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Halo Wars

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Halo Wars
Box art for Halo Wars, showing a group of Spartans in front of UNSC forces.
Developer(s)Ensemble Studios
Publisher(s)Microsoft Game Studios
Platform(s)Xbox 360
Genre(s)Sci-fi, Real-time strategy
Mode(s)Single-player, Multiplayer,
Co-op, Xbox Live

Halo Wars is an upcoming real-time strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios exclusively for the Xbox 360 game console. The game is set in the Halo science fiction universe, 20 years before the 2001 video game Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo Wars is to be released in Japan on February 26, 2009, in PAL territories on February 27, and in North American on March 3, 2009. It is the last project to be developed by Ensemble.

Gameplay

Halo Wars is a real-time strategy game built specifically for the Xbox 360 console. Players manage resources and create and maintain buildings and armies to complete objectives. There are two playable factions, the human UNSC and alien Covenant, with their own units, strengths, and special abilities. Players establish their armies by building and expanding bases. There are only a few base locations on each scenario or map, making base fortification and defense a key priority. Destruction of a player's last base results in defeat if a new base is not quickly reestablished. Bases are where units are trained, upgrades are researched, and resources are gathered.

Units are trained, buildings upgraded, and special abilities utilized by using resources known as supplies. Supplies may be found on the battlefield and claimed, but the bulk of supplies are generated by building special structures at bases. The more UNSC supply pads or Covenant warehouses a player has, the more income for use. Some buildings and upgrades may also require an additional resource, "tech", which is managed differently by each faction. The UNSC build reactors, each bumping a player's tech level by one up to a maximum of four. The Covenant build a single temple, where up to three tech levels can be attained by researching Ages. While the Covenant have one less tech level, each upgrade is more expensive, and if a player loses their temple they also lose all the tech until it is rebuilt.[2] Each base has only a limited amount of building room, so players must balance their resource buildings with other facilities, like those used to create vehicles. The number of units and vehicles a player can bring to the field is constrained by a population limit; more powerful units cost more than one population unit. Upgrades can increase the maximum population.

Combat in Halo Wars is balanced by a "rock-paper-scissors" mechanic common in many real-time strategy titles. Ground vehicles are powerful against infantry, infantry is stronger against aircraft, and aircraft are exceptional at destroying vehicles. Each unit has a special ability accessed by using the Y button; for example, human Marines throw grenades while vehicles called Warthogs run over enemies. The humans also have access to their ship, the Spirit of Fire, and its special abilities; these include a powerful coilgun called the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon. In contrast, the Covenant have access to cheap and powerful defensive shield generators, offering their bases a level of protection the UNSC lack.[3]

In addition to normal units, each side can bring one leader to the field, a hero unit with special abilities. Covenant leaders appear on the battlefield in multiplayer games as fighting units with their own attacks and upgrades, while human leaders. Human leaders, in contrast, determine the army's upgrades and specialties but do not appear as physical units. On a unit-by-unit basis Covenant troops are weaker than their UNSC counterparts.[3]

Designed specifically for the Xbox 360, Halo Wars uses the console controller's A-button primarily for selecting units and the X-button for moving to or attacking a target.[4] Selecting a unit gives the player the option of commands and selecting certain buildings brings up a "circle menu", the most important menu in the game,[4] which is used for creating units and buildings and researching upgrades.[4]

Synopsis

Halo Wars is set in the 26th century in the year 2532, about 20 years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved.

Development

Originally, PC developer Bungie Studios conceived their next project, Halo: Combat Evolved, as a real-time strategy game, with players controlling units and vehicles in a tactical 3D environment.[5] The developer was bought by Microsoft, and the game became a first-person shooter and killer app for the Xbox console. Bungie produced two bestselling sequels to the game, Halo 2 in 2004 and Halo 3 in 2007, before separating from Microsoft and becoming an independent company once again. Though Bungie is free to produce new intellectual property, the rights to Halo remained with Microsoft.[6] Shane Kim, the head of Microsoft Game Studios, said during the split announcement that "our intent is to continue investing in [Halo] and growing it."[7]

Ensemble Studios, the developers of the Age of Empires strategy franchise, confirmed in April 2006 that the studio was working on a console-based RTS, a departure from their previous PC offerings. CEO Tony Goodman said that "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." While not disclosing the title of the game, Goodman described the game as shorter and more visceral than their previous projects.[8]

Halo Wars was officially announced at Microsoft's X06 media briefing on September 27, 2006.[9][10] The game was announced at X06 with a pre-rendered trailer. The trailer was created by Blur Studio and shows a group of Warthog vehicles searching for a missing unit of soldiers. The recon patrol is killed by camouflaged Elites who de-cloak and advance into battle supported by Banshees. The battle has various human and Covenant vehicles and foot soldiers and ends displaying Spartan Group Omega wearing their MJOLNIR armor.

