Halo Wars

Read about the Storyline

Summary

In the RTS game Halo Wars, players can command armies of both familiar and new UNSC units during its first encounters against the Covenant, a massive group of alien races that threatens to destroy all of Humanity. Halo Wars will immerse gamers in an early period of the Halo Universe, allowing them to experience events 21 years before Halo: Combat Evolved.

With the guidance of the AI Serina,who is commanding them from the UNSC CFV-88 Spirit of Fire, the player leads UNSC soldiers and vehicles against classic Covenant foes, such as Grunts, Elites, Ghosts, and Banshees. Each group has its own strengths and abilities in battle. Strategic-minded players who react well under pressure will emerge victorious over their foes.

Halo Wars can be played in both single-player and online cooperative campaign modes. Additionally, up to six players can play three-versus-three matches head-to-head over Xbox Live. Published by Microsoft Game Studios, Halo Wars is a title exclusive to the Xbox 360. Despite speculation of a version for the PC, Ensemble and Microsoft have repeatedly said that no such plans have been made or even considered. The Covenant is playable only in multi-player and skirmish modes.

Ensemble Studios began recording the music for the game in March 2008, with Ensemble's Music and Sound Director, Stephen Rippy, flying to Prague for the orchestral and choral parts and to Seattle for the piano and mixing.

The game was featured at the 2008 E3 event, held in July. It was shown on G4's E3 08 LIVE as a hands on demo. Some newer off-screen demos were released, showing how the controls work and how battles proceed.

Game Concepts

Technology Advancement

Throughout the campaign and in Skirmishes, the player must advance their technology in order to increase their army's power. When technology is increased, more units, upgrades, and buildings become available. For instance, infantry units can receive additional members or stronger weaponry. Field Armories or Temples (and the upgrades within them) can become available with increased technology as well.

The tech tree is different for the two playable factions. When playing as the UNSC, the player advances by building and upgrading reactors. The Covenant moves through the tech-tree in Ages by purchasing upgrades at the leader temple. Players can also advance by capturing Forerunner Bonus Reactors .

When a Reactor is built or an Age is researched, OR a Forerunner Bonus Reactor is claimed, the tech number on the top right of the screen goes up. If, say, a reactor is destroyed, the number goes down. Different buildings, units, and upgrades require higher numbers for use.

Veterancy Points

Veterancy points increases a unit's statistics, such as attack, attack speed, defense, etc. This number can be calculated by counting how many stars a unit has above their health bar. This is the number of veterancy points said unit has. The stars or "Veterancy Points" are acquired only after a unit or a group of units have defeated enemy structures, units, vehicles, or other combat related situations. They are also gained by upgrading the unit. A unit has a maximum of 3 stars, except a Spartan-Commandeered vehicle which has a maximum of 14 "Veterancy Points" and some special player units in campaign mode (example: ODSTs in the level "Anders' Signal) that have a maximum of 5 "Veterancy Points" . A gold-mist effect appears briefly over a unit when it gains a veterancy point. This is hard to see unless closely watching the unit.

Leader Abilities

Certain characters belonging to both the Covenant and the UNSC have been confirmed to be "leader factions", which are sub-factions with unique units and bonuses. All of the Covenant leaders appear on the battlefield and have unique in-game abilities. The UNSC leaders on the other hand do not appear on the battlefield but instead have economic bonuses and "super units" (upgrades of normal units). Currently known leaders are Captain James Cutter, Sergeant John Forge, Professor Ellen Anders, Ripa 'Moramee, an unknown Brute Army Commander and the Prophet of Regret. Each leader has a number of unique features, for the UNSC it's "super units", economic bonuses, unique units (Cutter's Elephant, Forge's Cyclops and Anders' Gremlin.) and leader powers (ODST Drop/MAC Blast, Carpet bomb and Cryo bomb, respectively to leaders stated previously) that can be called from the Spirit of Fire. The Covenant on the other hand have a unique unit (two for the brute leader) and a "hero unit" (their leader) with their leader power attached to the "hero unit". The Prophet of Regret's ability is to glass enemy forces (known as the "Cleansing Beam" in Halo Wars), which causes significant damage to both structures and units, however it also drains resources while active. His unique units are Sangheili Honor Guards. Ripa Moramee can go into a rage mode and wield two energy swords and can upgrade to infinitely cloak himself, but at the cost of draining resources for every second these modes are active.[51] Ripa Moramee will also have the ability to train Suicidal Grunts. The Brute Chieftain can use his Gravity Hammer to create a vortex which sucks in infantry, then the player can press the A button to create a massive explosion. The Brute Chieftain's unique units are a pair of Brute Shot wielding Brutes (which can be upgraded to have jump packs) and the Chopper.

