Halo Wars 2 Reviews
Check out Halo Wars 2 Review Scores from trusted Critics below. With 27 reviews on CriticDB, Halo Wars 2 has a score of:
Halo Wars 2 is an absolute masterstroke, taking console RTS limitations and somehow not only bypassing them, but making them unmissable features. This is one of the most well-made and cleverly designed games I have played in a long time. I hope it sets a precedent for other games to follow.
Halo Wars 2 is the best RTS you can play on consoles today. Whether you're a Halo lore junky looking to toy around with the campaign or a competitive RTS player looking for intense multiplayer matches, you can't do much better than this. Creative Assembly definitely stuck the landing with Halo Wars 2, pleasing fans of the original, bringing new players into the fold, and delivering a worthy successor to Ensemble's 2009 cult classic.
Halo Wars 2’s story may not be enthralling but it does deliver a satisfying RTS experience that is accessible for newcomers while still retaining enough depth to please fans of the genre.
Halo Wars 2 brilliantly captures what was great about the original, while also adding more depth and variety to the playing field. This is definitely a game for both newcomers and veterans alike.
Is this RTS good for beginners? We have just the person to answer that question.
Technical issues and the lack of content in Blitz aside, Halo Wars 2 is a fun game that is the best bet for RTS fans looking for something to play on Xbox One. The campaign is engrossing from start to finish, the multiplayer matches are consistently exciting, and thanks to its status as an Xbox Play Anywhere game, Halo Wars 2 offers fans plenty of bang for the buck. If 343 and Creative Assembly are able to patch the game's technical issues and add more areas to Blitz mode soon, then Halo Wars 2 will be a no-brainer for fans of the real-time strategy genre and the Halo franchise in general.
Halo Wars 2 is a strategy game packed with fast-paced action, massive battles, and an all-new Halo story.
No one expected much from Halo Wars eight years ago, but it was actually pretty great. And you can kind of say the same for Halo Wars 2.
Halo Wars 2 is the unlikely sequel to one of the first major console real-time strategy video games people never knew they wanted so bad. Driven by the
After the crew of the UNSC warship Spirit of Fire wakes up from a quarter-century cryogenic nap, they discover that humanity’s war against the Covenant has ended. Stranded a galaxy from home, the crew responds to an emergency beacon only to encounter a bloodthirsty faction of the Covenant known as the Banished. Their leader – an imposing Brute named Atriox – dismantles a team of three Spartans in their first skirmish. As tensions escalate, the Spirit of Fire’s crew is forced to push back against these battle-hardened space gorillas and uncover the mystery at the heart of a new Forerunner installation.
Microsoft's popular first-person shooter series has seen a few spin-offs over the years. Here we have the sequel to 2009's real-time strategy game Halo Wars so wake up from your cryosleep and let's smash some Atriox.
Halo Wars 2 is a competent RTS game. It has its fair share of issues, and in some minds might be deemed simple. However, if you’re willing to look past the convoluted and frustrating UI, or maybe you want an RTS to get into, but are intimidated by the offerings on the market, Halo Wars 2 is a great place to start. Its story is good, delivering a true Halo narrative on the platform for the first time since Halo 2, and while the issues with the RTS elements might annoy some, it doesn’t mean...
Bringing on the experience of developers Creative Assembly (Total War) for Halo Wars 2 was a big move by Microsoft. When released, 2009's Halo Wars was the biggest selling RTS game on consoles ever. Despite this reception, the closure of developers Ensemble made the attempt at spinning Halo off look like it had finished at the start line. It's a surprise, then, that eight years later we've got a sequel. Alongside this sequel also comes a remastered version of the original Halo Wars (review link).
It’s hard not to be taken aback by the performances of both Erika Soto and Gideon Emery, whose performances as Isabel and Captain James Cutter respectively can only be described as first-rate. While I sang Soto’s praises earlier for her performance, Cutter’s bellicose patriotism is pinned permanently to his sleeve courtesy of Emery’s portrayal. It was certainly jarring for Cutter’s appearance to change so drastically between games, but he’s in good hands.
