Bin War

By simplifying the FPS genre for consoles, thus starting a flood of FPS titles, the Halo series has been widely regarded as a console gaming revolution. It took a genre that had only previously been mastered with a mouse and keyboard and optimized it for home console controls, it became a huge success. Now with a new studio behind the franchise, can Halo work its magic on the real time strategy genre?

When Halo first arrives, what it essentially did was take console first person shooters as a starting point, simplified it in many ways, created a comfortable control scheme and combined it with a deep, interesting narrative and back story. This time around, the back story is already there for the taking, it was the controls that Halo Wars really needed to revolutionize upon.

Halo Wars does this with some degree of success. While only making minor changes to the controls of other RTS games on consoles such as Command and Conquer 3, it certainly feels more fluid and simplified. While Ensemble could have used voice commands such as in Tom Clancy’s EndWar, they have opted for just the controller this time around. Although these controls do not work perfectly or improve far on previous efforts, and certainly does not provide the same experience a keyboard and mouse can offer; Ensemble has done an excellent job of creating a control scheme that is fun and effective to use.

Along with simplified controls, the genre itself has been simplified for the console. Ensemble was clearly thinking of their audience for this game, as many will be fairly new to the genre or could be buying it for the further insight into Halo’s back-story or just want to cause mass destruction. This game is essentially a beginner’s guide to the RTS genre, as it does not bombard the player with complex tasks. The best part of the RTS genre has always been the building of a huge army and watching the destruction they cause. Halo Wars succeeds at this. However, its lack of depth will provide a far less satisfying experience for seasoned RTS players, as it is not nearly challenging or complex enough, and at times can feel a little patronising for them. The units available to play with include many obvious halo units such as Scorpion tanks, ODST, Warthog, though others have been added to beef up the armies to a playable RTS level. Unfortunately, it is unavoidable that the more units Ensemble makes up, the less it feels like a Halo game, but the less units of their own, the less of an RTS it is. Ensemble have struck an impressive balance, and made many of the new units fit perfectly within the Halo universe. Base management is also another mixed palette of good and bad. While the designated building locations in your base make it easier, many fans of the Command and Conquer franchise may miss being able to build their own style of base. Though limited, this again, makes the game much more accessible, especially with the controller.

The single player campaign plays out like the RTS equivalent of a Halo game, which gave the nature of the game, it is rather fitting. What is meant by this is that it is fairly linear with little freedom and a constant set of objectives to follow throughout each level. Although this provides some fantastic moments and set pieces that you may not find in many other games in the genre, the lack of ways to go about your mission certainly does not suit the RTS genre as well as it does in the FPS genre. It is also very short, coming in at around seven hours; it can leave you a little unsatisfied with the end product. The story itself however, is extremely well presented with stunning CGI cut scenes, which are well acted for the most part. The story does a good job of encouraging the player through each level, though at times it can be the only motivator to get through some of the less compelling missions. Unfortunately, the story is based around four uninteresting protagonists. The aging war general, who is half expected to grunt “I’m too old for this crap!” at almost any moment, the cookie cutter, wisecracking action hero, his love interest scientist that dislikes him at first, and finally, the ship AI, providing some female tension with the scientist character and sarcastic humour regularly during both missions and cut scenes. Luckily, the clichés are never too much to bear, but it certainly detracts from the immersion. The plot itself focuses on the back-story of the Halo franchise, only really explored in the novels. Set 20 years before Halo: Combat Evolved, the game tells the story of battles that took place on the planet Harvest, a human colony, and later, a planet called Arcadia. As the story plays out, your army will face many setbacks which you are then tasked with putting right. Whether it is an experimental covenant weapon, or the loss of a city. A few twists and turns create plot holes and unanswered questions, as well as player confusion over a certain character’s identity towards the end, but for the most part, the story remains simple, and the character identity crisis can be figured out just by thinking about it for a few seconds. It is a little disappointing that the game did not allow you to play as The Covenant to add more play time and an interesting second view on the conflicts, but as it is, the single player campaign is satisfying for the most part.

