Lead to Halo on PC: Halo Wars 2 Review

Halo is in sort of a rocky place right now, the franchises entire hopes ride on a return to the classic style with Halo Infinite after the disaster that was Halo 5: Guardians. But Infinite won't be the first return to a classic style, as little more than a year after Halo 5, Halo Wars 2 dropped on Xbox and PC. With a more simplified premise, a return to a classic world in the series, and a new villain, does Halo Wars 2 outshine the first one?

Halo Wars 2 is set 28 years after Halo Wars and about 6 months after Halo 5:Guardians; after being lost in space at the end of Halo Wars, Halo Wars 2 sees the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire being awoken in orbit around a restored Ark from Halo 3. However, the crew quickly discovers a Brute dominated ex-Covenant faction called the Banished in possession of the Ark after slaughtering the scientific survey outpost and Spartan escort that previously occupied it.  The Spirit of Fire, along with a new AI named Isabel, finds itself at war for the fate of the Galaxy once more as they attempt to rip the Ark from the hands of the Banished leader, the Brute Warlord Atriox.

From the start, Halo Wars 2 is a much better story than 5 all around the board, yes the premise is simplified to basically the Halo 1 setup but with the Ark instead of Halo(sort of). In exchange however, everyone actually has a personality on display here. Yes Forge and Serina are dead (Serina succumbing to Cortana's fate in 4 between games) but in turn the Spartans of Red Team, previously hollow shells, step up. Now, while their personalities aren't gonna set the franchise on fire or anything, compared to Halo Wars and Halo 5, Red Team is certainly much better. We have Jerome, the calm and collected leader who can still be fun and even quippy at times, like another version of the Master Chief. Alice, a heavy gunner who is more cunning and resourceful while being almost as much of a leader as Jerome. And Douglas, an explosives expert who looks forward to the next fight and takes defeat as a personal insult. These three alone have more personality than all but Buck and Master Chief in Halo 5 and they aren't the only one's who saw an improvement.

Cutter is back in name only as the tired old man has been given energy and determination that I felt he was missing in Halo Wars; you can tell he's tired but he keeps going, driven by fire and purpose. Anders is back as well and while the archetype of "spunky girl who doesn't need no help" hasn't been changed, she has been given more of a personality to go with it, the spunk aided by a curiosity and drive that can sometimes make her oblivious to danger or even social cues. And they're all joined by the new face in the room, Isabel, the previous AI stationed on the Ark and now serving in Serina's place and, gonna be honest, I like her more than Serina. When we meet Isabel at the start she comes off as scared, terrified of Atriox and his Banished. But overtime she becomes more confident as Cutter's drive and initiative start to rub off on her until she finally let's go of her fear and embraces her rage at the Banished. Meanwhile Serina.... quipped a bit, yeah kind of weak. All this is enhanced more through dialogue which, instead of expositioning till the cows come home, allows the characters an personalities to shine more. You can easily pick up on what they're all about through dialogue alone, which is more than was in Halo 5.

The only real fault here is the Banished, Atriox shows up rarely, letting his henchman Decimus do the talking. Problem is that Decimus is basically Tartarus Reduxed, though like Tartarus, Decimus is able to draw the best out the heroes ande has his moments. Luckily after Decimus bails out of the plot Atriox does take more of a personal hand in stakes. Though you never fight Atriox either, which is a fault of the games ending, leaving it on a "the battle continues" cliffhanger. Atriox is cool, though you do have to understand the story beyond Halo Wars 2 to get why. Though granted it only asks that you play Halo's 2 and 3 to understand it as opposed to the Didact in which that most dreaded of tasks, reading, was required. I like the Banished as a concept but they could have done more with it, but that's for later.

This all driven home by the games cinematics, done by a returning Blur Studios from Halo Wars and you can tell the difference eight years makes, Halo Wars 2 has miles better graphics than Halo Wars. Character inflections, moments to pause, and all around direction in these cutscenes is leaps and bounds better than Halo Wars. Halo Wars 2 in game goes for the same stylization 1 did but in turn has allowed much more chaotic action on screen, and looks much more crisp as well if you ask me. I even love the designs, which go for a more classic design while incorporating design that worked from the newer games like the Warthog. And I love how you can tell the Banished have their own twist on old designs that are recognizable but different enough to be notable. Sound design is better than Halo Wars, I don't feel like the best is being put out compared to other games when it comes to OST's, but it's still good and more memorable than Halo Wars to it's credit.

When it comes to controls and units everything is much more homogenized than Halo Wars. Where the UNSC had leader powers and the Covenant had heroes like the Arbiter and Brute Chieftian, here both sides have leader powers and heroes. And with the addition of another 13 leaders through DLC there's a lot of variety on display here fitting any RTS playstyle from Serina's Ice Defense to Kinanso's Flame Rush.  Other changes include power being a separate resource like supplies as opposed to something you just get with reactor, though the game is redesigned to compensate for this change. The only downside with the gameplay is map design, as these maps just aren't as unique as the one's in Halo Wars 1, they tend to blend together. Though the fact that I keep coming back to this game two years later should be a testament to how much I like this game's multiplayer. There's also blitz mode which is their attempt to shove microtransactions in the game, so let's move onto something new, story DLC.

Awakening the Nightmare is the first single player DLC content Halo got, and it was released in a timely manner that indicated that this wasn't just excised from the game at the last moment to make an extra buck. Okay, there was also Operation Spearbreaker, an ODST focused two mission campaign but there's not much to write home about compared to Awakening the Nightmare, which is a Banished campaign. Set two months after Halo Wars 2's ending, AtN follows Brute Chieftains Vordius and Pavium, bond brothers sent by Atriox to salvage the wreckage of High Charity from Halo 3. However it becomes a race against time after Voridus accidentally unleashes the Flood that was though destroyed by the Master Chief upon the Ark once more.

And this is the one thing I really liked in this five mission campaign, Voridus, and how he develops from a reckless fighter to a leader who, while still eager to fight, is much more cautious now. It's rushed mind you, just like with Isabel; but like Isabel it's the thought that matters and I love what's on display here. Pavium is also a good counter to Vordius who, while cautious, is utterly devoted to his brother in arms even though Voridus clearly presses his buttons. It's a great dynamic and 343 would be fools to write them out of the franchise like they did with poor Jul' M'dama. Oh, and the Flood come back too, kinda overlooked that part. But the flood are pretty good, and it's nice to have them be as scary as they were in the first game, the second mission really sealing it home on that front. Heck, they even bring back classic Firefight with a more tower defense version fitting the RTS style, which sweetens the AtN deal even more, it's a great DLC for Halo Wars 2 and a fantastic return to form.

And I think that's what Halo Wars 2 is, a fantastic return to form for the Halo series. Not only is Halo Wars 2 better in almost every way than Halo Wars. But it marks a return to a more classic style of storytelling while using that more simple story to allow the characters to shine more than in Halo Wars and Halo 5. The only real failures are the games ending and map design being weaker than the previous entry. But I'm still playing this game two years later and it's got me utterly entranced because, while I'm bad at them, I love RTS' and this is a fantastic return to classic RTS' that also makes Halo's future look just a bit brighter.