

An intuitive interface allows players to build units, expand their bases, select forces and advance across the battlefield from a standard controller. Halo Wars gained praise on release as the first real-time strategy game made to really work on console. In 2016, the game was finally ported to PC as a "Definitive Edition," which is the version I have reviewed here. In a sign of things becoming full circle, Microsoft decided to expand the franchise to other genres and commissioned a real-time strategy spin-off, Halo Wars, which was eventually released on the X-Box 360 in 2009.

The series became a huge success, selling millions of copies of the original game and its sequels Halo 2 (2005) and Halo 3 (2007), and a spin-off, Halo 3: ODST (2009). The Halo series began life as a real-time strategy game for Mac, before transitioning into a first-person shooter for PC before finally arriving on the original X-Box in 2001, the first shooter since GoldenEye to really work with a console controller.
