Why Was Halo Wars 1 SO AWESOME?! And... BAD?!

what would you say if I told you the release of Halo Wars 1 was the exact moment that the Halo franchise had come full circle what if I told you that between 1998 and February 2009 a complete picture of the Halo series was captured we had the original the sequel the finale that capped off a trilogy an atmospheric spin-off and then the genre spin-off don't get me wrong I'm not saying Halo should have ended with Halo Wars I am glad the series continued to expand beyond the vision Bungie had ages ago all I want to point out is just how complete this timeline of games really is so it's about goddamn time I got the halo wars won don't you think act man you've reviewed every Halo game except this one and it's taken you years well shut your piehole cuz I'm about to check up the last Halo game no matter how knowledgeable or nerdy I think I might be when it comes to the adventures of my favorite ass kickin cyborg the fact that halo was dreamt up as a real-time strategy game and there's footage of it is something I always forget like what but how did this end up turning into this that's a story for another time but can you imagine what kind of place the world would be if they kept the original voice of Master Chief the drop zone is clear I repeat the drop zone is clear yeah combat Evolved went through some real [ __ ] and development which incidentally is a common trend within the Halo franchise and nowhere is this more true than with Halo Wars you could argue that reach was when the series really came full circle and well it basically was you couldn't ask for a more perfect way to send Bungie riding off into the sunset reach gave the fans a sense of closure that is rare to see in the games industry but the reason I'm focusing so much on this realtime strategy concept is because Bungie had always been so resourceful when it came to implementing their scrapped died is from one game into another like wildlife or the flamethrower and that's exactly what halo wars is a scrapped idea brought back to life or at least that's what it appeared to be on the outside the original concept of halo would finally get the chance it never did but how has this anomaly of a game aged over the course of ten years does the story really matter or add on to the big picture of the Halo universe what impact did halo wars have on this series overall if any and more importantly did Bungie find a way to make a console realtime strategy game viable well let's talk about this man to freak select all units and Mac blast our way straight into this it's not often my reviews that I take an extraordinarily long time to dive deep into the development of a game and pre-production phases but Halo Wars is one of those games where the development process was so completely [ __ ] it's a wonder that Bungie made a game out of this at all not because it was delayed for years and years or that there is some super shady stuff going on behind the scenes it's because the team working on it became the [ __ ] of Murphy's Law I can't stress the importance of understanding how Halo Wars was developed because it puts everything into perspective and establishes the context of its existence at this point in the video there's probably a decent portion of viewers who heard me say something factually incorrect maybe the majority of all you sweet especially sexy act fans haven't noticed anything wrong and think this is a dead stop in the pacing of the video and right now all you can think is I mean I'm glad I'm taking the time to alright alright but what I've conveniently forgotten to mention is that well Bungie didn't have [ __ ] to do with this game and in fact never approved its production if you already knew that give yourself a pat on the back but isn't that just bizarre we tend to associate everything up until reach with Bungie how could a game they didn't approve of be developed and released by a separate company while Bungie was still under their tenure in contract with Microsoft sit down my children the grandpa-man shall tell ye a tale back in 2001 aka the glory days of my youth an independent video game company known as in-sample studios was acquired by money soft having just released one of the greatest games and expansions of all time ensemble was red hot naturally Microsoft set them to work on exclusive games for the PC and the studio would continue to work on the Age of Empires series an Age of Mythology in 2004 still the glory days of my youth exhausted from ten years of creating the same genre of game the executives at ensemble greenlit three new games for development an ambitious MMORPG called Titan that would capitalize on the popularity of Warcraft a Diablo 2 clone called Nova and the team dove into uncharted territory with a prototype console realtime strategy game known as Project Phoenix and no matter how hard they tried for some reason or another the team would never finish a non RTS game and had to cancel several projects a year or so later 2005 they brought Phoenix to the heads of Microsoft and said hey look at our baby look at how pretty he is as this project viable you want to give us some money and the Microsoft executives said yeah this is cool at all but [ __ ] up and make it a Halo game would you and if you don't you're all getting laid off piece needless to say ensemble was not happy not only did they have to redo every asset for Project Phoenix and make it fit within the Halo art style setting and look they also had to meet with Bungie executives and employees in order