By Ryan Parsons | Image property of Ensemble Studios.
I am one of the many who is a big fan of the Halo franchise. I loved the first installment for its story and action. Never mind the fact that I have spent countless hours playing friends on the first installment's cool as hell multiplayer maps; Hang 'Em High kicked ass.
The only problem with the first installment was that you couldn't play against your friends over Xbox Live!. Fortunately, Halo 2 quickly corrected this issue and, by doing so, has caused me to waste another set of countless hours shouting obscenities at small children across the globe.
With Halo and Halo 2 now on the market, it turns out that enough different units have been created to do a spinoff of the franchise into the RTS (real time strategy) market. I love Command & Conquer, so bring it!
Halo Wars in Development for Xbox 360
Ensemble Studios are currently working on an RTS version of Halo that will allow you to control multiple units you have come to know across expansive Halo battlefields. Why only shoot from the gunner position on the buggy when you can control a whole damn squad?
Here is the game's definition from its official site:
Halo Wars is the next big real-time strategy game from Ensemble Studios, creators of Age of Empires. Designed exclusively for the Xbox 360, Halo Wars allows you to take charge of the human UNSC armies and see the Halo universe from a totally new perspective.
Halo Wars
Judging only by the description, we are already encountering a couple problems. First, RTS games always play best on PC and I can't believe that it was Microsoft's decision to not create a PC version of the game as well. I have tried a few RTS games on my Xbox and I just couldn't mesh.
Ensemble responds by claiming that since the game is being made exclusively for Xbox 360, the controls will be polished beyond that of any console RTS before it. Well, I will have to see it to believe it.
My second problem is that I was one of the few (I guess) that didn't dig Age of Empires. Command & Conquer and Battlefield Middle Earth were so much better. For some reason the Ensemble productions always seemed a little more cartoonish. But, since they are expected to go big with this project, I guess we should hope for improvements there as well.
My last problem is the one side of play. Though Ensemble has not confirmed anything as of yet, it has been suggested that Halo Wars will only allow players to play from the side of the humans. Once you complete that campaign you are either going to have to take the fight online through Xbox Live! or call it a day.
Even with all my complaints, however, I am excited to see the Halo universe delivered through RTS.
Add to Heffee!
