The Halo was an assault ship captained by Bounty hunter Sugi and her group of mercenaries during the Clone Wars. The group used it on their various missions, including the defense of a Felucian farming community from a pirate gang led by Hondo Ohnaka. Complement The Halo was outfitted with six.
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Halo Wars | Table of Contents | Walkthrough
Table of Contents
Halo Wars | |
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Developer(s) | Ensemble Studios |
Publisher(s) | |
Release date(s) |
February 26, 2009 March 3, 2009
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Genre(s) | RTS |
System(s) | Xbox 360, Xbox One, Windows |
Modes | Single player, Multiplayer, Co-op |
Rating(s) | CERO: Ages 12 and up OFLC: Parental Guidance |
Followed by | Halo Wars 2 |
Series | Halo |
PCGamingWiki | |
Neoseeker Related Pages | |
Twitch | Halo Wars Channel |
Search | |
Search |
Halo Wars is a real-time strategy game for the Xbox 360 video game console. It was the last project to be developed by Ensemble Studios. The game is set in the Halo universe, 20 years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved.
The game was officially unveiled on September 27, 2006 at Microsoft's X06 Xbox show. Acknowledging that previous console real-time strategy games often fell short, Ensemble built Halo Wars specifically for the Xbox 360's limited controller. The game was an attempt to bring together Halo fans and experienced players of strategy games. While Ensemble was dissolved prior to the title's release, a company formed by many of Ensemble's former employees, Robot Entertainment, continued to support the game with updates and downloadable content.
On release, Halo Wars was met with generally positive reviews from gaming critics. Critics lauded the game's attention to the Halo universe along with the intuitive control scheme. Several critics also noted that seasoned real-time strategy players may not find the strategic elements as deep and that there were no options to play as the Covenant or Flood in the game's campaign mode. The game sold one million units worldwide by mid-March 2009, making it the best-selling console real-time strategy game to date.
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Halo Wars takes place in the 26th century in the Halo universe. In 2525, humanity was attacked by a collective of alien races known as the Covenant. The Covenant declared humanity an affront to its gods, the Forerunners, and has aggressively waged war against the humans since. The game takes place in the year 2531, roughly 20 years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo Wars opens on the human colony world of Harvest, six years after the planet was invaded by the Covenant; United Nations Space Command forces are still engaged in bitter conflict with the Covenant on the ground, and the UNSC ship Spirit of Fire is sent to investigate why the Covenant is still interested in the planet.
Table of Contents
editHalo series
Halo: Combat Evolved ·2 ·3 (ODST) ·4 ·5: Guardians ·Halo Infinite
Spin-off:Halo Wars ·Halo Wars 2 ·Halo: Reach
Compilation:Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Retrieved from 'https://strategywiki.org/w/index.php?title=Halo_Wars&oldid=789121'
.Halo Wars is a (RTS) video game developed by and published by for the. It was released in Australia on February 26, 2009; in Europe on February 27; and in North America on March 3. The game is set in the science fiction universe of the in the year 2531, 21 years before the events of. The player leads human soldiers aboard the warship Spirit of Fire in an effort to stop an ancient fleet of ships from falling into the hands of the genocidal alien.Halo Wars was unveiled at the Xbox show in 2006. Ensemble designed the game specifically for the Xbox 360 controller, in an attempt to circumvent issues present in previous console RTS'.
Ensemble was closed by Microsoft before the game's release, but soon after was founded by many of Ensemble's former employees; this new company continued to support Halo Wars with updates and.Halo Wars received generally positive reviews. Reviewers lauded the game's pre-rendered cinematics, attention to detail in replicating the Halo universe, and intuitive control scheme. Complaints against the game included the lack of an option to play as the Covenant faction in campaign mode as well as the lack of strategic options during play.
Critics from and wrote that experienced RTS players would find the strategic elements of the title shallow. The game sold one million units worldwide through March 2009, making it the best-selling console real-time strategy game to date. An enhanced version of the game— Halo Wars: Definitive Edition—was released for and in December 2016., a sequel developed by and was released in February 2017. In Halo Wars, special units known as Leaders can turn the tide of battle. Here, the Prophet of Regret, a Covenant Leader, calls down a 'Cleansing' ability from an orbiting ship to decimate enemy human forces.Halo Wars is a (RTS) video game developed exclusively for the console, in which players command armies from a of the battlefield. The game focuses on military combat, but contains streamlined resource management and base construction elements.
