Real Time Strategy on Consoles

A wise man (played by Jeff Goldblum) once said, “[They] were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” The quote is from the 1993 film Jurassic Park and I think it has an application to today’s video game industry. For years, people have been debating the possibility of putting real time strategy games on consoles. Countless attempts have come and gone, all being considered failures to some degree. The most recent being Halo Wars and the verbal debate on console RTSs is again in full swing.

Having played through the demo, I have to say that Halo Wars is a solid game but it still feels like a fish out of water. The biggest issue of creating an RTS for consoles, rather than PCs, is the drastically simplified controls. RTSs require precision as well as ease in issuing complex commands both in combat as well as economic base management. PC stalwarts are quick to point out that consoles lack this kind of precise control. Well, they’re right and Halo Wars is the period resting at the end of their argumentative sentence.

Think of all the possibilities these 14 buttons could offer you! All for the low, low price of 49.99!

There are a multitude of options for selecting troops in Halo Wars, all of which work well and effectively replace the basic ‘drag & drop’ mechanics of PC RTSs. Sadly, a ton of control subtlety is lost with the new system. Basic functions such as hotkeys are nowhere to be found and in my brief time with the game, I found absolutely no way to control a unit that was off-screen. Aside from these gameplay issues, Halo Wars has an excellent presentation and employs some narrative cutscenes that Halo fanboys are going to be drooling over for months to come.

My point being, that while Halo Wars does a good job of being an RTS on consoles, it still doesn’t compare to PC RTS games. And I can say with confidence that Halo Wars is probably as good as it’s going to get. Don’t get me wrong, Halo Wars is going to sell millions of units, but it’s simply because of the previously mentioned Halo fanboys who need something to wet their appetite before ODST drops.

So Halo Wars tells us that we can create a watered-down RTS experience on consoles. Now we have to ask ourselves, should we?

-That Guy

PS: For those of you who like the column, I’ve finally been strong-armed into a publication schedule. I’ll now be posting Thursday afternoons.