Halo wars 2 is coming out on the 21st of February of 2017. Now almost every Xbox gamer knows about this game and most are looking forward to this. Especially since the beta came out last year. Halo wars 2 is a real time strategy (RTS) game where you get to control the forces of the UNSC and covenant. The events of halo wars 2 is set 28 years we believe after the the events of the prequel game. Captain Cutter and his crew are found over an ancient Forerunner haven called the ‘Ark’. Here they encounter probably the greatest threat to humanity… The Banished. The Banished are a dangerously powerful Brute faction lead by intelligent and fieerce warrior called ‘Atriox’. Can Captian Cutter survive against this new enemy?
X35 Earthwalker participated in the beta himself and says that he likes everything about the game but it does have some issues though but glad that they will be corrected in the real game. The graphics are a complete step up from the prequel game. The details to the units and structures are greater, showing great attention to design and detail. Even the way the units move now have been approved. If you paid attention to how the marines run and traverse through the battlefield you will see what we mean. The game had new units, which one of we and many other gamers have been wanting since the prequel. There is now a sniper infantry unit which has long range (obviously), high damage and their shots stun enemy infantry units for round about half a second maybe. they are perfect anti-infantry but swarms will easily destroy them. They also are cloaked meaning they can’t be detected by enemy units until they come into range and directed to attack snipers. There is also a flying heavy bombarding air unit call “Blisterbacks” which look like armoured beetles. They do single energy blasts from the air but have the ability to land on the ground and become an artillery unit, bombarding units and bases. X35 Earthwalker does want them to have increased damage as they currently are too weak and don’t have that much impact at all. There are more units for both the UNSC and Banished.
The two leaders that we know of so far is Captain Cutter and Atriox. Both don’t take non-sense from anyone. Captain feels very similar to the prequel and allows similar strategies. Most strategies revolve around the infantry and with there being more infantry units, and the fact that the marines actually are a threat now, this will work well. Snipers are great at neutralising enemy infantry from afar and delivering great pain to hero units. As Cutter you can pump out infantry fast and do pretty good rushes on the enemy, forcing them to panic and expel their resources quickly. Atriox is no slouch in the infantry department either but most strategies with Atriox revolve around the vehicles. The Banished vehicles are quite diverse and are solid for holding down a certain area and then making the push. The units with the banished seem more diverse and thus allowing more options and ideas for strategies and combinations. Once corrected, the Blisterbacks will be a nightmare for many players.
The game now has a ability upgrade screen that you access while on the field. Here you can spend points that you gather over time in the match to upgrade unit or character abilities which can really change the tide of the battle. Trust us on that. For example you can choose to have the ability to create a area of healing for your units and structures. You could get the ability as Cutter to place a turret where you want in a battle. Maybe to attack the enemy from behind or at an angle. You can unlock the famous mac blast which brings death to whatever it hits. In the beta though, the mac blast was far too weak and couldn’t even destroy a tank. Even the blast radius was pretty much a zero. They must change this. There is an upgrade on Atriox’s side where you can make all your units literally invulnerable for a period of time. We used this once and survived a mac blast and a pelican sweep special ability and still destroyed all enemy units and then the base but timing is everything with these abilities. The gameplay mechanics in this game make it so that every decision is more important than ever before. The game has become even more strategic. So you must keep track of your resource spending, what abilities you upgrade or unlock and when and how to use your unit abilities.
We must say though that the leader characters you select all have devastating abilities. Captain Cutter after following certain upgrade paths can have the ability to hell jump in veteran (have stars) units such as the cyclops, Odsts and more. It’s basically instant strong reinforcements that deal all kinds of damage. The other major ability is the pelican sweep that brings three pelicans that completely demolish everything with rockets blasts and heavy machine guns. Everything will die in a matter of moments. This can save your life. Atriox on the other hand have the invulnerable ability that we mentioned earlier. This makes all your units invulnerable and take zero damage from everything while still being able to fight. The next major ability and by far our favourite in the annihilator which truly lives up to its name. It basically calls down 6 beams that slowly join together in the middle and explodes annihilating everything that was under, around or near the beam. This has even been used to wipe out an entire army leaving the enemy completely open to attack. It’s absolutely crazy. If only you could see our faces when we first used it and saw what it could do. These abilities aren’t to be messed with due to all having the ability to change the battle in your favour but once again, timing is everything.
The is literally an improvement from the prequel is every way. The controls are still easy to learn and use. The graphics and sounds are wonderful even though this was all beta and not the released real thing. The story is definitely interesting and we want to know more. No unit in the game is useless or feels useless. The abilities are so diverse and very effective, like you would be crazy to not use them. The main problem about the game is having your brute champion unit trying to reach enemies to smash when all of a sudden you get hit by a sniper and he is stunned for a second and when he can move again, there are two more snipers who stun him. This repeats and your champion can’t do anything, Literally. It’s frustrating because it makes him useless. we hope they make the stun only effect regular units and not champion infantry. That what we think. The Blisterback needs damage increase, the mac blast needs increased damage and blast radius. Snipers should require players to be one tech level higher before allowed to create them in the match as all a captain Cutter player needed to win against Atriox is rush quickly with many marines and many snipers and they win. Atriox can’t do anything. Off course we found a way to counter this but it wasn’t easy and many don’t know the strategy we have created for this.
Fun fact. Did you know that X35 Earthwalker on the 20th of June 2016 at 14:05pm was in a match where his team mate left the match and it became a 1v2. He won the match as captain Cutter. We made a record of the match and know the names of all the players.
We are all looking forward to this game and what it will bring. We want to see the scarab, the other leader characters, the story and more. So far ‘343 Industries’ are doing an awesome job. Keep it up you guys. This game is definitely worth checking out.
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