Although Covenant leaders are limited to one at a time, they are some of the strongest units in the entire game and are immune to stun effects. They can also empower surrounding units.

Skulls

Each level in Halo Wars has an optional objective where you are asked to kill a certain number of a certain unit type, such as killing 100 Grunts in the first mission, Alpha Base. Once this objective has been completed, the skull location will flash on the mini-map for a couple of seconds, so it's important to watch the map as you complete the objective. To simplify this, the objective will have a counter that pops up every time you kill a unit of the designated unit type. For example, the HUD will show "56/100 Grunts Killed", when you have killed 56 grunts for that objective.

Black Boxes

Black boxes are a new feature in the game. Black Boxes are collectibles in the Halo Wars campaign that when collected, they add new events in the Halo Wars Timeline. They look like black boxes with yellow stripes on them and can be picked up by any unit. When you collect one you can just resign straight away and you will still have it. The timeline covers many of the important events from the games and the novels.

Halo Wars Multiplayer

Just like Halo 2 & Halo 3, Halo Wars has strong characteristics of online gaming. Halo Wars' live gaming characteristics include Direct voice communication & Online leader boards. Unlike any of the other Halo games, now your vehicles' and troops' armor will change to the teams color so you can get red Hunters, purple Grunts, etc. There's no specific information regarding player ranking but players will be able to achieve the ranks of Recruit, Lieutenant, Major, Colonel, Commander Brigadier and, General. Multiplayer is up to 6 players at a time in a match. Two player online Co-op for the campaign story is in the game.

Skirmish Mode

Halo Wars features a "Skirmish Mode", where the player can battle on multiplayer maps against an AI opponent in 1vs1, 2vs2 and 3vs3 match. There will be 14 skirmish and multiplayer maps at launch.

Editors of OXMs January 2009 Halo Wars article played on a multiplayer map called "Blood Gulch". It was stated that it is not the same map as that in Halo: Combat Evolved, but some elements have clearly been used in the design for the map.

It is also known that you have to win a Skirmish match on every playable map and with all the different leaders in order to achieve the Playin' the Field and the Gallivant Around The Galaxy achievements.

It is possible to side the Covenant with the UNSC in Skirmish mode.

There are two modes in Skirmish, Standard and Deathmatch. Three more modes are available if you have the Strategic Options DLC (800 Microsoft Points): Keepaway, Tug of War, and Reinforcements.

In Deathmatch, you start with 15,000 resources and a tech level of 4 for the UNSC, and 6 for the Covenant. All your units, buildings and leader abilities are already fully upgraded. Your population starts as 15 and you gain 10 population for taking over a base, up to 99. When you lose a base, the population limit goes down by 10.

In Standard mode, you start off with 0 tech level and 800 resources. All units must be upgraded including turrets and leader abilities. The population limit starts at 30 for the UNSC and 40 for the Covenant.

In Keepaway mode, you capture the flag from your opponent and bring it back to your base.

In Tug of War mode, the objective is who can field and maintain the strongest army who wins.

In Reinforcements mode, you have to adapt your tactics as you are granted waves of troops, much like an endurance battle.

Soundtrack

The music for Halo Wars was composed by Ensemble Studios in-house composer Stephen Rippy, with additional music by his long time collaborator and game Audio Lead Kevin McMullan. It was recorded in Prague, Czech Republic by 45 members of the FILMHarmonic Orchestra and a 21 voice choir at CNSO Studio No. 1. The score was released as a single CD package with a bonus DVD containing additional tracks, 5.1 surround sound mixes of some cues and a behind the scenes video showing the recording sessions of the Halo Wars main theme and various trailers for the game. It was also put up for retail as a digital download over iTunes and Sumthing Digital. The response to the score was almost universally enthusiastic, with most critics praising Stephen Rippy's taking the series into new stylistic territory while still paying homage to and reworking classic themes and ideas.

