Halo Wars 2 is a real-time strategy video game created by 343 Industries and Creative Assembly. It was published by Microsoft Studios and released in February 2017 for Windows and Xbox One. The game takes place in the science fiction world of the Halo franchise in the year 2559. It is a follow-up to Halo Wars, which was released in 2009. The story centers on the crew of the Spirit of Fire, a ship belonging to the United Nations Space Command (UNSC). The Spirit of Fire arrives at the Ark, a Forerunner installation that builds and controls the Halo rings. A conflict occurs between the UNSC and an alien group called the Banished over control of the Ark.
In Halo Wars 2, players build a base, gather resources to create soldiers and vehicles, and control their armies from a high view of the battlefield. The main goal in battles is usually to destroy an opponent’s base or take control of areas on the battlefield. Combat uses a "rock–paper–scissors" system, where ground vehicles are strong against soldiers, soldiers are strong against aircraft, and aircraft are strong against ground vehicles. The game allows players to play online with others, either together or in competition.
Development of Halo Wars 2 started in 2014 when 343 Industries, the Halo franchise developer, asked Creative Assembly to work together. Creative Assembly was selected because of their experience making real-time strategy games. 343 Industries wanted the story of Halo Wars 2 to fit better with the ongoing Halo series, so they set the game 28 years after the original Halo Wars to match the timeline of the franchise. The game was announced in 2015 at Gamescom and shown at several video game events before its release. Two open betas took place during the final year of development so the team could improve the game based on player feedback.
Halo Wars 2 received mostly positive reviews. Blur Studio’s campaign videos were praised for their high-quality animation. Reviewers said the game was easy for new players to learn but needed more complex strategies to interest experienced players. Some critics were unhappy with the keyboard and mouse controls, but the improvements to the gamepad controls from Halo Wars were appreciated. After its release, the game received additional content and features.
Gameplay
Halo Wars 2 is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game. Players control armies from a high view of the battlefield. The game can be played on a PC using a gamepad or a mouse and keyboard. Like the first Halo Wars, the game includes two playable groups: the United Nations Space Command, which represents human forces, and the Banished, an alien faction. In most game modes, players build a base at a set location. At bases, players can construct barracks and vehicle depots to create infantry and vehicles. Supplies are gathered from supply pads or the battlefield and used to build units and structures. Some units and buildings require power, which is generated by generators or extractors. Base buildings can be upgraded to provide extra benefits and unlock advanced units.
The battlefield starts hidden by fog of war, which disappears when units move into unclear areas. Units can be chosen and directed to fight or interact with structures. Combat uses a rock-paper-scissors system: ground vehicles are strong against infantry, infantry are strong against aircraft, and aircraft are strong against ground vehicles. Every unit has a special ability in addition to regular attacks. For example, Spartan soldiers can jump into the air to hijack vehicles and perform a smash attack. Players can build extra bases once they collect enough resources and control new areas, allowing them to grow their army.
A campaign mode lets players control UNSC forces in battles against the Banished on the Ark. The main campaign includes twelve missions that can be played alone or with others. Each mission has main goals, such as capturing points, defending bases, or surviving enemy waves, often requiring players to move Spartan units across the map. Missions also include optional tasks, like keeping a unit alive or destroying extra bases within a time limit. Animated scenes and dialogue introduce each mission to explain the story. A secondary campaign allows players to control Banished forces in battles against the Flood, a type of parasitic alien life.
Outside the campaign, players can choose to control either the UNSC or the Banished, each with different units. Players select a leader based on a famous character and a specific play style. Leaders have special abilities that can be upgraded and used during battles; these abilities require supplies and have a cooldown period before they can be used again. Examples include healing groups of units, bombing a target area, or sending special troops. The game’s multiplayer modes support online play with up to six players. Game modes include Skirmish, where players fight computer-controlled opponents alone or with others; Deathmatch, where players destroy the opponent’s army; Stronghold and Domination, where players compete to control parts of the map; and Blitz, a mode that mixes real-time strategy with card games. In Blitz, players use cards instead of building bases, and cards are earned through the campaign or daily challenges. Each card represents a unit and has an energy cost. Energy is collected automatically during matches and from pods that appear on the map. Blitz Firefight is a single-player or cooperative mode where players fight waves of artificial intelligence enemies.
