The whole range of Halo units will be controllable
We were hoping there might be some space-based combat, but Bungie has confirmed that all fighting in Halo Wars will take place on the ground. We won't be able to just sit back and watch a fight though, we'll have to manage it, switching to and from the base via the d-pad, building more armies, utilising the range of Halo vehicles, including Ghost and Scorpians, and tampering with tactics in order to defend the onslaught.The campaign in Halo Wars follows the colony ship, the Spirit of Fire and her crew as the UNSC deals with the first deadly encounters with the Covenant. We're told they'll be many different combatants in the game, including Grunts, Jackals and Hunters, with each group having its own strengths in battle and we're promised some intense large scale battles in which we'll have control over armies of units, including UNSC Marines, Scorpion Tanks, and even Warthogs.
The simplified control system, which can be seen in action on the first page of this preview, suggests that gamers won't need to be RTS veterans in order to pick up and play Halo Wars. The streamlined interface also suggests that Halo Wars isn't going to be a strategically deep as many of the popular real-time strategy games on PC and much of the micro-management that we see on that platform has been pushed aside in favour of fast-paced, action-packed gameplay, which Ensemble hope will appeal to the millions of Halo-loving fans.
Halo Wars looks fantastic and with developers getting better and better at designing RTS games on Xbox 360 it could well be the perfect blend of action and strategy. Whether the explosive gameplay and huge scale battles will translate well in the online arena remains to be seen as we've witnessed many games with far less going on on-screen being plagued with lag issues. Nevertheless, we can't wait to get our hands on it to find out.
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