In Focus: Halo Wars

Back in late 2006, Microsoft announced that video game developers Ensemble Studios and Bungie Studios were collaborating to make a real-time strategy game based on the wildly successful Halo science fiction franchise, entitled Halo Wars. This announcement was interesting for several reasons back then, and continues to be for several more. As it turned out, Bungie, the developers of the first three games in the franchise--Halo: Combat Evolved (PC/Xbox: 2001), Halo 2 (PC/Xbox: 2004), and Halo 3 (Xbox 360: 2007)--would be taking on only a small advisory role to Ensemble's main development; it was the first time (and likely not the last) that the original developers gave the task of creating a video game based in the universe that made them famous to someone else. Soon after Halo 3 shipped, Bungie broke off from Microsoft, becoming an independent company once again (more on that later.) Bungie doesn't control the Halo intellectual property, however--which means that Microsoft can continue making Halo games without Bungie. Halo Wars is the first to be released, but is likely not the last (there is at least one other, Halo: Chronicles, currently in development.)

Secondly, Halo Wars is essentially the fulfillment of a destiny long deferred. In the late 1990s, Bungie was an independent game developer working for the PC and Mac platforms, famous for the first person shooter (FPS) series Marathon.Halo was to be a real-time strategy game leading a push by Apple Computer to make the Macintosh a gaming platform. As it turned out, the game became an FPS and Bungie was bought by Microsoft to cultivate the new IP for an exclusive Xbox launch. The rest, as they say, is history. Despite a rushed production timeline and a disastrous trade show preview, Halo: Combat Evolved legitimized the Xbox as a video game console, made lots of money, sold millions of copies, and spawned a franchise that includes its even more hyped and commercially successful sequel, five bestselling novels, toys, action figures, tabletop games, and critically acclaimed soundtracks among various other merchandise. The game was later ported to Mac and PC, but fans never got to see the Halo universe in a big way like was promised back in its RTS days. In many ways, Halo Wars is Halo returning to its roots.

Not only is Halo Wars the chance to show that the franchise still has legs after the incredibly hyped launch of Halo 3, but it's the swan song of developer Ensemble Studios. Ensemble is best known for another RTS series, that of the historical-themed Age of Empires. The series was always successful, sure, but never a megahit like the RTS StarCraft; in many ways, the genre is a much more niche market. Still, it came as a shock to many that Microsoft announced in September 2008 that Ensemble was closing down for good after the release of Halo Wars. As a longtime RTS fan, one would want to see Ensemble go out with a bang.

Finally, Halo Wars is a test of an entire genre. RTS games have long been the sole (successful) domain of personal computers. Console controllers cannot simply match the precise sophistication of a computer mouse. The control scheme's limitations has always been reinforced by the fact that essentially all console RTS are just ports of their PC brethren. But according to all sources, Halo Wars is an Xbox 360 exclusive, and has been in fact built from the ground up to address the complaints players have had with console RTSs before it.

In Halo Wars, common RTS elements have been reimagined or stripped down. Players much juggle resource management and troop production, but base building is focused on specific plots of land, with streamlined controls designed to enable quick selection and grouping of units for battle. Most of the game's key functions have been aggregated into a "circle menu" function, listing upgrades for a selected unit or building or else the available units to train. There are only two factions, the human UNSC and alien Covenant, with dramatically different units and play styles. In previews, publications have noted that Halo Wars has successfully distilled the genre into its most base elements, and have captured the spirit of the Halo universe.

These relatively positive reviews don't mean that the game is a guaranteed hit, however. Some reviewers have noted that in stripping down the RTS experience, Halo Wars might be too simple to play. That sort of sentiment means that in trying to draw the stereotypically trigger-happy FPS fans to Halo Wars in a genre crossover, the developers may have alienated the "hard core" RTS fans who demand complexity. The multiplayer might be buggy or fail, or else the campaign might lack the strong story found in previous books and games. Will gamers take to the radically different control scheme? Only time will tell.

Halo Wars lands in Europe and Japan late February; North America will see the game on March 3, 3009. As an added incentive those who buy the limited edition of the game receive unlockable in-game items and a map pack for Halo 3. Cynics have said that just because the game is branded "Halo", Wars is sure to be a hit, but I'm not sure. What is likely is that the success or failure of the game will decide not only the Halo franchise's future away from Bungie, but the state of console gaming as well.