The official track list is as follows:

  1. Spirit of Fire
  2. Bad Here Day
  3. Perspective
  4. Money Or Meteors
  5. Flollo
  6. Just Ad Nauseam
  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. Fingerprints Are Broken
  22. Out Of There Alive
  23. Through Your Hoops
  24. Under Your Hurdles
  25. Insignificantia (All Sloppy/No Joe)

Marketing Promotions and Release

Alpha Test

An Alpha test was done for Halo Wars, concluding during May, 2008. The test was open only to several thousand Microsoft employees, including Bungie Studios, in order to locate any bugs or glitches, and to test its performance over Xbox Live. It consisted of a brief "tutorial" and multiplayer, and was "limited to a specific set of units." It is unknown how long the Alpha test was conducted, or when it began.

During the Alpha test, anti-air units were glitching so that their effectiveness was lessened, and Scorpion tanks and aircraft were extremely powerful. Aircraft strength was lessened to prevent players from sending in air-strikes against the enemy Command Center and crippling them too easily, ruining many a protocol player's chances of victory. This actually isn't an element of the game, but in fact a "balance issue".

Trailers

E3 2008 Trailer

Five Long Years is a Halo Wars cinematic preview released on the July 14th of 2008 depicting the five year long struggle to reclaim Harvest from the Covenant, as well as being the first cutscene for the game. The trailer can be downloaded from the Halo Wars official website or here.

Field Trip To Harvest

A Zealot Field Master taking orders from an Arbiter on Harvest.
Field Trip To Harvest is a cinematic preview that was released to the public on October 3rd, 2008 showing the UNSC's retaking of the planet Harvest and the Covenant's finding of a Forerunner structure. Also, in the conversation between a Zealot and the Arbiter, there is mention of "the Infection". This was speculated to be an introduction to the Flood in Halo Wars before the release of the game, but because no Flood were encountered on Harvest, it is almost certainly just a name for the Humans on Harvest.

The Call To Battle

The Call to Battle is a collection of already known cinematics, but it also shows some campaign maps. You can also see that you can make a lot more units than in the demo.

Unknown Trailer Video

On February 8th, 2009, the Taiwanese Xbox Live website released a four minute-long trailer which contained spoilers detailing the later story of Halo Wars. It was soon taken down, and other sites which put it up, including halo.bungie.org, removed it at the request of Microsoft Game Studios. However, several sites still have the video. The music from the trailer has been confirmed to be "Optimus vs. Megatron", a song from the Transformers movie.

ViDocs

Halo Wars ViDoc #1 - Halo Times Ten

On January 23rd, 2009 the first ViDoc of Halo Wars has been released on Xbox LIVE marketplace, it tells how a different perspective can change the gameplay and the announcement of the demo planned on February the 5th. Note that the Spirit of Fire is at the Planet Arcadia in the Procyon system, proving that Harvest is not the only world visited in the game.

Halo Wars ViDoc #2 - Expanding The Arsenal

On February the 3rd, 2009 the second ViDoc was released, it tells about Spartans and hero unit abilities. Some new cinematic scenes appear in the ViDoc. Again, this ViDoc announces the demo on February the 5th.

Halo Wars ViDoc #3 - Strategy on Xbox

On February 12th, 2009 the third ViDoc was released, it tells about the controls featured and what expectation there are of the game. As well as the previous ViDoc, this one features cinematic scenes. Note that at a certain point in the video, there are exactly three Brute Chieftains, one Arbiter and six Elite Honor Guards fighting against a UNSC army. This would mean that all three Covenant leaders would have had to of been selected to get all these things at once. And it is strange that there are so many Brute Chieftains when it has been thought that you could only select one in a battle, this could mean that there is the main Chieftain, and the more lesser unnamed Brute commanders, or that the image seen is from a multiplayer match where multiple players are playing as the Brute led covenant faction. However this is unlikely, because there is an Arbiter and six Honor Guard Elites being shown. And it has been thought that you can only have 3 players on one team (A.I. or non A.I.).

