Halo Wars 2 was an improvement over Halo Wars 1, in almost every way. The gameplay is smooth, the balance isn’t so abhorrent (i.e. rounds don’t end based on whether or not the enemy team decided to go full warthog spam at 5 minutes), and the story even got an improvement.
The only place I personally feel that Halo Wars 2 didn’t improve is the soundtrack. It feels…generic, listening to the soundtrack, whereas each of the original Halo Wars 1 soundtracks had its own unique feel and wasn’t just (aside from maybe the two tunes that would play whenever you assaulted a base) generic ambience or battle music.
Omg, this! I have played this game on mute now since day 3 or 4 of its release! I’m always mixing some Spotify now. You can’t play this game as much as I have without some decent tunes. I dare to say take a bookmark from Epic’s Fortnite and revamp your background audio. Add that to the list of content this game needs like maps and anything other than balance changes that this game will not get
Agree on the points about lack of music diversity and such, but I’d also harp and the significantly increased emphasis on leader powers. I feel they went a bit too far with it. But yes, in general I agree the game is an improvement.
the game is not smooth. the right trigger doesn’t work.
if you lag then the game has to catch up instead of pausing the game entirely which sets you behind 1 minute.
you cant input commands fast because if you do try some commands will not register.
and if you dc which is common you will lose more points than if you were to self destruct your base.
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> if you lag then the game has to catch up instead of pausing the game entirely which sets you behind 1 minute.
Not sure if this is a HW2-specific issue.
I know that other team games, NHL 18 specifically, do the same freeze-then-catch-up lag. Maybe it is a developer choice; I’m not sure. Just pointing out that it’s not unique to HW2.
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> > 2533274855353246;7:
> > if you lag then the game has to catch up instead of pausing the game entirely which sets you behind 1 minute.
>
> Not sure if this is a HW2-specific issue.
>
> I know that other team games, NHL 18 specifically, do the same freeze-then-catch-up lag. Maybe it is a developer choice; I’m not sure. Just pointing out that it’s not unique to HW2.
It’s the type of multiplayer system they use, hw1 used a peer to peer system so basically the game stoped if any connection got interrupted as all games had to run at the same rate. Hw2 uses servers which would normally be better if the playerbase wasn’t so small that you almost always have a long distance to the server and so get a lot of lag.
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> I agree, Halo Wars 1s soundtrack was awesome when you attacked a base. I still prefer 2 over 1 though, Halo Wars 1 multiplayer was scorpion spam
Scorpion Spam, Gauss Spam, I still remember that Canister glitch.
Yeah I agree that it is definitely and improvement over the first game but I do have some criticisms: #1) Map Design - Yes I know its set on the ARK, so there should be at least some ARK maps, but the design of each map aesthetically feels way to similar with only the terrain really changing. I dont think anyone would complain if you set a map on another planet that didnt feature in this game like the first game did in quite a few of its maps. In addition, the maps are way to stale. If we go back to the first game, each map was very different not only aesthetically, but gameplay wise. Fort Deen had 4 garrisonable barriers that bisected the map preventing enemies from sending troops over without destroying the gate or rather units deployed. Terminal Morraine had 2 island type bases on the left and right edges separated from the mainland by a Forerunner bridge that would periodically turn on and off, the equivalent of a 2 slot mini base and a generator (Which was essentially the Base Tier mechanic in the first unlike the current base upgrade mechanism) allowing you to survive on the edge almost indefinitely in a defensive posture even if the enemy claimed the other 8 bases. Beasley`s Plateau had a garrisonable barrier that would increase your max population if you had a unit inside. These are just a few of the unique things on each of the maps from the first game, essentially making each map unique, not to mention Labyrinth where you could get Equipable Sentinels that could attach to any unit and provide ether a constant heal when out of combat, a dome shield around the unit or assist by attacking similar to Skitters in HW2. Only a few of the HW2 maps have any unique features that change how the game is played or how strategies are utilised by players.
#2) Music - I agree the music isnt the best, even compared to the first game, but I wish they used more of the HW1 theme, they keep hinting to it by playing a few notes from it but dont really use it or any significant portion of it. Halo is know worldwide for its music or perhaps was, with the last few games having lackluster music compared to the OG Halo Trillogy and Reach.
I better stop there because this isn’t really a criticisms post, but they definitely made some major improvements over the first game for sure and for me they generally outweigh the criticisms.
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> > 2533274809541057;8:
> > > 2533274855353246;7:
> > > if you lag then the game has to catch up instead of pausing the game entirely which sets you behind 1 minute.
> >
> > Not sure if this is a HW2-specific issue.
> >
> > I know that other team games, NHL 18 specifically, do the same freeze-then-catch-up lag. Maybe it is a developer choice; I’m not sure. Just pointing out that it’s not unique to HW2.
>
> It’s the type of multiplayer system they use, hw1 used a peer to peer system so basically the game stoped if any connection got interrupted as all games had to run at the same rate. Hw2 uses servers which would normally be better if the playerbase wasn’t so small that you almost always have a long distance to the server and so get a lot of lag.
True, but I think you’ve oversimplified/ made some assumptions about the root cause.
Look at Halo 5, for example, it also uses dedicated servers, rather than peer-to-peer, but doesn’t see the same freeze/fast-forward style of lag.
