Cross your fingers because Master Chief is making the jump to real-time strategy. In one of the riskiest moves with an established franchise since Lara Croft bombed in Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, Bungie is trusting the famed design team at Ensemble Studios with its beloved franchise.
Halo Wars takes place 20 years before the events of the original Halo, chronicling the early days of war between UNSC forces and the Covenant. The game opens in the year 2531 on the planet Harvest, a temperate world much like Earth that sets the stage between a massive battle between the two rival factions. While Ensemble wouldn't go too deep into the plot, it appears that Halo Wars will do more than set the stage of the first-person shooter trilogy with new characters and units that should keep things interesting.
Being a real-time strategy game hitting a console, the concern lies with the control scheme. Fortunately, this was the first area which Ensemble Studios discussed in their demonstration of the game. Before even working on the brand new engine, a team of designers spent six months designing a workable interface. Selecting units can be done in three different ways, all maximizing the Xbox 360 controller.
First, you can choose units by moving the on-screen cursor with the left thumbstick and pressing A on a unit. Tapping X instead of A will give you command over that unit's entire class. Second, hitting the left bumper grabs all the units currently visible on the screen. This is meant more as a quick way of getting units together and potentially rushing them against a boss. The third way of selecting involves holding down the A button to bring up a paintbrush which allows you to choose units as you would a mouse. While we weren't able to try these methods first-hand, they do look geared toward the controller more so than previous PC-to-console attempts.
Commanding units is only part of the interface equation. Building structures, accessing powers, and developing your tech tree are critical as well. To address this, Halo Wars will feature a circular menu that enables you to see options and select them quickly. Again, we weren't able to test it out, but it looks like a vast improvement over other console strategy games.
The interface isn't the only thing being rethought in Halo Wars. Ensemble claims to have parsed down resource collection and structure building, a move intended to shift the focus of the game to tactics versus base construction. You'll still have to build a base and manage progress through a tech tree; however, it's necessary only as a means of accessing units and strengthening them for combat.
Units featured in the main series will be making their way here, along with several new units. Covenant Banshees, Ghosts, Grunts, and Elites are all intact in Halo Wars, as are UNSC Warthogs, Scorpions, and Marines. A few of the new units were shown in action: UNSC Wolverines act as anti-aircraft machines that easily chew up Banshees and a massive Covenant Scarab decimated several squads of marines before being put out of commission by an orbiting capital ship's magnetic cannon. Additionally, the new UNSC Hawk allows aerial transport of units and a bit of firepower as well. Plenty more units are promised and will be detailed as the game's release draws closer.
