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Introduction
There aren’t too many decent RTS games on this current crop of consoles, so it was no surprise that Halo Wars was destined to make a big splash – especially with the famous franchise name in the title. Set before the original trilogy, the game has you in command, in single player or cooperative, of human forces fighting against the alien Convenant and the parasitic Flood.

Capturing the Halo world shouldn’t have been too difficult a task given that there are three games already to market, however, it’s still a compliment to the developers that the game comes across as an authentic Halo experience despite you having control far above the battlefield.

Gameplay
Naturally, resource management comes into play, and you’ll have various elements to interact with in order to develop, boost and ultimately control a map-winning force. Units that you’d expect to see are taken directly from the franchise such as Warthogs, Banshees, Spartans and Elites. This is sure to please any fan.

Controls
Of all games, you could argue that the consoles are least suited to providing a simplistic interface for the RTS genre. However, Halo Wars does very well in making things simple to control and intuitive, without having to boil the game down for the lowest common denominator – the casual gamer.

Overall
Halo Wars delivers a good, if not great RTS game that offers something different for the franchise. Some may be disappointed at the lack of intricacy but on the whole the gameplay comes fun and fast. Upgradable weapons and decent cut scenes are the icing on the cake and fans and newbies alike will get enjoyment from this title.

8/10
Available: Now
Price: $60