Halo Wars lead designer Graeme Devine described the challenge of the title as "getting Halo fans to play a realtime strategy game, and getting realtime strategy fans to play a Halo game."[11][12]

A small demonstration of Halo Wars was revealed to gaming media at E3 2007 on July 10, 2007 and a demo video narrated by Halo Wars' Lead Designer was released on the Xbox Live Marketplace on August 27, 2007.[13] Because previous console real time strategy games have been criticized for their control schemes, Ensemble developed the controls six months before approaching Microsoft.[14] An update on January 30, 2007 stated that the developers were considering using motion capture.[15] Photos of the test posted on the website show mocap being used, however it was not confirmed whether it would be included in the final release of the game.[15] Weekly playtests are held within Ensemble to provide both the art and design teams with feedback on developments.[16] Microsoft employees were spotted on Xbox Live playing the "Halo Wars Alpha" in April 2008 sparking speculation and jealousy among the gaming community.[17][18] Ensemble later confirmed that the Alpha version was a tutorial and multiplayer version with limited features. Ensemble employees frequently played against others seeking aspects of the game to improve.[19]

Bungie Studios has had little involvement in the making of Halo Wars. Since the splitting of Microsoft and Bungie Studios, Bungie will only be helping Ensemble Studios, the main developers of the game, and Microsoft in areas including the environment and the general "feel" of the Halo universe.[20]

A video of gameplay footage narrated by Graeme Devine, the lead designer was shown at E3 2007 and later made available online. Controls and other gameplay features such as vehicles, user interface and special weapons were highlighted, along with new creations. The footage also showed off a UNSC base consisting of an airbase, vehicle depot, missile silo and several other buildings that can be created while playing Halo Wars.[4]

Early in development, Ensemble considered making the Flood a playable race, but this idea never made it past the concept stage. According to Devine the main issue was that in order to balance the Flood with the UNSC and Covenant, the Flood would have to have been similar to StarCraft's Zerg, which did not mesh with the Flood's role in the games, to be "the single scariest thing in the galaxy."[21]

On September 10th, 2008 Ensemble studios announced that the company would close after the completion of Halo Wars. A new studio formed by Ensemble employees will not only continue to support Microsoft Game Studios, but will also provide post launch support for Halo Wars.[22] Founder Tony Goodman and several other Ensemble members announced shortly before the game's release they were creating a new studio, Robot Entertainment.[23]

Audio

Halo Wars' score was recorded in Prague, Czech Republic

Halo Wars's music was composed by Stephen Rippy, the composer of all of the Age of Empires games. Rippy was concerned with keeping the music's feel in the Halo universe while still branching out and writing new material; due to the iconic nature of the music, elements of the Halo trilogy's music, written by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori, appear in the game.[24] Rippy began work on the soundtrack by listening to the previous Halo soundtracks and searching for potentially useful material culled from discarded Ensemble project; "I'm a big fan of both cataloging that stuff and stealing from it without remorse," Rippy said. "Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got until you really, really need it." Rippy and audio lead Kevin McMullan talked about O'Donnell's tracks and identified elements that could be reproduced for Halo Wars.[25]

Rippy began writing music for the game in April 2007.[26] The first two tracks produced for the game combined his efforts to channel the Halo sound with repurposed elements and experiments from past projects. "Flollo" contained elements and ideas Rippy had toyed with since completing his last project, Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs. "Bad Here Day" was the first piece where the composer tried to incorporate the "Halo sound" into the music. It was important to Rippy that he not carry over too many old themes to Halo Wars, as he wanted the game to have its own identity;[26] however, he focused on the choir and piano, as he believed they were integral to the Halo sound and should not be changed.[27] Rather than corresponding to in-game events, the titles of the music follow an Ensemble Studios tradition of nomenclature based on coined phrases or in-jokes.[25]

By the end of December 2007, Rippy had completed all the music used for actual gameplay, from end credits music to battle themes and ambient world tracks. In the game's skirmish mode, the music reflects the environment rather than the races.[26] To make sure the character of the music changed depending on the environment, he adhered to self-imposed rules; for instance, one environment could feature guitars but no piano. In order to unify each world musically, he added a short introductory piece containing common elements.[27] In contrast to the skirmish mode's environment-oriented music, the campaign's major characters have their own recurring melodies. The most prominent theme belongs not to a person, but to the main human ship, Spirit of Fire.[27]

Rippy's most intensive work period came in January 2008, when he began writing the music to accompany the game's cinematics; by this point, he had been working on the score for nine months.[25] After a hectic three months, all the tracks were ready to be recorded.[28]

