When I first heard of Halo Interactive Strategy Game, I was unsure whether to be excited or nervous. The game seemed oddly reminiscent of a certain HeroScape, a game which I found to be a decent purchase, what with the virtually unlimited customization the game had to offer. On the other hand, H:ISG was being published by B1Games, a company that I had never heard of.
Nonetheless, when I heard from fellow BGGs that this title had been placed on Wal-Mart shelves recently, I went and made the purchase. From the look of the box art, the game seemed almost too good to be true.
That was an accurate statement.
Upon opening the box, the components were the first bit of trouble I encountered. The boards themselves were alright, but were divided into squares, whereas HeroScape uses a hexagonal system. The boards also do not click together, horizontally - only vertically, meaning that a bump of the table could and will disrupt the playing surface. The miniatures - 15 in all (8 for the Covenant, 7 for the Humans) - though accurate to the series, are solid colors. I would have liked to have seen more detail at least as far as color is concerned. The "Cards" in the game are divided into three stacks - UNSC Weapons, Covenant Weapons, and Hero Cards. These cards are actually made of thin cardboard and are about the size of train cards in Ticket to Ride. I can't say there was anything wrong with this choice, but I felt the cardboard wasn't sturdy enough, and was easily subject to bending or some such thing as that. Besides these things are 14 dice, teleporter tokens, hero/weapon tokens, and quest-specific item tokens, as well as flags for a CTF variant. Numbered stickers are placed on units of the same type to distinguish them from one another. Character cards keep track of each type of unit, and actually are designed with a curvature that permits the weapon/hero cards to slide right into the character cards themselves, allowing easy viewing and tracking of a character's inventory. Finally, a DVD is included - hence the "interactive" portion of the game.
Next, the gameplay - which once again seems to fall short of what it could be. Players begin the game by using one of the provided map setups, or creating their own map. Once that is done, players are to take turns placing their characters on the map in any locations that they choose.
Next, the hero/weapon tokens are distributed evenly among the players, and players take turns placing these wherever they choose. I have to stop here and make an interesting note - the rules never clarify why the tokens have "Hero" written on one side and "Weapon" written on the other. We were uncertain as to whether or not we could place the token with either word facing up, or if a token simply meant we could CHOOSE which kind of card we wanted when landing on such a space. This will make more sense as I explain the rules, though, so keep this in mind.
Finally, the players place the teleporters on the board. There are 8 tokens, two each of 1, 2, 3, and 4. When a character steps on one of these spaces, it can spend one movement point to warp to the other space containing the same number. Here again is a problem, because the game never states how these tokens are to be divided up for initial placement. Do we each get 2 sets of same-numbered tokens? Or should we each get one half of each teleport? The included game maps do not indicate the placement of ANY of the tokens - rather, the rules simply state that the players take turns placing them. I would just as soon create my own maps with predetermined locations in order to balance the game.
Finally, the game begins. On a player's turn, he may move one unit, or attack with a unit. Herein lies another problem, which I will explain in the combat discussion. A unit can move a number of spaces less than or equal to its movement value. NO DIAGONAL MOVEMENT IS ALLOWED. A character CAN move upwards (Vertically) at no additional movement cost; however, a character CANNOT move downwards unless he does so by means of a teleporter - another mechanic I did not seem to understand.
If a character lands on a space containing a Hero/Weapon token, he may end his turn and draw a card. The game does not state whether or not this has to be a Weapon card if the weapon side of the token is showing (keeping in mind that these tokens are reversible). If a player draws a weapon card, his character equips that weapon (or drops it on the space he is on if he doesn't need or want it). If a player draws a Hero card, his character receives an item (each character can have an unlimited amount of these, whereas only one equipped weapon is allowed per character). The catch is that a Hero card could potentially KILL the unit that drew it - there are 3 "Flood cards" that INSTANTLY KILL the unit drawing the card. I cannot emphasize how much this sucks if you are attempting to outfit one of your stronger units - or weaker ones, for that matter, as your units do not respawn (with an exception in CTF mode), and the game is 7v8, so every unit counts.
