Great campaign, story and cutscenes
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews
“this game has epic animated cutscenes that make me wish Halo had an animated movie.”
Steam review · 14.7 h played ↗
Halo Wars: Definitive Edition
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Very Positive · 92%Very Positive · 92%Ensemble Studios, Behaviour Interactive, 343 Industries2017RTS · Base Building · Strategy
$19.99
Open on Steam ↗US Steam price, checked 5 h ago
The verdict
A charming, simple console-born Halo RTS with great cutscenes and a fun campaign, but clunky controls and poor unit pathing. Skip it if you want a deep PC RTS or active multiplayer.
Great for
Halo fans, RTS newcomers, and Xbox 360 nostalgics wanting a cheap campaign or co-op with friends
Main risk
Shallow, console-style controls and bad unit pathing disappoint PC RTS players; multiplayer is nearly dead
What players love
Nostalgic Xbox 360 classic
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“After playing it for a while and getting used to its mechanics, it became my favorite game.”
Steam review · 18.2 h played ↗
Mods and cheap sales extend value
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 positive reviews
“the modding scene adds even more value. There are some excellent mods that introduce new factions such as the Flood and the Forerunners”
Steam review · 9.4 h played ↗
Easy, beginner-friendly RTS
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“It is baby's first RTS. Get it if you are new the genre and it is on deep deep discount.”
Steam review · 6.2 h played ↗
Authentic Halo atmosphere and music
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews
“The game perfectly captures the feel of the classic Halo titles, just from an RTS perspective.”
Steam review · 9.4 h played ↗
Good controller and Steam Deck support
Mentioned in ~1 in 14 positive reviews
“It works excellently on the Steam Deck; the controls are intuitive and very well-done.”
Steam review · 9.1 h played ↗
What players complain about
Clunky console-style controls
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews
“I can understand locking out some keybindings during tutorial but disabling Escape button and limiting where player can click on minimap? No thanks.”
Steam review · 6.5 h played ↗
Shallow, oversimplified strategy
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“It's so simplified that it isn't even engaging.”
Steam review · 17.8 h played ↗
Terrible unit pathing and AI
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews
“Single worst AI pathing in RTS history. Units constantly get stuck on each other and abandon move commands.”
Steam review · 2.7 h played ↗
Dead multiplayer, no matchmaking
Mentioned in ~1 in 11 negative reviews
“They do not have any servers live for multiplayer matchmaking.”
Steam review · 0.2 h played ↗
Cheating AI and poor balance
Mentioned in ~1 in 12 negative reviews
“The AI gets more money than you does more damage and gets damage reduction.”
Steam review · 1308.8 h played ↗
Crashes and bugs on PC
Mentioned in ~1 in 13 negative reviews
“this one just crashes at the start for no reason and with no patch or way to fix it.”
Steam review · 8.9 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: VerifiedController support12 GB
Minimum
OSWindows 7 SP1 64-bit or higher
ProcessorIntel Core i3 or Equivalent
Memory4 GB RAM
GraphicsIntel HD Graphics 4200 NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M AMD Radeon R5 M240
Storage12 GB available space
Recommended
OSWindows 10 64-bit
ProcessorIntel Core i5 or Equivalent
Memory8 GB RAM
GraphicsNVIDIA GTX 560, 650, 750 AMD HD 5850, 6870, 7790
Storage12 GB available space
OSWindows 7 SP1 64-bit or higher
ProcessorIntel Core i3 or Equivalent
Memory4 GB RAM
GraphicsIntel HD Graphics 4200 NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M AMD Radeon R5 M240
Storage12 GB available space
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