Halo Wars Demo: It was cold and it rained so I felt like an actor and I thought of more and I wanted to get back there

Due out Feb. 20th by Ensemble Studios, aka Microsoft, Halo Wars is another RTS, this time only out for the 360 console (and no they refuse for some reason to release it to the PC for now at least). After sitting down to test out what a few others have been looking forward to playing, this demo helped me back to the path of another memory that I had stored by means of the dewey decimal system when I should of had it on speed dial. That time-tested and true memory is the problem with listening to people that are in love with a franchise. Those star crossed lovers tend to magnetize themselves into hearting things and hopefully an ice pack slaps them in the face to show them what their attraction will bring, good or bad, before it's too late. Works for sex appeal, that new car smell in a pontiac aztek, and in this case a video game.

So it's a little harsh to say those things first, but everyone needs a good old fashioned open palm thwack to get their head aligned before jumping around for joy with that newly purchased bag of magic beans. Halo Wars does some stuff well considering that Ensemble has fallen into the same old "console RTS" bear trap. To beat the old drum of RTS knowledge, the best RTS games require close to, if not an entire keyboard for all the quick functions needed to play well. Tom Clancy's Endwar bypassed this idea by adding in voice commands but Halo Wars is all done entirely with the controller. This causes a removal of the nice complexities that an RTS can carry and you are left with a simplified version of what could of been something challenging.

On the flip side the game is very easy to figure out and play. Almost any fan of the HALO games can pick this up and learn it in under 30 minutes. That also includes the stereotype that most HALO fans barely know what the restrictions on their learners permit are. Graphically it is a quality game especially for an RTS on a console. The graphics match the other HALO games as does the music and sound effects. Units are very similar to their predecessor games with new units necessary for the balance found in RTSs. All of these things will make any HALO fan giggle with glee. Gameplay and strategies are easily figured out as units have a basic strong vs/weak vs setup along with the ability to upgrade units. One main difference from most other RTS games is no resource gathering is required and instead a building at your bases can be created that houses a constant stream of incoming supplies at a given rate. Pushing the limits of a console on the graphical limitations, I found that having a large army of units all involved in battle at the same time did not show the typical graphical lag PC RTS games sometimes suffer from.

The biggest thing that one will notice after starting to play this game is hopefully a glimmer of a reminder stored in the long term attic of the brain. Admittedly if you live in Korea, this might actually be a short term memory, but for most of the world it now lands in the dusty old cardboard box sections. To truly understand you also have to look a bit into the future as well and connect the old with the new. There has been an empty space created with the distance between the release of Starcraft 1 and the eventual release of its sequel. This has made most RTS fans turn to other choices such as Total War, the AOE series, Warhammer 40k, Company of Heroes, etc. These other games are all agruably great if not better RTSers with their similarities and differences to the beast of a benchmark called Starcraft.

And herein, after about five minutes of playtime, is where a couple solid flashbacks should and will take place. Halo Wars is, well, pretty direct in its choices for game style. You have the 'humans' (terrans) vs 'covenant' (protoss) and are missing the 'vs the flood' (zerg) as far as anyone knows for now (unless in the single player campaign you band together to take down the flood and I think I've heard that storyline a couple times before). Ideally, if you worked for a game company, you would want to make an attempt at separating yourself from Starcraft even though it is a highly sought after franchise and small aspects and similarities will naturally be stolen. This game, on the other hand, did not feel like any many attempts were made at separation besides utilizing the HALO universe. It almost seems that those over at Emsemble loved playing Starcraft so much they decided to fill this soul searching time without Starcraft 2 by deploying their "HALO modded edition of Starcraft ".

The looks of some of the units and their abilities were too similar for me to think of anything other than the Starcraft series. Flamethrower marines, now where have I seen that before especially considering I don't remember that at all in HALO? Some of the upgrades for the units even seemed a little too similar for my tastes. Granted both games are supposed to be set in a distant future sci-fi universe, but Warhammer 40k didn't remind me of Starcraft as much as this game does. Maybe it's just me and my wild urge for Starcraft 2. I guess the strong comparison to the Blizzard game is because I did not see anything within the demo that seemed like a new idea or creative piece of gameplay or anything else to really set this game apart. I honestly feel that this game will not even stand the test of time and will be forgotten about after about a year of its release unless the need for another reference presents itself.

Regardless, a line in the sand will have to be drawn whether you can pick up this game and ignore similarities to Starcraft. This could be done for those who are big into FPSers and want to branch off into a known game universe. Maybe someone who does not want a game to be so complex that you are bogged down with a ton of commands and options? Or maybe if you are too young to have ever picked up Starcraft? Maybe being a big fan of the HALO universe would help block out the scars of an old bad Battlenet rank?

The next line in the sand would have to be whether you can actually stand, like most other failures before it, playing a RTS on a console. I found it very annoying trying to do unit selections since most of the success of minor and major battles is based on micromanagement of units playing off their strengths. I also found that due to the difficulties of managing specific units, and the limitations of what you can actually do with just a controller in your hands, this game becomes a game of choosing what units to create and upgrade more than how to use the units that you have created.

As you can see, Halo Wars may teach you that what you may be strongly attracted to at first, may eventually lead you into an internal struggle to torment yourself by attempting to look like you are not tormented.

One other thing to note is that the release of Warhammer 40k Dawn of War II is due out on 2/19 for the PC only and Halo Wars is due out 3/3 for the console only. If I was really itching for a RTS right this minute I would probably go with the former since both will be the same price. If I was looking to try out RTS games for the first time I would go with the latter. And if I was really wanting to not get my panties in a bunch for needing a RTS so quickly, I would probably hold off for the release of Starcraft 2 sometime this year, probably near the November time frame. By then it will be like Blizzard saying revenge is a dish best served with laughter and giggles. Or if you want another RTS that's not a sci-fi oriented one, Empire Total War is due out on 3/3.

Five Years - David Bowie