While the previous live orchestration for the Halo games was performed by the Northwest Sinfonia in Seattle, Washington, Rippy chose to employ the FILMharmonic Orchestra of Prague to record Halo Wars's arrangements. Rippy had been in Prague attending recording sessions for Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties and loved the city and sound the orchestra produced. An additional consideration was that recording in Eastern Europe was cheaper.[26] The Prague recording sessions ran from March 10 to March 15. 45 musicians and 24 vocalists participated in the recording; the choir and string parts were later overdubbed to create a larger sound. Roughly 65 minutes of Halo Wars' 75 minute score were recorded in Prague.[24] After recording, the final touches and mixing took place stateside in Seattle, where O'Donnell attended one of the mixing sessions.[26]

Due to the varied nature of player actions, Rippy used the Audiokinetic Wwise pipeline to create interactive music that changes in reaction to what is happening on screen. The use of Wwise made it much easier to set up the audio system for Halo Wars than in previous Ensemble games, although Rippy only used its interactive music tools.[26] For each battle sequence, the music cue was broken into sections, with different mixes for each section. "When a cue is triggered, an intro plays and then the game randomly picks between all of those elements for as long as the battle continues," Rippy explained. "Once it’s over, an outro plays and then it’s back to the regular "world" music. It was an interesting way to work, and I’d like to push it further if there’s an opportunity in the future."[27]

Four preview tracks from Halo Wars were included on a bonus DVD that came bundled with Halo Trilogy—The Complete Original Soundtracks, a compilation of previous Halo music released in December 2008. The tracks were mixed in Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound and were packaged with a behind-the-scenes look at the recording of the Halo Wars music and the "Five Long Years" trailer.[29] A standalone compact disc and digital download retail version of the soundtrack was announced in January 2009 for release on February 17.[30] AOL Radio gained the exclusive rights to debut the soundtrack early, with a new track played on the top of every hour.[31]

Halo Wars Original Soundtrack tracklist[30]
No.TitleLength
1."Spirit of Fire" 
2."Bad Here Day" 
3."Perspective" 
4."Money or Meteors" 
5."Flollo" 
6."Just Ad Nauseum" 
7."Unusually Quiet" 
8."Flip and Sizzle" 
9."Put The Lady Down" 
10."Six-Armed Robbing Suit" 
11."Action Figure Hands" 
12."Status Quo Show" 
13."Part Of The Plan" 
14."Work Burns and Runaway Grunts" 
15."Freaked Out" 
16."Rescued Or Not" 
17."Best Guess At Best" 
18."One Problem At A Time" 
19."De Facto The Matter" 
20."Part Of The Problem" 
21."Fingertips Are Broken" 
22."Out Of There Alive" 
23."Through Your Hoops" 
24."Under Your Hurdles" 
25."Insignificantia (All Sloopy/No Joe)" 

Release

Demo

In the October 2007 issue of Official Xbox Magazine, it was mentioned that there will be a playable demo of the game before it is released.[32] The playable demo for Halo Wars became available for download on February 5. Redemption codes were handed out for early access to the demo starting January 29.[33] According to Microsoft, the game set a one-day record for most downloads, and in the first five days was downloaded by more than 2 million Xbox Live Gold members.[34]

Versions

In addition to the standard retail version, Halo Wars was released as a Limited Collector's Edition through participating retailers. The Collector's edition featured early access to three maps for Halo 3 entitled the "Mythic Map Pack", which would be available for purchase from the Xbox Live Marketplace at a later time. Other bonus features include a graphic novel by Phil Noto, Graeme Devine, and Eric Nylund called Halo Wars: Genesis. A unique in-game vehicle, trading cards, and a Spirit of Fire patch are also included.

As an added bonus, fans will be able to pre-order Halo Wars and receive a pre-order card to download a special in-game Warthog vehicle with flame decals from select participating retailers.[35][36]

Anticipation

As part of the Halo series, Halo Wars is highly anticipated by most of the Halo community. The IGN Xbox Team has ranked Halo Wars as their 7th most anticipated game of E3 2008 and Next Generation Magazine ranked it 5th.[37][38] PC World rated as one of the most anticipated titles of E3, though they stated they are concerned by the fact that it is not being developed by Bungie.[39]

The trailer shown at X06 was listed as twenty-fifth of GameSpy's Top 25 Video Game Cinematic Moments for "[displaying] the world of Halo on a much grander scale."[40]

