I'm no stranger to the RTS (Real Time Strategy) genre and if anything I am more familiar to that then FPS (First Person Shooter) games such as Halo. So to me I couldn't wait to get started with Halo Wars.
First thing I did after downloading the demo (which by the way for all you who haven't yet, takes some time) was go campaign. Two levels controlling the UNSC fighting the Covenant. It is based 20 years before Halo Combat Evolved and you can tell. In the campaign unlike in the FPS which you see a few marines and ODST's every now and then here there's loads (as you can expect).
There are also plenty of Spartans at your control which is pretty neat, which all act like Master Chief. They can take enemy vehicles and use friendly ones to there full potential. Most units all have a special move which can be activated with the Y button (X is used to command your units to move and attack). For instance Warthogs drive at full speed into enemies knocking them flying much like what you do on Halo, but if try to ram a turret or building the unit will lose health (which should be noted because many a time I sent my Warthogs charging at building only to have them explode in my face a few minutes later). Marines can chuck grenades which can be later upgraded with flash bang technology.
The story line as far as I can tell is the usual Halo affair. Covenant find Forerunner relic and try to use it to defeat the flood (which have been confirmed to be in the game).
Anyway back to the campaign. Your first mission involves re-taking your base from the Covenant. You start of with only a Warthog under you control with a hero unit inside (Not much is known about hero units, as there mainly seen in campaign), but slowly you rally the surviving soldiers and take the base back. This can be seen as a non guided tutorial to controlling units because it goes through vaguely how to play (Don't worry there is a detailed tutorial at the ready if you need it)
The next mission involves remaking the base and taking out the Covenant. Base making is standard RTS stuff, although you only have a certain amount of squares. So if you run out of squares you need to find another spot to make a base. Its all simple stuff. Like Halo its pick up and play and just good fun.
The game it self is made just for the 360 so for those thinking 'Oh noes! I can't play a RTS without a mouse and keyboard!' need not worry because it plays fine. Like I said before you could pick up the controller and make a wild stab at the controls and likely get 70% of it right. The only problem I find is when you just want to select one type of unit say your ground ones and you quite often end up selecting your air units and vehicles as well.
After I had completed the two levels I then headed over to skirmish mode. On the demo, you can only play one level but you can look at the levels you could play with the full game (including a map called Blood Gulch!). You can also choose to play as the UNSC or The Covenant. Also it looks like there are different team leaders who get special advantages and units. For instance the UNSC leader you could play as on the demo could make Elephants, while the The Covenant leader could have a Prophet unit as well as special Elites with twin energy swords.
So there seems to be many ways to play. With co-op and online confirmed it looks like Halo Wars could be one of the best RTS games for the 360!
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