensemble, in effect, no longer tries to translate many of the elements that require keyboard control. And while simplicity can be a blessing, as Halo Wars proves, it also leaves something to be desired for those of us who have experienced the studio's earlier efforts (or other classics like Starcraft or Command and Conquer).
Everything has been streamlined. Resource collection and management are almost nonexistent, as is base planning. Your base has a set number of slots where you can construct buildings. At least two of these have to be occupied by supply pads, your only form of resource collection, and you probably want one or two to be reactors, which are essentially Halo Wars' version of the "Ages" in Age of Empires (i.e. tech levels). That means you'll have a few slots left for your actual troop-producing buildings. It's not complicated, and there's not a lot of room for variation, especially since a good number of the campaign missions are easier if you only pump out one specific unit as opposed to a balanced army.
The battles themselves are quite simple as well. Since it is difficult to order particular commands to your units, you'll usually end up just selecting all local units with a click of the right bumper and then ordering them to destroy your high-priority target. Thankfully, the AI seems quite competent at recognizing more pressing threats, and will actually stop destroying a building if another unit attacks it. As you would imagine, these sorts of battles rarely rest on tactical superiority. The only "strategic" decision to make is when you want to start the attack-some may prefer to have an overwhelming advantage in numbers, while others like to play a little riskier in pursuit of faster completion times.
Most units have special abilities, and some of these are quite essential. But again, it isn't anything particularly taxing on the mind. For instance, your marines have grenades that are much more powerful than their regular attack, so it's optimal for you to use that ability as often as possible and as soon as it recharges, especially when taking down buildings. There are a few cool abilities-Spartans, who are not creatable but are often allotted to you at the beginning of missions, can hijack enemy vehicles. In fact, the best part of this game is simply seeing all these great vehicles and unique enemies from the Halo universe deployed in large-scale battles. Just don't expect them to each have three special abilities, or for you to have to micromanage their operation extensively.
All of this means that the campaign winds up being quite easy. In fact, it gets easier as you continue through the game. The first four missions can be completed in perhaps an hour and a half. The next six take a little longer, perhaps three hours in total, and you may have to replay them if you don't realize what optimal unit should be deployed. But the final missions, while they take some time to complete, are remarkably easy-too easy, in fact. Your base is attacked with pitifully small forces, meaning that you have free reign to create a huge army before sallying forth and conquering your foes. Base defense is not really a concern, either, since the turrets that you can construct are quite overpowered. They take immense amounts of damage and can be upgraded to be nearly invincible; in fact, building the maximum number of turrets (four) pretty much guarantees the safety of your base. One bizarre-and disappointing-AI failure that I noticed was that they do not go for your most crucial buildings, like your supply depots or your reactors. They attack your troop-producing buildings first; but these structures are by far the cheapest to produce and hence the easiest to replace.
What this boils down to is a short (7-8 hours at most) and unchallenging single-player mode. It was mildly fun, but I'm not going to lie and pretend I had a roaring good time while progressing through the campaign. The only thing that really kept me going was the storyline, which is probably the strongest part of the mode. But that isn't saying all that much; it's fairly generic and stays comfortably within the pattern of the previous Halo games. The Covenant attempt to take advantage of advanced Forerunner technology, and you-the lone human ship pursuing them across the galaxy-must stop them before they gain an armada that will tip the balance of power in the war. The characters are fairly stereotypical: strong-willed, independent-minded female scientist; gruff but honorable marine captain; grizzled, stalwart captain; even the AI seems to be a pale shadow of Cortana from the main Halo series.
The presentation values are high, at least. Graphics and sound are well-done, and the game certainly doesn't hurt the eyes. It also has some of the best FMV cutscenes I've watched in terms of pure visual quality. Of course, compared to the raw intensity of the cutscenes in Blizzard's masterpiece, Starcraft, these disappoint.
It seems that's the main thread running through this review. It's not a bad game, exactly, but it's far from being a great one. The campaign is competently executed but lacks heart or real excitement. And the multiplayer is a bit boring, because the lack of strategic options means that both sides are pretty much doing the same thing. Building a huge army that hits the unit cap, then duking it out in battles with little tactical maneuvering.
After finishing Halo Wars, I had to admit that this was probably the only way to translate the RTS genre to the consoles. However, it also left me feeling that perhaps real-time strategy should stay where it belongs: on the PC.