Halo Wars 2

Halo Wars 2 is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game, in which players command armies from a bird's-eye view of the battlefield. The game may be played on PC using a gamepad or using a mouse and keyboard. Like its predecessor Halo Wars, it features two playable factions: humanity's military arm, the United Nations Space Command, and an alien faction, the Banished. In most game modes, players establish a base of operations at a predetermined location.

Barracks and vehicle depots can be constructed at bases to deploy infantry and vehicles. Supplies collected via supply pads or from the battlefield are expended to deploy units and construct buildings. Some units and buildings require a second resource, power, which is produced using a generator or extractor building. Base buildings can be upgraded to grant passive bonuses and unlock access to higher-tier units.

Halo Wars 2 takes place in the science fiction universe of the Halo series. The game is set in 2559, 28 years after the events of Halo Wars and shortly after the events of Halo 5: Guardians. Halo Wars closes with the crew of the human United Nations Space Command (UNSC) warship Spirit of Fire entering cryosleep and drifting in uncharted space. During the interim, the war between humanity and the alien alliance known as the Covenant has ended, and Spirit of Fire has been declared lost with all hands.

While Spirit of Fire is adrift in space, the ship's artificial intelligence (AI) Serina (Courtenay Taylor) terminates herself before succumbing to rampancy, a terminal state. Captain James Cutter (Gideon Emery), Professor Anders (Faye Kingslee), and the rest of the crew wake from cryonic sleep at the Ark, a Forerunner installation capable of manufacturing large ringworlds known as Halos. Isabel (Erika Soto) is a UNSC logistics AI operating at a research facility on the Ark when an alien faction called the Banished invades. The Banished are led by the Brute warlord Atriox (John DiMaggio) and rose to power following the Covenant's demise.

In 2009, Microsoft Studios launched Halo Wars, a real-time strategy spin-off from the first-person shooter series Halo. It was developed by Microsoft subsidiary Ensemble Studios. While Halo Wars was a commercial success, Ensemble Studios was shut down after development. Before its closure, the studio had started planning a story for a sequel.

According to Halo Wars lead writer Graeme Devine, this script explored the history of the Forerunners and involved Spirit of Fire arriving at a Forerunner station tracked by Anders. In 2007, Microsoft formed an internal division, 343 Industries, to develop Halo products, and the studio searched for a developer to partner on a Halo Wars sequel. They viewed working with other developers and using external experience as key to maintaining quality across their projects.

The Xbox One version of Halo Wars 2 received "generally favorable" reviews from professional critics, while reception of the PC version was "mixed or average", according to review aggregator website Metacritic. The general consensus among critics was that Halo Wars 2 provided an accessible strategy game experience befitting newcomers but that it either lacked tactical depth or was too conservative in its design to appease veteran RTS players who had access to alternatives on PC. Several writers recommended the game to console players, in part due to the dearth of RTS games on Xbox One.

AI behavior in Halo Wars 2 drew some criticism. A few reviewers described the pathfinding of units as subpar, and others considered the enemy AI to be too easy on the normal difficulty setting. IGN disliked that bases had to be placed in predetermined locations; they found it to be limiting and said it constrained build order freedom. Rock, Paper, Shotgun was also concerned about the restrictions on base building initially, however they became fond of the idea after playing the game for some time.