Lots of promise in the promotion of Halo Wars, but at the end you are left wanting more.
The cutscense are amazing, and look great in high definition, and the story in the single player campaign makes sense and is easy to follow. Sadly though, that's where the game is at it's best. I had no framerate issues, but the simplicity and the cap at the type of toys you get is where the game is lacking.
The first problem I had with the game was that you can't split groups up so that you have several armies on the go. The only way to split your forces is if you have a whole bunch of Warthogs go one way, and hornets go the other way. Otherwise you have to send your whole army to attack, and those who are used to RTS games where you group bodies of army's together and enjoy multi tasking may become frustrated.
It seems to take forever to collect enough supplies to get more goodies and rank up your levels. The game could go a little faster if there were other options to collecting supplies, but once you do, it is satisfying when your units become almost indestructible. Thing is, there are no huge "tech trees", and once again becomes to simple compared to other games in the genre.
I also found that the population cap at 30, 40 with an added tech, is way to small, so there are no huge army battles. Units also seem to get bogged down behind other units, and I often found other units not attacking.
The campaign mode is very short, and I was very surprised when I could not play the Convenant, which is very short sighted in my opinion. Also, the Flood is not playable at all, even in multiplayer, which is a huge disappointment.
I admit for the first little while I was sucked in, but it was based on the fact I thought more techs would be unlocked, but after playing through, I was annoyed that this was not the case. The campaign has no replay value, and the multiplayer will not stand the test of time.
For so many promises and hype over Halo Wars, this is a definite rental or wait for it in your bargain bin as Halo Wars doesn't hold a candle to any other game in the genre.