While I generally view HW 2 positively, I think we’ve been let down in certain departments. That doesn’t make my thanks to CA and 343 for making this game happen less enthusiastic, but it does mean that I intend on pointing out where they’ve gone wrong. First of all… Maps. While the maps have been improved in that they’re symmetrical and thus balanced evenly in comparison to the Wars 1 maps, the decision was made to recycle them and use the same ones for 1s 2s and 3s. This diminishes the distinctness of each map. People don’t remember Fort Deen for 1s or 2s. They remember Fort Deen because the super turtles. It seems that Halo Wars 2 took a step forward and then 2 steps back when it comes to maps.
Next is something they can still fix, which is balance. This is the most obvious. Yet something everyone overlooks is how the two factions (Banished/UNSC) were made to be more similar to each other than the two factions in Wars 1 were. This was a change that was evidently brought on in order to make balance easier. Asymmetrical balance, while in the end more interesting, is hard to achieve. In my eyes, this familiarity between the two factions can be made up for if the balance is on point. So, is it? Not quite. Of course, CA will continue to patch, but it seems that as of yet balance has not been had. Choppers were OP? They got nerfed to the point that Jackrabbits became OP. Atriox is OP? He got nerfed and Decimus got buffed so hard that he went from the 2nd worst leader in the game to the best. I’m starting to see a pattern. Hopefully, CA pick up on this as well and decide for themselves what needs to change instead of listening to the constant incoherent whining that goes on in these forums. I’m not trying to be disparaging though. I’ve been playing a lot more since this patch, so I think it’s a great improvement overall. But it’s not quite there yet.
Still, after all my gripes, I have to give it to CA that they’ve certainly created an inclusive game. While not many players play Blitz very often, I’ve noticed that casual players flock to Rumble. Competitive players and casuals will always have some sort of divide, but I’d say that the inclusion of these new gamemodes has overall benefitted the community. So there’s a bit of praise to end it off.