Brief Description of Halo Wars Controls
Everyone who’s tried bringing RTS to the console so far has failed in creating a truly usable control scheme. Ensemble’s spent a lot of time and money trying to get it right for Halo Wars, so I’m always on the lookout for good information on the title. Here’s Joystiq’s brief writeup:
To demonstrate, Devine moves a central on-screen cursor to a group of UNSC soldiers loitering about the middle of a large base. Where the analog stick and cursor move, the camera follows. A tap of the A button selects an individual unit and pressing X sends it it towards the location of the cursor. A double-press (resist the urge to say “double-click”) of the A button selects units of a similar type and holding the same button down creates a much larger reticle for sweeping over every character you wish to include.
Tying the cursor to the camera is, I think, essential. Still, a “cursor” may be missing the point. I wonder if analog thumbsticks for manual multi-unit selection are ever going to feel good. Then again, Halo’s aim assist really transformed the FPS experience on the console, so I’m hoping for the best.
(By the way, here’s the first gameplay footage of Halo Wars.)