I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a sucker for “and it’s available right now” announcements at conferences. When Halo Wars 2 dropped its beta on us a full eight months before its release, it was a treat that left me pink with glee. And I appreciate the fact it’s here now, rather than two weeks before its release date of February 21. It shows that Creative Assembly, the team known for their work on Total War, mean for this beta to help shape the final experience; it’s no marketing stunt, they really aim to make the game better in the long run.
For the first half of the beta’s run, Domination is the only mode available. A standard Team Deathmatch affair will be playable on June 17, but by then the novelty may have worn off and, quite frankly, a mode that lacks an objective other than straight up killing doesn’t appeal to me just yet in Halo Wars.
So Domination seemed a perfect choice to pick up and re-learn the craft.
I don’t love that you can’t go it alone, though. Great players could take on two players, I have no doubt. But I, every so often, was hamstrung by a partner who’d just spend all their time building up a base and doing nothing with it. There are bound to be solo competitive modes in the final release but being forced to partner up in the beta seems like an odd choice.
Halo Wars 2 is as much about the prelude to conflict as it is the conflict itself. Most real-time strategy games are; though Halo Wars 2 is as stripped back and accessible to console users as the original was, perhaps even more so.
It felt nice. (Even if the win came largely on the back of my teammate’s war savvy.)
The game gives you the choice of two commanders in this beta. You can choose either James Cutter, who returns from Halo Wars or Atriox, a high-ranking Chieftain among the Jiralhanae, most often referred to as Brutes in the Halo universe. Both have their strengths, but I’m a Cutter-man myself. After more Halo games than I can care to remember, I just can’t get in bed with the enemy.
Some of the larger scale conflicts on display in Halo Wars 2 can be pretty spectacular, though they’re incredibly choppy at times on Xbox One when things get a bit hectic. There’s also a heap of noticeable screen tearing and lag online but hey, that’s what a beta is for.
And once you’re an ace, perhaps you can teach me a trick or two.
Halo Wars 2 is set to release on February 21, 2017.
You can pre-order the Ultimate Edition (which releases four days earlier on February 17, 2017) here, doing so gives you access to the definitive edition of the first game in the series enhanced for Xbox One.