Reason to be cheerful - Level design isn't over-facing
Halo Wars subscribes to the traditional RTS model of blacking out any unexplored part of the map until the player's forces travel into it, but while that could be intimidating to brand new RTS noobs, the maps themselves are designed to draw any player progressively into the game without fear. They start out completely linear (all of the ones we played were simple "A to B, kill everything along the way" affairs), but we've been assured that they'll branch out and become more complex as the story and mission objectives dictate.
Reason to be fearful - Level design isn't particularly challenging
As we said, every map we've played so far has had a simple, single-path set up. Base at one end, objective target at the other, enemies in between. In fact they were so linear that at times we felt like we were playing a simple corridor shooter, despite the outdoor setting and overhead perspective. And it didn't help that the gameplay was often such a one-note, thought-rarely-required affair.
We built an army. We clicked X to move forward. Some Grunts and Ghosts appeared and rushed us. We clicked X to blow them up. We moved forward and repeated the process. When we got hit by a few more enemies than usual, we pressed Y to decimate them. That was about it.
We know we were playing the early stages of the game, and we know that means that the challenge probably shouldn't have been epic, but when we can successfully play an RTS with only half of our focus on the screen, it all just feels a bit mindless. As long as player forces were built up heavily enough at the beginning, nothing even approached a challenge.
Reason to be cheerful - There are loads of bonus items to be picked up through exploration
There's a healthy amount of secret content to be unlocked in Halo Wars. Each mission contains a few Achievement-style optional objectives (Kill 100 Grunts etc.) which if completed, can branch out into others and lead to hidden areas and equipment. This stuff is apparently also available by giving the maps a dose of good old fashioned exploring.
You can find everything from upgraded weaponry and vehicles (the example we were given was a flamethrower-equipped Warthog) to bonus resources, allowing faster building of your army's base and equipment. The unlockable hardware can be used in campaign and online multiplayer, and the latter should provide a great opportunity for showing off your campaign prowess with 'real' combat-assisting trophies.
Reason to be fearful - The bonus items make us worry about game balance in multiplayer
Our first thought when we heard about the upgraded weaponry was the potential for seriously stacked odds in online competition. What if, for example, you were new to the game and hadn't had time to unlock any of the special hidden toys? And what if you went up against someone who'd been playing for a few weeks and had a whole bunch of them?
We asked Ensemble about this and were told that things have been balanced out so as not to create an unfair advantage. At this stage of course, we have to take them at their word, but given the issues we had with overpowered attacks during campaign mode, this one's going to be niggling at the back of our collective Radar brain until we can get some serious competitive play time to put our minds at rest.
So there we have it. Halo Wars right now is a severe case of the archetypal "Could go either way". As we said in the intro, it's tempting to write off our concerns as a product of being shown the early stages of the game, but at the end of the day preview events are supposed to be about giving a decent representation of what a game is all about. At the moment we can't help but feel that either MS did the game a disservice by not showing it off properly, or that it really must be as simple as we currently fear. Time, as the cliche goes, will tell. Here's hoping.
