
- #HALO WARS DEFINITIVE EDITION PC KEYBOARD CONTROLS UPGRADE#
- #HALO WARS DEFINITIVE EDITION PC KEYBOARD CONTROLS FREE#
All of this is powered by a simple economy reactors powering technology thresholds and a basic accruing of supply via base platforms or snapping up caches in the field.
#HALO WARS DEFINITIVE EDITION PC KEYBOARD CONTROLS UPGRADE#
The iconic Spartans start with those middling akimbo SMGs and upgrade to their namesake lasers. Scorpion tanks can break out canister shot for anti-infantry duties. The squirrelly stalwart Warthog goes from a barebones scout through packing a pintle-MG to eventually toting a gauss rifle. Units aren’t plentiful on either side, but they have just enough in the way of upgrades and special abilities to keep things interesting. Players could make do with control groups, but I've found the game is about mob composition over position, and the local to global unit selection is smooth and entirely successful.
#HALO WARS DEFINITIVE EDITION PC KEYBOARD CONTROLS FREE#
You're still free to scroll about and box-select units as you would with any other RTS, yet Halo Wars allows for immediate local group or global unit selection at the press of button press. On controller or mouse and keyboard, a short swathe of controls keeps command tightly contained. There's a relaxed pace to everything, and while that might appear necessity by design, languid gearing isn't uncharacteristic of Halo. Akin to its shooter forebear, this isn't a particularly fast game. There's little micromanagement to speak of.īut, Halo Wars works. Base construction takes its cues from the aged likes of SSI's Dark Colony in upgrading preset base palettes, rather than wanton construction. Missions don't take place over sprawling maps. It'd be as easy as it is disingenuous to call the game an entry-level RTS, but the truth is, Halo Wars is a streamlined affair. It's tough to appraise Halo Wars and not consider its mouse-less roots, despite feeling quite at home on PC. It's not a tale for the ages, but as far as stitching together a string of varied missions, Halo Wars has as much fictive clout as it needs.

A prequel tale to the original game, the story takes a gaggle of UNSC heavies from sieged worlds to alien planets, rumbling with the stalwart Covenant and their penchant for pearlescent pinks and purples. And while Halo Wars is very much a genre departure, Ensemble's RTS is Halo through and through. The original shooter was a watershed moment and its sequel a touchstone for console multiplayer.

I've been an absentee from the Halo universe for years, due solely to console exclusivity, but have long been an advocate for Bungie's blend of rock 'em sock 'em Duplo space opera. Scrubbed up into the Definitive Edition with bundled DLC gratis and high-resolution textures, Ensemble's 2009 swansong is a lean, easy to play effort that feels as at home on PC as it did all those years ago on console. In a welcome move by Microsoft, Halo Wars has finally hit Steam.
