Halo Wars 2
A mediocre RTS to support a control system nobody wants
DEVELOPER MICROSOFT STUDIOS PUBLISHER MICROSOFT STUDIOS PRICE $ 59.99 AVAILABLE AT WINDOWS STORE halowaypoint.com/en-au/games/halo-wars-2
There’s nothing inherently wrong with a basic-arse RTS. A game with a couple of gimmicky factions, some cool superweapons, upgradeable factories for double-barrelled tanks, a resource system that doesn’t strictly speaking make any sense, and lots of explosions. Those games can be fun, a way to scratch your tactical itch without the brain-sweats that a proper strategy game can bring on.
But RTS is an inherently dated genre. It exists because in the ‘90s, developers like Westwood realised a PC was powerful enough to manage dozens of units in real time. Dune II was basically a turn-based wargame except everything took its turn at once. But then the genre was refined, developed. It became slick, then fast, then frenetic. Pro-level StarCraft is all about actions-per-minute, about twitch skill rather than strategic brilliance. Because the strategy in RTS has always been rudimentary.
The best RTS today is like armwrestling. Perfectly-balanced opponents clash in the centre of a map and push against each other, seeking to exploit some weakness or error or oversight. RTS is all about speed and fury and holding a sort of gestalt vision of the battlefield in your head. Trying to out-guess your opponent even as you out-click them with mouse actions.
Then there’s Halo Wars 2. Look guys! We figured out a neat way to make an RTS work quite nicely with a gamepad!
And that’s it. Halo Wars 2 does indeed work quite nicely with a gamepad, which must indeed be quite nice for Xbox players. But why do we give a shit here on PC? We don’t. I certainly didn’t play it with a gamepad.
it’s insect warfare like in the before-time. Tiny units hurling themselves in doomed waves
Beyond the control scheme though... why? Why does this game exist? What is it for? It doesn’t extend the Halo universe or add anything meaningful to it. It doesn’t do anything new for RTS. The AI isn’t remarkable. The units and vehicles are all things you’ve seen in the main Halo games or in the original Halo Wars. How did the developers of this thing find the motivation to make it?
If you know nothing about Halo, this game will be a blur of spaceships and aliens and Warthogs and Spartans and general bafflement at the way open countryside will suddenly turn into a gigantic sci-fi megastructure with holograms and laser platforms and such. The narrative is disjointed, I’m saying.
The campaign is set on the Ark, which Halo players will remember is a sort of starfish-shaped super-ringworld with various important Forerunner artefacts and machines on it.
Because a story about the core of the United Nations Space Command fighting desperately against the alien Covenant’s best units on actual Earth would be too interesting, in Halo Wars 2 there is only one human ship called the Spirit of Fire. And no Covenant. Just a splinter-faction called the Banished.
The Spirit of Fire was also the home of the human faction in the original game, which is why we’re stuck with it and a bunch of military equipment that is surely obsolete elsewhere in the universe. Something, something,
cryosleep, something, 28 years later mysterious signal AI on a thumbdrive Brute with an electric hammer, something really awful, inspirational speech by the captain something. The point is, the plot and the paradoxically awesomely-animated but terriblyscripted cutscenes are all just noise.
On the actual battlefield, Halo Wars 2 reveals itself as a super-old-school RTS with tiny ant-like units who are infinitely expendable, but with restricted template-based building layouts and super-tight army caps. Resources generate infinitely, with occasional battlefield bonus pickups. Each map has a few spots where forward bases can be set up. There are area-control points to capture and hold.
Otherwise, it’s insect warfare like in the before-time. Tiny units hurling themselves in doomed waves. Build as many tanks as you can, throw them at the enemy. Oh he has anti tank units? Build aircraft. Rock, paper, scissors. Over and over.
Here’s where it gets really silly. At the end of campaign missions the game has the audacity to award you “blitz packs” to be used with the Blitz multiplayer mode.
In this mode, the “perceived complexity” of base-building (ie clicking on a highlighted foundation template and choosing from a radial menu) is replaced with a “card-anddeck mechanic” that allows players to deploy a bunch of units, and then bring in more units after collecting “energy” that “appears randomly” on the battlefield. All quotes sic, from the Halo Wars 2 website.
Developer 343 was inspired by MOBA, see. But they didn’t do a MOBA. They did an RTS. With cards. Can I play something else now?
Look, there is nothing wrong with Halo Wars 2... as a bonus game that comes free with Halo 6 or whatever. But as a premium, full-priced title? No. No, we deserve more than this. A franchise like Halo, with its rich fictional universe, its cool unit design, its super-clear mix of human and alien factions, deserves more than this.
Works real good with a gamepad though.