Halo Wars ViDoc #4 - Jaws of Victory

On February 19th, 2009 the fourth ViDoc was released, it tells people about tactics, multiplayer and developers tactics. Unlike the others, this ViDoc shows already known cinematic scenes, however an intro to a mission is shown in which human civilians can be seen.

Demo

On February 5th, a demo for Halo Wars was released on Xbox Live for the first time for Gold Xbox Live Subscribers. The demo was made available to non-Gold subscribers on February 12th. The demo also set a record for most downloaded demo in one day.

In the halo wars demo the player can play the first two levels of the campaign, as well as play skirmish mode on the map Chasm, where the player can play against an AI opponent. The demo's skirmish mode can be played as the Covenant or the UNSC. The Covenant leader character in the demo is the Prophet of Regret, and the UNSC leader character is Captain Cutter. The demo's campaign mode allows the player to attempt to repossess Alpha Base with Sergeant Forge as their first unit, gathering stranded Marines and Warthogs along the way, which will in turn help the player retake Alpha Base from the Covenant. The second mission deals with the UNSC's attempt at gaining access to the relic before the Covenant destroy it to keep it out of UNSC hands. The demo also contains an optional tutorial for both advanced and beginner players.

Downloadable Content

The first wave of Halo Wars DLC was released on May 21. The DLC includes three new gametypes:

  * Keepaway Mode: This is the Halo Wars adaptation of "Capture the Flag." Teams battle it out to capture a free-roaming Forerunner Sentinel to score points before the other team. Capture three to five sentinels to claim victory.

  * Tug of War Mode: This mode is all about having a stronger army than your opponent. Defeating enemies is essential, but success is determined by a combination of the army, buildings, and resources left standing in the end.

  * Reinforcement Mode: All active battle units are provided in successive waves. Adapt to their tactics and use the ever-changing set of units to outwit and outlast the enemy.

Strategic Options also adds four new Achievements worth a total of 100 points:

One and Done: Score the winning point in a game of Keepaway against Legendary A.I.'s.

Pull Hard, Pull Deep: Win and never trail in a Tug of War game.

Freak on a Streak: Gain at least 15 population from a single wave in a Reinforcement game.

Living Loving Bug: Obtain a Scarab during a Reinforcement game.

If you wait long enough on the main menu screen, one of the tips at the bottom of the screen will say how many achievements you have unlocked. After the recent update, this tip was changed from ??/50 to ??/58, instead of ??/54. And also maps called Barrens (1v1), Blood River (1v1), and Memorial Basin (2v2) are mentioned in the underlying text that scrolls along the bottom of the screen. This suggests that there are four new achievements and 3 more maps being released with the upcoming DLC.

Robot Entertainment has also released a few Halo Wars Title Updates which bring gameplay changes and bug fixings.

The Historic Battle DLC, the second round of DLC, will be released on July 21st for 800 Microsoft Points.

Cut Content

Five units, the UNSC Cougar, UNSC Fox Cannon, Covenant Air Artillery, Covenant Gorgon, the UNSC Falcon, and the UNSC Leviathan were under development early in the game along with the ability to actually construct individual buildings (something that was seen in the 2007 build of the game). The developers later announced that these units been cut, as they had decided to focus on more recognizable Halo units and simpler gameplay.

Before Ensemble conceived the idea for The Apex the storyline was supposed to feature a Covenant mining asteroid that was located at a Forerunner ore refining mechanism. This concept tries to show the scale of the large Forerunner machinery in place with machines that are still operational, although now controlled by the Covenant. In the end the mining aspect of the story was removed from the game.

Another piece of deleted content is ambient life (i.e. Thorn Beasts, Harvest Whale, etc.) This may have been because the game already has some minor 'pathfinding issues' and the wildlife would have just been an obstacle.

Walkthrough Guide for Halo Wars Levels