2006-10-13 08:25:23 Halo Wars... RTS FPS like Battlezone? Yea, Nay, Other?

What type of RTS do you want Halo Wars to be?

Tradition PC RTS that Ensemble is known for?

Personally I would love it if they rolled the dice and went with a "Battlezone" style RTS which is a cross hybrid FPS-RTS. The game ROCKED on the PC--Pandemic did a great job. The first was under marketed (very highly critically acclaimed) and the second was rushed by Activision for the holiday season.

Anyhow, the precept is you are in a vehicle--but can get out on foot. When on foot you have a pea shooter and a sniping rifle (if you shoot through the window of a vehcile or a person on foot = kill).

Anyhow, a very basic FPS. But the game is an RTS at heart. You build your base, send out convoys to harvest metal, build buildings on steam vents, build defense perimeters, etc... You level up your base (building dependancies) and can even special produce special powerups. You can chain different weapons and powerups on vehicles for special attacks, etc...

You can group your vehicles together at will (all First Person!) and give them duties (like patrol, attack, defend, etc). So you could have 4 or 5 squads of vehicles, have 1 on random patrol, 1 defend Waypoint #1, 1 on monitor/defend your metal harvisters, 1 defending Waypoint #2, and another following you everywhere. Pick the right ships for the jobs, cluster repair vehicles and re-arming APCs, etc

The concept was great and the execition ROCKED. It was an RTS in that it was realtime and leaned HEAVILY on strategy. You had to be mindful WHERE you setup your base, how you defended it, scoping out metal-mining runs, and so forth. Combat was also very strategic -- do you go early? Do you defend? Do you raid the opponents miners? Go for a back door base attack? Make a land grab around vents and metal depots and try to bleed your opponent dry?

They could have used an "instant" RTS 3rd person scaled back view (ala BF2 commander mode), but all in all the game was a blast. The MP was fun (only complaint: Coop would have rocked in MP... e.g. 4v4 where you could have 3 humans on your team managing squads would have been a blast).

So I am thinking... Halo doesn't really have the sort of "bases" that WC and C&C are known for or "development" of buildings, tech, or vehicles.

So why not go the Battlezone route: Suck in the FPS fans with a game kinda of like an FPS (on foot, vehicles, etc) but make it decievingly an RTS at heart -- and only GAMERS the CHOICE to either play FPS style OR RTS style. Same game, but allow people to get into it how they want.

For the FPS parts they could go old school "basic" Halo. Guns, 'Nades, Jump, etc... Basically rip off what Bungie has already made, but since it is an RTS at heart, keep it simple (i.e. don't evolve it much, make it very approachable for Halo gamers... don;t try to compete with Bungie/Halo 3 in this department, just use it as a basic building block). Ditto vehicles, but add in the RTS/Upgrade element. Now toss in "heros" ala Spartans and whatnot. Create a setting of both defensive and aggressive campaigns against the Covenant and Flood (3 way action!) and a story line that somehow accomodates the basic necessity of resource management / development.

I would be all over this. I am not a big RTS fan. I did a lot of WC 1/2, C&C, and some SC. The genre, while a great one, didn't really evolve much for my tastes and only seems to have a limited number of guys who can make great games. Now Ensemble could make a killer "traditional" RTS using the Halo franchise and it could appeal to a lot of PC gamers. But I think that would be underselling what they could have here. Halo is perfect for the cross-genre sort of game -- and it would be more welcomed on the more action oriented Console platform. I also know that lower resolutions are not a huge issue in this sort of game whereas 720p may be a turnoff for some traditional RTS players. And the MP options for a "Battlezone RTS" would absolutely rock... Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, 1v1, 2v2, 1v3, 4 against eachother, and Coop/Team play. This would be a genre breaker, it would get a lot of hype, and the Halo brand would get the sales. It could be the next BIG thing, whereas a traditional RTS is just taking RTS to console fans--which is the safe route, but I think MS could make a killer blow and do a passing of the guard in creating a new "killer Halo franchise" that Ensenble carries for a couple games while Bungie takes some time off until the Xbox 3. This way Action oriented Halo gamers can get a couple Halo Wars games in and feel good and warm inside :D

So sound off: Does a Battlezone RTS sound good? Or do you want a traditional RTS? Or something else?

Ps- I still play PC Battlezone some, but driver issues make it unstable. GREAT game if you can find it... give it a try!

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Optimusv2 said: "Gun for the 360 has better graphics than both Halo 3 and Gears of War"

2006-10-13 08:44:38

I want something like Command and Conquer red alert where it has an entertaining story, and all the levels deal with just building your army and preparing to fight given an objective.

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http://www.lebato.blogspot.com--UPDATE: Blog Failed.....

2006-10-13 08:54:09

I'd like something like Company of Heroes...

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The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. - Bertrand Russell

2006-10-13 13:13:45

I want something like Mass Effect is supposed to be.

Where you can position units then dive right in and fight in the battle, FPS style, zoom out, join in soewhere else and so on.

So it's going to ba a sort of cross between LOTRBFME and Halo 3 :)

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Take one 360, add some chopped PS3, stir in some Wii, a sprinkling of DS Lite. Enjoy :)

The Defender of Truth and Justice!

2006-10-13 18:41:12

4 posts, 4 different takes. Interesting!

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Optimusv2 said: "Gun for the 360 has better graphics than both Halo 3 and Gears of War"

2006-10-13 19:33:20

After seeing the Trailer it's hard to say which way they are going to go!?

It hardly looks like a War, more of a small battle. Then we start getting into the whole 'more characters = less eye candy' syndrome.

That's why I would like the two games in one thing.
One for the graphics whores (FPS/Third person styley)
Two for the geekoids (large scale RTS battles)

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Take one 360, add some chopped PS3, stir in some Wii, a sprinkling of DS Lite. Enjoy :)

The Defender of Truth and Justice!