Halo Wars Demo
February 5, 2009 26 Comments
While the Halo Wars demo has officially arrived, it hasn’t actually officially arrived. Attempting to add it to your Xbox 360 queue currently results in a “Sorry, this page is unavailable” error but I’m sure it will be up and going in no time. Check back soon to hopefully get your first Halo Wars fix. And in case you were wondering, “Halo Wars is a strategy game based on the legendary Halo universe. Command entire armies of Spartans, Warthogs and more into combat as you join the crew of the “Spirit of Fire” to battle the alien Covenant. Designed from the ground up for the Xbox 360, Halo Wars let you effortlessly command powerful armies in epic battles.” Enough about that though. Go check the link again already!
what the!…bunch of idiots! if their customer service represents the people putting up the games, man we have no hope!…anyway, its a free demo SO I WILL SHUT UP! and wait!
I did the same, queued it up and then i go this bloody error!!!! how do you fix it?…i left work an hour earlier today so i could come and do the downloadddd! dammmm you xbox! I HATE YOU but i love you!!!
checked just now, it worked for me
yeah ! thanks i just started downloading too!!! it will be worth the hour waiting!!
I went through the Canadian XBL site and snagged it that way. :D
Spirit of Fire… That sounds vaguely familiar…
Downloading it right now.
I turned off the alarm before it goes off.
I’m trying to quietly get ready to go into work early and before I even sneak through the bedroom door…”OMG! WHAT TIME IS IT?!?!? HALO WARS!!!!!!!111!!11!!one!!!!!!”
Mendi jumps out of the bed, almost steps on an unsuspecting cat, runs into the living room, and turns on the xbox.
Christmas wasn’t even this exciting…
I was able to start the download just fine before heading off to work. Here’s hoping that 10 hours is adequate to try out this beast.
lol @ pink
this whale is a happy one and shall be downloading NOWZ
I just did it from my console because it’s easier, and it’s working fine. I pre-ordered the limited edition, and I can’t wait to get my first real taste of it.
Strategy games are meant to be played with a mouse. But that’s just my opinion xD
A mouse would certainly be welcome.
I’m mostly interested in the story… okay that’s a lie. I’m mostly interested in the Halo 3 maps. But as a long-time Civ player, I can get into this I think.
“Strategy games are meant to be played with a mouse. But that’s just my opinion xD”
That’s what my friend said too.
Well, I guess I’ll have to download it…eh.
CRAP! You have to have a gold account to Download!?!?
BS!
Added to my queue… now if I can convince my wife at home to turn on the xbox and log me in….
I downloaded the demo hours ago and it worked for me.
Anyway, I thought the demo was pretty fun. Can’t say much more since this is the first rts I’ve ever played.
I did think it was awesome though that Christopher Sabat was the narrator guy that teaches you how to play the game in the tutorial.
I got it downloaded this morning, but I didn’t have time to play it before leaving for work. I won’t get home until about 10PM tonight, so I know what I’m doing late tonight. I’m really looking forward to trying it.
I really enjoyed Starcraft years ago. (To me, Starcraft is to RTS as Halo is to FPS: an exceptionally well-crafted game with both enjoyable game play and an engaging story.) Other RTS games have thus far failed to draw me in the same way, even Warcraft 3, which was in many ways a successor to Starcraft. As a long-time Bungie fan, I’m a little ashamed to say that even the Myth series was, in my opinion, never quite at the same level of smooth, consistently enjoyable game play as Starcraft.
I really want to like Halo Wars, and the connection the the Halo universe is definitely a big draw for me, but I am sort of on the fence about it. I haven’t yet pre-ordered my collector’s edition with the flaming warthog sauce. I’m hoping the demo removes my doubts.
Um, some spoilers ahead.
I woke up at 8am(Central US time), and realised I had woken up a full hour after I wanted to, to download the demo. So I rush on. And then proceed to wait another hour for the download. OK, its 1.4 GB’s, meaning it takes a damn long time. Righto, onto the tutorial.
Tutorial, though a bit slow paced, was helpful to me. I’m generally bad at RTS’s(despite being a Strategy guy myself), never played one on a console. It gave me the controls, told me how to do stuff.
