After the closure of Halo Wars developer Ensemble Studios, Microsoft tapped strategy behemoth Creative Assembly, of Total War fame, to assist franchise stalwarts 343 Industries in creating its follow-up. Set nearly 30 years after its predecessor, Halo Wars 2 sees the crew of the Spirit of Fire awakening to find a new world plagued by old problems. Once again mankind must make a stand against an overwhelming hostile alien force—an approach the game itself faces as it struggles to shine despite a number of lingering flaws
Twenty-eight years after entering cryosleep, the Spirit of Fire’s crew, long since declared killed in action, find themselves positioned near a Forerunner installation known as The Ark. They quickly learn that humanity’s war with the Covenant, which had consumed their conscious lives only moments before, has ended. They aren’t safe, however, as they now face a new threat, one that emerged during the Covenant’s downfall: Atriox. The powerful Brute leads a faction known as the Banished, former soldiers for the Covenant who took advantage of the chaos that engulfed the empire during the final stages of The Great War to strike out on their own. His success saw his ranks swell with volunteers and mercenaries. As the unseen hand behind the remaining UNSC forces, it’s up to the player to see a single aging warship with its limited crew put an end to a seemingly overwhelming threat.
As far as stories go, Halo War 2’s is a fairly traditional one that plays out over a fairly predictable campaign. Even though it’s a popular trope to add an outside faction to spice up an old conflict, the twist does its job of introducing a new but familiar force into the Halo universe. Being something of a wildcard faction, the Banished’s disparate forces should prove to be decent foils in upcoming releases, and as the events here take place shortly after Halo 5, I would bet on seeing them again in the near future. Many of the narrative’s more exciting moments are courtesy of the Blur-created cutscenes, as they are absolutely fantastic, and full of energetic, well-paced sequences. The plot beats won’t lead to any edge-of-your-seat moments, but they keep up a steady moment. However, there is a general sore spot: the finale. Things abruptly come to an inconclusive end as players are once again subjected to a non-ending ending, where closure and a sense of completion is sacrificed in order to lay the obvious roots for a sequel. This approach is undoubtedly in keeping with the franchise’s history, but that does not make it any less frustrating.
Getting to that point will require tackling a dozen missions. The roughly eight-hour campaign consists of a variety of objectives, such as guiding snipers to look for mines, rescuing trapped soldiers as a Spartan, and protecting positions against waves of assaults. The game is at its best when it mixes up goals, especially when those emphasize the units’ special skills, such as the Spartans’ ability to hijack vehicles. Smaller engagements aren’t quite as exciting as multi-base battles, but they tend to work better, given the control scheme; as with other real-time strategy games on console, the controls are the game’s main limitation and, at times, a significant roadblock. The developers certainly gave it their best shot, though. Several shortcuts, hotkeys, and novel mechanics have been implemented to work around the relative imprecision of an analog stick versus a mouse pointer. For example, the player can hold down A to expand a movable circle that selects every unit it passes over, and then by holding a shoulder button, they can assign the highlighted troops to one of the directions on the d-pad; the shoulder button can also be tapped to switch between unit types within the group. There are numerous other conveniences, such as making leader powers easily accessible within a pop-up radial menu, and the ability to select every unit on the screen by pressing a button or every unit on the map by quickly pressing the same button again.
General restrictions also help to keep things more manageable. Bases can only be constructed on designated spots, and each one can be quickly snapped to in turn with the press of a button. Resources are also automatically harvested from buildable structures near bases and from scattered stations, significantly reducing clutter. The unit count is kept fairly low, too, with the cap only increasing after pricey upgrades. Map design also seems to take into account control limitations. Sizes generally range from small to medium to keep the game from becoming too unwieldy, though it can still take a while to move forces between distant points. Despite all of these conveniences, it is still cumbersome to quickly manage multiple bases and groups, much less use special skills with any sort of precision. Also, the byproduct of this approach is that many missions lack tactical depth. Battles frequently devolve into the player creating a mass of units to throw at another, and manically switching between groups to engage any available abilities. Things run smoothly during small-scale engagements but begin to fall apart when the action heats up. There are several good missions, though, which are successful largely in part to their heavily scripted nature. This allows for a story-driven campaign that matches the cinematic feel of other Halo titles, though that tradeoff can lead to a feeling of playing through an extended tutorial.
That said, the developers get a lot of mileage out of the missions. Each can be played with a friend in co-op online, and main objectives are supplemented with additional optional and bonus objectives. There are also hidden mechanic-modifying Skulls and Phoenix Logs—text files that flesh out the universe—scattered throughout the maps. Performance is a focus as well, with a point-based system awarding medals that are displayed when scrolling through completed missions. Players seeking to hone their performance can replay levels once completed, while those wanting to experiment can apply unlocked Skulls to modify rules and unit stats.
