Beginning our play session, we went about constructing a barracks building on the seven-pad instillation that served as our base, which is really no chore at all since you don’t have to worry about building placement: all you have to do get them up. In order to fuel this prosperous growth, no annoying item collection is needed; instead, all that’s required are some power plants, and the game will inform you when more need to be constructed. Once the barracks was completed, we prepared a squad of classic UNSC marines, as well as few of the brand new flame thrower units, and naturally, Spartans.

We then took our soldiers out on parade, selecting them by pressing the A button and using X to move them. If you want to select larger groups of units, the A button can be held down and used like a paint brush, or if the battle is hot and you need every man available, hitting the left bumper will automatically select every existing unit.

As our party came to a bridge built in familiar Forerunner design, a team of Grunts led by Elites appeared, and the confrontation began by selecting the enemy and pressing the X button to attack. After the Covies were taken down, and a few Grunts enjoyably rocketed into the sky from ruptured methane tanks we pushed onward, we moved straight into a line of wraith tanks. While some of our Spartans managed to hijack a few of the tanks by our command with the Y button, some heavier guns were clearly needed.

Using the D pad to immediately flash back over to our base, we quickly assembled a fleet of Warthogs and Scorpion tanks to aid our nearly broken battalion of marines and Spartans. The Warthogs slide and bounce exactly as your used to seeing them do in the other Halo games, and with a press of the Y button, will run over enemy ground troops, just like we all love to do in the other games.

In case it wasn’t already apparent, the Y button is used to enable a unit’s special ability, be it jacking vehicles with the Spartans, running over Grunts with a hog, or having marines throw their frag grenades.