A potentially good game on the wrong platform.
Halo Wars is an RTS (Real-Time Stratagy) game which is a major departure from the rest of the Halo series which are all, to this date, FPSs (First Person Shooter). As with 99% of all other RTSs ever made, the main objective is to build a small army of a variety of little dudes and command them to make the opposing little dudes dead. This genre, who's formula hasn't changed much over the past 15 years, has always had a cushioned seat PC's round table of game genres due to the precise controls the mouse and keyboard offer. While this genre has been attempted before on the consoles by other studios as early as the PS1/N64 era, there has never really been a successful RTS on the console, Halo Wars does nothing to change this trend.
Halo Wars does nothing to try to distinguish itself from other RTSs in the genre. The gameplay at the core is pretty much what we have come to expect from an RTS. You're given your starting base and amount of resources. From there you can upgrade your base to give you more supplies, build units, and build new facilitates to unlock more research and new units. There are three major types of units: infantry, armor, and air, with some scouting units available that don't really fit into any of these categories. Provided you have enough resources and reactors, units can be upgraded several times to unlock a special secondary attack or upgrade some attributes of the unit.
While there is a decent variety of units to play around with, the cumbersome controls make any form of tactics an ineffective chore. There are three options for selecting units: holding X allows you to select a number of units within an area, the right bumper selects all units on the screen, and the left bumper selects all of your units on the map. Once you have a number of units collected you can select all of the units of a certain type by quickly pulling the left and right analog stick to the unit icon you want to select. While this is a major improvement on any other RTS I've ever played on the console, these controls are still not enough to give the level of control needed to use the units tactically.
Not that tactics are ever really needed. Most objectives can be completed by simply massing a small army of tanks and marching them across the maps killing everything in the way. Despite the lack of tactics required, a lot of the missions are still quite unique and fun. One has you escorting waves of civilians to evacuation ships during a Covenant invasion of a planet, fighting off waves of Covenant attackers who are landing on the main UNSC capital ship as you repair the main hull, and dragging a massive bomb up a hill against waves of enemy soldiers.
Some of the levels will put you in control of hero units. During the campaign the hero units usually were the series signature Spartan warriors. Spartans are extremely powerful units that could hijack enemy vehicles and usually blast waves of enemy soldiers to piles of goo. It's quite awesome to see a handful of Spartans doing what your waves of infantry guys couldn't. If you are a fan of the Halo series, you'll probably enjoy watching the Spartans clean up after playing as one for nearly every other Halo game in existence. It is just one more element of this game that really makes this game fit in the Halo universe.
I've mentioned before how well the atmosphere fit the series and I was very happy to see the game's consistency to match the others in the series. Halo's unique art style and color scheme are instantly recognizable by any fan of the series. Most of the audio has been taken straight from previous Halo titles so that every weapon and vehicle seen in the other games is authentic to the series while the new weapons and vehicles feel right at home. The musical score is mostly original and fits the spacey, orchestral musical style that has helped define the series.
Also fitting with the Halo series is the extremely weak writing and story that pushes the single player campaign along. While Halo has never been known for a particularly strong story, the story has never gotten in the way of gameplay (unless we want to include the "Cortana" level from Halo 3). In Halo Wars, the story is moved along by way of CGI cutscenes, which are a first for the series and are quite well done, and by short in-engine cut scenes that break up in-game events. Without spoiling anything, the game takes place on the planet Harvest, a battle that takes place 10-15 years before the events in the first Halo game that was released in 2001. While unique it seems that the writers went for the "kitchen sink" approach and threw every single story element from the previous games into this one in an attempt to fill it with Halo lore. The Covenant are still after some super weapon, the Spartans still kick ass, the extremely bold ship captain, and the heroic marine that has to make the ultimate sacrifice for humanity (ok minor spoilers, but it is Halo after all, we should know to expect these things). The Flood even make a return although they are never explained well as to what they are or why they are even there.
While the art style really fits the Halo universe, the graphics did not seem to hold up very well throughout the campaign. Aside from some excellent explosion effects and the varied environments, the framerate often struggled to keep up with the action, the textures were pretty low resolution, and the unit detail left something to be desired.
I think it would be to rash to say that Halo Wars is a bad game. The gameplay and story (and my love of the Halo series) were enough to keep me going throughout the story. I would say that Halo Wars had a lot of potential to be great, but the limitations of the platform held it back from being an RTS to remember. Halo fans will find something to enjoy while the rest of the world wouldn't miss anything if they decide to skip this title.