It was designed with the in mind; for example, the A button is used for selecting units. A single tap of the button selects one unit, while a double tap selects all units of the same type. The navigates to current battles and cycles through bases, while the right adjusts the camera angle. A radial is used for base construction.Halo Wars features a story-based, military campaign that can be played alone or over the service. A plotless option, called 'skirmish mode', lets players compete against human or computer-controlled opponents. The game features two factions the players can control: the human (UNSC) as Captain Cutter, Sergeant Forge, or Professor Anders, and the alien as the Prophet Of Regret, the Arbiter, or Brute Chieftain.
Each faction has different units, strengths, and special abilities. There are three selectable 'Leaders' for each side; the chosen leader allows the use of specific units and upgrades during play.
While Covenant Leaders appear on the battlefield as units, human leaders do not.Combat in Halo Wars is by a ' system. In general, ground vehicles are effective in combat against infantry, infantry are effective against aircraft, and aircraft are effective against vehicles. Most units have a unique special ability; for example, human Marines throw grenades, while the 'Warthog' vehicle can run over enemies. Humans have access to their ship, the Spirit of Fire, and its special abilities, such as a powerful called a M.A.C. (Magnetic Accelerator Cannon). Covenant units are generally weaker than their UNSC counterparts, but can use inexpensive and powerful defensive shield generators to add protection to their bases. Players establish their armies by building and expanding bases; these are used to train units and to allocate resources to the research of upgrades and technologies.
There are a limited number of potential locations for bases on each scenario or map, making base fortification and defense a priority. A player is defeated if all his or her bases are destroyed, unless a new base is quickly established. The army of a player must also be destroyed to be defeated.Units are trained, buildings upgraded, and special abilities activated using resources known as 'supplies'. Players can find supplies on the battlefield, or generate them by building supply structures at bases. Greater numbers of these buildings produce more supplies.
Some structures and upgrades become available only after the player achieves a certain 'tech level'. The UNSC can achieve multiple tech levels through the construction of reactors, with some actions requiring up to level four; the Covenant builds a single temple that allows three upgrades of tech level. The Covenant has one fewer tech level, and each upgrade is more expensive. Destruction of a temple results in the loss of all tech until the temple is rebuilt.
Each base has a limited amount of space, so players must balance their resource buildings with other facilities, such as those used to create military units. The number of units a player can deploy is limited, but certain upgrades ease this limit. Plot Setting Halo Wars takes place in the universe of the Halo series, during the 26th century. In 2525, a collective of alien races known as the attacked humanity, declaring humans an affront to their gods, the.
The game takes place in 2531, roughly 20 years before the events of. Six years after the Covenant invaded the colony of Harvest, human forces are still locked in battle on the planet.Characters The commander of the UNSC warship Spirit of Fire is Captain James Cutter , a strong leader who has earned the admiration of his subordinates. Cutter's lack of political ambition prevents him from climbing the ranks further. Serving under Cutter is Sergeant John Forge , a gruff Marine whose devotion to men has caused him to be jailed twice for disobeying orders and engaging in disorderly conduct. Joining the Spirit of Fire 's military expedition is Professor Ellen Anders , a scientist interested in ancient ruins of the mysterious Forerunners. The Spirit of Fire is operated with help from Serina , a super-intelligent (AI) with a sardonic sense of humor; it has been noted that she demonstrates a level of contempt for the humans she assists. Leading the Covenant search for Forerunner technology is a holy warrior known as the , who the Covenant leaders, the, have tasked with the oversight of humanity's destruction.
Story The Spirit of Fire is sent to the ruined planet Harvest to investigate Covenant activity, where Cutter learns that the Covenant has excavated something at the planet's northern pole. When the UNSC's main outpost on Harvest is captured, Cutter orders Forge to retake it.
Soon after, Forge scouts the Covenant excavation and discovers that they, under the direction of the Arbiter, have discovered a Forerunner facility. Forge's troops defeat the Covenant forces before they can destroy the installation, and Anders arrives. She determines that the facility is an interstellar map, and recognizes a set of coordinates that points to the human colony of Arcadia.After repelling a Covenant counterattack on the Forerunner facility, the Spirit of Fire travels to Arcadia, where the Covenant has begun raiding local cities and slaughtering civilians. Forge contacts the local special forces and assists with the evacuation process.
The Covenant builds a giant energy shield to hide the construction of a gigantic Scarab super-weapon and their search of Forerunner ruins in the area, but the UNSC forces use experimental equipment to break through. The Scarab is destroyed, but the Arbiter kidnaps Anders and escapes the planet.Forge and the Spartans return to the Spirit of Fire and the crew follows Anders' signal to an uncharted planet in another star system. The planet's surface is infested by the parasitic, who attack and assimilate any sentient life they encounter. The Spirit of Fire inadvertently activates a Forerunner docking station and enters the planet's interior. Flood board the ship, and very soon Forerunner Sentinels appear to cleanse the Flood threat and also to destroy all UNSC forces in the process.
