“Halo! Its divine wind will rush through the stars, propelling all who are worthy along the path to salvation!”

- Prophet of Mercy

Ten years ago a relatively unknown game developer announced its next project, Halo, a real-time strategy game for the Apple Macintosh platform. Soon after this, the company was acquired by Microsoft and became part of the Microsoft Game Division under the name, Bungie Studios. 2001 saw the release of the Xbox and along with it the flagship game, Halo: Combat Evolved, one of history’s finest first-person action games which went on to be a critically acclaimed hit, earning its place in the FPS hall of fame and creating a truly fantastic franchise; one which we all know and love.

Now this is all well and good, but surely this wasn’t the RTS that Bungie had in mind when Halo was announced was it? That’s rights kids you’ve guessed it; Halo: Combat Evolved was not released as a RTS; instead it went through several iterations before finally arriving at the console first person shooter for which it is today recognised. Bungie felt that a RTS would be a waste of Halo’s intricate storyline and a FPS would be far more interactive for the player.

Okay, enough of the history lesson, fast forward to the present, the year is 2009, and expectations are high as we are about to embark on yet another euphoric journey into the Halo universe. This time in the originally intended format of an RTS, courtesy of the late Ensemble Studios, ladies and gentlemen I come tonight to bring you, Halo Wars.

Woah, woah hold on a second! ’A Halo game not developed by Bungie, I have a bad feeling about this.’ Indeed the concept is hard to grasp and although the boys at Bungie have helped Ensemble with getting a ‘general feel’ for the Halo Universe they have had very little significant involvement in the making of Halo Wars. During the long wait for the demo to download I began to grow sceptical, asking myself, ”Surely a lack of Bungie colouring will denote failure for a Halo game?” However after but a few minutes on Halo Wars all my doubts were quickly cast aside as I revelled in the greatness of the first true console RTS. Obviously Halo Wars is not the first RTS to be played on a console, as on the Xbox 36o alone we have had LOTR BFME II, C&C3 and Supreme Commander to name but a few. The only difference between these and Halo Wars is that the latter is as yet the only RTS to be developed solely for console gaming; all the others are formatted PC versions. Ensemble, best and only known for bringing us Age of Empires can be seen in my opinion as bit of a ‘One Trick Pony,’ however despite Ensemble’s over-experience on the PC, Halo Wars has shown me that this pony had a few more tricks up its sleeve.

I won’t bore you with the Halo storyline, but as far as game play goes this RTS is hard to fault and the graphics ain’t too bad either. Both the Covenant and the UNSC field full and diverse armies featuring all the familiar units from the trilogy and many more. From the Honour Guards of High Charity to the Marines of New Mombasa, the attention to detail and their overall resemblance to their original trilogy brothers is uncanny. The game features a UNSC Campaign and online multiplayer mode  fit for no less than 6 players at once, not to mention co-op capability in the campaign. Although there are only two playable factions, the choice of specific commander enables the player to utilize special abilities respective to their choice, so two Covenant armies could play off very different strengths. At first, I thought this abit lazy on Ensemble’s part, (especially the inability to play as the Flood) however the commander choice adds internal diversity never before seen by mine eyes.

To conclude, Halo Wars feels and plays right and is fairly balanced; obviously if you are neither a fan of Halo nor RTS then this game is clearly not for you. For everyone else this could be seen as a ‘must buy,’ but don’t take my word for it, instead download the demo and have a dabble. Halo Wars is actually released to the Britons on the 27th February, a furious four days before the American get it, HUZZAH! So from now untill then, enjoy the demo.