To start things off, yes I have the full game. You don't believe me, that's fine, you don't have to read this then, and pretend it doesn't exist. For those of you who do believe I have the game, here is my review of it. And no, its not all "its the best game evar" or "it suks" but somewhere in the middle...
Let me first say this, the 07 demo is gone, and you people need to let go. Stop being clingy little bastards and just put the 07 into the back of your mind. What you see, is what you get. Also, stop comparing Halo Wars to Starcraft, DoW, and other RTS games. Halo is different, get over it.
I also should add that this review is a little biased. Other people may not have been so...nice.
Lets start with the controls shall we?
controls
Ya, ya, I bet you've heard enough of the controls so here is my take on it. You have to be missing your left hand, and have a hook for your right hand in order not to get the controls. Even then, the controls should be simple enough to use.
Next up is campaign
Campaign
Let me start off with a question on this one. ES, wtf? Honestly, I don't know what you guys were thinking when you made the campaign. Don't get me wrong, you guys were good(to some degree) with the canon. I don't know what happened... Either you guys dropped the canon into a few thousand pieces, and tried to piece it back together with glue and scotch tape... And you seem to be forgeting the closer part with certain vehicles and units. Graheme once said as an example "The reason you don't see wolverines is because the factory was on Mars, and that factory was bombed in 2535 blah blah blah...". Either you guys forgot to add the reasons, or I'm not looking hard enough. Maybe the answers are in the black boxes that are scattered throughout the campaign, so I could be wrong there. Anyway, to get on a good note, the campaign is atleast fun. To make a long story longer, this campaign is only for a select few groups. If you like fun, and are not much into story telling, you'll have a blast playing the campaign. If you're one of those people who only played halo 3, never read any of the books, and basically know nothing of the story, like RTS games, you should like this campaign. If you like to watch things crash and burn, then you should also play the campaign. Also, you achievement whores should like the campaign, as most of the achievements are there.
Now, here are the people who should avoid the campaign. People who have an overly obsetion with the halo story line, that a single inconsistancy will send you into a frenzy and killing spree. If you like a good story that makes sense, stay away from this. If you are one of those achievement whores who are also a fan of the halo story, you'll more than likely tear yourself in two unsure if you should do the campaign or not. Although, you could always play co-op and have the other guy do all the work while you do something else.
Let me sum up those two paragraphs with this. If you like the halo story, then avoid this campaign. If you like fun, achievements, and don't care for the halo story, you'll enjoy the campaign.
Cutscenes
These are amazing, whoever worked on the cutsenes needs a pat-on-the back, or give them a raise, or something even better. If you need a reason to play the campaign, it's because of the cutscenes. They literarly blew me away...
skirmish
This, is what I feel the best part of the game(besides MP). The maps vary from size and certain objects on the map. They are a hell of a lot of fun to play, and there is serious re-playablity here(unlike campaign). To those that have the demo and played against the AI, I'm thinking you thought the AI was easy right? Well, the Legendary AI is more than a challenge. Plus, there is another difficulty level called automatic(40), which I assume means "In 40 seconds, you better have brought the lube". I was a little disappointed with the inclusion of only two gametypes, standard and deathmatch. Maybe some DLC will be some new gametypes, I hope.
To make this a short post, skirmish is fun, and there is serious enjoyment to be had in these maps.
Multiplayer
I can't really say much on this, as I have only tried twice to find a match, and both times I was the only one online. Maybe they were avoiding me because I am so awesome, that they didn't want to lose to me, or I just get on at the wrong times. I assume its the first. Anyway, if it's anything like skirmish, except with more people, then it will be even more fun than skirmish.
Halo Timeline
This is the cool part right here, the halo timeline. What it is, is the events that occuried throughout and before the human-covenant war. The irony that I find is that those events hold more canon credibility than the campaign, which is what you need to do in order to find these events. Irony is a funny thing isn't it? Anyway, they are pretty cool, and adds a nice backstory to the halo universe.
Let me sum it all up in these last few sentences. The game is fun, hell of a lot of fun. It falls short on the story though. You'll spend most of your time on the skirmish rather than the campaign.
If you're looking for a rating, here it is. Its good, but not awesome. You want a number rating, Q. I don't see the need for numbers, but if you want one, its about a 7, maybe 7.5.
All in all, this is a game you want to play with or agianst friends, rather than tell you a compelling story that makes sense. You can always wait for the price to go down to get this game. Maybe a month or two.
anyway, if you have any questions, feel free to ask me at anytime. I probably missed some stuff in this review, so feel free to point out anything.
MY POST COUNT IS OVER 9,000!!!
Bow before me mortals!
banned, for no good reason. I will be back though, and I intend to kick some serious ass...