Come February 5th, Xbox 360 Gold members (February 12th for Silver members) will have weeks of advanced playtime with Halo Wars thanks to Ensemble Studios and the Halo Wars demo.

You're given a rather large taste of the game, including a variety of game modes accompanied with basic and advanced tutorials. Speaking of the obvious, RTS (real-time strategy) games are not to be taken lightly, and Halo Wars is no exception. I highly recommend against skipping the tutorials and going in blind. While the demo never fully challenges, it gives a solid taste of how quickly the game can become insanely difficult.



The demo kicks off twenty years before the "Halo Event" with superb cut-scenes that carefully roll out the story and introduce a few of the main characters. The demo, in short, reveals that the Covenant is up to no good and asks you to figure out what they know and ultimately take them out. Elaborating further on the cut-scenes, Ensemble really rocks your TV screen. The cut-scenes before and after the missions are vital in properly telling the always evolving story and thickening plot. They are also vital in reminding you that you're playing a Halo game and not just a RTS game with Halo characters. Also available in the demo is a one-on-one Skirmish mode which pits you against the AI in a end all brawl to the death. It is worthy of mentioning that the full retail version of Halo Wars will feature various Skirmish modes over Xbox Live.

So how does the game feel? Can Ensemble pull off a RTS on a home console? Needless to say, it isn't quite as convenient and intuitive as a mouse and keyboard. But, Halo Wars was built from the ground up with the Xbox 360 controller in mind, and compared to other console RTS games, Halo Wars more than holds its own. In fact, controlling your armed forces and managing your resources is quite easy. Rather than fully explain every feature and detail, rest assure that all control and management movements are no more than a couple clicks away. Ensemble did their RTS homework to make sure the Halo name continues to represent excellence no matter what genre. Your success while playing is determined by how well you manage your base and available resources before venturing out to complete your objectives. Even then, as you'd expect, there is a significant level of required multitasking. Besides making sure Halo Wars measures up as a RTS, Ensemble has integrated a great deal of Halo specific features and traits you'd come to expect from a game carrying the Halo brand. For example, you get to watch your Warthog fishtail across the terrain, your infantry toss gernades, listen to the mindless banter of UNSC infantry, or simply enjoy the familiar sounds, characters and worlds.



Die-hard Halo fans should know that the Halo franchise was originally discussed to be a RTS game. So how fitting that after so many wonderful years, the franchise makes a wonderful return to its roots.