by Patrick O Neill

Created on: December 19, 2009   Last Updated: December 21, 2009

I was a bit nervous buying this game, seeing as the studio that made it went bust right after they finished it, I thought it was going to be a disappointment ... I was wrong.

The graphics are rich and the battlefields are well designed, with great diversity in each. With so many unique locations, from Snow Covered Glaciers to Barren Wastelands, all of which are well detailed with Crashed Pelicans to Massive Bases, which can be tailored to the user’s preference, from building Barracks to train your marines to creating air pads to launch air units. These unique bases which operate and change drastically when damaged and ultimately destroyed, with fires and massive explosions.

The actual creating of your armies couldn’t be simpler, after collecting 'resources' and having the appropriate Buildings you can build and upgrade a vast array of Halo Vehicles and Infantry, from Cowardly Grunts, Giant Scarabs and Warthogs.

The campaign is Brilliant, hands down, with Hollywood inspired cinematics and a pretty decent storyline, Halo Wars delivers in the Campaign Department, and after you’ve finished you can try Legendary Difficulty which is guaranteed to keep you occupied for a while. The length is just right. It isn’t too short nor is it too long. It does not get boring, even if you play through it ten times or more. The enemy AI is intelligent and will react appropriately to the type of force that you use. They are strong when defending even the smaller areas can be a struggle to over power when playing on the higher difficulty settings.

Multiplayer and Skirmish however have their upsides and the downsides, firstly Skirmish is great when you just want to mess around and try out different strategies, but the big let down is A.I. Your AI team-mates have the tendencies to turn from Tactical Genius' into dumb idiots. They can sometimes spend the entire Session building their Base and Upgrading Units, but they actually don’t make any units, leaving them dumb-founded with no resources and no army.

The Multiplayer is challenging and fun but sometimes you can run into other players who seem to hide in corners for entire matches and then unleash an Uber-Massive army of Tanks, even though I would say this is un-sportsman like, but I am probably just old fashioned. This is an outstanding game that boasts intricate gameplay and hours of never ending fun. It is a must buy for any people big in to real time strategy games.

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