Halo Wars What's Wrong with Singleplayer?

OXCGN doesn't think Halo Wars' singleplayer is anywhere near as good as it could've been writing:

"It's not perfect. In fact far from it...

The problem for Halo Wars is that Bungie set such a high bar, not just for the industry at large, but most particularly for every Halo game to follow. And that's predictably where Halo Wars falls short."

The writer then takes issue with the lack of a Covenant campaign and a lacklustre story noting:

"The FPS trilogy always existed in fear of alienating the core audience and their love for MC... Halo Wars on the other hand is an exercise in video game storytelling existing merely to service the action. I don't care about the cardboard cut out stereotypes...

Telling a separate Covenant story [instead] provides a relatively fertile green field for storytelling..."

[Superfragilistic]

I'd much prefer a Covenant story. The gung ho American hero is gettin old.

[gaminoz]

Too right!

"We're Team America, F. yeah!"

Yawn.

[XboxOZ360]

Well it IS getting tired and borig, every second game, or more to the point, 4/5 games are the usual Yeah, America saves the day sort of thing and there's no real meat in them. At least when games come around that involve other countries, they ad spice and flavour to old styles, even if it is in the same genre or field.

But, then you get the clowns that say "yeah man, hate the russian accent, what are they trying to prove - thing is, they are talking about a Russian dev building a game based in Russia . .HELLO . .It's much like Tom Cruise play the role of an SS officer with an american accent . .hello . .someone called him an actor, not likely.

Mind you, I'm NOT having a go at american's per-se, just the idiolic industry that drives the notion forward that the world begins and ends in the US, even to the point of the international date line not being recognized as the "start of the day" .. . but that's another story.

Some of OXCGN's best supporters are from Nth America and we have two contributors from there. It's just this silly notion the game dev seem to think they have to push.

[XboxOZ360]

I'd have to admit, the ho-hum American Hero thing wears thing after awhile. So a new approach, along the lines of the original books would be a great deal more refreshing.

[REALgamer]

I saw them in a bookstore yesterday, was considering picking them up.

[Superfragilistic]

Read what you will into that though. Some will say that means they're really good, others will say its just more crap from Microsoft for dumb easily pleased gamers to buy.

I wouldn't know. Never read them. But I'd have a guess as somewhere in the middle. ;)

[XboxOZ360]

If youcan grab them, do so, you'll understand the real basis behind the game, any game for that matter. As an interactive medium can NEVER give you the same depth and detail as a book can.

The sad thing is, that many find reading boring or tedious these days, yet by not doing so, they miss out of the nuts of the whole game/series.

DO get them if you can, you'll be glad you did.

[Godem]

I liked the campaign gameplay but the story was pretty stale..

and the voice of the main character was highly annoying. As were the regular light hearted insults and jokes, that kind of killed the seriousness of the 3 official Halo games.

It DID need a covenant campaign too really extend the story and length of the game. And it would have been extremely bloody awesome to have a Flood campaign too... working for gravemind could be fun! But i guess then that makes it waaay to similar to Starcraft, which could be one of the reasons Ensemble avoided multiple campaigns?

anyway, my rant/oppinion is over.

[Superfragilistic]

I think its got more to do with Ensemble not having enough time or resources. Thakyou MS. :P

I hope we do see new campaigns as DLC expansions though. Playing as or with the Gravemind could be a far more mindbending experience.

[XboxOZ360]

Actually, there's a great article on Gameindustry news from Ensemble about how THEY were the ones that created their downfall, as they said, they were their own worst enemy. I'll see if I can dig up the link.

Here it is, moreover or to the point, a victim of their own success. So now that they have started up TWO new studios, they are not going to follow the same line and ideally do things differently. One of the studios I believe is working on the next Halo War, so it will be interesting to see what happens there.

http://www.gamesindustry.bi...

[gaminoz]

On the plus side it is a good strategy game at least.
The author agrees:

"It’s made RTS exciting and accessible on a console like never before and has the distinct and authentic smell of the ever-deepening Halo universe."

[Superfragilistic]

Yeah I think he's just lamenting the fact that it could've been so much more.

[darkmurder]

The flood really needed to be in the single player campain as playable.

[Immortal Kaim]

Don't know if it actually is, but the male voice in the tutorial sounds exactly like Yamcha from DBZ...? ;)

[Godem]

lol I got no idea, havent seen that show in like 5 years... really want to though

[REALgamer]

But definitely a covenant campaign would be amazing.

It might have come down to the reaction to Halo 2 though - many people weren't happy playing as the Arbiter and as such he was a side character in Halo 3.

Here's hoping there's a covenant campaign DLC in the works at Robot Entertainment (the start-up studio of ex-Ensemble employees handling future updates to Halo Wars).