Calling these things 'reviews' is a bit of a joke as they're getting further and further out of date as we go on. As I've stated previously I hate doing 'proper reviews' as there are a ton of people oyut there more qualified doing much better work - but still I quite like letting you know what I enjoy and what I've been up to and so I'll persist and maybe overload you with so much VG content that you beg for some Legacy instead!
Rough Plot
The first game to follow the Halo trilogy takes place a whole 20 years before the ring-world was found. Humanity has encountered the Covenant and suffered war for 5 years at their hand. The Spartan-2 super-soldiers are still new to the war, but used to effect, however humanity is still losing. The Spirit of Fire is deployed to Harvest to set up bases with it's large stock of equipment, troops and self-assembling firebases. When they encounter the Covenant they find them investigating a 'relic' - which leads them to Arcadia, a colony world now under attack. They defend the world, with the aid of the Spartans, but the Covenant plot takes them far into uncharted space to a mysterious world where they encounter and fight the Flood and try to stop the Covenant from getting their hands on a terrible weapon.
Gameplay
The game was true innovation at it's best - a strategy game built for the console. The nimble control system allows for rapid and flexible control of units, formerly only accomplished with a computer mouse. Developed by Ensemble, masters of the genre and creators of the famed Age of Empires series, the game works fluidly and provides and excellent and enjoyable experience on the 360 which challenges you but the game mechanic does not stop you completing the challenge. Unfortunately the studio has had to close so it remains to be seen whether this trend will continue.
Sci-Fi Stuff
The game, while radically different from it's first person shooter forebears, is still a fully-fledged part of the Halo universe, that means Artificial Intelligence, Alien Races, Spaceships and new Planets. The Halo franchises is one on the most richly detailed Sci-Fi franchises of the current time. I'll got into more detail on what we encounter in a follow-up post as I did for Force Unleashed.
Worth Playing?
Yes, undoubtedly yes. I'm hooked on Halo so the game could really be any genre and I'd give it a try as long as it furthered the storyline in some way. You may not be a strategy game player but this one does hold it's own and makes good use of your trigger fingers. Furthermore the storyline is engaging and carried forward by truly beautiful cinematics by Blur Studios that serve a a real reward for completing a mission.
More soon.
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