The Halo Wars 2 open beta is in full swing during E3 week, giving Xbox players a taste of 343 Studios' and Creative Assembly's upcoming real-time strategy game. But there is still much more to learn about Halo Wars 2, including details of the single-player campaign that we were shown behind closed doors. Read on for full campaign and multiplayer impressions with exclusive screenshots!
The Halo Wars story so far
All screenshots from Halo Wars 2 E3 demo on Windows 10
The first Halo Wars was developed by Ensemble Studios, creators of the Age of Empires and Age of Mythology series of real-time strategy (RTS) games. Ensemble regrettably shut down in 2009, shortly after Halo Wars' release on Xbox 360 – a closure that was (strangely) planned the preceding year.
With Ensemble no longer around, Halo Wars 2 is being co-developed by 343 Studios in Redmond, WA and Creative Assembly in the UK. Creative Assembly is the studio behind the Total War series of PC strategy games, as well as console titles like Alien: Isolation.
The first Halo Wars takes place 10 years before Halo: Combat Evolved, the first title in the series (released in 2001). It stars Captain Cutter, the commander of UNSC warship Spirit of Fire. The Sprit of Fire has its own Cortana-like Artificial Intelligence known as Serina. Spoilers for the first Halo Wars' story follow.
The Sprit of Fire heads to the ruined planet Harvest, where Captain cutter and his crew investigate the activity of The Covenant, the hostile alien race that serve as the antagonists of the first few Halo games. There they discover a fleet of Forerunner ships hidden within the core of the planet. The Covenant plan to use those ships to wipe out humanity.
In order to stop the Covenant, the crew of the Spirit of Fire are forced to detonate their ship's faster-than-light drive. This destroys the Forerunner ships, but it also leaves the Spirit of Fire stranded in space. Cutter and his surviving crew go into cryo-sleep as they await rescue.
Halo Wars 2 begins
The crew of the adrift UNSC ship Spirit of Fire sleeps for 28 years, bringing them forward in the series timeline. The game begins with Serina addressing Captain Cutter, "Captain, wake up. Something has happened." Cutter and his crew awaken with no knowledge of the previous 28 years, unaware of which side won the Human-Covenant War.
The Spirit of Fire faces a new-ish threat in Halo Wars 2: a surviving Covenant Faction known as the Banished. They are led by Atriox, a member of the Jiralhanae (Brute) race. The Brutes are an ape-like race first introduced in Halo 3.
Atriox is a formidable foe because he not only possesses superior strength to other Brutes, he also excels as a military strategist. 343 tells us he defeats three Spartans (human super soldiers) in the game's introduction, although we didn't get to witness the full intro. The backstory and motivations of Atriox and the Banished will be revealed in the months leading up to Halo Wars 2's release. Players on the Banished side will also get to play as Atriox in multiplayer.
A New Enemy
During our closed-doors meeting at E3, the developers played through the entire first mission of the game, called A New Enemy. Having just awakened near an alien planet and fun afoul of the Banished, the Spirit of Fire must establish a base on the ground below. Cutter sends out a small band known as Strike Team One to scout a location for the base.
Halo Wars 2 plays a lot like other RTS games. Players select one or more units and send them to different locations on the map. If they encounter enemy units, the UNSC team will automatically engage them and fight to the last. This happens shortly after our stream begins exploring the verdant region in which they've landed.
A team of Banished is already entrenched along the path. Some have garrisoned (taken up defensive positions), boosting their defense and making them harder to kill. Garrisoning is something you'll do when you need to leave a group of units to fend for themselves while concentrating on another area.
In this case, the garrisoned enemies take longer to kill – but they still go down. As their vehicles and fortifications get destroyed, everything blows up with impressive visual effects that send shrapnel flying everywhere. The developers want Halo Wars 2 to appeal to action gamers, so they've really beefed up the explosions. They've also improved tracer fire, the paths left when units shoot at each other. This makes it easier to detect where attacks are coming from and respond to them in a hurry.
Soon our team encounters a gorge they must cross, a waterfall streaming down to its depths. Someone (most likely the Banished) has already built a holographic bridge across the canyon, but the bridge has been deactivated. Strike Team One quickly discovers a nearby power node which activates the bridge. Environmental interactions like this recall those of the mainline Halo games – it's not all combat.
As the team proceeds beyond the bridge, areas of the map that had previously been obscured by the fog of war become visible. Here fog of war is blackened space that the player has not discovered yet. Anything could be there, including enemy units. Scouting and learning the lay of the land, removing as much of the fog as possible, is a big part of RTS games.
Building the base
Our heroes eventually discover a Banished base that must be destroyed before the humans can create a base of their own. The base is defended by Hunters, hulking armored beings filled with worms inside. Hunters are always tough to kill in the mainline Halo series, and they provide a challenge here as well. They pose a serious threat to the UNSC force's tanks, so players should focus on wiping them out before smaller units. Strike Team One assigns a squad of Flamers – flame thrower-wielding armored troops to take down the Hunters. Slowly but surely, the targets are burnt to a crisp.