to make sure they were faithful to the franchise during those meetings there was a lot of animosity the vast majority of bungees leadership was upset with halo wars and how another studio could get to touch their IP with the news of Microsoft commissioning another Halo game without bungees approval they saw it as whoring out the franchise and then Samba was not allowed to use Master Chief at all while Master Chief is special we decided to leave him in the first person shooter he's the character that ever did identifies with no they are Master Chief when they play Halo Plus they needed bungees approval for basically every of the story and lore we were allowed to have more Spartans alive and we were allowed to do some things that broaden the halo world we just collaborated with them on what the universe could contain what it should contain and what it can contain at the same time Bungie unwilling to share the secrets of the direction halo 3 would go in let the story of Halo Wars out to dry and that's why it has virtually no connection to the other games flash-forward to 2007 my days as a hooligan in middle-school ensemble reveals halo wars at e3 and it looked fantastic there is excitement all around but then the game released and all this was scrapped the bases are in fixed locations around the map to bring in that territorial control aspect that is in most strategy games and the developers were probably in the background feeling something along the lines of under the hood this was a demo that functioned shockingly similar to Halo 2 z3 presentation in 2003 and that they were both made exclusively for e3 and almost no trace of what was shown can be found in the final game so the game is obviously delayed it's taking a new direction the e3 demo isn't actually viable they aren't getting much help or love from Bungie and all this happening while they're just trying to make a damn video game later on halo 3 is released and Bungie unhappy with their working conditions under Microsoft pulls the plug but is still under contract to make one more game and finally in September of 2008 everyone showed up to work at ensemble studios to find a bunch of Microsoft executives waiting for them the company would close down after the completion of Halo Wars despite the shocking revelation that they would all be out of jobs in a few months only three people left the team of a hundred prior to halo wars is completion and that my children is the abbreviated tragic tale of how ensemble Studios developed Halo Wars 1 I felt like it was super important to understand how and why the game exists in the way it does most Halo fans probably felt the same way I did and that there was always something a little bit off with Halo Wars but had I not known the facts about it I would have just assumed Bungie was involved a lot more than they were it's not easy to replicate the old-school Bungie magic 343 I've only recently started to recapture that but against all odds and against Bungie themselves Ensemble stayed true and faithful to the design aesthetic and sounds of a Halo game ensemble went through the most excruciating process to develop this game nearly everything went wrong they wanted to make something other than an RTS their other two projects were cancelled and Microsoft forced them to make this one project Phoenix had a unique IP and universe that the creators poured love into they had to throw it all out and turn it into halo they wanted bungees blessing and help with this task they weren't entirely thrilled with themselves they received disdain tension and apathy from Bungie ensemble hoped they could complete halo wars survive and move on to the next big thing and then they were permanently shut down with everything we know now is it possible that ensemble was calling for help now that we understand the details of this catastrophic development cycle it begs the question as the real meaning behind the opening cutscene been revealed I'll let you decide captain's report February 4th 25 31 5 years 5 that's how long it took to develop a world wars at first it was going well then setback after setback loss after loss made what was going to be a quick and decisive win the five years of hell I've been a fan of this series since the beginning and every single game except the one had a reveal trailer that tickled my balls and made me giddy like a schoolgirl what's in the halo wars trailer for the first time I remember exactly how I felt it was vivid no not like that it was something like this damn those elites are squad none their ships and everything all flying around man this is crazy this isn't halo 4 is it nah Oh Oh oh [ __ ] how's that burr ballsy a brand new Halo game set years before Master Chief and they throw in some Spartans there as a young impressionable and hardcore fan of the series that's all I needed to see to hop on board halo wars is the type of game that appealed to people who were already fans but it probably wouldn't turn you into one if he weren't already I remember when Halo 3 came out I literally thought that was the end of halo I can't tell you how many times I rewatched this opening just to whet my appetite the visuals in this trailer stand up so well to this day even in 720p during the build-up to its release what captivated me the most about Halo Wars was the different perspective - sea scorpions banshees elephants Marines grunts ghosts and Bruce to see these huge battles and this universe brought to life from a top-down view the thought of it was just incredible and then Halo Wars