The Halo series has always focused on one man's role in turning the tide of a conflict. There've been plenty of bit players who've come and gone, but it's always been about Master Chief. Halo Wars pans out from that battered green suit of armor to focus on the conflict as a whole. I got to sit in with Producer Chris Rippy and Lead Designer Graeme Devine from Ensemble Studios earlier today to take a look at the first real demo for the Halo-flavored RTS.

Halo Wars takes place before the events of the first Halo title, during the 27 year war that followed the UNSC's first contact with the Covenant, which for the uninitiated did not go well. The player takes control of the resources and crew of the UNSC ship Spirit of Fire as she participates in the first battles against the aliens.

Drop It Like It's Hot

The demo began with a troop transport being escorted by two fighter aircraft to an UNSC base. The fighter jets are USC Hawks, just one of the new vehicles created for Halo Wars. Much like the more well-known vehicles they look heavy, angular, and functional. The troop carrier lands in the middle of the base and deploys a group of soldiers, and we are given a look at the control mechanics behind this console-centric RTS.

Graeme explains to us that the most important aspect of any RTS is selection. How and how easily you are able to select units is paramount to the feel of the game. Halo Wars actually has three options for selecting units. Hitting A selects single units, with X issuing move and attack orders. Double tapping A selects all similar units on the battlefield, while holding down A and moving the left stick acts as a unit selecting paintbrush. Throughout the demo Rippy, who was driving things from off to the side, seemed to have no problem selecting units in the heat of battle and issuing orders on the fly.

All Your Base

They took a moment to show us the various buildings around the UNSC base, noting the little details put into giving the structures a very alive, very human feel. Little people waved aircraft into position while behind a supply depot a group of soldiers were running through an exercise routine. All purely aesthetic of course, but nice little touches here and there make an RTS seem less like a board game and more like a real battle.

Speaking of battle, it was time to send our soldiers against some Covenant troops encroaching on the base. A couple squads of grunts with elite leaders quickly take out our puny soldiers. Master Chief they are not. Time to call in the big...wheels.

Enter the Warthog

Highlighting one of the structures, Chris brought up the circle menu, which is the heart of the game. It is a rotary menu controlled by the thumbstick which displays what options you have depending on what you have selected. In this case a vehicle depot is selected, and the option chosen is a Warthog. With seconds a puma-like vehicle shoots up a ramp and comes skidding to a halt in mid-base. Yep, it's a Warthog all right. The guys show off some of the physics behind the warthog, clicking out a path with the select tool and then watching as the nimble vehicle fishtails and swerves to follow, just like the 'real' thing. Sending the Warthog up against the enemy troops pretty much works like you'd expect it to. The first group of enemies was rammed into and decimated, while another Warthog blew grunts all over the screen to the sound of those distinctive cartoonish screams.

The enemies having been dispatched, the Warthogs were faced with a seemingly impassable ravine. Graeme explained that while tanks and troops could never cross such a gap, the jeepish vehicle had no problems whatsoever, gracefully leaping the chasm and rushing headlong into another conflict, already in progress.

Escalating Conflict

What followed was pretty much a demonstration of how units escalate from grunts to gargantuans. First the Warthogs take on troops, but Banshees arrive to destroy the 'hogs, which brings out the UNSC anti-air unit the Wolverine. Those are in turn attacked by Ghost tanks, which are countered by Scorpion tanks, and then finally the Covenant unleash a Scarab, the walking fortresses equipped with anti-everything guns. All hope seems lost, but an orbital strike from the Spirit of Fire cooks the Scarab and ends the demo.

But Is it Halo?

Halo Wars is basically an arcade RTS, a term used by one of my fellow members of the press and quickly taken up by Graeme. It is meant to be a fast and dirty RTS without the player having to worry about harvesting endless resources and micromanaging to have fun. An RTS the average Halo fan could pickup and enjoy. Would they? From what I saw the game had a high level of polish, and the music was downright excellent at tying the whole Halo feel together, but I worry that there might not be enough variety in the game to appease the RTS fan, while at the same time not being sure how long Halo fans will get a kick of clicking to move their Warthog around before going back to just driving it. Creating the game is basically a balancing act, and it is hard to tell from the short time I saw the game playing whether they can pull it off. I liked what I saw, but I think I'm maintaining a cautiously optimistic opinion of Halo Wars until I can see more.