WARNING: This review has many possible spoilers in it and discusses many details about the game. It even reveals details of the ending. Read at your own risk of spoilage!

Sorry if this is scattered at a few points. It is still easy to read and understand though.

The 'Halo Wars' is a great game that just recently hit the markets for Xbox 360. Besides having insanely amazing animated graphical cinematics, it is completely RTS (Real Time Stratagie; for those who don't know), and explores the war between humanity and the Covenant 20 years before the famous 'Halo' series.

I just beat the game and on a scale from one to ten, I rate this game a 9. The reason being, that besides having all that I mentioned above, and the player needing to be an RTS lover, it still has its downfalls, as does every game. (1) The first reason is that when you are constructing a base, it can take FOREVER to get a completely full and upgraded base; with all defenses finished, and to build a good sized effective army. You will find yourself sitting around building buildings, defenses, units, turrets, and conducting research for half an hour or much more before competely finishing and being competely ready for battle to the best degree. This is a patience game! No patience=hate this game. This isn’t that bad, but is highly inconvenient on timed missions! (2) The second reason is that in skirmish mode, you cannot play with another player unless you have Xbox live, or a system link. A game like this should hands down, have an original multiplayer function to where you can sit at home with a buddy and play with them. Not just against or with the VI. It would add to the experience. Though some people like the fact that they have the entire screen to themselves, which is what I like, it would still be fun. But when you have a 52 inch TV, a split screen isn’t that bad. Especially if you really know how to play, you won’t really be affected by it very much. (3) The third reason may be insignificant, but it would be realistic to have and would possibly make the game more demanding. You cannot build a fenced perimeter around your base or some type of wall to add to your defense. As far as I know, military bases always have some type of wall or fence around their base with guards and soldiers all over the place. It would be more realistic if you were able to build something like that around your base.

The story line is great, and so far have only found one thing wierd about it. The only thing that I am questioning is the Flood appearance. I have not read any of the books, and I have only mastered the three origional games. But from what I learned in the these games, the first time that the Flood shows up is in the first game, and nobody has any idea what it is. It is a complete surprise. However, I may be very wrong about this. But I was a little confused when the flood was in the game.

Other than that, game play is great! The battles are big, fun, and the game is all about conquest and defending. You also get to command Spartans! Multiple Spartans! A cool feature with them is that their special move is to highjack enemy vehicles. I knew you could do that of in the regular games, but you were ‘the’ Spartan and playing with him as the main character of course. It’s a little different and you're supposed to be able to do that kind of stuff. I didn’t know they were going to have that cool of a feature in this game.

Another cool thing, is that you can do research (meantioned above) on all of your buildings and battle features with specific units and war vehicles. I know this is a common thing, but there are more than usual and there are multiple steps and levels involved in the research that you can do. It is more in depth and it is cooler and more realistic.

The units that you can make and command (UNSC), are marines, flamethrower men, ODST’S (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, or Hell Jumpers), Spartans(Skirmish Mode only, unless the game has them already programmed into the mission), Scorpion tanks, Vultures, Hawks, Hornets, Warthogs, Cobras, Wolverines, Grizzly Tanks (Skirmish mode only), and Elephants. All depending on what leader you are using. For instance, in skirmish mode, Captain Cutter cannot use the Grizzly Super Tank. Only Sargeant Forge can. The leaders that you can play with are Captain Cutter, Sargeant Forge, and Captain Anders.

The units that you can make and command (Covenant), are grunt squads lead by Elites, Hunter groups, Brute squads, Jackals, Banshees, Vampires, Scarabs, Elite Honour Guards, Wraiths, Locuts, Ghosts, Engineers, Brute Choppers, and Suicide Grunts. This of course, just like with the UNSC, depends on which leader you use. For instance, if you use the Prophet of Regret, you are the only Covenant character that can make and command Elite honour Guards. The others cannot. The leaders that you can play with are the Prophet of Regret, the Arbiter, and the Brute Chieftain. NOTE: You can only use the Covenant in Skirmish mode. The story is only played through the UNSC.

In Skirmish Mode, you can play one on one with the VI (computer), Two on Two with the VI, or three on three with the VI. It is very much like Star Craft in this manner. Actually in almost everyway according to the game play. The only different thing, is that you can send, and recieve supplies from your allies. I thought that this was a pretty cool feature.

You can build all sorts of turrets and can upgrade those and conduct research for them as well. Pretty much anything you have is upgradeable and has some type of research that you can conduct on it to make it more effective and powerful. You can build as many bases as you want, and the more you have, the more units you can build.

The only other thing that I didn’t like about the game was the ending. It was quite abrupt, and you didn’t get to go to the fall of Reach. I think it would have been better that way personally, since you would have a game that went up to the Original Halo. It would have been more fulfilling. It’s a cliff hanger, and at the end, they sling shot the Spirit of Fire around the sun; being about 10 feet away from the surface! That is completely dumb and unrealistic! That ship would have completely disintegrated within seconds, long before it even got that close to the sun!

Other than that, I found the game to be flawless, and action packed. To anyone who loves Halo and RTS games, this is a MUST BUY!

Yeah Master Cheif has nothing on us though