Synopsis
Halo Wars 2 is set in the science fiction universe of the Halo series. The game takes place in the year 2559, 28 years after the events of Halo Wars and shortly after the events of Halo 5: Guardians. Halo Wars ends with the crew of the human United Nations Space Command (UNSC) warship Spirit of Fire entering cryosleep and drifting in uncharted space. During this time, the war between humanity and the alien alliance called the Covenant has ended, and the Spirit of Fire is declared lost with all its crew. While the ship drifts in space, its artificial intelligence (AI) Serina (Courtenay Taylor) ends her own life before becoming rampancy, a final state. Captain James Cutter (Gideon Emery), Professor Anders (Faye Kingslee), and the rest of the crew awaken from cryosleep at the Ark, a Forerunner installation capable of creating large ringworlds known as Halos. Isabel (Erika Soto) is a UNSC logistics AI working at a research facility on the Ark when an alien group called the Banished invades. The Banished are led by the Brute warlord Atriox (John DiMaggio) and rose to power after the Covenant fell. Atriox is supported by the Brute general Decimus and the Elite Shipmaster Let 'Volir (Darin De Paul).
When the Spirit of Fire's crew arrives at the Ark, they receive a UNSC signal from the installation’s surface. Spartan Red Team—made up of supersoldiers Alice, Jerome, and Douglas—is sent to investigate. They rescue Isabel from a UNSC base but are attacked by the Banished during their escape. Back on the Spirit of Fire, Isabel tells Captain Cutter about Atriox and the Banished’s invasion of the Ark. Though Isabel believes resistance is impossible, Cutter decides to fight the Banished. A strike team sets up a forward base and defeats Banished forces led by Decimus. In the wreckage of Decimus’s base, Isabel finds information about the Ark’s Cartographer, a map of key systems and weapons.
The strike team secures the Cartographer but faces attacks from autonomous Forerunner machines called Sentinels. Anders discovers that Atriox has taken control of the Ark’s teleportation network, allowing him to move troops across the structure. UNSC forces defeat Decimus and disable the portal network. The Spirit of Fire is attacked by the Banished carrier Enduring Conviction. The carrier is destroyed when Isabel and Jerome take control of its weapons and attack the Ark, causing Sentinels on the Ark to destroy it.
Anders suggests stealing an unfinished Halo ring from the Ark’s foundry to send back to UNSC-controlled space as a signal for help. The new Halo is launched, but UNSC forces face resistance from the Banished, who board the ring. On the Ark, Alice and Douglas stop Banished reinforcements, including Atriox, from reaching the Halo. Anders is taken to the ring’s control room, where he deactivates the firing system and sets up a signal beacon. Using the ring’s gravity systems, Anders ejects part of the landmass containing the Banished into space, killing them. After defeating the Banished on the ring, ground forces return to the Spirit of Fire, but Anders is left behind as the Halo enters slipspace. Before the Halo jumps, Anders promises to get help from the UNSC as soon as possible. Cutter and Atriox prepare for their next battle. In a post-credits scene, Anders’ Halo exits slipspace early and encounters a Forerunner Guardian.
The Operation SPEARBREAKER missions occur one month after the Halo Ring is launched. The Spirit of Fire and the Banished continue fighting for control of the Ark. A UNSC squad, Sunray 1-1, discovers a Banished plan to repair a Forerunner ship and destroy the Spirit of Fire with it. After fighting through large groups of Banished forces and Sentinels, Sunray 1-1 destroys the Forerunner ship before it can launch.
The Awakening the Nightmare campaign takes place five months after Operation SPEARBREAKER. The war between the UNSC and the Banished has reached a stalemate. Desperate for supplies, Atriox sends his brothers, Voridus and Pavium, to search near the ruins of the former Covenant holy city of High Charity for salvage. Atriox warns them not to enter High Charity, believing the city was destroyed by the parasitic Flood. Voridus ignores the warning, disables the Sentinel defenses, and breaches the city’s shield. His actions allow the Flood to escape and infect many Banished.
Instead of contacting Atriox for help, Voridus claims he can reactivate the Sentinel defenses from another location. The brothers use a drill to create natural disasters, temporarily holding the Flood back while Voridus leads troops to a Sentinel base to restore the defenses. Voridus succeeds in reactivating the defenses but learns Atriox has discovered their actions and is coming. Atriox threatens to kill them if they fail to clean up the mess by the time he arrives. The brothers push the Flood back to the area around High Charity and discover the Flood is developing a coordinating intelligence, a Proto-Gravemind. If the Proto-Gravemind finishes growing, the Flood on the Ark will become unstoppable. The Banished destroy the Proto-Gravemind just before Atriox arrives. Atriox scolds the brothers but spares their lives, ordering them to clean up. Sentinels and Banished forces work together to contain the Flood in High Charity again.
