Downloaded the Demo of this game.. and i have been waiting in anticipation for about 2 years now after the release of Halo 3..
I do love my RTS games, and to have an RTS game based on Halo... is just fantastic.
So here is my honest opinion about it right now (since all i've played is the demo so far.. full blown version this friday)
If you are a true RTS player (PC Gamer) This RTS might be a bit simplified, which is true since its for console you do not have the entire keyboard to hot key your commands. Instead they created a trigger based analog stick selection method.. which is very useful. Using the left stick once you select the unit/base hold the right trigger down and rotate the stick (think clock settings) each point brings you to a selection and highlighted of course is available to you, grayed out ones aren't.. and they also tell you when you mouse over what resources are needed to spend on building it. Queueing is just as easy as pushing A a few times to queue up additional forces.
Resources is pretty much Supplies and Power.. build supply depots, upgrade them to double their input, and power plants to build higher tech level machines. But the thing with resources at the main base is that your base is limited to about 7 building slots and 4 turret spots. Which means its all about being mobile, finding another location and securing it to build your secondary base. Most of the vehicles in the game require at least 2-3 power plants so depending on your style of play one base wont cut it. But then again I like to start off with infantry and once i've established a decent supply route and power resources i'll cut down my barracks and start on vehicle productions and repeat process on my next base.
The demo only allows you to play USMC.. in the tutorial you get a glimpse of playing the covenant and they might actually be a bit more overpowered, you can build this teleport pod that instantly ports your troops directly to where your leader is. WTF?
But i'll have to wait for the full version to see if the two factions are imbalanced.. hopefully they're not.
I do love my Warhammer Dawn of War games on PC.. but not everyone has a PC that can handle X amount of units on screen at one time before your computer screams in agony. Or if one person has a gaming rig and one just has a mediocre laptop, the gamer rig will rape the laptop. But console based multiplayer, you know everyone is on the same hardware.. which is the appeal to me, Having people bring over a 360 rather than their entire rig seems a bit more time efficient. No need to set up too much, no version updates, or fresh installs.
Halo Wars hopefully got this right and this will appeal to a new audience of console gamers. I will admit this is not the greatest RTS ever, but a good step in a direction where I don't have to try and convince non-pc players to try the game out.
If you have a 360.. try out the demo.. if you like it and you get a copy.. let me know.. lets gets some online games going!
GEEET SOME!
---ADDED EDIT:
You CAN play the covenant in the demo.. and they are somewhat overpowered.. BUT the cost of their research is pretty pricey. But being able to teleport (cloaked even) to where your leader is.. is just ridiculous. So be warned when playing USMC against covenant.. KILL THE LEADER FIRST. lol. it will at least slow the beating for a sec.