The multiplayer, on the other hand provides much more freedom and depth. Basically, skirmish will dump you on a map with an empty base with an opponent in the same position somewhere else on the map. It quickly becomes a tactical arms race, and you may incorporate many of the tactics forced upon you by the linear campaign to help you overcome your enemy. There is nobody holding your hand, telling you what to do here, and it makes a refreshing change from the campaign mode. This mode may provide a daunting experience for new players, though with the single player offering the skills needed to succeed, it is easy to get into once you have ploughed through a reasonable amount of the game. Experienced RTS fans will find the multiplayer the best part of the game, though it is still not nearly deep or complex enough to stand up to the likes of Dawn of War, though it will provide a satisfying experience to newcomers, and is easily the best multiplayer RTS available on consoles yet.

The presentation is mostly unimpressive, though it does not exactly look bad either. The menu will be quick to give a strong sense of déjà-vu to Halo fans; the audio is on par with other games in the series, from the fantastic music track to every gunshot and laser blast. The visuals, on the other hand, look muddy and dull; it can often be hard to remember this is a Halo game at times when only UNSC troops flood the screen. The covenant’s presence to the screen will always bring back the Halo vibe, as will some of the environments of later levels, but many environments are bland, very low detail has been put into units in the game. It is a very mixed palette; you will often see things that impress you but just not enough to stop the dull visuals being noticed.

It is clear that the consumer market for this game is split in two categories; there are the experienced RTS fans, and the Halo fans. Though this game will provide a satisfying experience for Halo fans and newcomers to the genre, it will not provide enough for the veterans. In short, if you are a Halo fan or interested in exploring the RTS genre for the first time, it is worth a buy. If you are an experienced player of the genre, this game may be worth a rent if curiosity gets the best of you. Lastly, if you are in the unlikely position where you are an experienced RTS player that does not own a PC for various reasons, this is possibly the best you can get at this time. This game is unlikely to cause a flood of real-time strategy games, and it does not do enough to become a standout game, but if it has sparked your interest so far, it is likely that this game will be a welcome addition to your collection, and will allow you to diversify your gaming experience away from what you are used to while keeping you in a comfortable, familiar setting. Ensemble has struck the balance between accessibility and depth perfectly, adding their own fiction to the franchise without replacing what was already part of the Halo universe, and overall created a satisfying experience. While not a brilliant RTS game, it definitely deserves the Halo name.

Halo started it all for console first person shooters as we know them, and until Call of Duty 4 came along, it was pretty much unopposed. One failed attempt to take the crown was the original Killzone, which received a poor response from gamers everywhere. Now Killzone 2 has arrived to compete with the juggernauts of the FPS genre, does it reign victorious?

First impressions are always important, and in gaming, the first impression when you first play the game comes from the visuals. Killzone 2 easily blows you away with its incredible attention to detail and graphics that could easily be mistaken for CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery). What is most impressive is the lighting, as everything that is supposed to create light will create it realistically, creating some of the most stunning looking game play moments ever seen. The first time you find yourself in a cramped, dark room with a Helghast in your face, you pull the trigger and watch him react to every one of your bullets, the muzzle flash lighting up his flailing body and giving a disgusting red glow to the blood, you really can’t help but be impressed by how truly beautiful death can be in Killzone 2. Despite the obvious criticism that it lacks 99% of the color spectrum, this game is one to be played in High Definition. Every time a color other than grey does find its way into your field of vision, it will be there for dramatic effect. The beautiful muddy orange explosions, the red glow of the Helghan eyes, the yellow muzzle flash of a far off sniper. They all add vastly to the atmosphere, and in this game, atmosphere is by the bucket-load.

