Much to the disbelief of many, Halo was originally envisioned as an RTS game. Somewhere along the way Bungie decided it would be good fun to make an FPS instead and an entire genre thrived on consoles since then. Eight years after the fact Ensemble was called upon for their swan song: Halo Wars. Halo Wars may have a redundant title but the game itself is anything but. The genius of it in fact doesn't stem from the insane amount of features and new ideas shown in the game but in its simplicity.

Halo Wars is designed not only with Halo fans in mind but also with console gaming in mind. It strips away the cumbersome commands and features that other console RTS games are saddled with; there are no modifier keys, resource collectors, etc to keep track of. You are given a mission and a base and from there resources are flown in to your position and you choose how to approach the battle.

Many genre diehards that live and die by the keyboard and mouse will find Halo Wars a simplistic affair that won't quite satisfy their needs. But that's the point. Halo Wars succeeds where other console RTS games failed. The controls are easy to use, you never forget which button does what, you don't have to press on the d-pad and then press that button again to find another feature and so on. Simplicity is the name of the game and when all you have are four buttons to play with that sounds like a good game plan.

The experience itself is very streamlined as you push forward or defend certain points of interest. The missions don't go on for hours and hours like many other strategy games, RTS or otherwise. They were designed with consoles in mind, taking anywhere from twenty minutes to maybe an hour for the longer and more difficult sorties. But it works, and that's where Halo Wars succeeds. It strips away what other PC ports do not and it works wonderfully because of it.

In the game's various missions you must typically scout out a base or start with one. These bases always look the same and are not customizable; you may only make them larger to add in more buildings and turrets. From there you train your units in your base(s) and go after your objective. The missions all have an action feel to them and come in two flavors. There are the linear ones where you follow a set path across the level or there are missions where you are put in a large area and told to tackle the situation in whatever way seems best. The missions do get exciting though, one of them literally has your ship under attack so you will call units out of the ship as you fight on top of the hull to defend it. Another has you helping Spartans evacuate a city being attacked by the Covenant.

These missions start out as very simple for the beginning of the game, though that is by design. These missions teach you how to play the game and while fun they won't give you the sense of fulfillment and excitement that the rest of the game takes starting from the fourth mission.

While simplicity does a lot of favors for Halo Wars in the overall gameplay department it also carries over to other aspects of the game that didn't exactly require it. There is an overall lack of variety in the units for one, which is a bit of a shame. You'll have access to Warthogs, Scorpions, UNSC soldiers, Spartans, Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, Hornets and the usual Halo arsenal along with a few new ones created for the game. However, these units are not varied enough. They are all upgradeable but once you get used to what you have you know how to use it all. The same is true for the Covenant units in the game and they control almost identically to the humans. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it would have been great if there were more units, or at least if the Covenant units played a bit more differently than the human units.

Another point of contention for many is that the campaign is only playable through the perspective of the UNSC. The Covenant is only available in multiplayer. It would have been nice if there were a second campaign for the Covenant to extend the campaign's lifespan and considering the quality of the game's actual campaign it would only be a bonus for the player to have more to dive into. But the campaign that is present in Halo Wars is actually fun to replay as there are Black Boxes and Skulls hidden throughout to find and the strategies can be mixed up in some of the missions.

The multiplayer has two different gametypes, Skirmish and Deathmatch, so it is a bit of a disappointment in that sense as well. This game reaffirms that while simplicity helps the game on the whole it shouldn't have been applied to every facet of it. The multiplayer has some well-designed maps for various types of matches. They're all wide open for the most part and simply involve you destroying your opponent, so in a sense the two modes practically play the same way too. The multiplayer however is fun for those looking for that sort of action on their Xbox.

The story of Halo Wars is largely forgettable. It's a simple story that takes action to the forefront and is largely told through gorgeous CG cutscenes. The one that takes place prior to the final mission is full of so much fanservice that you can't help but smile. The story told in Halo Wars is nowhere near as compelling as the story told through the trilogy nor is it as well told and nowhere near as deep. The game's plot is entertaining while it lasts but it's sort of funny to see the RTS game in the series tell a more action story while the FPS games take on a more dramatic edge with their story.

The game's graphics look great, and those CG cutscenes only help it that much more. It's bright and crisp; the units are large and well designed. You'll never squint at the screen wondering what you're fighting against. Ensemble did a great job of creating these large, excellent units and the structures and levels have that authentic Halo feel to them as well.

The same can be said of the sound in the game. You may be telling various Gauss Warthogs to attack something instead of controlling it yourself but when they move and fire it sounds like Halo and Halo sounds fantastic. The music in the game also captures the spirit of Halo. It's very surprising to see an RTS game capture the spirit of the series, but it does so without any trouble. Whether you're watching Halo Wars or listening to it the game sounds like authentic Halo.

Simplicity is the name of the game and for that reason alone Halo Wars is a great stride forward for the RTS genre on consoles. It's a bit unfortunate that the same rule was applied to almost everything about the game, from units, multiplayer, playable campaigns and so on, but the game doesn't suffer for it. The quality of it is so high that while it isn't the greatest RTS ever made, nor is it the greatest on consoles, it does take the right steps to ensure the genre's success on consoles. For everything Halo Wars does it ultimately ends up being the catalyst of change the genre needs. That and it's just cool to give a squad of Spartans orders on how to kick ass!