Alright, so let me first start out by saying I’m a huge fan of Halo Wars. I played the first one to death and I’ve been waiting for a sequel for years. When I heard they were making a Halo Wars 2 I was very excited and knew I would have to play the beta. I hit General rank in HW1 multiple times over different accounts and put tons of hours into playing 3v3 Standard. It may just be that I’m not used to it yet but I went from knowing Halo Wars like the back of my hand to being totally lost when playing this beta.
Something I really enjoyed about HW1 was the seamless gameplay and simplicity. With HW2, it didn’t really even feel like Halo for some reason. It reminded me much more of Command and Conquer. The new tech mechanic makes no sense to me and I’m not sure why they got rid of that. Every building seems like it has weird upgrades to it that takes from your total supply and tech totals. So now not only do you need to keep up with your supplies but now there’s a whole other supply currency to keep track of.
The gameplay is way more clunky feeling and I don’t understand how to use your unit’s special Y ability, sometimes it will show up and sometimes it won’t. To make things even more confusing, you’re no longer able to click on a unit and see what it is or what it’s function is (ex. “Wolverine - Anti Air”). So there I am moving my marines around and I run in to my opponent’s covenant units. None of them look familiar to me and I can’t tell what they are or how to counter them. Since there’s no tech levels I can’t tell why sometimes Tanks are available to build in Garages and sometimes they are not. It just seems like there’s unnecessary complexity and it’s lacking in the intuitive department.
And don’t even get me started on the Domination game type. I can’t stand this new mode. Before I can even look at my buildings and new units and see what they do I’m being notified that other points are being captured. I start losing the game without even seeing any enemy units. The minimap is pretty bad too. You can’t see where your partner’s looking and clicking the left stick to alert your teammates doesn’t even make a noise and is hard to see if you’re not looking at the map. The “tutorial” is pretty disappointing and they don’t even have a offline mode where you can practice and get used to everything. You’re just instantly thrown in to a competitive match and have no idea what to do. There’s also lots of weird start-up errors where it freezes or looks like the match isn’t going to start. I understand it’s a beta and these types of bugs are expected but I’m hoping they get addressed before the final release or later betas down the road.
I love the new graphics and sounds. It’s polished wonderfully visually and the sounds are much more dynamic. I’m excited to play the single player and understand more of the new story line and characters. I will need to play a bit more before I feel confident in games competitively but so far it feels like it has been rushed. I would’ve been great to have different playlists to join in to, an offline mode against A.I. to get a better feel for the game at your own pace and perhaps a interactive tutorial instead of just a video.