Microsoft, 343 Industries and Creative Assembly announced that Halo Wars 2 is coming to Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs in the fall of 2016. They released a teaser trailer for the game but it's all cinematic.
You can check out the trailer below after it was posted on the official Xbox channel.
Fans are obviously excited about the game and an argument briefly broke out in the comment section about who the Spartan was being dragged away while firing the Magnum until the clip ran dry. Some speculated that it was John 117, the Master Chief, but others quickly came in to correct them and make it known that John 117 is pale with freckles and plenty of scars. This guy was obviously a different Spartan.
It's not surprising that there may be a completely new set of characters in this next outing of Halo Wars because in the first game there was a cast of characters not previously known in the Halo universe. So introducing a new group of Spartans and soldiers wouldn't be too out of the blue in this case.
The trailer – despite only being focused on the cinematics – does reveal the villains of the game. Unlike the first Halo Wars, which featured the Covenant as the main antagonists, this sequel will have the Brutes taking center stage. It's also likely that this takes place earlier in the Halo universe timeline, since the Brutes were introduced in the game world back in Halo 2. Also judging from the armor of the Spartan it looks like the older, bulkier suits before they became lean and mean. This also wouldn't be surprising given that Halo Wars came out just after Halo 3 but the story focused on the events preceding Halo: Combat Evolved. It's likely the same thing here with Halo Wars 2, which appears to take place between Halo 2 and Halo 4.
As for the game itself, Microsoft and 343 Industries released no info yet on the game. It's obviously going to be a real-time strategy game just like the first one and that means players will have multiple units under their command as they attempt to thwart enemy forces across campaign and likely multiplayer modes.
This time around Microsoft is also releasing the game simultaneously on both Windows 10 PCs and the Xbox One home consoles. It's likely they really want to win the PC crowd over this time around and given that RTS games aren't very popular on home consoles due to the limited controls, it would make sense to actually put the game where the majority of RTS gamers reside: PC.
If the game is balanced well enough and has a robust multiplayer feature, heck, it might even become an eSports favorite. But we'll have to wait and see what they're doing with the game before assuming how popular it might become.
No official release date has been set, but you can look for the game to launch next year during the fall.
