Halo Wars 2 is shaping up to be not only an excellent RTS title, but also an excellent addition to the Halo universe.

We caught up with 343i's Dan Ayoub and Creative Assembly's David Nicholson to discuss all things Halo Wars 2, including its place in the universe, the balance between hardcore RTS and accessibility, and to what extend previous Halo knowledge will be required to play Halo Wars 2.

It was a fitting setting for a discussion about Halo. We were sat in 343i's Halo museum, crammed with cabinets stuffed with memorabilia, books, CDs, and all manner of Halo merchandise spanning the entire franchise. You could practically hear Halo's iconic monastic choir emanating from the walls. Creative Assembly enjoys a 20-year history creating strategy games, most famous for titles like Total War, but also cinematic experiences like Alien Isolation. 343i and Creative Assembly have pooled their expertise into Halo Wars 2, which will not only attempt to reinvigorate the classic RTS genre but also stand out as one of the Halo franchise's greatest entries. Best VPN providers 2020: Learn about ExpressVPN, NordVPN & more

I asked Dan Ayoub exactly why the studio decided to revisit Halo Wars, which was a bold attempt to make RTS intuitive on a controller back in the Xbox 360 era. Ayoub said that it was ultimately the fans which led to the decision. "We spend a lot of time polling our audience, polling our community, and frankly Halo Wars 2 has been at the top of the most-asked list for a considerable amount of time. There's a lot of love for that game. It did arguably the best job of taking RTS and making it work on console." "From a control standpoint, it was just fantastic, so marvelous, but it also told a great story. We like to say a lot that the Halo universe is large enough to tell multiple stories. It doesn't all have to be about Master Chief and Cortana and things like that, and I think Halo Wars really proved that." Halo Wars 2 takes place 28 years after the events of the previous game, with the remaining crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire adrift in deep space. The UNSC wrote off the ship as KIA, and there is nobody around to debrief Captain Cutter and his dedicated army.