Next the human team attacks the actual Banished base en masse. All units and structures have life meters that communicate how much damage they've taken. But large buildings like bases also go through different stages of visual damage, looking more and more torn apart as they take fire. This helps players judge the buildings' health at a glance, complementing Halo Wars 2's fast-paced gameplay.
After destroying the Banished base and any straggling defenders, Strike Team one can finally build the humans' first base. This begins with the construction of the Firebase, a building that serves as the heart of the surrounding base.
Next they can build Barracks to produce units, as well as other structures like the Garage, Armory, and Airpad. All of these buildings are dropped onto the ground by Pelicans, UNSC drop ships featured throughout the Halo series. The developers want everything in Halo Wars 2 to fit in with the rest of the broader universe.
With the base built, Strike Team one begins producing units like Warthogs (ground-based assault vehicles) and Cyclops (mech walker units introduced in the first Halo Wars). The team also initiates an upgrade for Infantry units, boosting their health, and researches Combat Tech for Marine units. This gives them all Rocket Launchers, greatly boosting their damage.
The newly-upgraded human team sets out to explore the remainder of the area. They soon encounter a second Banished base and another battle commences.
The human Commander can call upon Leader Powers during firefights such as these to provide offensive and defensive boosts to the battle. We see the player summon Med Drones that heal all friendly units within their radius. Other human Commander Abilities include Close Air Support, a Mac Blast, and more. The Banished have their own leader Powers as well, including healing and attack beams. Naturally, all such powers have a cooldown period in order to limit their use.
Once the second Banished base comes to its end, so does the level. A quick teaser trailer plays for us, including some ominous lines delivered by Atriox and his lieutenant Decimus. The first mission seems like a fun way to learn some of the game's core concepts. New mechanics, units, and powers will surely be introduced throughout the rest of Halo Wars 2's 10- to 12-hour campaign.
Multiplayer
The E3-week Halo Wars 2 open beta offers one multiplayer mode: Domination. Domination tasks two teams of two players with controlling as much of the map as possible. At least three more game types will be available in the final game: Deathmatch, Blitz, and Strongholds. The goal in Deathmatch games is simple: wipe out all other players' units and bases. 343 wouldn't say much about Blitz at E3, but promised it will be one of the most exciting competitive modes in the game.
We did get to play Strongholds though, a 3v3 game mode. Mini bases called Strongholds are spread throughout the map, which each team must try to capture. Capturing Strongholds increases the population cap of your team, allowing you to have more units at a time. Thus, controlling the most Strongholds will allow a team to grow and wipe out the competing side.
Our human team started out strong in Strongholds mode, but eventually the Banished side managed to turn the tide and defeat us. The version of Strongholds we played has a fixed match timer of 15 minutes. When time ran out, the enemy controlled more Strongholds and won the game.
343 Studios wants Halo Wars 2 to appeal to a wide variety of players, so different game types will appeal to different groups. Some modes will involve slow buildups and last a long time, whereas other modes will be shorter and allow for quick play sessions.
Console versus PC
The original Halo Wars had a real cult following, but also a persistent criticism: why didn't Microsoft release a PC version? That issue will finally be addressed when Halo Wars 2 arrives on Xbox One and Windows 10 simultaneously in early 2017. It will support Xbox Play Anywhere, meaning you can buy it on Xbox One or Windows 10 and receive both versions. Saves will transfer seamlessly between versions via the cloud.
However, 343 chose not to allow cross-platform multiplayer in Halo Wars 2. The Xbox One and Windows 10 versions feature controls designed specifically for those platforms, with each version feeling natural to play. The campaign demo I witnessed ran on Windows 10, as did my multiplayer session. I'm not a big RTS player at all, but I did take in the PC mouse-and-keyboard controls very quickly.
Hopefully the console controls are up to snuff as well. One of the advances made to the console version is players can now create four separate groups of units and jump between them on the fly. Each group gets assigned to a direction on the D-pad, which should be fairly intuitive. The Windows 10 version allows for the creation of up to 10 groups. You'll hop between them via the number keys on the keyboard. 343 didn't want the PC version to feel hobbled compared to other RTS games, hence platform-specific differences like the grouping caps.
Standard versus Ultimate Edition
Halo Wars 2 will come in two editions: Standard and Ultimate. The Standard Edition is simply the base game and will cost $59.99. The Ultimate Edition costs $79.99 and includes come compelling bonuses.
The Halo Wars 2 Ultimate Edition comes with three bonuses:
- Early access – Play Halo Wars 2 four days early (February 17, 2017)
- Halo Wars 2 Season Pass
- Halo Wars: Definitive Edition
The Halo Wars 2 Season Pass will deliver DLC updates for at least six months. It includes new Leaders with unique abilities, new Units for multiplayer, a new campaign expansion, and more content to be revealed later.
If the promise of future DLC isn't enough to sell you on the Ultimate Edition, maybe Halo Wars: Definitive Edition will do the trick. It's a full remake of the original Halo Wars, playable on both Xbox One and Windows 10. That should be thrilling for PC gamers, not to mention anybody else who missed the first game. I only played a couple of missions of the original Halo Wars, so I'm definitely excited for the Halo Wars Definitive Edition.
Halo Wars 2 launches on February 21, 2017. You can preorder it now on both Xbox.com and Amazon. Which version will you get, Halo fans?