was quietly released you bought the game and arrived at the main menu mmm that sound it's it's just pure magic and so the halo series has always made an impact wait a second do you guys hear something is that is that the damn halo theme in a game not made by Bungie looking back it's kind of a ridiculous thing to be impressed about honestly halo as a series has always made an impression with the first time you boot it up and arrive at the main menu and Wars is no different in the final game and the one behind the scenes video I managed to track down it's pretty evident that ensemble was hyper focused on staying true to the feeling of halo always our biggest concern was was making sure that we had the halo vibe down whoa don't sir perhaps the most iconic vehicle from the Halo games everyone knows what a warthog sounds like looks like it feels like drives like so getting that rights and angles is really important make it robust a strategy game which we know how to do but we also have to make something that feels very much like it's in the fiction of what Halo fans would expect no matter what you can say about this game they succeeded at that for how's the story x-men's Report June not [ __ ] story begins with old man cutter lamenting the battle on harvest and the efforts of the UNSC to retake the planet harvest being the first human colony attacked by the Covenant and the first one to be glassed so it's pretty important in the Halo timeline and once again we the audience are treated to some spectacular visuals courtesy of blur Studios of course they got the combat of all vehicle physics up in here the attention to detail I tell you aside from the original III reveal of combat Evolved which doesn't really count to be honest this is the first time we'd ever seen large-scale battles like this you know full-on cutscene you ever notice how frequently halo trailers or cutscenes and right as the action is about to happen sometimes in a fade to white or black well in a first-person shooter that helps a lot in immersing the player and allowing them to experience the combat but in a real-time strategy game where huge armies are involved it's helpful to show these giant battles because it sets the stage for the story and gameplay now I'm playing the definitive edition which probably looks a little bit better but goddamn I still get chills seeing all the iconic weapons and vehicles of the Halo universe in a cutscene like this some of the choreography is pretty questionable though what is this one of those Civil War firing lines why are these elites not even bothering to take cover they're all holding kneedler's but I ain't see no pink mist either so I had this guy die come to think of it who brought the arbiters mentally challenged cousin into battle what were they short on plasma rifles and just said [ __ ] run at them I guess little nitpicks but you know stuff that stands out to me so they basically nailed the intro to a [ __ ] tee but right off the bat I could tell something was very very wrong anyways our homeboy forges down on the surface of harvest leading the fight against the Covenant and they found something in the ice some kind of structure having only the faintest idea of what it could possibly be cutter remarks that complicates our mission howdy how do you know that this could be their base of operations and that would in fact make your mission easier because you know where they all are so after rounding up survivors retaking alpha base board scouts ahead and seize a relic that the Covenant wish to open there's an elite guy in charge and he's quite irritable for some reason the higher-ups Brewin patience we could delay no longer there's apparently a kind of rush to open the relic for the hierarchs but it's never stated or shown what the hurry is see halo wars suffers from generic predictable and slightly nonsensical dialogue I've talked about it before how any scene in a story should be doing at least two things whether it be progressing the plot establishing a theme or tone you know there's a million things you can do I mean anytime you have characters on screen we should be learning more about them they should be characterized like all we learned about the arbiter from in this scene and most of his scenes is that he's just an impatient [ __ ] I take what we have a human ship has arrived and is closing in on the entrance gotta love how they have this throwaway line hinting at the arbiters past only for it to never be mentioned again I do not wish to be impudent but you have charged me with the destruction of humanity a most noble cause but one with subjects from the past kind of summarizes my feelings on the story overall and we could add depth to this story but let's just save it all for the books or whatever speaking of which Ford should have had some other sergeant or marine with him scouting the area so the two could talk you know learn more about each other and the biggest failing of Halo Wars is how the characters interact with each other elects that punch that epicness that the original trilogy nailed so well it all just feels like another day at the office and aside from the dopest [ __ ] action cutscenes I just don't feel all that invested you know because this is a spin-off series set way before the fall of Rage pillar of autumn and the events of the original games there needed to be a middle ground struck between new / casual and hardcore fans you can't have this story to revolve around a bunch of unexplained crap because then the newbies won't know what's going on but