Halo Wars 1 in my opinion is better than Halo Wars 2. Reason being not only did Halo Wars 1 have decent gameplay for a console rts it also had a compelling story and had amazing cutscenes that continued the feeling of the story. The sequel not so much.
Now I haven’t beaten Halo Wars 2 yet but I’m already halfway through the game. Now the opening cutscene and the few after that really did set the mood for the game. But after the first couple of missions where I’ve yet to see another cutscene the feeling of the game has kind of gone down hill from the starting point. I’m quite disappointed there’s not as many cutscenes in this one as there was in it’s predecessor.
Now the gameplay of the game itself isn’t that bad although it practically feels the same as it did in the first Halo Wars 1 with maybe a few new features but not many. It does have improved resource gathering I’ll admit I couldn’t stand much of the resource gathering in the first one cause it took forever.
Halo Wars 2 feels like it should be topping Halo Wars 1 but it’s kind of not. Does anyone else feel the same way?
Halo wars 2 has more cutscene time than the first.
The first one felt like a galactic journey visiting several places, whilst the new one is set on a single location.
I still like both, but I like how the original one gave you the point of view of the covenant in some cutscenes.
I really don’t like how the Banished are portrayed as a super dangerous force compared to the Covenant, but they’re always getting trashed in the majority of missions. You’d think the Spirit of Fire would be fighting for its life with all characters stressing out since they’re using outdated technology and have approximately half of its crew gone according to Isabel. Instead the UNSC is just winning these battles with hardly much resistance compared to how much of a threat the Covenant possessed in HW1’s story. Atrox’s intro cutscene is literally the only show of the Banished’s badassery. Nothing like that is ever seen again in the rest of the game. That really sucks to me.
Yeah the problem is that Halo Wars 1 mixes it up. Because of this you feel like a lots happening and the story naturally escalates.
1 - Fighting on Harvest
2 - Fighting in the streets of Acadia
3 - Fighting Flood on the surface of a shield world
4 - Fighting on the Spirits Hull against Sentinels, Flood and Covenant
5 - Fighting inside the Shield World itself to save the galaxy.
Whereas Halo Wars 2
- Theres Banished on the Ark
- We kill the Banished
- Kill the Banished some more
- Kill Decimus
- Blow up the Assault Carrier
- Decide we need help and launch a Halo ring as a distress beacon. I mean anyone whos played Halo 5 knows that you might as well just put it on Cortana’s finger.
- Cliffhanger
I never felt like anything was at stake because I never got the impression Atriox had a plan beyond simply mining the Ark for reasons I can infer from Halo 5 ending but lacks the urgency of Halo Wars 1 campaign. This meant the tension was quite low when the Spirit wasn’t in immediate danger. We also don’t see the same variety of locations and enemies as in the first game. I mean the absolute worst thing that could have happened is Atriox stops the ring alerting Cortana to his presence.
> 2533274893824542;3:
> I really don’t like how the Banished are portrayed as a super dangerous force compared to the Covenant, but they’re always getting trashed in the majority of missions. You’d think the Spirit of Fire would be fighting for its life with all characters stressing out since they’re using outdated technology and have approximately half of its crew gone according to Isabel. Instead the UNSC is just winning these battles with hardly much resistance compared to how much of a threat the Covenant possessed in HW1’s story. Atrox’s intro cutscene is literally the only show of the Banished’s badassery. Nothing like that is ever seen again in the rest of the game. That really sucks to me.
Because they’re being viewed from the eyes of a logistics AI, not a millitary commander. They had one slip capable ship for the sake of the didacts balls, they weren’t that bad.
Everything about the game seems like a step backwards or nothing changed from the first one.
Halo wars 1 came out 8 years ago and for the first non fps halo game i wasn’t expecting too much and was surprised by how much i liked it. So with a newer console generation, an expanded halo universe and 8 years to throw around ideas i was expecting an improvement. Instead of which there are rts from the 90s with more content.
As others have said being just on the Ark was boring compared to the number of locations in the first game, a complete waste of a location, boring terrain, might as well have been on any other forerunner structure. The flood should also have been in it to give more enemy variety.
Apparently the length of cutscenes is longer in HW2 than HW1, but not having them after each mission is a little disappointing and doesn’t help the plot. Also while blurs cutscenes do look amazing as always, in HW1 they were all bright showing off different locations. Whereas in HW2 they’re all in dark rooms and the coolest cutscene with Jerome killing elites on the ship is shown in little flashes.
The plot/story is all over the place; who brought them to the ark, atriox and the banished are completely overhyped, nothing was really achieved in the game, little to no reaction from SofF crew to events in the last few decades, creating a halo ring is an awful idea, big cliffhanger at the end. No stakes compared to the first game. No point of view cutscenes from banished perspective
Also bonus complaint, compare the collector edition of both games.
HW1
Steel case- 2 covers
Graphic novel
Halo 3 mythic map pack
Leader cards
Embroidered ship patch
Vehicle skins
HW2
Standard box and game
Season pass- who knows what this will actually include???
