It may seem like just a cash-in on a popular franchise but it is still a great board game. The board can be set-up in many different ways,along with different rules and modes to keep things fresh every time you play. Combat is extremely fun and balanced on both sides the way the game is set up is so that 2 players control thier own squad and try to eliminate each other or complete objectives. the rules seem complex in the beginning but if you actually read them they make sense. Almost anybody can pick up this board game with a friend and play and I was able to change the rules to the point where 4 people could join in and have an equal chance at playing, without much effort. The DVD isn't necessary but it is a great way to change things up which is still nice. The voice-overs are ok even if they dont capture the personality of your favorite characters, and it uses in-game footage which is good too.
If you love strategy board games and want something unique and fresh than this game is most definitely for you even if you have never heard of or played halo. If your a halo fan and enjoy a occasional board game than i highly recommend it.
I'm a fan of gaming in almost any medium and board games are always a classic form.After purchasing board games like Doom and Starcraft I quickly realized that video games do manage to translate quite well to this format.While this wasn't developed by the amazing Fantasy Flight Company, Genius Products managed to give us a decent game to play with a very interesting game board.
The Halo board game seems to be heavily driven off the multiplayer death match kind of maps you find outside of the campaign setting of the game.That being said the game sequence isn't as engrossing as the video games story line.You can create some neat missions or campaigns to play yourself and there are already a couple pre-made missions for you to play through.One we played through was the Jericho campaign where the marines had to place the nuke in the Covenant staging area and then run back to your location and detonate the bomb.The game was fun and fast paced, but the way its designed feels like you are limited to only engaging in two player games.You can have more than two players, but you will have to have team games in the sense that there are only two sides; Covenant or Marines.I found this limitation somewhat disappointing because I think on the board game format you should easily be able to include other figures.Unfortunately this is precisely why I think the Haloclix system and game is way more fun and a better representative of the intensity found in Halo.The only downfall for some people with Haloclix is the fact that it's a collectible miniatures game, meaning you don't get all the pieces in a single box like you will with this Halo board game.You get enough pieces to play a game, but Haloclix requires you to collect more if you want to have truly epic level games.
That all being said... the Halo board game was pretty easy to learn and it has some interesting options.The board itself isn't one giant hard surface like most board games; instead it is all plastic and cut in different pieces.This is simply great, in my opinion, because it allows you to create an unlimited amount of different boards for your characters to fight on.They're of varying sizes and you can even create bridges and so forth in connecting them, this was truly one of the most impressive aspects of this product.Reading through the rules you'll find that you can either use dice or use the interactive DVD.I'm a bit more akin to rolling dice over using the DVD, but we tried playing through the Jericho mission with the DVD.It gives the introductory parts a great atmosphere for starting the campaign, but after that it feels less interactive to me.Whenever you land on key parts where you get the option to change the weapons or get an item the DVD will randomly choose what's going on for you based on your character.This was okay, but I prefer physically doing it myself.One of the better parts was whenever combat was taking place, with the DVD you choose your character, your weapon, who your opponent is and then the DVD goes through an animation from the game, essentially "rolls" behind the scene and tells you an outcome.
There are different ways to play through the missions in the sense that you have different difficulty levels.Playing on the easiest to learn setting it makes your characters quite weak and you wind up playing through the missions quite quickly.Essentially at the resolution of combat, if your character wins then the opponent's character dies or vice versa.The one shot one kill scenario is fast, but it feels kind of anti climactic and seems to remove some of the challenge for me.Now if you choose to play on the "legendary" setting, you can utilize a characters shields, like you have on the Spartans or Elites, and this will make the game much more challenging and more realistic to actual video game play.
In the end the game is pretty decent.The high light was the board game format because I thought that was interesting.When it comes to overall game play I just think it's going to be dwarfed by Wizkid's Haloclix system, which was far more challenging and basically allows you to generate the same kind of scenario concepts like in the board game.I might have thought this game was a lot more fun if Haloclix didn't exist, so it's not like Doom, where it's my only exposure to a board game system.If you're a die hard Halo fan and can't resist owning this novelty item, like me, then I would recommend it.It is a decent time passer if you want to play some Halo.If, however, you've never heard of the Wizkid's Clix system, then I would recommend you take a look at that as well, because I think that captures the challenge of the game a little better.If you're feeling quite inventive you can just buy this for the board game pieces and use those with your clix so you can enjoy the modular terrain!You can even combine the clix into the DVD missions as well.
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What I find great about this game is the numerous combination's of game play, great strategy, cool pieces to create maps, I can play with friends, bottom line its FUN!!!What's not so great is that it is in Limited Stock! I had to wait to get it from Amazon because it is already sold out at some stores!
I am a Halo Fanatic and when I read about it online I thought geez... what next from Halo -but of course I had to have it. Boy was I was surprised! This is a fantastic game! I bought about a week ago and me an my friends can't stop playing (Shout to Rich and Adrian). Lots of interchangeable 'lego' like pieces to create different maps, numerous combination of game play, nice alternative to mix things up a bit. My friend bought a copy yesterday (after searching around for it) and we were able to put the two games together and make one HUGE game board awesome. We want to try three games together. When my buddy went to get the game at another store it was the last one they had. This one will sell out fast! Get it -you won't be disappointed"
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So you think you know all about the Halo game line?
You know, Halo 1, 2, 3, etc?Wrong! There is now a board game, and it is a pretty decent shoot-em-up with lots of dice and trash talking.
This little gem is fast and brutal, and once you learn the rules (which are written a bit like Swiss Cheesewith holes in it) you can wrap up a 2 player game in about an hour.Not bad for a fight to the death or capture the flag scenerio.
The pieces are very nice, also.Lots of good solid plastic for the game board and towers, and enough plastic Marines and Covenants to keep you busy for hours!You can even customize your troops by picking up weapons from around the game board and adding special cards to each individual soldier.
If you like Heroscape, this one is for you.Sadly, the plastic men and aliens are not prepainted like Heroscape, but they are molded in various colors and are nicely detailed.
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My son is a big halo fan but I hate that he wants to always play video games! I was hoping it would peel him away from the tv, and it did! He loves it! It allows him to be as creative as he wants and still makes it a game of strategy! He wishes there were more pieces and I've heard there are expansion packs so I highly recommend this to anyone who likes to play Halo and likes board games.
My mom plays my Bombay Marble Solitaire game everytime she comes to my house.I was hoping to find a bigger one like mine for her, but this was sufficient.Marbles are smaller so she will have to put it up when little grandchildren are over.Doesn't seem like it is quite worth what I paid, but she loves this game and has won it twice since Christmas (this one is slightly less challenging than the Bombay one.Nice thing is it is decorative and a conversation piece.Everyone who comes over wants to play it...watch out for those little ones though. Marbles could easily be choked or swallowed.They areabout the size of regular marbles.