you also can't spell out every tiny detail because then the hardcore fans already know that [ __ ] so what we have is a halo campaign that feels instantly familiar and plays it safe in every way plays it to save the prophet of regret even makes an appearance that was a nice bit of fanservice I also had robin atkin downes the original voice actor make a return so that kicks ass but oh god the years were not kind to him at all guess he decided to take up smoking huh despite having a seemingly well-rounded cast of heroes and villains more of an ensemble cast upon its kind of an ensemble cast none of the characters are provocative or especially relatable they're all pretty much stereotyped two versions of archetypes we've seen in halo before sassy blue AI sidekick strong and silent soldiers old grizzled war veteran captain of a huge ship badass cocky marine dude Hardcore alien and cool armor scrawny [ __ ] in a floating chair the only thing that's new is anders a nerdy but cute scientist girl I feel like it's a common pitfall of RTS games for the writers to devote so much of the dialogue to strategic talk we've got Grizzlies inbound from spirit of fire break through that line for our pelicans final evac from planet surface invent use cyclopses to repair the Power Core it's kind of like the focus was in the wrong place you know we should have been getting to know these characters their personal goals motivations weaknesses strengths I think the best way to illustrate that mediocre writing of this game is to take Captain cookie-cutter and comparing the captain Keys both of these characters function in a similar role but why is Captain Keys so much more interesting in cool you ask oh I'll show you why why aren't you in the medbay sergeant any sign of other covenant activity any idea what it is we've got down there what made you choose my observation deck as your lab professor parades let's move yes sir chief you have the point real pretty friend of yours now we just met hang on nice one time for a little payback I want everyone at their stations everyone sir everyone and port honor let's give our old friends of warm welcome prep for pod launches bring weapon systems online expecting trouble captain harvest may be ours again but I don't think the Covenant appreciate that yet it comes down to the writing the direction and delivery it's about the journey of the characters where they started and ended up getting back to the plot inside the temple the covenant find other human settlements regret once arbiter to blow the place up to destroy the evidence meanwhile cutter and crew mountain attack on the interior after clearing out the covenant forces Anders touches the thing and discovers a bunch of little glowy things yo Anders are you are you bored with the plot too cuz I think we should like like make out and [ __ ] nope [ __ ] ambushed yeah get some dude alien Phil we rescue Forge and reconvene on the spirit of fire so after literally 30 seconds of observing glowing dots in a giant room Anders somehow finds out about a planet called Arcadia all it did was point here yes a second star system based on nothing more than the hunch for scientist with apparently no military experience cutter is easily convinced to pull his Phoenix class colony ship away from harvest does that sound dumb to anyone else didn't you guys spend five years trying to retake harvest and now you're just gonna gonna abandon it I mean it sounded dumb to cutter our orders are to investigate harvest we still don't know a lot about what's going on down there now even if the spirit of fire knew the covenant were going to Arkadia the writers simply didn't do a good enough job of clarifying what Anders found in the temple and why convinces her that the Covenant are heading to Arcadia very well professor I'll clear it with Admiral Cole hey is he talking about like cult protocol I'm initiating cult protocol or the co2 we're abandoning the other isn't it funny how they put in those little Easter egg type details but couldn't manage the more basic fundamentals they arrived at Arcadia where other UNSC ships are engaging the Covenant one of them familiar and they get a transmission pleading for help now it's time to see what's going on down there oh god it's awful it's horrible sweet Mother of mercy alright now we're going down on the planet they got Spartans down their Forge links up with the Spartans they rescue the civilians escape the city there's a giant bubble shield that appears the UNSC pierces through it some other stuff happens blah blah blah construct giant flee great journey Anders gets captured and the team follows her signal 200 the flood weren't really treated right in this game at all fast-forward through a bunch of crap and cutter in the game concoct a scheme to destroy the star Forge the dormant 4runner fleet and the hollow planet itself the overloaded FTL reactor will cause a chain reaction in the Sun enough to destroy all the ships here before the Covenant could get a chance to make anything from them we know it works but not before an intense badass showdown between Forge and arbiter it's a fight unlike any we've ever seen the choreography is fantastic red team engages a bunch of honor guards and he's beaten the [ __ ] out of them and well that was a pretty lame way to die with the reactor being damaged the detonation sequence must be activated manually but Forge knows they all make it sooner or later forged volunteers and sends red team back to the spirit of fire after finagling their way around the planet cutters