Halo Wars Blog

Halo plus real-time strategy plus gamepad controls may sound like a recipe for a franchise misfire, but Ensemble Studios has polished Halo Wars to the point of an immediately playable console title. While some may argue that, like first person shooters, RTS games should only be played on a mouse and keyboard, Ensemble has done an admirable job of nailing the controls.

You’ll move around the map with the left analog stick, zooming in and out with the right stick. Unit selection is done with the A button — hold A to select groups via a circle — but you can select all units on screen or every unit in your army with the right or left bumpers, respectively.

Your units will fire on enemy units with X, with an alternate firing mode tied to the Y button.

Unit special abilities and building options can be chosen from a pop up radial menu, giving you quick access to things like air strikes or expansion building choices. The control experience is relatively easy to wrap one’s head around, thanks to a clean, quickly loading interface.

Building management is similarly straightforward stuff. We started out with a pre-built base, one with a series of “slots” that additions like barracks and vehicle factories can be built upon. You’ll also have access to defense towers, but Halo Wars won’t devolve into a turret defense mishmash. Base support feels like less of a focus than team-to-team field combat.

On combat, you’ll have more than just Warthogs, Scorpions and Vultures to inflict damage on the UNSC side, a Spirit of Fire colony ship orbited overhead, allowing for called-in airstrikes via MAC cannons. Things get hairy? Call in some giant laser fire.

Halo Wars has some impressive visual pop to it, more colorful than when we last saw it. The game’s visual effects, in motion, look spectacular. It may not have the immediate visual appeal of something like Halo 3, with it’s micro-sized units and overhead perspective, but it looks good.

Keep your eye on Halo Wars, even if you’re not a fan of the franchise or traditionally an RTS fan. It looks and feels like a console strategy game should. When we get our hands on the Covenant next time, we’ll have a better understanding of how well it stacks up.

Today we discovered a halo wars screenshot we had never seen before! Guess it is not a brand new one, but it is one that is very cool! And gives a clear view of how things will be! Like the forerunner architecture. I’m surprised the covenant aren’t instead attacking the human outpost/base, they’re attacking the human force which is away from the UNSC base so why not rush to the UNSC encampment and destroy a couple buildings or one while the UNSC forces are occupied by chasing the covenant. This would seem more logical for a side with smart AI.

Halo Wars Screenshot:

The plot of Halo Wars is set in 2531 where United Nations space Command discovers the forerunner artifact and the battle with the Covenant. There are two things to be noted in Halo Wars. Firstly, the events takes place 21 years prior to those of “Halo: Combat Evolved” which is already released and secondly, the first battle with the Covenant after the planet named “Harvest” had fallen to the Covenant. It is not still sure if players in Halo Wars would be able to play as the Covenant.

Halo Wars is still under development phase and I will notify you whenever it releases. Here some impressive Halo Wars Videos:

This is a Halo Wars gameplay video of 10 minutes, very cool to see!

Very cool video you can’t miss! Halo WARS !!!

Another very cool Halo Wars trailer.

Halo Wars places the player in command of human UNSC armies as they deploy for mankinds first deadly encounter with the enemy Covenant forces. Halo Wars is an all-new real-time strategy game based on the legendary Halo universe and designed by Ensemble Studios, creators of the Age of Empires franchise.

Wished Halo Wars was out already so I could whoop everybodies ass!!

Here are some screenshots:

April Madness Halo Wars Tournament (of destruction) Destructed

It always sucks to start off with bad news, but better to give it to you straight.  I’m sorry to say that the April Madness Tournament (of destruction) has been postponed, probably until later in the development schedule.  I know you were all set to cheer for “Team Who is Chris Stark” and “Team Swanges”, so this is going to come as a major disappointment to you.  We have some really cool stuff that will soon be added to the game so we’re going to hold off for now.  It only makes sense to have a tournament (of destruction) when we can unleash the game’s full arsenal upon each other right?

As it was, our practice rounds were a lot of fun and teams were using somewhat different strategies which is encouraging.  Scorpion tanks were proving to be very strong in the build we were using, mostly due to a bug with an anti-vehicle unit doing less damage than it was supposed to.  Air units were also pretty popular, but because of their fantastic hit and run capabilities that could cripple a player’s Command Center, their power has been nerfed somewhat.  A small group of these units was able to destroy a key building or two in a poorly defended base and then flee.  It’s a good strategy that should be viable, but it was just a little too effective.

Of the strategies that I had been trying I had two that were working out pretty well for me.  The first was a delayed rush with infantry.  The real strength of this strategy is that it was generally unexpected, unless my opponent(s) were scouting well, because Scorpions were so popular.  It takes time to get Scorpions on the field though, and infantry are relatively easy to start training.  I’d concentrate on Marines but hold them back and try to time it so that they’d attack while my enemy was happily booming towards Scorpions or whatnot.  By holding them back I make sure that I’ve got enough units to really do some damage when I do attack, and if all goes well the other team will hopefully be lulled into thinking that I’m busy booming my economy like they are.  I want my opponent to invest in a long term strategy instead of defenses.

I’d have to be doing a good job of scouting so I’d know when to attack.  Attack too late and he’s got high end units that will be tough for my infantry to take out, too early and he might be able to recover and fend me off if I don’t have enough units.  When my infantry arrive at his base I’d try and kill a key structure, like a Supply Pad or Vehicle Depot, while continuing to stream in more reinforcements and booming in my unmolested part of the map.  There’s a little more to the attack than I can safely say, generally revolving around an ability that Marines have, but that’s the gist of it.

I think the real reason I had success with this strategy was the popularity of Scorpions, which take a solid investment of time and resources to field.  It was generally a safe bet that’s exactly what the other side was doing, so I could get away with this.  When I failed with this strategy it was a glorious fiery end to a short game.  Failure usually meant that I was behind economically and would soon get rolled unless my ally carried me on his/her back.

The other strategy that I used is growing in popularity, as it’s a pretty obvious counter to a Scorpion heavy force.  I’ll have to leave that for a later time as it makes use of a new unit that I can’t mention.

Halo Wars Alpha

Yup, as you may have seen mentioned on a couple of sites, we are doing an alpha test with some internal Microsoft folks.  I’m afraid I can’t talk about it at this time.