Updated HW1, quite like this but it’s already backwards compatabile
The halo wars 2 story had great potential but fell short when it came to cinematics and explanation of what was going on.
> 2533274810108297;6:
> Everything about the game seems like a step backwards or nothing changed from the first one.
> Halo wars 1 came out 8 years ago and for the first non fps halo game i wasn’t expecting too much and was surprised by how much i liked it. So with a newer console generation, an expanded halo universe and 8 years to throw around ideas i was expecting an improvement. Instead of which there are rts from the 90s with more content.
>
> As others have said being just on the Ark was boring compared to the number of locations in the first game, a complete waste of a location, boring terrain, might as well have been on any other forerunner structure. The flood should also have been in it to give more enemy variety.
>
> Apparently the length of cutscenes is longer in HW2 than HW1, but not having them after each mission is a little disappointing and doesn’t help the plot. Also while blurs cutscenes do look amazing as always, in HW1 they were all bright showing off different locations. Whereas in HW2 they’re all in dark rooms and the coolest cutscene with Jerome killing elites on the ship is shown in little flashes.
>
> The plot/story is all over the place; who brought them to the ark, atriox and the banished are completely overhyped, nothing was really achieved in the game, little to no reaction from SofF crew to events in the last few decades, creating a halo ring is an awful idea, big cliffhanger at the end. No stakes compared to the first game. No point of view cutscenes from banished perspective
>
> Also bonus complaint, compare the collector edition of both games.
>
> HW1
> Steel case- 2 covers
> Graphic novel
> Halo 3 mythic map pack
> Leader cards
> Embroidered ship patch
> Vehicle skins
>
> HW2
> Standard box and game
> Season pass- who knows what this will actually include???
> Updated HW1, quite like this but it’s already backwards compatabile
Agreed.Also Halo Wars 1 had 15 missions and Halo Wars 2 has 12.
> 2535422637246257;1:
> Halo Wars 1 in my opinion is better than Halo Wars 2. Reason being not only did Halo Wars 1 have decent gameplay for a console rts it also had a compelling story and had amazing cutscenes that continued the feeling of the story. The sequel not so much.
>
> Now I haven’t beaten Halo Wars 2 yet but I’m already halfway through the game. Now the opening cutscene and the few after that really did set the mood for the game. But after the first couple of missions where I’ve yet to see another cutscene the feeling of the game has kind of gone down hill from the starting point. I’m quite disappointed there’s not as many cutscenes in this one as there was in it’s predecessor.
>
> Now the gameplay of the game itself isn’t that bad although it practically feels the same as it did in the first Halo Wars 1 with maybe a few new features but not many. It does have improved resource gathering I’ll admit I couldn’t stand much of the resource gathering in the first one cause it took forever.
>
> Halo Wars 2 feels like it should be topping Halo Wars 1 but it’s kind of not. Does anyone else feel the same way?
Army’s just feel exactly the same there is no real difference anymore they added blister back to the covinet and added snipers and cyclops to unsc there is no real difference anymore and doesn’t really feel much different between leaders except Shipmaster is completely different than the rest
> 2533274805640921;7:
> The halo wars 2 story had great potential but fell short when it came to cinematics and explanation of what was going on.
343 boss lady explained that is how they will be handling story telling going forward for all Halo games. I believe it was in response to the criticism of the Halo 5 story. Link below.
I personally liked the story of HW2. It definitely feels like a bridge story between story dlc/HW3 (if we get so lucky) /Halo 6. The original Wars has a special place in my heart for melding two of my favorite things - Halo and Command and Conquer (RTS genre). But I believe I prefer the story of HW2 as it brings the SoF crew into the greater halo narrative. I also have a sneaking suspicion that isabel is evil - no real concrete evidence just a feeling.
http://www.dualshockers.com/2017/02/23/every-fps-halo-will-split-screen-going-foward-343-infdstries-boss-talks-taking-risks/
> 2533274821521504;2:
> Halo wars 2 has more cutscene time than the first.
>
> The first one felt like a galactic journey visiting several places, whilst the new one is set on a single location.
>
> I still like both, but I like how the original one gave you the point of view of the covenant in some cutscenes.
I haven’t finished the campaign yet but I’m pretty sure there’s a Banished Cutscene isn’t there? By god let there be please!
The biggest flaw the game has is not making any closure in fight between SOF and Banished in Campaign.Atriox was not defeated and still has a lot of army and then the credits roll.So now it all depends on dlc that expands the story but we know nothing about how this will be implemented in the game.Is there at all anything selectable except Campaign and Missions 12/12?At least give us some hint 343i:Will there be Season 2 or Banished Campaign?
> 2533274807158996;10:
> > 2533274805640921;7:
> > The halo wars 2 story had great potential but fell short when it came to cinematics and explanation of what was going on.
>
> 343 boss lady explained that is how they will be handling story telling going forward for all Halo games. I believe it was in response to the criticism of the Halo 5 story. Link below.
Which worries me because it seems like they missed the point of the criticisms of the story of Halo 5. It wasn’t that Halo 5’s story was too ‘deep’ or ‘complex’ that fans didn’t get it it was that the story relied on an overused scifi trope (big bad AI threatening everyone) and did so while making very basic storytelling faux pas.
