A peek inside the 'Halo Wars' demo

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Halo Wars box art

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Microsoft Games and Ensemble Studios released the demo of Halo Wars on Xbox Live today, with an all-too-quick sample of what we can expect when the game debuts March 3 on the Xbox 360.

Set 20 years before the events of the first Halo title, Halo Wars kicks off as the UNSC forces clash with the Covenant, who start out the game looking for an artifact on the planet of Harvest.

Originally controlled by humans, Harvest was laid to waste by the Covenant, and is only now coming back under UNSC control after a difficult series of battles.

With the arrival of the UNSC ship Spirit of Fire, which is commanded by Captain Cutter, the story unfolds, revealing just what happened before the battle we have come to know in the original Halo.

In this real-time strategy game, your goal is to first reclaim a foothold on the planet, and then deal with the Covenant forces. Throughout the game, a number of key characters are at your disposal, backing you up as you build your bases, research new technologies, and discover what it takes to bring down the enemy.

Of course, that is only if you want to take on the story. If all you want to do is prove how superior your strategic mind is against your friends, there’s also the skirmish mode which lets you play one-on-one (or one-on-six) against friends or random Xbox Live players.

Moving the Halo franchise into the realm of real time strategy games was a great idea, but there is no question that gamers are going to be comparing it against the numerous titles that paved the way for Halo Wars. Most notably, I can’t help but think of the three Warcraft titles which helped define the genre.

Read the rest of the preview at http://www.thegate.ca/front-page/03724/a-peek-inside-the-halo-wars-demo/.