Killzone 2 follows the story of Sev, your character. Though if it wasn’t for the first scene in the game where he looks at himself in the mirror after waking up to the sound of an alarm, it would be hard to distinguish him from the other cookie-cutter bone headed military characters. Sev and his friends are aboard the New Sun, one of many ships tasked with being part of a huge counter attack on the planet of Helghan, after the victory you saw after the attack on your home colony of Vekta in the first Killzone, and Killzone Liberations on PSP. The campaign will take you through many similar looking set-piece battles on the quest to find and capture Emperor Visari, the Helghan leader voiced by Brian Cox. Aside from this, the voice acting is awful and the dialogue sounds like it was written by a 13 year old with a copy of Aliens and a book of “yo momma” jokes. Though the story serves its purpose, giving you a reason to move on to the next fight, it just isn’t up to standard of most AAA titles, packed with misused curse words and an endless array of clichés that it simply loses the immersion of the player during the cut scenes. Luckily the gameplay provided is more than up to scratch with competitors. The cover system takes some getting used to but adds to the immersion and gives the game its own unique identity among a flood of similar sci-fi FPS games. Movement is well animated and weighty, though the controls may need to be changed to suit your needs, and the sensitivity will need to be increased vastly if you wish to even stand a chance of hitting a moving target. Control delay is an issue at first, but with the increased sensitivity, it does not take long to get used to after the first few levels. Although many of the locations you face are not all that distinguishable from one another, the level design will make up for this. You will also never feel like you are visiting the same locations all the way through, as you will also find yourself in a dusty desert shanty town, a moving train, and you will often find yourself manning a tank or mech, which breaks the mould nicely and reduces repetitiveness. Unfortunately, like most games of this generation, the game is of unsatisfactory length, only racking up eight hours. Despite this, there is much reason to come back, whether it is just for kicks or to find some of the collectables. Trophy support, like many games, increases the reason to return to the single player.

Multiplayer functionality a very important part of FPS games, and Killzone 2 is clearly no exception. Though many games have failed to pick up a crowd, trying to put their own twist on existing game types, Killzone 2 basically just takes existing game types and turns them into a single game mode, alternating each separate game type as objectives throughout the match. This is called Warzone. Though an extremely simple way of differentiating itself from other popular online games, it is a genius way of keeping the flow of the game moving, reducing repetitiveness, and keeping all the game types we have come to know and love entirely intact. This of course means you will be spending a long time on just one map before moving to another without manually quitting out and selecting a different game. Despite this, the maps are impressively big, and sometimes can even feel too big for the full 32 players to fully accommodate. The dynamic shifting of game types will often put previously unused areas on the map into full focus, keeping matches from getting too tedious too fast. The class system has also unique. Taking the same rank system that has been around for years and allowing players to customize and blend together classes to suit them as they rise up the ranks. The class system is very well balanced out, and constantly rewards you for your achievements, adding new layers of customization to the fun. Still, not many users use headsets, and this keeps things from ever feeling like you are facing real opponents, especially with impressive AI bots on offer. Though packing only half the number of players that fill a match on Resistance 2, the experience on offer is certainly more enjoyable, yet less hectic. Although this has become standard in many multiplayer games, this game is missing a party mode. It allows you to join friends directly in a game, but no way to move from game to game with friends in a user-friendly manner. Despite this, the squad function encourages you to make new friends, letting you invite people into your squad and join other players in their squad, which is a nice feature. It is also nice to see a developer making use of the in-game music feature, which allows you to play music from the PS3 hard drive while playing the game. This is unfortunately only for the online mode, but it is easy to understand why Guerrilla made it this way. The overall multiplayer experience is a keeper, and will easily be able to hang with the best in the genre for a long time.

Overall, the experience is incredible. It truly raises the bar for the genre, though not enough to definitively take the crown, as that is still open to debate. However, it is not open to debate that this game is undoubtedly the most impressive looking game out for consoles. While the tale it tells and dialogue it tells it with is far from top notch, all the positive aspects of the game outweigh any problems the game faces, though this is not to say the negative aspects of the game do not exist.

FINAL SCORE: A