For me, Halo Wars 2 turned out to be one of the best games of 2017. I lost so many hours in its multiplayer and I've now pretty much rediscovered my love for the game. To my surprise, the game is still super active and has a healthy player base, with over 30,000 unique players playing the game each week. On top of that the game is still receiving constant balance updates that keeps the meta-game and strategies fresh.
Data provided by the Halo Wars 2 API - Source
Having more than 30,000 people playing the game weekly still is quite an accomplishment for a rather niche console genre in my opinion. The game continues what the first iteration started: building a healthy community you can always play some good RTS rounds with now and then.
Halo Wars 2 - even to this day - is pretty much a perfect framework for all the features first-party Xbox games are known for. Xbox One X Enhanced support. native 4K rendering, very good and adjustable HDR support, Xbox Play Anywhere (Xbox and Windows 10), Crossplay between the two and of course the game is available on Game Pass.
Features from the old OT
The gameplay is far superior to the first Halo Wars - a game I also spent hundreds of hours with. Halo Wars 2 doesn't only look pretty amazing with detailed units graphics and especially expensive explosion and particle effects, it also offers a lot of variation and many different strategy and counter opportunities - something the first game was lacking. With all the DLC, the game today has 16 leaders, every single one proving different abilities, special units and strategies.
Overview from the old OT
Since the game in addition is available on Game Pass, so I want to encourage even more people to check out the game. Realtime-strategy-games on consoles are a rarity - but Halo Wars 2 is getting all the important parts right. From base building to controlling your units, from a really balanced and varied multiplayer to a great story campaign.
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