Developer Bungie long ago promised that Halo 3 would be the last part in the story, but it’s always been pretty obvious that they were only referring to Master Chief’s initial confrontation with the Flood and Covenant. For now though the only indication of how the Halo universe will continue to evolve is this game: a console only real-time strategy game from Ensemble Studios, makers of Age of Empires. It’s a little known fact that the original Halo, when it was still only a PC game, was actually envisioned and initially designed as a real-time strategy, so Halo Wars really isn’t as much as a stretch as it may seem. The game’s story takes place before that of the original Halo: Combat Evolved but involves versions of the familiar Halo vehicles from the dropships and Warthogs to the Covenant Banshees and Spectres. There are also many new vehicles as well though, such as the Hawk helicopter and Wolverine rocket tank. As with most real-time strategies you’re also able to build your own buildings and support structures with which to recruit new soldiers and build new vehicles. A properly accurate and intuitive control system is always a problem for this sort of game on a console, but apparently that’s one of the things Ensemble has spent the most amount of time on, with only the one analogue stick and four face buttons needed to control the whole game. One thing’s for sure the Halo saga and universe has only just begun.Harrison Dent