Halo Wars: What You Need to Know


The juiciest bits from our mammoth new interview with the game's lead designer.
By Kris Pigna, 07/11/2008


If you're a Halo fan, do yourself a favor and read all 7,000 words from our exclusive Halo Wars interview with Ensemble Studios lead designer Dave Pottinger.
But maybe a 7,000-word read is a bit much to digest at the moment? Since we're always looking out for you, we've gone ahead and pulled a few of the more interesting quotes on all the subjects we expect readers would want to read about most -- from how the game's structure is shaping up and the ways it addresses making an RTS work on consoles, to how its story fits in with Halo lore and what to expect from your favorite Halo characters in this new setting. Read on, stalwart fan!
On balancing the combat and the economy: Every RTS, at its base level, is about balancing resource management and large-scale combat. But doing so often means lots of micromanagement and hotkeys, which is where console ports tend to hit pitfalls. So how does Ensemble Studios -- whose Age of Empires series is known to be one of the more intricate RTS franchises out there -- plan on striking the right balance while keeping things simple?
"It's an investment-based economy. We want that distinction between booming and rushing and turtling in the game -- that's from a classic strategy game," Pottinger told us. "We can't talk about the economy without talking a little bit about the base model. The base model is, the Spirit of Fire [the USNC ship where you, as the player, control the battles] has sent down these drop pods, and they form the nucleus of your base, and then you choose which add-ons to build. If you want a heavy economy, you build a lot of economic add-ons, and you invest in upgrading those."
The goal, Pottinger explained, is to keep the intense level of decision-making you encounter in a PC RTS while making the process simple enough for consoles. "That level of the military versus the economy is really important for us, and in that sense we've kept all the same high-level decisions from a PC strategy game, but they're implemented in a way that's pretty cool for the console. It doesn't take hardly any micromanagement at all. You pick that you want to invest in more economy, and you do that, done, and you go back to focusing on combat."
On how to make RTS on consoles work: Once again, the key seems to be in reducing the gameplay to it's basic elements. "It's a game where everything in the game is there for a reason, in a way that's huge," said Pottinger. "We actually have enjoyed embracing the limitations of the console controller, which just means you can't have as much in the game as you can on a PC.... We've actually been recently trying to take out some of the alternate button configurations to pare the game down even more, and get it to be something that's fast, that's quick, that gets an adrenaline kind of punch-counterpunch thing -- which suits the console market too, so getting something that you can play in 15 minutes and have a lot of fun."
On the game's pacing: Pottinger said he expects the average game to last around 15-20 minutes. That's about half the length of a typical Age of Empires match, but the key is maintaining the same ebb and flow. "We want you to be able to not have to fight right away if you want a strategy where you're going to go invest in the high dollar expensive kick-ass units, and you want fewer better units -- we want that choice in the game. So we still have to let you be able to do that."

On working the Warthog and Spartan units into the game: "At one point we had Warthogs kind of halfway into the tech tree," Pottinger said, "and there was sort of an epiphany moment where we decided to have you start with a Warthog. In Age terminology, the Warthog is your scout.... So we made a conscious choice to deemphasize the initial combat role of the Warthog in order to get this iconic kick-ass Halo unit out there." But don't worry, Halo fans -- Pottinger also explained that unit upgrades would be a big element of the game, and eventually you'll be able to fit Warthogs with their iconic machine guns.
As for the Spartans, Pottinger said they took a lot of inspiration from the expanded Halo fiction. "Everybody thinks of Master Chief and the Spartan as the same thing. We don't expect anybody to have gone and read all the Halo books and whatnot, but Spartans actually can die. We need that for an RTS game. Our Spartans tend to be more the true canon Spartans as opposed to Master Chief." Pottinger continued, "There's a limit to how many of them you can have, but they're sort of the kingmaker unit. They can take over enemy vehicles and commandeer your vehicles, so you can use them three different ways -- that's the really fun component."
On crafting a story in an RTS: "Halo is an IP that's built around a single guy," Pottinger said. "It's hard to take that and make it a game where you're controlling multiple guys, but also a story where you want to care about multiple guys. And I think we're going to show a few things in a week [at E3] that will show people that we've done that."
Pottinger wasn't shy to boast about what they've accomplished with the story, even saying it may surpass what players expect from a Halo tale. "That level of intensity and emotional attachment -- I think we've nailed it. It has to be nailed, right? It's Halo. People care about that in a way that they don't care about Genghis Khan [as in an Age of Empires game]. Genghis Khan's cool, but he's not Master Chief."
On the release date: Thankfully, Pottinger dispelled notions of a 2010 release, but he didn't specify much more beyond that. "It's on track. I'm pretty sure it's not 2010. I love this game; I don't love it that much. I don't think I love anything that much. It's on track and we're rolling along."
On how Ensemble celebrates development milestones: Okay, this really has nothing to do with Halo Wars, but we just loved Pottinger's answer too much not to end on it:
"Ours involve drinking. We have a German restaurant that serves very, very excellent beer in two-liter glass boots that we like to go celebrate in. The noobs hold the boot the wrong way and get splashed with the last shot of their beer." Remember, folks -- there's plenty more in the full interview, so be sure to check it out. And stay tuned during our E3 coverage next week for even more on how Halo will make its transition into real-time strategy.


- Taken from 1up


IMO the pics don't look that great and the 2010 release date don't look good either

2010? Not even going to buy then.

Wow, that long for a game that's not going to be that great? Honestly, Bungie is trying too hard to out do them selves, and they wont do it.

I heard it was coming out October of '09 somewhere.......don't remember the source.

2010 though, I probably won't be playing games then.

Halo Wars is going to be a great game if you like RTS. If not then don't buy it. I thought it was coming out October too. I'm not buying it if it is coming out 2010.