Halo Wars: The Official Guide / Ready for War / Blog 04/06
Part 04: The Campaign Missions, with Professor Ellen Anders
Crucial to your continued Mission success, the latest in prototype warrior enhancements arrive. Meet Spartans Alice, Jerome, and Douglas.
Sergeant Forge brings the full troop firepower of his Fortress to bear on a troublesome (and not to mention, disgusting) Flood Colony.
Spartan: Alice commands a Scarab, and together with the pride of the UNSC air force, decimates a Covenant Citadel.
Halo Wars ships with a sizable and hugely entertaining Campaign mode, where you (or a cooperative friend) are tasked with completing 15 explosive, punishing, and intense missions, all interspersed with some of the best cut-scene movies seen anywhere, ever. The feeling of a frantic firefight is captured perfectly, and the missions vary wildly, from an assault on a Firebase currently overrun by Covenant scum, to a battle against the Flood on the outer hull of the Spirit of Fire itself. Here’s what to look for in the strategy guide, and in the game.
The Missions themselves follow a storyline arc that is divided into four Acts. Each gets its own art opener, with an explanation of what’s going on, whether you’re battling to enter a Forerunner structure, or you’re stuck on an alien world, locating and rescuing ODST overrun by viciously tendrilled alien puss-bags. Whatever the current combat conditions, the Walkthrough is designed to help you as much as you wish, thanks to specifically coded tactical information. For example, if you only wish to know about playing through on Cooperative mode, simply look for the appropriate box-out. The same if you’re intending on attempting the brutal Legendary difficulty; all Missions have been finished at the highest difficulty, no matter how deranged the predicaments. Two Xbox 360 debugs were lost in the making of this Walkthrough.
In terms of layout, each Mission begins with a quick overview, and a list of Objectives, both mandatory and optional. Each objective has a points value, which influences your end ranking, so naturally, we included these values. Then comes the Par Time (how long you should expect to finish this Mission once you perfect it), and the Win/Loss Conditions. Then there’s a labeled map, showing every single major chokepoint, and all the “secret” information. As the Fog of War covers your movements throughout the game, getting a fully-revealed map of each locale is incredibly useful.
Perhaps the most important information takes the form of the Difficulty Modifications box-out. If you want to know (for example), what the differences are between playing Mission 04 on Easy, compared to Heroic or Legendary, you can check this, and prepare accordingly. Then comes the Mission tactics itself, crammed with screenshots (taken from lossless video), notes, tips, cautions, and divergent tactic advice depending on the Mission parameters themselves. Each Mission ends with a summary, where Ranking totals (how many points you need for a Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Tin medal) are calculated. This is handy, as you can see exactly what the points multipliers are for each Mission, and react accordingly.
This all adds up to a fully-complete Walkthrough, designed in conjunction with Ensemble Studios, and packed with credible tactics from the developers, with special attention paid to the highest of difficulty settings. Join us next time, when we reveal just what’s on offer for the Skirmish and Multiplayer maps.
Head here, for Ready for War video Overviews, guide purchasing options, and the chance to win a Bungie-signed Halo 3 artbook.