The crew discovers the planet is actually hollow, with a habitable interior and a miniature sun. The Covenant's plan is to activate a dormant fleet of highly advanced Forerunner starships inside the planet, and use them to obliterate humanity.While the Forerunner ships are being activated, Anders escapes through a teleportation device and is rescued. Cutter decides to destroy the Forerunner fleet rather than allow the Covenant to use it. Anders formulates a plan to detonate the ship's faster-than-light drive in the planet's sun, as the explosion would cause a. Before they can prepare the reactor, Forge and the Spartans are ambushed by the Arbiter and his Elites.
The Spartans dispatch the aliens and Forge kills the Arbiter. The reactor is damaged during the fight, necessitating a manual detonation. Forge volunteers for the suicidal task, telling the Spartans that they will be needed in the coming fight. The Spirit of Fire escapes just as Forge overloads the reactor, destroying the Forerunner fleet. Without its faster-than-light drive, the Spirit of Fire is left drifting in space.
The crew enters for long-term storage as Cutter takes a last look at Forge's empty cryonic tube. If the game is completed on the 'Legendary' difficulty mode, Serina wakes Cutter and tells him that 'something has happened'. Development Design Computer game developer conceived as a real-time strategy game in which players would tactically control units and vehicles in a three-dimensional environment. Microsoft acquired Bungie in 2000, and the game became a and ' for the console. Bungie produced two best-selling sequels, in 2004 and in 2007, before separating from Microsoft and becoming an independent company once more. Although Bungie is free to produce new intellectual property, the rights to Halo remain with Microsoft.
Shane Kim, the head of, said during the split announcement that 'our intent is to continue investing in Halo and growing it.' In 2004, the Microsoft-owned —developers of the strategy series—began work on the game that would become Halo Wars. The studio confirmed in April 2006 that it was working on a console-based RTS.
CEO said, 'We're giving RTS games on the console a shot. We actually spent a whole year just trying to reconstruct how the controls would work on an RTS game.' Without revealing the title, Goodman described the game as being shorter and more visceral than their previous projects.Halo Wars was originally not a Halo series title. Ensemble spent 12 to 18 months working on the control scheme, using the engine. The development team hacked an Age of Mythology expansion, and used it as a prototype for control experiments. Ensemble found that managing Age of Mythology 's resources, units, and buildings was too difficult with the console's controller.
'The answer to making a PC-style strategy game for a console is actually hidden in the question,' Jason Pace, Microsoft Game Studio's lead producer, told. 'It's something we believe has held strategy games back from succeeding on the console: you can't effectively bring a PC-style strategy game to the console because the fundamental game mechanic is tied to the mouse and keyboard input devices. It's not a question of just changing the control scheme to be gamepad friendly—you need to adapt the underlying strategy mechanic to make sense with the new input device.' Senior designer Justin Rouse said that the team kept the controls from the research they had conducted, but scrapped the rest in favor of 'building from the floor up what we needed: the basics, the core of a strategy game.' With the goal of making 'the first great strategy game on the console', Ensemble streamlined gameplay mechanics; the game's single resource is produced at each base site, which allows players to quickly cycle through their bases instead of micromanaging multiple resources at many locations.Once the developers were satisfied with the controls, they presented their project to Microsoft, who suggested that it be turned into a Halo game. Bungie was reportedly not happy about this development. Ensemble's Founder, Tony Goodman, stated in a 2012 interview that Bungie saw the move as 'the whoring out of our franchise'Although Ensemble had to re-create all of Bungie's assets from scratch, Bungie had produced a large amount of reference material for the Halo film adaptation that the Halo Wars team used for inspiration.
Another reference point was art from the Halo first-person shooters; however, as the art was from a forward perspective and Halo Wars takes place from a, the team exaggerated shapes to make the units recognizable. Lead designer noted that the Warthog Jeep is 'actually jumping three times as high as it does in Halo, and it goes four times faster than it does in Halo, and all these things—but it looks the same. Very different, between look and accuracy.'
