Ladies and gentlemen, start your emulators! It is time for yet another episode of RetrOS, giving you your recommended dose of nostalgia, by reviewing games from your childhood.
This episode is the first episode for an Xbox 360 title, due to the online store closing in July of this year. In this episode, I take a look at the first RTS spin-off of the Halo franchise. Will this game score enough to knock Age of Mythology off this high horse?
Let's find out!
The Halo Wars series is the outlier of the Halo franchise. even today, the Halo community still holds this game in very high regard. This particular title was released exclusively for the Xbox 360 in 2009. This title is set 21 years before the events of Halo Reach.
Humanity is locked in a desperate war for survival against an alliance of various alien races, a planet called Harvest has been taken by the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) Mostly thanks to a support vessel orbiting the planet, The Spirit of Fire, it is up to you to command your forces and put a stop to
A covenant plan to use and never consider weapons designed to wipe out all life in the galaxy
The accessibility scores are as follows-
Visibility- 10
As par for the course, you can enable friend or foe colours. As I have said in my review of the Age of Mythology Retold, friend or foe colours function in the exact same way as alliance colours in Total War titles. In a normal RTS game, each player has their own unique colour. This might cause an issue for a player with visual impairments.
With this vital feature enabled, the entire colour scheme is drastically changed. The colour scheme now reflects that player's diplomacy toward you. Blue for your own forces, yellow for allies, and red for enemies.
Although there is no way to completely customise, or add a colourblind-friendly scheme to this feature, to be fair, gaming in general was completely different in 2009, when this title was released.
Mobility 11
This is where the major differences between this game, and other RTS games out there lie. The game's interface is specifically designed for controllers. After all, this game was originally released exclusively for the Xbox 360, so, it should be a no-brainer at this point.
When playing the PC version, you can use a simple keyboard and mouse. For more competitive RTS players out there, you can use keyboard hotkeys. These hotkeys can also be fully customised to suit your impairments.
So, this game is very easily playable for a player with a mobility impairment.
Audibility 10.5
Dialogue in cut scenes, and during missions is fully subtitled. So a player with a hearing impairment to would immerse himself into the story. However, customisable font sizes of these subtitles would be more beneficial, reducing the risk of a player getting eye strain while reading the subtitles.
Gameplay 10.5
This is a faithful remaster of the game that bravely said no to the stereotype that RTS games don't belong on console.
Although there are some setbacks compared to more traditional RTS games, for example, Command and Conquer, it had to take advantage of the limited hardware capabilities of an Xbox 360, and the complications that goes with designing an RTS, built from the ground up on a console.
In this game, there are two factions, UNSC and Covenant, each with their own unique set of leaders which brings a whole new play style to the table.
For example, Sgt Forge is by definition, an armoured warfare general. His unique unit, Grizzly Tanks is one of the most powerful units in the game. Also, every supply pad that's built can get an automatic upgrade as soon as they are built,
In summary, Halo Wars definitive edition is an all-time classic and remastered to a new generation of hardware. The campaign can be played on your own, or Co-op with a friend. In terms of multiplayer, it builds a little lacklustre. There is no official matchmaking available in this game, the only way to find a match is through the server browser.
To make matters worse, the multiplayer element on the original Xbox 360 version, which had official matchmaking and was playable on your Xbox One or Xbox series S/X consoles with backward compatibility, was shut down Over a year ago.
In terms of system requirements, it is extremely low-spec friendly, the GPU listed in the games recommended requirements was originally released in 2011. The game is currently under £20 on steam.
So, if you are an RTS enthusiast, and is looking for a cheap, low-spec friendly game to play over the Christmas period, this game is highly recommended!
OVERALL SCORE 105%
See you guys in the next review!
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