Great take on the RTS genre for console!
Luckily it turns out the game is in fact an excellent RTS on many levels, and I was pleasantly surprised. Most importantly you can play it using the xbox and feel like it is more and not less convenient to play than your standard mouse controlled PC RTS, which is an achievement in itself.
Ensemble Studios really nailed the controls perfectly, the only issue left is your TV set. At first I played the game on a standard 26 inch TV, which just does not work well with a game full of so many details. The tiny text was nearly unreadable, and the units blurry and unclear. Forgivable other genres like racing games, but not in a game that requires micromanagement of tiny units in real time. I was quite disappointed at the time, and lost all interest in it for a while.
Later I hooked the game up to my new 46 inch HDTV via HDMI, and that's a completely different experience. It works perfectly, and the polish and attention to details truly shines in the game. I would say a high definition TV is almost required to enjoy the game though.
I never play games online as I have a busy life and prefer games that have a clear start and end, so I cannot vouch for the online experience. But the campaign mode is very entertaining and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Like many other RTS games these days, it is more focus on action than real strategy though. There is no resource gathering, resources will be delivered automatically depending on how many resource stations you built, and some elements like setting up buildings is simplified. You just unpack various modules on your pre-built base to unlock various functionality like barracks, power generators and so on. You only have a limited slots, so building them in the right order and upgrading smart is important.
You also have a menu of special powers, like a satellite based cannon and a transportation and healing ability. They usually cost money to invoke though, and also needs to be charged up first.
In general you build vehicles, airborn units and troops. Many of chich has special abilities which you unlock by attacking using the Y button rather than the regular X button. It adds an extra level of strategy, however it truly feels more like an action RPG than RTS. Talking about RPG, one thing I missed is leveling up of units. It would be cool if they can actually gain levels and experience, a feature which is quite common in these kind of games nowadays.
I did like that the units are quite tough. They do take a LOT of beating before they die, and this also includes the enemy, so you can build a couple of super units and they may last you the whole level if you play smart. This is most likely to compensate for the fact you can only have quite few units at any given time as the population cap is small. Its a good thing though, as otherwise it may be hard to control them all given the nature of the xbox controller which does not allow you to configure groups of units to hotkeys.
Although the game feels a bit shallow at times, and certainly wont give you any real challenge, it is entertaining to plow through masses of covenants and the horde, getting your reward in form of some great cut scenes which is spilling out a not as great story.
The graphics is great, and you get a lot of that Halo feeling. However, none of the battles are very epic in nature, and the game is really too easy for the serious RTS gamer. But that's the trend anyway these days, as game developers figure we are getting more lazy and don't want to work so hard to get entertained as before maybe..
All in all I am very happy to invest in this game experience, after getting sick and tired of hundreds of nearly identical FPS games, racing games and sports games pumped out by game developers on this console. I'm sure an RTS game could be better, but as for now this game wins hands down as the best xbox RTS game. And I hope they will make lots of money so we will see more games in this genre from others. A fresh breeze, and a worthy game for the Halo brand.