I find it a bit soul-deadening that the most popular Halo YouTubers are the ones who put out toxic positivity slop, while Halo YouTubers like yourself who give helpful, constructive criticism and tell it like it really is get little to no views in comparison. A great lesson on both the importance of gatekeeping and the insanity of the average “consoomer.”

One of the things I will always appreciate Halo Wars 1 for is giving us a villainous Arbiter. Don't get me wrong, Thel Vadaam is, in my opinion, the emotional core of much of Halo's story. But between the largely nameless, faceless elites and the comparatively weak Prophets and other covenant races, I've always felt like the Covenant lacked a "Darth Vader-esque" face, a fearsome presence every bit as ferocious and powerful as the Chief. Halo Wars Arbiter is exactly that, and I greatly enjoy it.

I do find it absolutely hilarious that Isabel describes the banished as this force that rivaled the covenant during the human covenant war and were ‘winning’ where humanity was losing

Then 343 release a 5 part comic series that actually establishes that the banished were barely a thorn in the side of the covenant that just raided very isolated covenant facilities and only really came to prominence when the great schism happened and they were able to take advantage of the chaos to build up now that covenant was fractured and falling apart which is a much more actual fitting story for the setting.

Man, I remember at the time always wanting to see what the Covenant Invasions and planetary evacuations I'd read about in the external media would look like in a game.
And then being fucking amazed by the two Arcadia levels.

R.I.P Serena

Halo Wars 1 has always held a special place in my heart - IMO it has so much atomsphere, great music, and such a great artstyle. I love looking at the covenant buildings and units in particular, though I will fully admit that the story isn't excatly particularly engaging. I love watching Locusts wandering around, and how parts fall off when vehicles get damaged.

IMO i feel like Halo Wars 2's artstyle is...cartoony, outside the cutscenes. I really wish that the Banished had a more savage, unique artstyle, maybe taking after the original intent for the Brutes as the "Barbarbians at the Gates" - but instead the Banished are all just...grey with spikes and red spots. IMO

Man, Halopedia shows that Ensemble had plans for a covenant DLC  - i would have been so happy that if they had more time to release that.

4:52 Also, back in the OG trilogy Master Chief was referred to as “The Last of his kind” in the manuals and at the back of the covers. This reveal was really huge.

I really don't like it when certain 343 employees and certain big Halo YouTubers put the blame on the fans for 343 dropping entire storylines as a result of their criticism. Yes, fans had plenty of criticism of the storylines, but it was 343 that has repeatedly chosen to just black-hole them instead of trying to resolve them in a meaningful way or fix them. No one asked 343 to release three games in-which each story outright ignores 99% of what happen in the previous games, or made it so the writers at 343 can't write themselves out of the holes they put dug the story into....

That warthog talk from the OG trailer really stuck with me when I was 9. I was too young to articulate it but it felt like the devs cared, as you illustrate.

Around that time some of my favorite games were Halo 3, Star Wars Empire at War, and Age of Mythology. I didn't even realize that Ensemble were behind Halo Wars and AoM until I grew up a little.

the ark being unscathed by the chief detonating a halo ring will always be peak 343 stupidity.

30:11 I love the idea that he attacked the completely wrong Spartan, not knowing how to tell them apart

I remember playing HW1 doing campaign missions, making the perfect defence for my base and just relaxing with the soundtrack playing in the background. I got immersed to the point of imagining an fps mode, just wanting to drive around the flood planet and thinking what if i could attack the bases and enter them as master chief. Good times. Really enjoyed the game and the ost.

Halo Wars 1 was THE game that got me into the entirety of Halo, back when i played it on my brother's Xbox 360. And there is nothing else that can hit me with the same kind of nostalgia as the first notes of that main menu theme.

I just sat down at my personal terminal and have immediately been blessed by the prophet of recommendations with a brand new nearly hour long broken circle kino.

Halo wars has become my favorite Halo game in recent years. Followed by ODST and then Reach. It's a crime that it doesn't get as much love as it does.

I wondered why nobody talked about Halo Wars 2 when it came out.  Now I know why.

8:25 Absolute Cinema of a wedding 🙏

Halo Wars 1 artstyle looks so freaking good honestly, especially in the cinematics. That's my ideal sci-fi aesthetic, they just nailed it perfectly. Bungie's Halo and the Starcraft series are probably my favorite sci-fis when it just comes to aesthetics.

Hands down HW1 had the best cutscenes on 360 to this day! I remember the family got a Panasonic plasma and playing this game on there was something else

what made halo wars unique was finally been able to play as the Covenant, and they felt great. I loved every single dialog, being able to use hunters and don't get me started with the Scarab, a feature lost because human good alien bad.

I have so many memories of playing skirmish on that one snow map from HW1 where I would set the game to Legendary, take one of the side bases with the energy bridges, and then just completely lock down like my forces were holding a castle of some kind. There were sniper towers, reactors you could capture, and those extra building placement things on the sides too if memory serves me right, so taking both on opposite sides was a legitimately useful way to start your conquest… at least I thought so when I was like 9 or 10 playing it the first couple times.

The whole first game definitely has a special place in my heart, it was my first RTS, and also some friends and I used to spend countless hours in multiplayer. It also introduced a lot of great units to Halo, and was the first game to actually feature the Engineers who kept getting left out of the main games until ODST finally had them.