This is just more of them failing to admit how much they -Yoinked!- up and just blaming the fans for not ‘getting it’ therefore they will dumb down future stories. the story/design people at 343 really have shaken my faith in the future of the franchise and the story of Halo Wars 2 and this response does little to assuage my concerns.
> 2533274951753761;12:
> The biggest flaw the game has is not making any closure in fight between SOF and Banished in Campaign.Atriox was not defeated and still has a lot of army and then the credits roll.So now it all depends on dlc that expands the story but we know nothing about how this will be implemented in the game.Is there at all anything selectable except Campaign and Missions 12/12?At least give us some hint 343i:Will there be Season 2 or Banished Campaign?
Actually I’m pretty glad we didn’t finish atriox yet.
Amongst everyone criticising Halo wars 2, I enjoyed it as much as the first halo wars. A lot of you are criticising that the games closure with atriox and cutters face off was let unresolved was a major flaw. IT ISNT! It leaves potential for future games AND the game itself has future dlc campaign missions for the future, meaning that the game as a whole isn’t done and the face off between cutter and atriox continues. Another element in the game unlike the first is that their is CHARACTER! Cutter from the first game was almost like a machine, same with serina. But in this game you open off with a great blur cinematic revealing an emotion we haven’t seen through through serina or cutter. That’s a plus from me. Many of you don’t like how Atriox is portrayed as menacing but your also forgetting that that was through the eyes of isabell who had only 5 months ago lost all the people she was close too, to that person. Another great aspect is their is so much nostalgia. The mission where you control the sniper units under the banished ship reminded me of Halo ce’s truth and reconciliation and the part where Jerome jumps from the ship reminded me of halo 4. That’s also a plus from me. My last good point is that I feel relieved to finally play a very GOOD Halo story; Halo 5 was a disappointment to me. That’s my opinion
I didn’t play HW 1 but I will say this story tied in nicely with Halo 5’s ending. Makes very interesting possibilities for Halo 6.
> 2533274821521504;14:
> > 2533274951753761;12:
> > The biggest flaw the game has is not making any closure in fight between SOF and Banished in Campaign.Atriox was not defeated and still has a lot of army and then the credits roll.So now it all depends on dlc that expands the story but we know nothing about how this will be implemented in the game.Is there at all anything selectable except Campaign and Missions 12/12?At least give us some hint 343i:Will there be Season 2 or Banished Campaign?
>
> Actually I’m pretty glad we didn’t finish atriox yet.
Im ok with it if we finish him in more missions via dlc.But not so if we finish him in Halo 6 or Halo Wars 3.One Halo Wars game is enough to defeat 1 enemy and Halo 6 has enough other enemies with Cortana being main threat.
> 2533275013567761;11:
> > 2533274821521504;2:
> > Halo wars 2 has more cutscene time than the first.
> >
> > The first one felt like a galactic journey visiting several places, whilst the new one is set on a single location.
> >
> > I still like both, but I like how the original one gave you the point of view of the covenant in some cutscenes.
>
> I haven’t finished the campaign yet but I’m pretty sure there’s a Banished Cutscene isn’t there? By god let there be please!
there’s one or two nothing too major. I feel as though the dlc will show the banished side
> 2533274807158996;10:
> > 2533274805640921;7:
> > The halo wars 2 story had great potential but fell short when it came to cinematics and explanation of what was going on.
>
> 343 boss lady explained that is how they will be handling story telling going forward for all Halo games. I believe it was in response to the criticism of the Halo 5 story. Link below.
>
> I personally liked the story of HW2. It definitely feels like a bridge story between story dlc/HW3 (if we get so lucky) /Halo 6. The original Wars has a special place in my heart for melding two of my favorite things - Halo and Command and Conquer (RTS genre). But I believe I prefer the story of HW2 as it brings the SoF crew into the greater halo narrative. I also have a sneaking suspicion that isabel is evil - no real concrete evidence just a feeling.
>
> http://www.dualshockers.com/2017/02/23/every-fps-halo-will-split-screen-going-foward-343-infdstries-boss-talks-taking-risks/
The story was good, don’t get me wrong. However I don’t think that’s the right way to take that criticism. Compared to Halo 2 Anniversary and Halo Wars 1 the storytelling is not so great.
> 2533274867382575;18:
> > 2533275013567761;11:
> > > 2533274821521504;2:
> > > Halo wars 2 has more cutscene time than the first.
> > >
> > > The first one felt like a galactic journey visiting several places, whilst the new one is set on a single location.
> > >
> > > I still like both, but I like how the original one gave you the point of view of the covenant in some cutscenes.
> >
> > I haven’t finished the campaign yet but I’m pretty sure there’s a Banished Cutscene isn’t there? By god let there be please!
>
> there’s one or two nothing too major. I feel as though the dlc will show the banished side
Oh Please! I’d kill for something like that, but you know, I have a cold feeling. That cold feeling is that these new missions won’t have cutscenes, hahahaha!