The controls are just as simple as the original, but far more accurate and natural feeling. Simply setting foot within the campaign (which you should NOT do if you have not played Halo Wars) feels instantly familiar and though you are in a new, facing a pseudo-new enemy, touching down on the Ark is both alien and comforting Halo Wars 2 feels like coming home after a long and stressful trip.Īn area of concern that I had prior to spending any real time with Halo Wars 2 was the controls Halo Wars (original) while simple felt really wooden and imprecise. Each unit in a band of UNSC Marines is meticulously animated while the vehicle-heavy contingent of land forces are painstakingly detailed. The attention to detail is beyond amazing, and it does not stop at the between-mission movies, as the battlefields are almost disgustingly nice. I was in awe, and in this day and age, that should not be the case, but it is. Captain Cutter's rugged face, scraggly 5 o'clock shadow, and draped uniform, the stunning quality and absolute perfection (without hyper-sexualizing) Professor Anders, all of it. Since 343 Industries have taken over the franchise, the amount of care and quality placed into the pre-rendered cutscenes can and will give both Blizzard and Square Enix a run for their money. Rejoining the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire the first thing that should strike you is the quality of the cutscenes. Continuing to harness the expertise of the strategy game geniuses at Creative Assembly, the minds behind the Total War franchise (amongst others) Halo Wars 2 brings to bear the Halo world in an RTS setting on the Xbox One and its Play Anywhere functionality. To be expected when you see that Ensemble Studios, developers behind Bungie in Halo Wars, also brought us the venerable Age of Empires franchise. While Halo Wars was exciting, fun, and a great way to approach the genre on a console, I cannot say that it could not be graded on the same scale as Blizzard and Westwood's RTS behemoths, but it is absolutely a solid RTS in its own right. Warcraft, Starcraft, Command & Conquer, and Age of Empires are behemoths and here was this upstart trying to carve out a niche, and on a console no less. I admittedly played Halo: Wars far less than I should have for all of the love I have for the franchise, it is hard for me to not scoff at the plebeians vying for the fifth place of quality within the RTS genre. ![]() Halo undoubtedly holds a special place in my heart, as I am sure it does for you. I keenly recall the chaotic madness that was the utterly terrifying, grossly dank, and dimly lit "343 Guilty Spark" and the equally frightening and utterly horrifying follow-up level, "The Library." In the past 16 years, we gamers have been blessed (and cursed) with a handful of titles from the putrid Halo 2 and Halo 3 to the spinoff Halo Wars, to the absolute pinnacle of Bungie's run, Halo: Reach, we have survived to Finish the Fight. Some of my fondest memories from the early 00's would be playing couch co-op with my brother, deftly destroying the Covenant menace as I drove and Jeff shot. When Eric Nylund's Halo: The Fall of Reach was published in October of 2001, just a few weeks before Halo: Combat Evolved released, I was sucked into an amazing universe full of space ships, pop culture references, and stunning universe development. I have loved the Halo for near on two decades now when Halo was first shown off in the late 90's / early 00's, I was immediately hooked. Rejoin Captain Cutter, Professor Anders, and what remains of te now AI-less UNSC Spirit of Fire as they wake to a new enemy. ![]() Halo Wars 2 takes place 28 years after the events of the first Halo Wars, which places it more in line with the rest of the Halo franchise timeline, as Halo Wars took place 20 years prior to the first Halo event … Halo Wars 2 finds the UNSC Spirit of Fire back in action after floating adrift in space, her crew in cryo, with the now-rampant AI Serina waking the crew as the Spirit of Fire floats above a mysterious Arc.
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