For the first time since Halo 3: ODST in 2009, I don’t know what to expect from a new Halo game. Halo 5 had its narrative surprises, of course, but in the end it was still a strong, impressive shooter with great co-op, fantastic multiplayer, and all the bells and whistles that come with Microsoft’s flagship title. It was the Halo we know and expect.

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New Characters to Care About

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Making RTS Work on a Controller

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The New Mode Nobody Expected

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By the time it launches in February 2017, there will be eight years of distance between Halo Wars 2 and the original. The RTS genre isn’t exactly booming right now either, so there aren’t a lot of modern mechanics or conventions to keep pace with. Its story, which takes place about six months after Halo 5, includes characters who don’t know much about Master Chief’s deeds, successes, and failures in the war against the Covenant. Its main villain is, perhaps aside from The Arbiter, the only villain in Halo I’ve cared about as more than a bullet sponge. One of its major modes, Blitz, is heavily influenced by collectible card games and strips away most of the plate spinning involved in RTS combat. Even the music is a bit of a departure, with much more brass joining the now iconic strings and “space monk” vocals.I was fortunate enough to visit 343 Industries for a day and play about four hours of Halo Wars 2’s campaign and Blitz modes. From what I saw, the lack of a tried-and-true roadmap for a Halo RTS isn’t leading the project astray; it’s allowing Halo Wars 2 to be something new.I was only able to play one campaign level, and a very early one at that. But first, the stars of the show: Atriox and the Banished.The Banished are Halo Wars 2’s baddies — a faction of brutal warriors who split from the Covenant over, let’s say, a difference in beliefs. On the way out, they snagged a bunch of dangerous Covie tech, painted it red and added Mordor-esque prongs and spikes, and engaged their former allies in a war. While the Covenant were fighting the Banished, they nearly wiped out humanity. They didn’t even come close to containing the Banished though, thanks to their leader, Atriox.Atriox has more potential that nearly any enemy in Halo so far, and if I could have one wish granted for this game, it’s that the story does right by him.In the war against the humans (to eradicate them and begin The Great Journey), Covenant leadership used Atriox’s clan of Brutes as frontline soldiers. Forty at a time they’d storm in, killing and clearing space for follow-up attacks, and 40 at a time they’d die. Atriox was the first to survive such an assault, and he made a habit of it. He didn’t believe in The Great Journey, and he was losing his brothers “39 at a time” to enemies he didn’t need to fight. His anger became irreconcilable, and a squad of sword-wielding Elites tried to put him down.Tried.In past Halo games, Brutes were relegated to the “hired muscle” role. Atriox, in addition to having incredible combat prowess, is a cunning tactician. He can outfight you if it gets to that point, but he’ll probably outthink you first. Under his orders, the Banished are a formidable fighting force the likes of which we haven’t seen. Sure, he doesn’t just have Brutes under his command, but most of his followers are Brutes, which means you’ll see them using weapons, vehicles, and tactics that are normally left to other units.He also wields a giant red hammer forged from former slaves’ tools, so that’s pretty neat.Another character that I unfortunately saw even less of is Isabel, a smart UNSC AI who looks and acts differently than any we’ve seen so far. Unlike Cortana, she’s a “working class” intelligence in charge of logistics. She can run a city, but she’s not such a natural at space warfare or combat tactics. My first thoughts about her once again led me to ODST. In that game, you weren’t the Master Chief and it showed. You couldn’t hit as hard, jump as high, or do anything a Spartan could do. I asked the developers whether a similar situation would manifest in Halo Wars 2, where Isabel doesn’t always have a solution ready-made for you. “Absolutely,” they said.The campaign level I played, again, was very early and revealed almost nothing about the larger story. Starting with a small force, I had to plow through Banished, destroy a base, build my own base (and army), then engage one of Atriox’s warlords, Decimus, and destroy his base.Unfortunately, the units I had access to were pretty standard: marines and Warthogs. Even for the base building portion of the level, I didn’t