Anders and Red Team escaped with their lives and go into cryo sleep let me put it this way I like the ideas that Halo Wars has just not so much their execution and it was fun exploring these unique planets and settings that we've never seen before in a Halo universe but overall as a hardcore halo and RTS fan the story may have dazzling cutscenes and fun moments but it lacks the depth I was hoping it would have when it comes to the mission designing the campaign it's pretty great the variety of levels is appetizing in one you might need to rescue some teammates before a certain amount of time expires in another level you can burn flood off the exterior of a ship each objective is unique and requires you to switch your tactics up if you want to succeed traversing the map revealing the fog of war and uncovering what lies beyond is thrilling the later missions gradually open up the sandbox and give you more upgrades units buildings and special abilities it all looks pretty good in the beginning you're having a fun time and then mission 4 comes around and difficulty spikes central it's you like a [ __ ] flipped elephant the transport ships have now Oldroyd we need to reflect you cutter out of the legendary halo campaigns Arcadia City is the hardest mission I've ever played on heroic it's hard barely manageable but legendary you have to be perfect the game will eat you alive difficulties should ideally feel progressive like the challenge is getting harder and harder the further and you get but Halo Wars suffers from that artificial difficulty spike the mission after Arcadia outskirts is a cakewalk compared to this city but then DOMA life shows up and again you get [ __ ] in the ass look at this I literally couldn't push out of my base for 25 minutes or so I was just doing the same thing [ __ ] stuck building troops and turrets only for them to be destroyed barely have enough resources to get new ones good then there's a part where you have two back-to-back missions where the setting doesn't change at all it's like kind of lazy and filler and up to this point in time the only way to heal your units is by using a special ability that costs resources but then you get the cyclops unit and you're like oh [ __ ] yes now I have a unit that can repair things but nope this is the only mission you get them in again I'm kind of complaining a lot but it's only because I'm a stickler for RTS games and a stickler for Halo so I'm doubly critical and don't get me wrong halo wars is a blast hell of fun despite any and all issues I have with the mission design so the challenge on heroic is fairly well tuned legendary is akin to halo 2 so if we hate yourself play that each level has some kind of unique gimmick or KD outskirt starts with a hectic retreat followed by bunkering down and defending before pushing forward to retake ground in the seventh mission you're walled in and have a limited amount of time before scarabs death beam homes in on you by destroying these generators you can make the Scarab track you slower and it becomes easier to assault the mech a lot of creativity went into crafting these missions and from a design standpoint I can respect that but if you just want to chill out and watch things explode Halo Wars is pretty great for that too now it always disappointed me how you didn't get to play as the Covenant or the flood in the campaign the flood are an interesting faction they fight everyone just like they do in the games use horde tactics they can take over your infantry and their buildings regenerate over time they likely didn't have nearly enough time to flesh out the flood to be a full-fledged faction regardless ensemble was able to integrate the forerunners flood covenant and humans into this game in a way that feels natural the Sentinels fly around the maps patrolling and cleansing the flood while the flood are set up in various locations to inconvenience everyone else you get all these huge battles between multiple factions and it's reminiscent of combat Evolved what I really love is how they made the skulls more accessible you get one chance per mission complete it go to the place located on your map and collect your prize simple easy fun the black boxes function as the old skulls used to in hidden locations throughout the level these unlock achievements and little bits of story you can find in the timeline section in the game which details all the important events that occurred up to this point and beyond when we started here the wars I think it took us a while to get into the mindset of less is more the simple controls and simple gameplay is actually just what people wanted was what's more fun anyway so we always pull back towards that overall Halo Wars simplifies the mechanics we see in most RTS games because it would have been a disaster if there was tons of micromanagement involved it's easy to select units but controlling and setting groups of units wasn't introduced until the sequel control is always such an underappreciated part of game design and that's what halo wars really excels at you get to control Spartans groups of Marines banshees scorpions you can control everything from a lowly group of grunts - the mighty scarab this game lets you take the reins and command everything vehicles and units we had never seen in halo before they did have unique elements with the way you could control the camera spinning it around rotating zooming in and out it gave you a great view of the battlefield and lets you change it on a dime to accommodate your needs with its simplistic