Halo Wars 2 will scratch a real-time strategy itch and give you a dose of Halo-Universe flavor with a decent story, but it won’t go much deeper than that. A run-of-the-mill campaign, controls that hamper micromanagement, conspicuous bugs, and multiplayer that relies on luck limit its long-term appeal, but its fast and flashy action makes it fun for a while.
Halo Wars 2 managed to drag me in kicking and screaming, and left me coming out more intrigued about the Halo universe itself. I have never been an aficionado of the Haloverse, nor have I ever been interested in it before. Halo Wars 2 may just change that. The campaign tells a safe narrative that is made more impressive by the intimacy of the gameplay. The multiplayer Blitz mode may not be for everyone, but between it, and the rest of the multiplayer, there’s enough there to keep people going for quite some time.
Halo Wars didn't rewrite the RTS playbook, and Halo Wars 2 is unlikely to bring on many converts who weren't convinced by the first attempt. In many ways this is an iterative sequel, with new units and balance, and a handful of additions. The campaign is well-made and the multiplayer shines thanks largely to Blitz Mode. It's a streamlined take on a genre that has faded even more in recent years, but in its own way, Halo Wars 2 is still carrying the flame.
Halo Wars 2's console focus is a little too strong on the PC, but there's some fun if lightweight strategy nonetheless.
Halo Wars 2 delivers another worthy real-time strategy game - as long as you're here for the Halo and not a unique RTS.
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Boasting high production value and the minor intrigue of what a new villain might mean for the greater series, Halo Wars 2 is fantastic for casual RTS gamers, but probably not for anyone else. Its relatively flat story, short campaign, and strategically shallow mechanics hold it back from greatness, instead relegating it to being yet another example of why RTS games don’t mix well with consoles.
Real-time strategy games have been one of my favorite genres for a very long time. From the days of Command and Conquer to StarCraft 2 I have put months into getting as much out of each game as I could. Needless to say, I was eager to get my hands on Halo Wars 2!
The biggest strength for both though is the fact that most people understand the Halo universe. It's not just the geek thrill of seeing a Scarab in action - it's that you understand what the Scarab means on the battlefield (trouble). We know which characters are best against tanks, and which are probably best in special vehicles. Over on the special ability side - also well-judged, with everyone's abilities activated by the Y-button and members of the subgroup selectable with a trigger - some of the more unusual abilities are also familiar. Take the Spartans, who are able to take over most of the Covenant vehicles. You quickly realise in multiplayer that while the Covenant are able to churn out tanks quicker than the UNSC, it's something of a double-edged sword when you're just delivering a spanky new car to our boys in the green hats.
Halo Wars 2 is simultaneously conservative and inventive. It’s definitely trying to evoke traditional RTS games – which is not entirely a bad thing given the recent dearth of them – especially when it comes to the campaign, but elements like base construction and Blitz mode make it stand out enough that it doesn’t feel like you’re just going through the motions for the hundredth time. A clumsy UI and weird, sometimes fixed, keybindings and controls reveal its console heritage, but there are a surprising number of benefits to that side of the design. Some of the places where the formula has been redesigned in order to appeal to the Xbox One crowd, and to fit a controller, are the points where Halo Wars 2 finds an identity of its own.
It’s fair to say the advertising campaign for Halo Wars 2 has been one of the best in recent years. Not only did it have an amazing trailer at E3 featuring an original exclusively written song called “I Know You” by White Buffalo, but the follow up “War of Wits” videos, The Sale‘ and ‘The Armrest‘ are hilarious and have been massively successful at marketing the game.
There’s this idiom that gets bandied around between gamers that ‘RTS doesn’t work on console’. The original Halo Wars dispelled that to some degree, and Halo Wars 2 outright proves it wrong. From the second you pick the pad up, you know how it all works - the navigation, the UI, the command you have over your troops… it’s all natural, it all works. It all makes sense. Halo Wars 2 takes the foundations the 2009 game established and builds on them, course correcting along the way, a...
Dan takes a look at the latest strategy game from Microsoft Studios: Halo Wars 2It’s been eight years since the original Halo Wars graced our Xbox 360s and in that time fans [...]