construct anything I don’t remember using in the first Halo Wars. That’s not to say it’s not there. I just didn’t see it.What I did see were, of course, major graphical improvements over the original. With a full tactical view or zoomed in, Halo Wars 2 looks great. Environments in particular look better, and it’s easier to identify different units now, even with the camera far away.Whether you’re playing on PC or Xbox One, it’s much easier to get around the map and multitask than it was in Halo Wars. PC in particular has the best options. It’s easy to assign and use control groups, plus you can assign certain camera positions to certain keys. This means you can have one key for your base, one for your frontline battle, one for your Warthog scouting party, and one for your hidden cluster of Scorpion tanks. Your options on the Xbox One are more limited, but still more robust than any console RTS I’ve played.One cool thing from the level was a final boss fight with the brute, Decimus. Even with a maxed-out force, he was a challenge. In close quarters he devastated my units, and when I tried to keep my distance, he pulled me back into the fight with his gravity hammer. It’s strong enough to lift even Warthogs, so never assume you’re safe. In combination with an orbital plasma strike, his gap closing abilities were devastating. It wasn’t super difficult, but if other boss fights continue using unique mechanics like that, they could be one of the coolest parts of the campaign.I didn’t expect to hear that Halo Wars 2’s new Blitz mode combines real-time strategy with collectible card game mechanics, but that’s exactly what’s going on.Blitz feels made for two kinds of people: those who like Halo but don’t enjoy spinning a million plates to play an RTS effectively, and those who simply don’t have the time to invest in longer multiplayer matches. It was literally built using feedback from people who don’t play strategy games.Its one map, Proving Grounds, has three capture points. Hold more points for longer than your opponent to reach the score cap faster and win. The twist is that each player has a hand of four cards, and eight more cards in reserve for a total of twelve. Instead of managing a base, you “build” units by playing cards, and you use cards by gathering energy reserves around the map. Cards replenish slowly over time, and you can spend a small amount of energy to cycle your cards whenever you’d like. For example, if your enemy is building a ton of fliers, you could spend a tiny amount of energy to cycle to your anti-air unit card rather than burn a bunch of energy on something in your hand that wouldn’t be effective against air units.A card could be anything from a squad of infantry units (marines, Elites) to a vehicle (Warthog, Wraith) to leader-specific powers (MAC blast, AoE healing). Blitz mode will launch with six leaders, of which I saw two: Captain Cutter of the UNSC Spirit of Fire and Atriox, Leader of the Banished. Cards are earned through packs, which are earned from “a variety of gameplay activities.” Each leader has a starter deck though, so none of the major tactical options will be limited at the start.Blitz matches usually last from seven to 12 minutes, and they are perfect for people who want to get competitive but don’t want to bother with base building or scouting. You can also play it against the game’s AI, which transforms Blitz into a high-score Horde mode of sorts.You begin with a handful of units and, within seconds, you can find a fight at one of the capture points. It’s a mad dash to control what you can early and hold it. You can only build units where you have sight, so spreading out your army can be advantageous. My initial strategy was to divide my army into two well-balanced forces and camp on two capture points. If I can keep two of three points under control, I should win, right? Meanwhile, my opponent took control of the map and gathered energy cores, which drop periodically. With much larger energy reserves, he was able to churn out far more units than I was. I had the early game, but he took the victory with force.In one of my 2v2 matches, my ally had a deck that focused on churning out tons and tons of relatively cheap units. I, meanwhile, had a deck that included a few heavy hitters, land mines, and a massive AoE healing ability. Because you share energy with allies, he used most of it to build a strong front line force. When we had some extra energy, I’d churn out a tank or two. In between battles, I’d bury mines in strategic locations. When a fight broke out, my healing powers kept his forces in shape. This all happened within only a few matches, and I can’t wait to see what other strategies arise when the community gets its hands on the game next year.