yet slightly flawed control scheme and Samba proved it was possible to make it RTS work with a controller and two hands they were able to overcome the obstacles most people thought they'd get stuck on but the story of halo wars might lack it more than makes up for in gameplay if you're willing to tackle an occasionally unfair challenge the transport ships have been destroyed on the real halo wars blows the sequel out of the water when it comes to map design into the maps have like generators guided by three sentinels infantry Garrison's that's about it but in the OG we had all sorts of Garrison's sniper towers bunkers destroyed warthogs there were bonus Supply pads or reactors spread throughout that you could capture vision points certain towers controlled shield doors opening and closing flanking routes these little gimmicks add an important layer of depth to the game and reward players for positioning and map knowledge I mean these locations just feel way more alive interesting they feel like real places in the Halo universe for example on one area you might be able to unleash some flood AI enemies to attack your opponents and in another map you could hire Sentinel mercenaries that you can attach on to your units it keeps a strategy game fresh when your strategy changes depending on where you play this is where you can finally play as the Covenant which play vastly different than the humans they get overpowered heroes that you can upgrade that have special abilities their units are weaker overall but cheaper and the Covenant have a bigger population guess you could say they reproduce a little too much yeah truly I appreciate the way they made both factions play differently through their mechanics as well as their strategies in addition every single unit can be upgraded which gives each vehicle aircraft and infantry some way to compete against the others although in real multiplayer matches it typically devolves into players mashing and upgrading one type of unit which gets real boring of course you got that rock-paper-scissors design principle where each type of unit is countered by another and then you have units that specialize in certain roles I love the locusts and the way they demolish buildings or the Spartans who can hijack any vehicle and instantly power it up and then you got [ __ ] arbiter with dual energy swords who can jump to the goddamn moon and back there's a lot of sandbox tools to play around with plenty of maps to wage war across and enough game modes keep players satisfied even if you're not an expert Pro it's entertaining as hell did just why your units fight each other though it doesn't offer the same death as other RTS games Halo Wars multiplayer can still stand on its own two feet and makes for an entertaining foray into a different side of the Halo universe when it comes to Halo Wars one I think it's one of the more flawed experiences in this franchise and how could it not be was such a rough disaster ridden development not to mention bungees near complete lack of involvement which really left ensemble studios hanging out to dry like a used tampon story-wise it's about as average as it gets humans got to stop the Covenant from doing the thing hooray we did it what now we put the series in cryo freeze and wait eight years for the sequel cool aside from some spectacular and very timeless cutscenes Halo Wars didn't do much to add on to the overarching story either sure we got to see Spartans in greater numbers which was [ __ ] cool not gonna lie and more or less made it easier to segue into Reach but at the end of the day it all feels inconsequential and for the record I would have kicked your ass the first time if the lady had to stop me and that's not the worst thing in the world better to have a mediocre story than one that [ __ ] everything up on the multiplayer and gameplay side of things it is rough for an RTS the maps are fantastic dynamic yet the amount of content and versatility left a lot to be desired the low population count was especially disappointing for a strategy game though that was probably due to the hardware of the Xbox 360 the control scheme and sambal came up with is as good as setup as I could possibly imagine and with Marty O'Donnell helping ensemble to make the soundtrack as halo II as possible and with the team's undying resolve Halo Wars still feels and sounds like halo and it's the most important thing ensemble needed to do with this game what it boils down to is halo wars is a welcome addition to this series that served as a way to explore new frontiers and genres it got a sequel in some more DLC which will hopefully pan out well in the future it brought a change of perspective and served as an introduction to the RTS genre for many console gamers though many elements could have been improved it's a wonder the game turned out this way at all and that is why halo wars 1 was so awesome and bad you

Channel: The Act Man

Views: 1,032,055

Rating: 4.9248176 out of 5

Keywords: Halo Wars, Halo Wars 1 review, act man, the act man, ensemble studios, halo infinite, Halo Wars 2, 343i industries, Halo, Halo Wars cutscenes, halo wars 1 gameplay, real time strategy games, console rts games, halo wars 1 trailer, halo infinite reveal, halo infinite trailer, master chief, halo wars 2 review, halo wars 2 gameplay, halo mcc, halo 5, master chief collection pc, halo 5 multiplayer gameplay, halo ce anniversary, halo wars 1 development

Id: j7vQHu9-eBY

Length: 37min 19sec (2239 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 12 2019