Introduction
Halo Wars 2 is an upcoming RTS game developed by 343 Industries and Creative Assembly for both Windows PC and Xbox One game consoles. 343 Industries began development of Halo Wars 2 in 2014, and we first heard about the game when it was revealed at Gamescom in 2015.
Plot
This Halo title is set in the year 2559 , 28 years after the end of the first Halo Wars title, and right after the events of Halo 5. We know Halo Wars 2 will show us the return of the UNSC warship Spirit of Fire, as well as a new alien faction called the Banished.
At the end of the first Halo Wars we saw the Spirit of Fire enter cryosleep and drift into space, and nobody really knew what that would mean for the human crew inside. So it will be great to see the UNSC warship return.
By this time, the war between mankind and the Covenant was put to an end, while the Spirit of Fire warship was declared missing.
Halo Wars 2 begins with Captain James Cutter, Professor Anders and the Spirit of Fire crew waking up from cryosleep at the Ark. After waking from cryosleep, they obviously didn’t know much about the events that happened during the past 28 years, including how the Human-Covenant war ended.
After receiving a signal from an emergency beacon the crew encounter a new alien faction, the Banished. The Banished is basically a group of aliens that broke away from the Covenant, and we know they’re leg by Atriox, the Brute warlord who came to power after the Convenant’s demise.
The Spirit of Fire is informed about all of these recent events after they come into contact with a logistics AI named Isabel, who is found in a destroyed UNSC base.
Gameplay
Command armies from a bird’s-eye-view of the battlefield in this real-time strategy game, where you can play as either the UNSC, or the new alien faction the Banished who are replacing the Covenant.
There are thirteen missions in campaign mode, and we know that the campaign will even support cooperative gameplay.
Gameplay is very typical for a RTS game, and Halo Wars 2 is balanced by the basic “rock-paper-scissors” counter-attach system. As in aircraft can take down vehicles, infantry is more effective against aircraft, and ground vehicles can slaughter infantry.
Multiplayer
There are five multiplayer game modes in Halo Wars 2, with one of them being entirely new to the series.
Skirmish, Strongholds, Domination and Deathmatch are also featured, with Blitz being the new multiplayer game mode. Blitz combines card-based strategy with tactical combat, and your deck of cards is your army. It’s an interesting game mode and one that is supposed to feature fact-action matches, both online or solo against waves of AI.
Release Date and Trailer
Halo Wars 2 has a Feb 21, 2017 release date for both Windows PC and Xbox One. It’s an Xbox Play Anywhere title so when you purchase the game you can play on either the Windows 10 PC or Xbox One at no additional cost.
Here is the official Halo Wars 2 Atriox trailer, and an official multiplayer trailer so you can get an idea of what this game is like. It looks like they have made significant improvements from the original Halo Wars title, especially in regards to the visuals.
