'Halo Wars 2' review round-up: previous console success was no fluke
The real-time strategy (RTS) genre had been computer territory for decades.
Spun off from the Xbox's popular first-person shooter franchise, 2009's "Halo Wars" managed to make the genre an uncontested success on console.
Its studio, Ensemble, transplanted the RTS genre onto console by adjusting commonly held assumptions about the way those games had to work.
Players still did all the things an RTS player would do: viewing the action from a bird's eye view, they created multi-vehicular armies, controlled them as a mass, in discrete groups, or as individual units, and sent them out to conquer enemy forces and fortresses -- but without needing the 80-plus inputs of a mouse and keyboard to do so.
It was a first for Ensemble and, in many ways, console gaming; likewise "Halo Wars 2" has proven a first for its own development house, Creative Assembly.
The original "Halo Wars" was so well received that many PC gamers felt aggrieved by its Xbox exclusivity.
That ends with 2017's "Halo Wars 2," launching on the Xbox One console and Windows 10 computers, and measuring up to its predecessor according to review scores greeting its February 21 release.
As with the original, RTS convention is "streamlined into something understandable and accessible without losing depth," wrote Xbox Achievements (80/100.) "It's all natural, it all works, it all makes sense."
The single-player storyline got a big thumbs-up from Cog Connected (95/100) while cinematic interludes, detailed visual presentation, an on-point soundtrack and fidelity to the "Halo" franchise were all plus points for The Sixth Axis (8/10) -- though the site still doled out dings for long loading times, menu lag, or lack of keyboard prompts on PC.
US Gamer adopted a novel approach: rather than picking an RTS expert, they sent a relative newcomer into the fray.
"'Halo Wars 2' has been a surprisingly enjoyable and satisfying experience," was its conclusion.
"It's taught me the basics of RTS strategies, and increased my confidence sufficiently to try multiplayer battles. I clearly still have plenty to learn in terms of the game's deeper tactics, but that'll come from investing further time into the game -- which is something I'm looking forward to."
But Eurogamer's review found itself on the other side of the fence. In particular, their experience was sullied by one particular mode, Blitz -- potentially the game's most innovative, and well praised elsewhere -- which is "hampered by the feeling that players who spend more money [on optional microtransactions] are given an unfair advantage over their opponents."
Nevertheless, on console at least, "Halo Wars 2" is comparable to its favorably received relative. A Metascore review average of 80/100 attests to that, a mere two points below "Halo Wars" itself.
