GameZone Takes a Look at the Halo Wars Historic Battles Map Pack

July 31, 2009

GameZone Takes a Look at the Halo
Wars Historic Battles Map Pack
By:
Steven Hopper

The latest map pack from
Microsoft’s flagship strategy title offers several great new maps and features.

Since it launched back in March,
Halo Wars has been among the premier strategy games available for the Xbox 360,
allowing gamers of all skill levels to get their hands on the well established
Halo universe in a way that they couldn’t before. On July 16, Microsoft released
the latest in a series of downloadable maps for the game, the Historic Battles
Map Pack, available for Halo Wars owners via Xbox LIVE.

The pack offers up four new
multiplayer maps for Halo Wars fans. Each map corresponds with a well known
turning point in the war between the UNSC forces and the Covenant. As with other
multiplayer maps, these can be played either online against human opponents or
against the A.I.

The Historic Battles maps feature
pretty diverse terrain. The maps are: Barrens, Blood River, Glacial Ravine, and
Memorial Basin. All four maps have pretty varied terrain types, and require
different strategies. Barrens, Blood River, and Glacial Ravine are also fairly
close quartered, which allows for some pretty intense firefights. Memorial Basin
on the other hand is fairly open, but offers up some nice changes between higher
and lower ground.

You’ll also be able to earn four
more achievements for a total of 100 added Gamerpoints. These achievements
include:

• Tour Coming Through (30 points):
  Hot drop 50 squads to your Covenant Leader in a single game on Memorial Basin
  

• Never Leave a Man Behind (15
  points): Finish a game with 5000 net resources contributed to your teammates
  on Barrens

• Drain Cleaner (30 points): Kill 20
  enemy squads with a continuous Covenant Leader Power on Memorial Basin

• Killjoy (25 Points): Disrupt 5
  active Leader Powers in a single game on Blood River

The new maps present a nice
investment for fans looking to extend their Halo Wars RTS experience either
online or off. The Halo Wars: Historic Battles Map Pack is available for
download now for a price of 800 Microsoft Points.