If a unit does not move on its turn, he can attack another unit, provided his weapon has a range value high enough to reach the other unit, and the attacking unit has Line of Sight. To attack, dice are used, each of which have 3 UNSC logos and 3 Covenant logos on them. The attacker adds his character's base Strike value to that of his chosen weapon, and rolls one die for each, scoring one point of damage per matching logos. The defender rolls dice equal to his character's shield value, reducing damage done by 1 for each of his own logos hit. In the basic game, if any damage is done the defending unit, it is killed. In the advanced game, the character suffers energy loss (equivalent to wounds in Descent). The game actually has no way of monitoring each individual units' health points - a starting health value is provided per unit type, but it flat out tells you to use pen and paper to keep track. If the defense reduces the attack to zero or less, no damage is done, and the battle is over.
If during a movement phase, a unit steps into a square being occupied by another unit, a melee attack begins, and one character WILL die (regardless of health points if playing the advanced game). Both units have a melee value, and roll dice accordingly - most hits wins. In the case of a tie, the defender wins.
That's essentially how the game is played. There are several game modes, and like HeroScape, plenty of room exists to be creative and invent new modes. The game itself provides rules for Slayer (eliminate all units to win), Capture the Flag, and a short 3-mission campaign.
Ah, yes, I am nearly forgetting the INTERACTIVE portion of the game. That's because the interactive portion is neither needed to play the game nor helpful or entertaining. The DVD includes a how to play section, which is simply the text of the rulebook. It can also roll the results of a battle for you (no dice necessary) while you watch a disappointingly short and uneventful clip. This could have been a very nice touch to the game, but it doesn't work out to be beneficial at all. After a few turns of using the DVD, we turned it off and stuck with the dice.
Closing thoughts:
1) It really bothers me that only one unit has an action per turn, and that he is limited to either moving or attacking. Often times in order to even get an attack off, your character has to move within striking distance of the other character, allowing your opponent to get the first strike.
2) As a result of #1, this game moves at an unnecessarily slow pace. Our battle lasted upwards of 90 minutes before we called it off with 3 units remaining on each side.
3) Many of the mechanics of this game are broken. The setup of the Hero/Weapon tokens and teleporter tokens is never explained, some of the items don't make any sense (Why would I use a Grav Lift to "move vertically" when the rules clearly state that I can do so anyway?), and the boards themselves do not click together horizontally - only vertically. Fences are included in the game to block line of sight, yet when you try to put them in, it often prevents you from easily locking in other pieces.
4) The instruction booklet and the DVD do not agree with each other. After looking at the included slayer map in the instruction booklet for upwards of twenty minutes, I realized that the game did not include enough boards to build the map pictured. When I turned on the DVD and looked at this same page in the rulebook, it had a DIFFERENT PICTURE. Hmm...
5) Melee is far too powerful. A unit could be getting bashed in the advanced game, but because ranges are such small values, most characters that survive an attack can move in for a melee, nearly negating the difference in quality of the unit. As an example, while playing my first game, Master Chief was defeated by a grunt in a melee attack. Some might see this as balance, but I saw it as a flaw.
5) Overall, the game had some nice Halo elements to it. The weapons were well represented, the items had effects relatively similar to those in the video games, the storyline and details on the character cards were fairly accurate.
Final Score: 5/10
There could be a game here, and with some house rules and significant adjustments, it could parallel HeroScape. For me, this was a disappointing purchase. I'll just stick to playing Halo 3 when I want to play Halo.
-Did I omit something? Any aspect of the game you want to know more about? If there are any questions you want to ask me of this game, please feel free to ask, and I will try to respond in a timely, respectful, and accurate manner.
Posted Thu Aug 21,2008 02:59 am
