Halo Wars (Xbox 360)

Graphics

Halo Wars has a lot of low polygon models and designs, the camera can be configured to several default zoom levels and the game looks nice enough. The environments are great and the actual level design is particularly in theme, it feels like the Halo-verse. Lighting and visual effects are up to par and there's only a tiny bit of slow down when things get really intense, not enough to actually mar the Gameplay experience at all.

Animations

Halo Wars animations truly shine, the bases look fantastic and have a lot of moving parts. When a new building rises up out of the depths below it does so in a pretty spectacular manner. The combat units are superbly done and watching a Spartan jack an enemy vehicle is just one reason to zoom the camera in as close as you can. The animations are a true highlight of the game.

Physics

A decent enough physics engine powers this title, things explode and react like they do in Halo. The Warthogs leaping around is a particularly heart-warming sight to see.

AI

The AI is a mixed bag, the pathfinding can go from being good to totally boneheaded and if you have a massive army, don't send them through a small gap since a lot of the units get blocked by bigger vehicles and none of them seem to have a clue how to move out of the way of the others. Enemy AI varies and is up to scratch enough to provide a challenge.

Sound

Many of the sounds are taken directly from Halo, can't grumble there and they are used to good effect. So Halo Wars gets top marks on sound design.

Music

Stephen Rippy has done a marvellous job on the music, it's epic, it sweeps nicely and compliments the action and events perfectly.

Voice and Dialogue

A mixed bag, the voice acting is good for the most part and there's a fairly decent script. There are some stilted moments in the delivery and that's partly where the script and voice direction falls down, a few more takes and it would have probably been better. I can't grumble though, it tells a cohesive enough story.

Multiplayer

It has a 2 player online cooperative element, there's a bunch of versus modes that you can play as either the Human or Covenant forces and you can have a mix of Human or AI players with 3v3 on the maps. It rounds out the single player portion of the game nicely and adds replay value to the whole package.

The Flood

It's a shame that the Flood were responsible for the destruction of the UNSC Ensemble, the studio had a lot of great games under its belt and they did the unthinkable, they managed to make a truly playable if somewhat shallow rts on a console. There are rumours that certain members of the Ensemble crew survived and are working on supporting the game however, so perhaps all isn't lost.