So this is one of those fun and good sort of spin off games such as this one that were originally a Xbox 360 exclusive but given a re-release update and launched again for second time on Steam over 7 years later. As a Halo and PC RTS fan who originally looked at this game at first, I were mostly.... eh, dammit. I'd give the game a pass. To experience RTS in its glory is to play the darn game on PC with precise mouse clicks and keyboard controls instead of the controller where you may accidentally misclick your dudes there with the left thumb stick.

But now given now that the game is out on PC and on Steam in enchanced edition I'm actually pleased with the game and, after spending hours and hours into the game, the gameplay is different from other titles such as Age of Empires and Commander & Conquer.

Gameplay in the game is different because at the start of nearly every campaign mission or skimish matches, your HQ Building is in form of Firebases (UNSC) or Command Center (Covenant) with 5 slots which you can order, and quee up, new buildings on such as Supply Pads/Warehouse, Barracks/Hall, etceria. Of course, you aren't to be slated with only 5 slots as you can upgrade the main building up to level 3 that then will grant you 7 building slots to work with. Only downside to this type of base building is that upon destruction of Firebase/Command center, all other structures with it get destroyed as well.

During the gameplay sections, you get to also control leader powers with such as the Heal & Repair ability on UNSC to help out in those tight spots in the evacuation campaign mission as well as keeping your dudes and mechanized units in top shape if the cooldown is bit of a pain at times but for some odd gameplay and/or story reasons you need to spend resources in order to utilize the powers. Also to note on this support powers system is this is expended upon in the sequel.

As for one of other great things about the game is that the story takes place couple of decades before the events of main titles as well as the pretty neat cinematics with one of them even showed off the capabilities of the Spartans we don't normally get to see in the first 3 main FPS games except for H4 and H5 (considering a bit on how disappointing 5 is but just know only that we get to see more of capabilities. As well as in the books) with their agility and strength. The story take place in middle of the war that is slowly going against mankind with the colonies being picked off one by one and it focuses on the support ship Spirit of Fire currently helping out the operations on the planet of Harvest and I wouldn't spoil much on what happens next.

Just know that, chronically, the crew of the ship were the first to ran into, and know about, the Flood first but became incapable of reporting on our most threatening parasitic species to rest of the UNSC and other important bits. Also we get the sequel game super neat enough instead of letting them simply being put on ice (or put on a metaphorically bus, if you want to get literature critic/troper on the game) for eternality.

As being part of the audience, we can also say it is sad and/or suck to know that, chronically, UNSC doesn't know about the threat of the Flood until events of the main FPS games. But again points to the writer(s) for preserving the contiunity of the story but still....

For the final notes to consider on the game; for the OST it is great and the soundtracks is actually composed by the guy who did Age of Empire 3's OSTs and they rather fits Halo quite.... perfectly, I think, and they sound nice especially with those rock out music when assaulting the enemy's stronghold. Also I love how animations for the bases and their add on structures go such as UNSC's supply pads with those supply shuttles bringing in supply crates and going up to show that we are receiving supplies from Spirit of Fire to keep us going or even with the air unit production in Covenant bases having lights blinking to let us know that air units are on the way.

Going back to touch on the gameplay sections, it's actually neat that you can also discover Black Boxes in Campaigns to learn bits of story information on characters and events and such as well as finishing much of the skimish maps and beating the skimish matches with 6 different leaders. Also the difficulty of earning skulls in order to unlock gameplay options during Campaign and then to getting to the skulls will vary depending on mission.

All in all, my conclusion is that Halo Wars is a good game to get. Especially if you haven't played the main games because of their whole being Xbox exclusive games. It is one of those prequel games/books that allow you to know what the war is like and all as well as the characters. Only downside to the game is that, last time as of this review, that Multiplayer is more or less dead unless you goes onto the community hub and asks for matchups against somebody.