by: Noah Hess

March 23, 2009

During the single-player campaign you do not really need to worry about rushing so taking your time to get more diversity in your army isn’t a problem. Though when you play on Xbox Live prepare to rush or be rushed. The campaign is fun, but it is only 15 missions long and lacks any long lasting replay value if you are just playing this solo without the use of Xbox Live. With Xbox Live however, you can play online co-op which is a very well put crafted experience. While you share resources and bases you each control your own military. This way you can both split up to take out multiple locations separately. Co-op is also a good way to get achievements and collect all the skulls and black boxes. Skulls are just as they are in Halo 3 and add different effects that may make the game harder or easier. Blackboxes on the other hand are items you find throughout the campaign that unlock more information about the story on the storyline.

The online multiplayer is set up pretty well. If you have played any Halo 3 online you will feel very familiar with the user interface of this game. The online gametypes range from 1v1 to 3v3 and those could be standard or death match modes. In standard you start out with 800 resources and have to upgrade all of your technologies. In Deathmatch you start with an abundance of resources and all techs are already researched (upgraded). The one thing about the multiplayer though is that people like to rush and if you have a bad team or you yourself are bad at building fast and getting a defense set up, you are screwed. The matches can also take up to an hour or even longer then that. If you don't have the patience for a game that takes a lot of time to get through a single match, this will not be a game you enjoy. The way this differs from single player is that there are no objectives. This game is defeat or be defeated and it is all about speed. There are a lot of different strategies to learn and I would advise you to experiment with them all and not just warthog rush like most do.

The thing that kind of sucks about the multiplayer that is different in other RTS games, the maps. With there only being set points for you to build bases, most of the maps are only geared for a set amount of people. This means that if you play 3 v 3 a lot, there are only a total of 3 maps you will ever play on. I wish they would have made the maps more scalable, so that all maps could be played with any number of players.

When it comes to things like sound and graphics, it's an RTS so they are not going to be the greatest. The cutscenes look really good, but the gameplay itself is nothing great. For an RTS though it gets the job done just fine, but don't expect any jaw dropping visuals or award winning soundtracks here.

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This game is definitely something hardcore Halo fans and RTS fans alike are going to want to get their hands on. At the same time though it is really not a game for everyone and not something that PC RTS gamers are going to enjoy so much. While it isn't Ensembles best outing, it is still a great game to play and even more so online. The game is great and Ensemble Studios will truly be missed.

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