Wars chief

by ERIK LEIJON

If there’s one thing the gaming industry knows how to do (arguably to debilitating effect), it’s spinning off classic franchises. Mario and Sonic have been given more fictitious job titles than Barbie, and the well has yet to run dry, but it’s not uncommon to see iconic titles like Need for Speed and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater get run into the ground due to over-saturation. So one might understand the trepidation concerning Halo Wars (X360/Microsoft, Ensemble), which takes the iconic Halo story from first-person shooter to real-time strategy.

Instead of one-man army Master Chief demolishing horde after horde of Covenant aliens—such as in the previous three Halo games—Halo Wars involves big maps, dozens of troops and vehicles to direct, with highly strategic battles akin to a space opera Waterloo. As far as console-intended strategy games go, it’s not on par with 2008’s criminally overlooked turn-based Civilization Revolution. But as a good military sim experience can often do—I did find the hours start to melt awayas the quick paced missions began to blend together.

Since real-time strategy games were made with a PC keyboard and mouse in mind, the most intriguing aspect of Halo Wars is how the developers managed to make a conventional RTS specifically for a gaming controller. Obvious actions such as scrolling across the in-game map or moving troops can easily be replicated with the analog stick, but I liked how the entire army can be selected with one button, and holding the A button made for easy scrolling across multiple troops.

SPACE OPERA WATERLOO: Halo Wars

Halo Wars may be toned down in terms of how bases can be constructed and the type of military orders one can dish out, but never did the controls or the XBox 360 controller feel like limitations—which was a pleasant change after the endless frustration I encountered playing Street Fighter IV with the horrid 360 pad.

Similar to how Halo itself is less technical and more action-based compared to other shooters, Halo Wars removes a lot of the tedium and thinking aspects of complex, PC-based RTS’s. The fighting is usually immediate and constant, and the simple design of each home base makes creating armies and weapons effortless and fast. The missions tend to have clear goals and limited exploration, so there’s never any downtime as you progress through the narratively rich single-player campaign.

Wars also stays true to the instantly recognizable green-and-purple Halo colour palette, despite this game (in theory) being a prequel to the shooters. I’m still lauding Street Fighter IV for simplifying the fighting game to appeal to more demographics, and it’s obvious Ensemble Studios had a similar goal when developing Halo Wars. It’s nowhere near as deep a strategy game as some of the PC classics but, in terms of execution, should breathe new life into a genre that was beginning to grow stagnant.

No fly zone

Speaking of brand names growing stale, yet another Tom Clancy game, the flying sim H.A.W.X. (PS3, X360/Ubisoft, Ubisoft Romania) has arrived amid little fanfare. The GeoEye Earth imaging satellite IKONOS was used to map all the levels, so when playing, it creates the effect of looking like you’re flying over a 3D Google map below. That coupled with the colour-coded reticles makes for a nice looking game.

Sadly, H.A.W.X. plays no different than any flight sim from the past two decades—think StarFox with real-world fighter jets. Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six were two Tom Clancy titles that blended advanced technological gizmos and wizardry along with well-paced action. Compared to Sam Fisher though, flying a lumbering F-16 simply feels sluggish.