A little more rockets, paper, scissors…
OK, A quick bit of Simon history, Back in 1997 a game called Total Annihilation was released and I became obsessed with collecting metal and energy and moving my little metal monsters from one end of the map to the other. I played this game to death, literally having to buy it a couple of times due to worn out disks. I had the odd fling with the likes of Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 Yuri’s Revenge, but my heart belonged to Total Annihilation. As times moved on I decided to move to console gaming as keeping a gaming PC up to date was just too expensive for me. The move for the most part was painless but I did miss my RTS games. Supreme commander did make the jump to the 360 to mixed success, I liked it but it was fiddly to control and sometimes ground to a halt when a lot was going on.
In 2009 Halo Wars came out. My god it scratched the itch I had been missing for a long time. Honestly, it was the gaming equivalent to those little back scratchers on handles you can get from the pound shop for me, I loved it. People did say it was dumbed down and the like, but you know what, the fact of the matter is all the extra you get from using a keyboard isn’t going to make it to a control pad schema without some serious Pilates for the thumbs. For an RTS on the console, it was pretty much perfect.
People complained about the set bases having to be built. 50/50. Yes on games like TA & C&C you could build what you like where you like, here you have to build on a base. I actually think it adds another level of challenge to the game, you will have to fill up your build slots and then are forced to expand to get additional building done.
I think this works wonderfully on the console and I am a large fan of it I do not think the RTS world is dumbed down for consoles and I do think folk should stop complaining when game dev’s try things.
So, now that’s out the way before I get into the good, I would like to dive right in and address a negative that is hanging over this particular title. However, for a very short one liner if you are pondering this title and you enjoy the Halo Wars series, just get it, you will not regret it.
Take my money!
When the pre-orders first went up for Halo Wars 2 I treated myself and bought the ultimate edition. This cost a fairly steep £80, but, it had Halo Wars definitive edition (which I could play early no less!) Halo wars 2 and the season pass. The season pass was going to have extra leaders and story content. I had waited 8 years for a follow up I never thought was never going to arrive, I was sold and excited, take my money I said even putting the Futurama meme on my Facebook page on the day I found out about it all. It was a good gaming moment.
Halo Wars the definitive edition was then made available after a short wait, I loved going through it again, it was in my personal top 5 Xbox 360 games so I was happy to go through it again. Then it was time for the main event. Halo Wars 2 was released. I actually took a day off of work for it. The campaign came and went, and although I must admit to finding the story somewhat bitter sweet, the actual game is great. With regards to the story, I honestly think that all they really needed to do was to shift the mid game boss to the end for a proper sense of completion and that would have been good, anyway, other than that I 100% agree with what was said on the TiX Halo Wars 2 review from a little while back. I do understand that they are tying to build a threat in the universe to last for a bit in Atriox, I just think that they could have planned around that a little better. I noticed after a little while the odd trickle of new leaders becoming available and then came the big reveal for the story DLC and the flood were going to be in it, sweet! I was going to fire up the old meme again, but I had the ultimate edition with the season pass so they had already taken it. I was pleased.
As the days passed I heard a fairly ugly rumour that the story DLC would not be included in the season pass. I thought don’t be daft, I paid £80 for the ULTIMATE it’s going to be included, all the bells and whistles, right?
One line on the release info page for the awakening nightmare dashed hopes and I know for fact damaged a good friend’s fandom in the series. It was going to cost extra.
You know the scene in the fifth element when Gary Oldman’s wonderful Zorg character expresses his disappointment? That about sums it up. I felt let down and mislead. Seeing as all the achievements I have gained from the DLC have that lovely little diamond next to them I think I’m quite safe to say that I’m not the only one. To add a little insult to wallet injury a “complete” edition was then released for £50 ($66) that includes the ATN DLC, But not the Halo Wars definite edition. Someone somewhere, really messed this up.
However, I am weak willed and I wanted to play the flood campaign more than I was outraged at having to shell out a further £20 to have it.
I have some really good news, it’s bloody GREAT!
Awakening the Nightmare.
The campaign comes with 5 levels bookended by a pair of cutscenes on the level you would expect by blur studios. Honestly, I could watch entire movies of the stuff they do. I don’t want to talk about the story too much as it’s better to go in blind, but for the duration of the campaign, which is set after the main story, you control two Jiralhanae brothers named Pavium and Voridus and following a brute sized boo boo, The Flood are unleashed to cause chaos once again. Over the 5 levels each ranging between 45 minutes to an hour you will be challenged. In fact, the difficulty was to note, it might just because I suck at it, but I had to knock it down from my standard normal difficulty to easy to get past some parts. The flood are relentless in what I think is the RTS equivalent to the library level in Halo CE in them constantly out to get you and evolving. There is barely a moment to breathe and when these rare moments do come along you are perpetually trying to find more resources to fend off the next wave. It’s glorious, palm sweat inducing, good fun. I think I actually enjoyed this more than the actual campaign, and, I enjoyed that a lot.
I am a big fan and have spent a few more hours than I care to admit going to multi-player, selecting “against AI” to be matched up with total strangers for us to do battle against 3 random AI heroic bots. I really enjoy this mode. Although I do like being able to select a leader depending on what sort of mood I am in, I just don’t believe new leaders makes for good season pass DLC in general. Included in the ATN DLC, however you do get Pavium and Voridus added to your roster for use and Vordus’s ability to build mega turrets is a great blast!
A pair of new maps come in for use with all the MP modes Strongholds, death match and control. I have to say I didn’t get something I was hoping for here. In Halo Wars there was a map called Release, on this map you could control a point that would release the flood onto your enemies base. I remember playing against a friend and constantly sending the flood after him to much hilarity (for me). The new maps are well laid out and resources as ever are a bit of a rarity in the early goings. For some reason my game mode selections seem to constantly be stuck on deathmatch and I’ve not been able to hit a control or stronghold mode in an age.
A new mode is also introduced called Terminus Firefight. This is the horde mode I have been waiting for. You can play cooperatively or alone against waves of increasingly difficult enemies with the simple goal of stopping them from destroying the terminal located in the middle of the map. I played this on my own and lasted to wave 36 (on easy!) taking nearly an hour of time that felt like a blink. Dotted around are resource or build points for you to use as you choose and the fact is, one slip up and you will be overwhelmed very quickly by whatever is coming. At one point I was busy fending off an attack from the eat to find that my west defences had been completely destroyed and the enemy was on the way to the terminal, so obviously I had to pull my army over to them leaving me back to a state where I was right at the start. I think in co-op, with up to three players, it could be a mode of tense beauty.
So, overall… should it have been included in the season pass? After playing it, it’s not as easy a question to answer as it was before playing it. A lot of work has clearly been put into this expansion and it is truly worth the £20 it costs, without a single doubt. The problem comes with the original Ultimate edition in that I don’t feel Operation Spearbreaker and the multiple leaders that have been released are of the quality I was expecting in the season pass which is what I feel has lead to this mess, if the season pass felt like it had delivered when ATN came out, then there wouldn’t have been a problem and every one would have won.
Here’s the thing, if you liked Halo Wars 2, you will really enjoy this expansion and you shouldn’t let negative thoughts prevent you. It’s really that simple. …If they ever decided to do a Gears of War version of Halo Wars, I think I would wet.
-Simon.