To ensure artistic continuity between Halo Wars and previous games in the series, Ensemble created a set of guidelines for their artists to follow; for example, the Covenant were to retain their curvy, organic look, while the Forerunner and UNSC were to keep the same geometry angles. UNSC structures and units were given a green tint, with gold specular highlights. The Covenant were textured with a repeating honeycomb pattern, with small blue lights against a purple base color.Devine described the challenge of developing Halo Wars as 'getting Halo fans to play a realtime strategy game, and getting realtime strategy fans to play a Halo game.' 'Fans of the first-person shooter series have very strong expectations for how a Halo games looks, feels and plays. Halo is all about heroic action to save humanity, mega-battles across the galaxy, visceral, highly-tuned combat and heart-pounding tension,' Pace said. These themes were considered fundamental to the Halo experience, and so Ensemble tried to replicate them for Halo Wars.
Early in play tests, the developers watched devoted Halo fans play the game; their feedback led to the development of special abilities, which, according to Devine, enhanced the Halo feel. Ensemble initially considered making the Flood a playable race, but this idea did not progress beyond the concept stage. According to Devine, this was largely because the Flood would have needed to be similar to 's, in order to maintain balance with the UNSC and Covenant.
This did not match the Flood's role as 'the single scariest thing in the galaxy'.Because of the 's large role in previous games, significant effort was expended on the Spartan units. Lead designer said the design team 'started out just accepting and embracing the fact that the Spartans have to be the coolest unit in the game.
If they're not, it's not going to meet the Halo fans' expectations.' To position the Spartans as ' in gameplay, the team gave them what it considered to be the 'coolest' unit ability: hijacking enemy vehicles.
The developers hoped players would become attached to individual Spartans in the campaign and gave each one an individual name; skirmish units were left nameless. The character design of the Spartans was meant to emphasize their relative inexperience and the setting of the game, which takes place decades before the events of the main trilogy. Devine commented on the Spartans' look. We felt because it was 20 years earlier, these are much younger Spartans. They aren't quite as experienced as Master Chief, and we looked a lot at combat infantry going into actual wars, and typically at the beginning of a war, especially the Vietnam War, if you look at the infantry, they're all loaded up.
They have all the backpacks on, they have all the belts on, every single bit of armor is there, and they're carrying around lots of armor. At the end of the war, they've lost it all and just carry what they need. This is all they have. So if you look at our Spartans, they have more pieces of armor on going into the war. They have more markings on there, more pieces of armor.
They've still got the belts on, they're still carrying around everything.Ensemble expanded the Halo universe during the game's development, in order to create enough units to give players strategic options. Among the new units was the Gorgon, a biped that used weapons called Needlers to destroy light aircraft. However, Ensemble later realized that the Gorgon invalidated a rule they had established: 'anything with two legs that walks' was an infantry unit. Instead, the team added a new aircraft called the Vampire.
The UNSC, meanwhile, lacked a melee unit to match the Covenant's hand-to-hand power. Ensemble considered using the original, less advanced Spartan Mark I suits of armor, in keeping with Halo lore, but once added these units were indistinguishable from Spartans in appearance. Instead, they created a lumbering, mechanized unit called the Cyclops, a nod to Age of Mythology.Time constraints prevented many elements from appearing in the final game. One such missing feature was a fatality system by which Spartans or Covenant leaders could inflict massive damage on large groups of units. Pottinger said that the animations, while interesting, did not mesh with the fast-paced combat of Halo Wars and raised balance concerns. Other elements based on Halo fiction did not work in a strategy game.
Although more than 100 people worked on the project, which cost tens of millions of dollars, a Covenant campaign was never realized because of a lack of manpower and money. Announcements. Devine demonstrates Halo Wars at the 2008Halo Wars was officially announced at Microsoft's media briefing on September 27, 2006, with a trailer created by Blur Studio.
The trailer depicts a group of Warthog vehicles searching for missing soldiers. Covenant ambush the patrol and a battle ensues involving human and Covenant vehicles and infantry.
The trailer ends with the arrival of Spartan reinforcements. Listed the trailer in its top 25 video game cinematic moments, because it showed 'the world of Halo on a much grander scale'.Halo Wars was exhibited at the (E3) in 2007 and 2008. Devine narrated the soundtrack for a video shown at E3 2007, which was later made available on the. This video described the game's controls, user interface, vehicles, special weapons, and new units. It also showed a UNSC base consisting of an airbase, vehicle depot, missile silo, and other buildings., and ranked Halo Wars as one of the most anticipated showings at E3.On September 10, 2008, Ensemble Studios announced that it would close after Halo Wars ' completion. Ensemble founder Tony Goodman and other employees announced the formation of a new studio, shortly before the game's release; another group of ex-staff created. Robot announced that, while developing new intellectual property, it would support Halo Wars and Age of Empires through a partnership with Microsoft Game Studios.