The frequent need to micromanage the AI makes things worse, as Spartans enjoy focusing on smaller threats while giant robotic spider tanks rip them apart. When it tries, as in a mission requiring you to hold multiple bases, the appeal of the otherwise smart gamepad controls wears off quickly. It's a decent setup, and it works primarily because Halo Wars 2 doesn't present many scenarios on its small maps that demand careful strategy. There's always a sense that we're the afterthought here.

That's especially a shame since Halo Wars 2 manages to deliver a story that's at least as good as those in some of the main Halo titles. Only a mere nine hours and 12 missions pass by the time I reach the end, and then the end itself isn't so much a resolution as a teaser for either the next Halo Wars or Halo 6. It's a valiant fight, packed with flashy animations and stunning music (with noticeable framerate drops on my GTX 980), but it's also a short one. Isabel's worry isn't unwarranted-by all appearances, Cutter and the Spirit of Fire have about as much chance against Atriox and his goons as a flickering candle against the ocean.Д«ut of course they try, mostly through maps featuring familiar and serviceable scenarios like base capture and tower defense, but with little in the way of new approaches. Elsewhere, the despondent AI Isabel, clad in cargo pants and crowned with short-cropped hair, serves as a nice alternative to the cerulean sultriness of the series' well-known Cortana. Atriox, their vaguely Uruk-hai chief, brims with delicious menace, although it's wasted when the narrative largely shuffles him offstage for large swaths of the plot. Right after the crew tumbles out of their icy beds, they're dumped into a conflict with a band of brutes called The Banished who've freed themselves from the evil Covenant and wiped the floors of multiple planets with their former overloads. Halo Wars 2 tells a decent tale, at least as far as Halo goes, and those fantastic cutscenes usually manage to smooth its rougher edges. Halo Wars 2 manages to deliver a story that's at least as good as those in some of the main Halo titles.

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