Halo Wars immediately had my attention because of the Halo theme, and its true i spend more time paying attention to it because of that. However, the game is actually really fun and addicting. I dont think its fair to slam it because it doesnt have a million types of units like games like Starcraft did. This is its own unique game, and if its minorly simplified for console gaming, so be it. That is why it works. If you dont like Halo Wars, then just dont play it. The end.
I come in from the standpoint of being an RTS n00b and Halo Wars was exactly the RTS I was looking for. It is essentially a "My First RTS" and it really helps you grasp alot of the concepts of an RTS gently. The only other time I played RTS games was back in the "Tiberiun Sun" RA3 days and I never did get the hang of it (I liked to just build bases...They gots blowsed up....I sadfaced) Halo Wars has that "Pick up and Play" feel and personally I love it. Now that I'm starting to get a hang of it all I am starting to look more deeply into different strategies, and there are a few to try. Actually won a 3v3 against legendary AI yesterday and it was a blast. multiple combatant skirmishes are alot of fun and it adds far more diversity than when you're doing 1v1, it also brings different strategies to the table. There's surprising depth when you look for it. Oh and to the ODST guy *ahem* Hawks will annihilate your ass. Infact Hawks annihilate almost everything - They're the closest thing to an overpowered unit in my opinion. Without a covie with vampires you're fairly screwed. That or you have to rush them early, or have Hawks of your own. Ironically I was ODST's in the 3V3 Legendary AI game we won though...
If you take away the Halo theme, it plays EXACTLY like Age of Empires, one of the greatest rts's in the history of gamming.
I wish it had peons. Its an excellent RTS game for the xbox in my opinion and would have gotten it even if it wasn't halo. However, if it was for the P.C. instead I never would have gotten it if it wan't halo, as while I'm a halo fan, there are plenty better RTS's for the computer.
It was me, Buddha & Shad0wViper vs 3 AIs on legendary. Then today, Shad0wViper and I beat the Legendary AI again with an AI teammate.
Having 15 hawks in the air by 7 minutes into the game will get you a win almost every time. I have yet to lose with that strategy but I have also never used it against a team of rushers. Hopefully a rush will be able to beat it, I would hate to think I have found a perfect strategy.
I think you have. Today I was doing my usual build-three-tanks-then-put-spartans-in-them-then-pin-them technique, but they were quicker than usual. So I tried my backup, but then I got hit by at least twenty Hawks. I couldn't hit them with mac blasts either.
Its a shallow RTS if you compare other consule RTS like C&C or LoTR. Don't even try to compare it to PC once like Rise of Nations or Warcraft. There isn't much variety between the units.
I would still like it, it keeps the board clean of pointless crap while keeping a variation of strategies you can use, that isn't so repetitive of other RTS games. It also works well when your sick of strategizing and all, you can build an almost unbounded army in skirmish mode to just have fun with. All in all, it's a pretty good RTS. Halo does make it cooler though.
It was designed to be a simple, easy to use and understand RTS. Not your 'move your Scout to mine material, then bring it back to the base, then move back out to mine material, then bring it back to base' RTS. I for one thought it was very nice to not have to deal with that, ahem, bullcrap. Normal wars don't force their troops to look for crates of unknown resources that happen to litter around the battlefield and retrieve barrels of oil. OWAIT, Gulf War.
The variety of units in no way affects the depth of the game. i personally like it a lot. it is simple, but thats what i like about it. But simple to control doesnt mean there arent very many strategies.
Prophet>you. You don't even need all those excess amount of units you have. Truth isn't in the game eitheir. It's Regret. Remember? The guy you killed?
.....I always get the two mixed up. And a prophet is actually not very difficult to kill if you're adept enough-that's what the scarabs are for. They're the firepower. In any case, we seem to have gotten a little off topic here....the discussion wasn't on whether or not Halo wars is "good" but whether or not it would be "as good" if it wasn't Halo based. Meh.
But how much can you get within a minute? I can have Regret there withen the minute. It's not hard. And, Regret isn't hard to kill if the user isn't paying attention. If he suffers enough damage, he can be called back to base to heal.
The game has very little going for it. Let me make a list to sum it up. The good: Has an RTS control scheme that actually works for consoles, which is a breakthrough in the RTS genre. Has good online play (from what I hear at least, i really have'nt played online enough to know). Incorporates the Halo theme into it very well. The Bad: Unit variety is terrible. This causes stategy, unit combining, and overal variety to suffer greatly. This game has 8 ground units per faction (i think) whereas others often have 15 or more. The less unit variety there is, the more "all rounder" units you have. This makes strategy less important, thus, going against the very nature of real time strategy. Unit abilites are too dull. The ways in which individual units can be used is very limeted. Gameplay is dull. Extremely straightforward and, once again, without variety. overall: Very disapointing for a Halo title, which would normaly be full of praise. Lack of variety kills it. I am planning to send my copy back. Unfortunately, i did not get the limeted edition. I got nothing out of this game. If it was not a Halo title, I would never had made the mistake of purchasing it.