Development
In 2009, Microsoft Studios released Halo Wars, a new type of game based on the popular Halo series. The game was made by a company owned by Microsoft called Ensemble Studios. Halo Wars was successful in sales, but Ensemble Studios closed after finishing the game. Before closing, the team had started planning a story for a follow-up game. Graeme Devine, the lead writer for Halo Wars, said the planned story would explore the history of the Forerunners and involve a character named Spirit of Fire arriving at a Forerunner station while being followed by Anders. In 2007, Microsoft created a new team called 343 Industries to develop Halo games. This team looked for another company to help make a sequel to Halo Wars. They believed working with outside developers would help keep their games high quality.
In 2014, 343 Industries began making Halo Wars 2 with the help of a UK-based company called Creative Assembly, which is owned by Sega. Creative Assembly was chosen because they are known for making real-time strategy games like Total War. The company had long wanted to create an RTS game for consoles and computers, so working on Halo Wars 2 was a good opportunity. The team working on Halo Wars 2 included people who had worked on the game Alien: Isolation and the Total War series, as well as new employees hired for the project. Although Creative Assembly mainly makes games for computers, members of the Alien: Isolation team had experience making games for consoles. On January 18, 2017, the team announced that the game was "gone gold," meaning it was ready for release.
Tim Heaton, the director at Creative Assembly, said the gameplay of Halo Wars 2 would not be the same as their Total War series. Instead, they built on the ideas from the first Halo Wars game. The team hoped to introduce new players to strategy games while also offering more options for experienced players, such as different multiplayer modes. They also wanted to give leader units more unique roles in the game. Creative Assembly added two new vehicles for long-range attacks because no existing vehicles in the Halo universe fit this need. They checked with 343 Industries to ensure the new vehicles matched the game’s style. Alistair Hope, the creative director, said staying true to the original Halo material was important, but the team had more freedom to expand the universe than expected. He praised the control system from Halo Wars and aimed to improve it for easier console play. The team added a feature called "control groups," which lets players assign sets of units to specific keys, something missing in the first Halo Wars. Although 343 Industries considered cross-platform play between Windows and Xbox One, this feature was not included in the final game.
The Blitz game mode was created by testing ideas for a faster, easier-to-learn version of RTS gameplay. The team wanted to simplify complex parts like building bases and managing resources, which players often found confusing. Early designs for Blitz included army rosters, like in tabletop war games, but playtesting showed battles became too small over time. The team changed the mode by using a card-and-deck system for unit deployment and adding randomly placed resources on maps. Blitz was inspired by the Warzone mode from Halo 5: Guardians and the card game Hearthstone. Dan Ayoub, a leader at 343 Industries, said multiplayer games like those in the MOBA genre influenced Blitz by replacing resource management with direct unit combat.
Frank O'Connor, the Halo franchise development director, said Halo Wars 2 would be more connected to other Halo stories than the first game. The first Halo Wars took place 20 years before Halo: Combat Evolved and was kept separate from other projects at the time. Halo Wars 2 is set in the same timeline as Halo 5: Guardians and includes a larger story scale than the first game. This decision also introduced a new story thread where returning characters face unfamiliar situations with outdated technology. Kevin Grace, the narrative director, said the game’s tone was inspired by Halo: Combat Evolved.
The team wanted to create a new villain who was both strong and smart, leading to the introduction of the Brute warlord Atriox. Grace compared Atriox to the Arbiter, a unique character from the Covenant, and wanted to show Brutes as intelligent leaders instead of just fighters. Atriox’s design was inspired by stories like Excalibur and tales of underlings rising to power. The Banished, a group previously mentioned in Halo media, made their first appearance as the main enemy in Halo Wars 2. Real-world examples of mercenary groups influenced their design. Isabel, an AI character, was designed to act differently from other AI in the series. Her character was inspired by Ellen Ripley from the movie Aliens.
Jeremy Cook, the art director, said making the game’s visuals clear and easy to understand was a top priority. He wanted the art style to match the Halo universe by keeping recognizable features of units and structures. The Banished’s design was made to look different from the UNSC but still resemble the Covenant, with a stronger focus on Brute traits. Existing Brute vehicles and weapons helped shape the Banished’s new technology.
The cutscenes for Halo Wars 2 were made by Blur Studio, a company that also created cutscenes for earlier Halo games. The scenes were directed by Dave Wilson, who worked on the original Halo Wars cutscenes. 343 Industries said changes in the appearance of returning characters were due to better technology, performance capture, and new actors. Wilson said improvements in technology allowed the team to record body movements, facial expressions, and audio at the same time for Halo Wars 2, unlike in the first game.
Two open multiplayer betas were held during the development of Halo Wars 2 so the team could test the game and make changes based on player feedback.
