Halo Wars 2 Beta impressions

I played about 2 rounds of the one mode offered in the beta which is a sort of "domination" match which features 2 vs 2 players and you must capture 5 points similar to the Call of Duty domination. You can only pick between two generals, and one is a new antagonist named  Atriox, a gorilla looking dude who has some covenant style troops like Grunts and Brutes. The other character is the UNSC general James Cutter who has the mainly the same UNSC troops that were featured in the first Halo Wars, but with some additions like the mech troops. There is only one playable map that has the 5 domination points, some supplies on the ground and some power generation points that you are able capture and add power to your bases. Some newer features that I have noticed is the style of upgrading your base and buildings. The power is now a timed and rechargeable resource, as opposed to being a constant one depending on built assets. The other cool feature that I haven't got a too much time with is the new hero powers. The new features include upgrading and using multiple powers using the character you picked. I think this feature will improve the strategic part of the game. 

​Overall to me this beta feels like a copy and paste of the first Halo Wars, because of the graphics and there not being such a change in gameplay. I expected there to be more changes in the new game but overall I did enjoy it and I like the small improvements i noticed. Something that might not have been announced at E3 was the Halo Wars 2 Ultimate Edition, which features Halo Wars 2  4 days before the original date, the season pass that has 6 months of content like new leaders, leader powers and new maps, and Halo Wars Definite Edition which is the original Halo Wars remastered for Xbox One. We are still many months out from Halo Wars 2, so this is just an early look and much is sure to change over that time.

By Lee Marcussen