Gamers looking for more freedom have plenty of opportunities in Skirmish and Multiplayer. Skirmish supports up to five AI players across three modes: Deathmatch, Domination (capture and control towers for points), and Strongholds (build the most bases to win, with unlimited resources). Characters found throughout the campaign make up a roster of Leaders that allow access to unique support skills. Some can utilize mechanics found during the story, such as calling down orbital support, while others offer cheaper and faster unit upgrades as well as other general perks. Leaders also call upon different unit types; these are typically analogous to one another, such as the Covenant’s grunt to the UNSC’s infantry, but their upgradeable skills, along with the Leader abilities, add much more variety than what’s found in the campaign. Any number of the AI players can be assigned to either the red or blue team, allowing players to gang up on one opponent to get their footing or face multiple opponents to test their mettle. Eight maps offer a range of small to large battlefields, keeping with the style and scale of the campaign levels, and provide plenty of chokepoints, base foundations, resource stockpiles and nodes, and towers to garrison. They are generally well designed, though their modest number might limit longevity.
Going online expands the mode set with a traditional multiplayer component as well as Blitz. Multiplayer proper has a similar setup to Skirmish, with the same maps and modes. Private and Public matches allow players to team up against others or AI enemies. Once again, Leaders offer a chance for players to access a variety of skills and different unit types. Online play also hosts daily and weekly challenges. Despite not being very good at the game, I found it comforting to know that my opponents were in the same boat as myself in trying to juggle so much with a limited control scheme. There is no competitive ranking system, though; only an experience system that builds as players get more matches under their belt. However, that is simply a display of how much rather than how well the game has been played. Ranked matches should be available at some point, but only after additional balance tweaks.
Blitz is a separate menu item from Multiplayer, and has been touted as a significant addition to the series. The mode keeps with a recent trend, following Gears of War 4 and Halo 5: Guardians, in that packs of cards are the means of attaining unlockables. In the case of Halo Wars 2, the cards represent skills and units, each with an associated energy cost. Leaders reappear, but now players build 12-card decks from packs earned through gameplay challenges or purchased from an in-game store. Many cards are specific to Leaders, unlocking abilities that allow them to call in an ODST deployment, tag mechanical units to re-deploy if destroyed, or create holograms of friendly units. Unit cards represent a ready-made army; there is no base building or resource harvesting. Once a match starts, the player will have some of their units on the field, and will then have to judiciously play the remainder of their cards depending on how much energy they have in reserve. Fast and chaotic sessions often result from the race to access additional energy resources via drops and to take and hold several control points. Interestingly, attaining a card that’s already been unlocked doesn’t create a duplicate or junk card but levels up the original. Card-based systems always run the risk of destabilizing the player base, as those who choose to drop the cash on multiple packs will have more chances to unlock rarer cards and upgrade those already in their pool. On the plus side, there are many opportunities to earn them during play, and it’s always a small thrill to unlock a new pack with a powerful unit or buff. I’m not sure how much life this mode has, though. It’s certainly novel at the moment, but it’s far more niche when compared to the regular multiplayer, with its tried-and-true traditional setup.
Nestled within Blitz is a unique take on Firefight. As in the main series, players take on waves of enemies for as long as possible, but with the added twist of cards and control points. Players can run the gauntlet solo or with a friend. In this variation, enemies come in progressively difficult waves as players attempt to take and defend scattered control points that change hands at a touch. A meter increases as the enemy controls the points, with the match ending once it reaches 100%. The hectic pace makes for some tense matches, and I’ve always been a sucker for wave-based modes. It also seems like a missed opportunity to implement a closer take on Firefight with the player having a limited time to set up a base to withstand endless assaults for as long as possible. Several campaign missions feature this type of objective, and they made for some of the better moments.
For all of its graphical and aural polish, Halo Wars 2 has a problem with bugs. I experienced crashes to the dashboard, input iconography disappearing, and on several occasions, the game failing to load the next stage. The latter was by far the most prominent, and occurred up to the penultimate mission. Fortunately, the game has a decent autosave system that kept me from having to replay a mission if the next failed to launch. Resolving the problems was actually painless, with the solution being to quit to the dashboard, but I found myself having to do that far too often.
Overall: 7/10
Halo Wars 2 packs a feature-rich multiplayer component with a simple but serviceable campaign, though both struggle with a restrictive control system despite a valiant effort. The campaign is heavily scripted but, thanks to some gorgeous cutscenes, it hits all of the traditional Halo notes. Multiplayer, including the single-player Skirmish mode and the card-based Blitz mode, is the meat of the game. The lack of cross-play serves as an equalizer for those struggling with the controls, making for a more leveled experience. Despite introducing microtransactions, Blitz, along with its Firefight variant, also make for some enjoyable short, speedy matches. There is a lot to like, but it can also be a trial due to a control system that at times struggles to keep pace and a host of lingering bugs that cause a variety of problems.
(This review is based on a copy provided by the publisher.)