Marketing and release
In August 2015, Microsoft Studios announced Halo Wars 2 for Windows PCs and the Xbox One console during Gamescom. Trailers with scenes from the game were shown starting when the game was announced until its release. The Gamescom 2015 trailer showed an injured UNSC soldier being pulled away and Atriox teasing. A trailer shown at E3 2016 was made by Blur Studio and showed the leaders of two groups—Cutter and Atriox—fighting as their armies clashed. At RTX 2016, 343 Industries shared a short clip showing Spirit of Fire arriving at the Ark and Spartan soldiers meeting the Banished. At The Game Awards 2016, a trailer focused on Atriox’s story and reasons for his actions was shown. On February 9, 2017, Microsoft released two live-action trailers showing Cutter and Atriox facing each other in funny real-life situations. Multiplayer modes from the game were playable at events like E3, RTX, Gamescom, and Paris Games Week. 343 Industries and toy company Mattel announced a partnership to create new Halo toys based on Halo Wars 2. In August 2017, Dark Horse Comics published the first issue of Halo: Rise of Atriox, a five-part comic about the game’s main villain.
Halo Wars 2 was first planned to release in 2016 but was delayed until February 21, 2017. It is the first Halo game to be released at the same time on console and PC. The game was part of the Xbox Play Anywhere program, which lets players buy the game digitally and play it on both Windows and Xbox One. THQ Nordic managed the European retail PC version. An Ultimate Edition included a season pass for downloadable content, early access to the game, and a copy of Halo Wars: Definitive Edition, an improved version of the original game. Halo Wars 2 reached second place on the UK’s weekly retail sales chart.
After the game’s release, a demo featuring the first mission of the campaign and the Blitz Firefight mode was made available on Xbox One and Windows. 343 Industries and Creative Assembly added new content and updates after the game launched. A multiplayer ranking system was not included at first because the developers wanted to ensure balanced gameplay before release. Downloadable content included new units, leaders, Blitz cards, and two extra campaign missions. These updates were released monthly starting in March 2017. A campaign expansion called Awakening the Nightmare was announced on June 12, 2017, and released on September 26, 2017. It added new leaders, maps, and a cooperative mode. In late October 2017, Halo Wars 2 received visual improvements for the Xbox One X. Cross-platform play between console and PC was also added.
Reception
The Xbox One version of Halo Wars 2 received "generally favorable" reviews from professional critics, while the PC version had "mixed or average" reception, according to the review site Metacritic. Most critics said the game was easy for new players to learn but lacked enough depth or innovation to satisfy experienced real-time strategy (RTS) players who preferred other games on PC. Some reviewers recommended the Xbox One version to console players because there are few RTS games available on that platform.
AI behavior in Halo Wars 2 was criticized by some reviewers. A few said the movement of units was not very good, and others thought the enemy AI was too easy on normal difficulty. IGN disliked that players had to place bases in specific spots, as it limited choices during the game. Rock, Paper, Shotgun also had concerns about base-building rules at first but later found the design acceptable after playing the game.
Critics praised improvements to the gamepad controls, such as the ability to group units. However, some said the gamepad was still not the best way to play because analog sticks were less precise than a mouse. This made it hard for some players to avoid attacks quickly. While mouse and keyboard controls were seen as better for fast, accurate actions, some reviewers said these controls had issues, such as a slow minimap, confusing default key settings, and poorly designed menus.
The game’s campaign received mixed feedback. USgamer said it was good for teaching players the game’s rules and had a reasonable difficulty curve. GameSpot noted that parts of the campaign that used ideas from the main Halo games were the most enjoyable. Rock, Paper, Shotgun said the campaign was short but had a good pace and varied missions. IGN agreed that the missions were diverse but found the overall campaign unimpressive and unoriginal. They also reported frequent bugs, such as crashes and mission events not working properly, during their playthrough on Xbox One.
Some reviewers liked the story but said the ending was unsatisfying because it was too sudden and left questions unanswered. GameSpot thought the plot was interesting and showed new parts of the Halo universe. They praised how the story was shown through cutscenes and dialogue but said characters were not well-developed and did not connect strongly to the main Halo story. IGN said a character named Isabel was likeable and helped make the villain more frightening. They also liked the introduction of a character named Atriox but said he became less important later in the story. Eurogamer thought the story’s ideas were too similar to those of the Covenant, making it feel repetitive. Most reviewers praised the campaign’s cutscenes for their high quality and animation, even though some dialogue was seen as cheesy.
PC Gamer said the multiplayer modes offered more variety than usual in RTS games. Many reviewers agreed, calling the "Blitz" mode the most creative part of the game. However, they had concerns about its flaws. GamesRadar said Blitz was the most innovative part of Halo Wars 2, while other sections felt too similar to older games. Some reviewers enjoyed the twist that Blitz added to RTS gameplay but were disappointed that players could buy card packs through microtransactions. A few critics said the randomness of card draws in Blitz made it less fair for competitive play but better suited for the Firefight mode.