Halo Wars: UNSC vs. Covenant

February 16th, 2009, 21:41 Posted By: wraggster

Over the course of three epic games, we've come to know the people, aliens and vehicles of the Halo universe in intimate detail. From Grunts and Gravity Hammers to SPARTAN-IIs and Scorpions, Bungie's expansive Halo universe is chock full of military minutia. And in the eyes of the developers at Ensemble Studios, that wealth of information set the Halo franchise up perfectly for adaptation into the real-time strategy realm, one of the most detail-oriented genres in gaming.

Each day this week, IGN will be taking an exclusive, in-depth look at Halo Wars, the newest entry in the Halo saga and Ensemble's final game as a studio. Each video and written feature will tackle a different aspect of this Halo-themed RTS, from the sweeping storyline to an up-close look at the Halo series' troops and vehicles over the years. Today's installment presents an introductory look at the forces of the human United Nations Space Command and those of the alien Covenant coalition.


Click the image to view our Halo Wars: UNSC vs. Covenant video special (HD available).


In the 15-mission Halo Wars story mode, you'll be in control of the UNSC the entire time, and you'll gain access to various human military vehicles and units along the way. But that doesn't mean the Covenant are left out of the party. In Halo Wars multiplayer and skirmish modes, the alien forces are fully playable. And although they follow the same basic rules as their human counterparts, the Covenant are quite different from the UNSC forces in several key ways.

Each multiplayer and skirmish battle in Halo Wars starts with the construction of a base, and you'll approach that task a bit differently depending on which faction you take into battle. UNSC forces depend on Supply Pads to collect resources – the more of these you have at your disposal, the quicker your support ships can ferry in supplies. In order to produce units, build vehicles and use special weapons like the orbiting Spirit of Fire's Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, you'll want to build Supply Pads quickly and in as many places as possible.

But that's just the beginning. If you want to move beyond Warthogs and marines, you'll need to start building Reactors, which boost your army's tech level. Reactors let you build new unit types, upgrade current ones and beef up your special weapons. Each Reactor you build bumps your tech up a level, maxing out at four. Get to this point, and you'll be able to create the expensive, slow and altogether awesome Vulture super-air unit.


You'll want to build plenty of Reactors and Supply Pads as the UNSC.


If you decide to go the Covenant route, you'll be using Warehouses instead of Supply Pads, but the idea is similar. Build and upgrade these so your compatriots in orbit can ship supplies down to you using gravity lifts. But whereas the UNSC rely on the brute force of Reactors to increase their tech, the Covenant take a more elegant approach.

Being the history-obsessed group that they are, the Covenant must build a Temple to research their sacred Ages. Once you build your Temple, you'll unlock the first round of tech upgrades, and researching the ages of Doubt and Reclamation will open up even more. There are only three Covenant tech levels compared with the UNSC's four, but each Age is expensive, and the Temple is fragile. If it's destroyed, you lose all your tech until it's rebuilt.

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/954/954306p1.html

There are 0 comments - Join In and Discuss Here