References

  1. ^ a b c Radd, David (2009-01-08). "Halo Wars Still Slated for March 3". GameDaily. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  2. ^ Geddes, Ryan (2009-02-16). "Halo Wars: UNSC vs. Covenant (page 1)". IGN. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  3. ^ a b Geddes, Ryan (2009-02-16). "Halo Wars: UNSC vs. Covenant (page 2)". IGN. Retrieved 2009-02-17.l
  4. ^ a b c d Graeme Devine (2007-08-27). E3 Demo Video. Ensemble Studios. Retrieved 2008-01-11.
  5. ^ Staff. "Billion Dollar Donut: Halo". Bungie.net. Bungie. Retrieved 2009-02-11.
  6. ^ Hillis, Scott (2007-10-08). "Halo creators to split from Microsoft". The Australian. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  7. ^ Romano, Benjamin (2007-10-06). "Microsoft, "Halo" maker Bungie split". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
  8. ^ http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/strategy/halowars/news.html?sid=6147070&mode=all
  9. ^ Surette, Tim (2006-09-27). "X06: Halo being turned into RTS". Gamespot. Retrieved 2007-11-05.
  10. ^ Smith, Luke (2006-09-27). "X06: Ensemble Making Halo RTS Named Halo Wars". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2007-11-05.
  11. ^ http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20835
  12. ^ X-Play (2008-12-18). "All Access Preview: Halo Wars". G4tv. Retrieved 2009-02-09.
  13. ^ "Halo Wars (video) demo on Monday!". Xbox 360 Rally. 2007-08-26. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  14. ^ Varanini, Giancarlo (2007-12-21). "Halo Wars Q&A". gametap.com. Retrieved 2008-01-11.
  15. ^ a b "Halo Wars Update 01.30.07". Ensemble Studios. 2007-01-30. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  16. ^ Somers, Graham (2008-02-04). "Interview with 'Thunder' of Halo Wars, Part 2 when will the game come out". Bungie.net group: Halo Wars RTS. Retrieved 2008-02-07. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  17. ^ Kofsky, Devin (2008-04-18). "Halo Wars Has Alpha On Live". 360 Sync. Retrieved 2008-04-20.
  18. ^ "Halo Wars alpha spotted in the wild". Talking About Games. 2008-04-17. Retrieved 2008-04-20. {{cite web}}: |first= missing |last= (help); Unknown parameter |Last= ignored (|last= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ "Halo Wars Monthly Update 05.20.08". Ensemble Studios. 2008-05-20. Retrieved 2008-05-21.
  20. ^ Bungie Leaving Microsoft
  21. ^ Staff (2008-11-18). "1UP FM Podcast: Graeme Devine and Dave Pottinger". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  22. ^ Kesten, Lou (2008-09-15). "Game news: Microsoft to close 'Halo Wars' studio". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
  23. ^ http://www.gamespot.com/news/6204689.html
  24. ^ a b Staff (2008-04-28). "Halo Wars interview with Ensemble's Audio Director and Lead Composer Stephen Rippy". Music4Games. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
  25. ^ a b c Rippy, Stephen (2008-12-12). "Over and Out". HaloWars.com. Ensemble Studios. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
  26. ^ a b c d e f Staff (2009-02-02). "Behind the Music of Halo Wars". Music4Games. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  27. ^ a b c d Bedegian, Louis (2009-02-13). "GameZone Chats with Halo Wars Composer Stephen Rippy". GameZone. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  28. ^ Staff (2008-04-28). "Halo Wars Monthly Update 4.28.08". HaloWars.com. Ensemble Studios. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
  29. ^ Sumthing (2008-12-01). "Sumthing Else Music Works announces release of Halo Trilogy-The Complete Original Soundtracks". Music4Games. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
  30. ^ a b Microsoft, Sumthing Else Music Works (2009-01-15). "Sumthing announces the release of Halo Wars Original Soundtrack". Music4Games. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  31. ^ Mullen, Michael (2009-02-09). "AOL Radio Scores Halo Wars Soundtrack Premiere". GameDaily. Retrieved 2009-03-01.
  32. ^ McCaffrey, Ryan (2007). "Halo Wars". Official Xbox Magazine. p. 25. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  33. ^ Staff (2009-02-05). "Halo Wars Demo Now on Marketplace". Xbox.com. Microsoft. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  34. ^ Radd, David (2009-02-13). "Halo Wars demo sees 2 million downloads in first week". GameDaily. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  35. ^ http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3171157
  36. ^ http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2008/1106-halowarslimitededition.htm
  37. ^ "IGN Xbox's Most Anticipated Games of E3 2008". IGN. 2008-07-03. Retrieved 2008-07-13.
  38. ^ Keiser, Joe (2008-07-05). "Next-Gen's 30 Most Anticipated Games of E3". Next Generation Magazine. Retrieved 2008-07-13. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  39. ^ GamePro staff (2008-07-08). "Most anticipated games of E3 2008". PC World. Retrieved 2008-07-26. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  40. ^ "GameSpy's Top 25 Video Game Cinematic Moments". GameSpy. 2007-04-16. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
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