Halo Wars lets you build your own base, upgrade buildings, and amass a legion of soldiers, Warthogs, and Pelicans in order to crush the Covenant armada. But not only does Halo Wars work - it's one of the series' unsung classics. Developed by the studio that created PC strategy classics like Age of Empires, Ensemble Studios took Halo's myriad aliens, weapons, and vehicles and put them in a console-exclusive real-time strategy game - the video game equivalent of mixing oil and water. Perhaps more importantly, it's not remotely close to being a first-person shooter. For one, it's about the rank-and-file of the UNSC, with nary a Master Chief in sight. It's hard to believe Halo Wars is even part of Microsofts flagship series. Halo Wars 2 may continue to try and fill a gap in the market that probably doesn’t need plugged, but it still serves up a decent slice of strategy. The army-building antics of the new Blitz mode are also worthy of praise – recruiting enormous UNSC armies by building decks of cards is a really cute spin on the RTS formula. The story the Creative Assembly manages to spin is surprisingly decent too, and Blur Studio’s gorgeously rendered cinematics ooze big budget sleekness. New control groups make waging battles a more nuanced affair, and splitting your army into separate groups leads to multitasking alien murder on an epic scale.
The original is one of the few games in the genre that feels comfortable played on a controller, and this sequel subtly evolves the control scheme, giving you a streamlined strategy title that never feels like it needs a mouse and keyboard – though the PC version does support them. Do you really need another Halo real-time strategy game in your life? Probably not, right? Well, you’re getting one anyway, champ! In defence of Halo Wars 2, it continues to get one thing absolutely right: it’s an RTS that works really well on a pad.
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