Onto the Campaign…
Awesomeness. Blasting through Grunts with warthogs, storming the base while air-support knocks out Wraiths. Then comes the second mission. It takes a DAMN long time(at least for me) to get my supplies up to get a somewhat respectable army. I basically wait, slowly building up my army and supplies, while fending off the Covenant Dropships(the U-shaped ones, not Phantoms). The damn things can’t seem to get the idea they aren’t gonna stop me. Its funny watching them fly in, and getting torn to shreads by my anti-air turrets and compliments of Marine infantry(and soon Scorpions and Warthogs). Alright, time to move out.
Maxing out my 30 population, I have the following army: Sergeant Forge, 10 Marine Squads, 3 Marine Flamethrower Squads, 5 Warthogs, 3 Scorpions, and a Cobra. With my Scorpions in the lead, I see the devastating special attack the Scorpions have as an upgrade: Cannister. Cannister is, well, shotgun-shells for tanks(my words). It was fun ripping a group of Hunters to shreads, while my Warthogs ram down Grunts, and Marines deal with hidden Jackal snipers, via RPG.
Blasting through all defenses(while my turrets back home deal with any dropships), we easily destroy a Covenant base set up halfway between mine and the objective. Continuing to the objective, being charges set to destroy a Forerunner artifact to keep it out of human hands, we reach the final stretch. A pair of dropships drop off several troops in a last ditch attempt to stop us…my Scorpions deal with them via Cannister.
So all in all, I greatly enjoyed the demo. I was unsure of whether or not to get the game come March, but now I know my only option is to get the game. Hope the rest of you enjoyed it as much as I did.
I swear the game hates me. I had to fight for control of the internet at my school for it to download, and then when it finally finishes it wont play. I’ll have to wait a bit until I re-download it. I really hope i like this game.
It was fun. I can see myself playing it, but I’m still not looking forward to dropping 80 bucks for the Limited Edition.
I was never really interested in Halo Wars until I found out the limited edition comes with the Mythic Map Pack, which I want desperately.
I liked the demo. There’s something I like about having a large unit of, oh I don’t know, 5 marine squads armed with rockets, 4 flamer squads, and 3 warthogs while constantly mashing the X and Y buttons at my enemies. But I don’t know if this satisfaction will hold out for the entire single-player. And I can’t tell if I’ll be playing it again and again because there’s no multiplayer demo. So whether this is worth $80 has yet to be determined.
Wow, I never thought I would ever feel so neutral about a Halo game. Have I gone mad?!!?!
PS: Seriously. Why no multiplayer beta? This game looks like it’s trying to imitate Halo as much as possible, but it doesn’t have a multiplayer beta? C’mon!
just because it doesn’t have a multiplayer beta doesn’t mean it’s not a Halo game. And I don’t think it’s fair to presume it’s trying to imitate Halo, especially because it is in almost every gameplay respect radically different.
I personally feel like it is a real Halo game, nothing beats selecting all your units then sending them in to battle while the new Halo music plays epicly in the background. So satisfying!
Having not played an RTS since AOE II i am now a firm believer that RTS’s can and do work on consoles. Simple, intuitive, and rewarding controls are awesome.
I love the the fact that, although there’s a lot of new stuff, it all feels like canon, which is tough to do since I’m relatively picky. So good job Ensemble, you made an original yet canon Halo game! it’s only too bad you’re getting shut down… :(
This game is really meh. Its like they tried to capture the Halo feel but failed epicly.
I approve of this demo. The lack of multiplayer disappointing, yes, but it is still very fun to play skirmish mode over and over again in different situations. The controls are easy to get used to, and work very well on the console. I must say, though, the Prophet’s energy beam is ridiculously overpowered lol. And there’s nothing like marching in to a base with three scarab’s and destroying everything!
@Sarge Tomzilla
I never did end up getting to the level where I had any AA platforms, but the Scorpions really did tear through the Covenant insanely well.
The tutorial was really helpful, and there seems to be just enough of the economics of RTS games without boring console gaming styles.
Plus you get some amazingly hi-res cutscenes as a reward for everything. Those totally beast…
This is going to be big when it come out!