RTS provides difficulty, unique gameplay

Many people are familiar with the Halo series, a futuristic first-person shooter (FPS) that has been around since the early 2000’s.  However few people know of the Halo Wars series, a real-time strategy (RTS) game that takes place in the same universe as the main Halo games.

From the start this game turns away many people due to the fact that it is a RTS game. Many people do not even know what a RTS game is. Well, a RTS is similar to chess or checkers, except that there are no turns and everything happens in real time (hence the RT in RTS).

Gameplay in a RTS usually revolves building an economy and raising an army to defeat your enemy. Depending on the game, this can be either simple or very complex.

On this spectrum, Halo Wars 2 tends to be on the simpler side; I enjoyed this as RTS games can be hard to learn. The mechanics of the game were easy to learn and I picked them up easily. However, the game controls took me longer to figure out, and were less intuitive.

One of my favorite parts of Halo Wars 2 was the campaign. Although not perfect, I felt that it was an excellent way to teach players how to effectively play the game. The campaign was of medium difficulty and moderately engaging.

The part that I enjoyed the most in the campaign was the story. The cutscenes were phenomenal, visually captivating and well-casted. However the story was not what I anticipated; from the trailers I expected the game to be darker and have more depth than it did.

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I also felt that it could have had more cutscenes than it did. On the plus side, the campaign allowed me to learn the game well and although it was lacking on some parts it was still quite enjoyable.

The multiplayer of Halo Wars 2 boasts a variety of game modes from player vs player (PvP) to player vs environment (PvE). In PvP, there are a variety of game modes such as Strongholds where you attempt to hold as many bases as possible until the time limit ends.

Deathmatch is a gamemode where you attempt to eliminate your enemy’s bases. Domination is one where you attempt to capture bases and other places of interest to deplete your opponent’s points, the first person to run out of points loses.

While I found these games to be fun and engaging, many of them, especially Deathmatch, can take a massive amount of time. One game I played lasted over an hour. This is less of a problem when playing custom matches against computers, as you can set a time limit, but what fun is that?

There is a solution to this, in the game mode called Blitz. Blitz is a fast paced game that focuses on playable cards rather than an economy. This gamemode is much faster and  a good fit for those who do not want to deal with the base-building and micromanaging of a regular game.

Overall, I heartily enjoyed this game, despite some of its shortcomings; it is a game worth your time. If you would like to try an RTS game, or would simply like to try something new, then I highly advise you get this game.  

This writer can be reached via Twitter: @MatthewSue1 and via email: Matthew Sue.

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