Forgive me, for I have sinned. I've spent the entirety of my time so far with Halo Wars 2 not in the company of our beloved motherboards and graphics cards but on the Xbox One with its fuzzy graphics. Microsoft provided early review copies, but the PC version didn't unlock until recently, and the only knowledge I have of it is my couple of hours with it at developer 343 Industries last October.

You'll hear more about the PC version from me soon, but after finishing the campaign and hopping into a few multiplayer matches with our console cousins, I feel confident in saying that Halo Wars 2 is a workable and generally entertaining real-time strategy game that performs smartly with a gamepadnot that I expect many will want to use one on PC.

And it looks alright, even without that extra oomph from a good graphics card. The animations are varied and fun to watch, and the cutscenes ooze with detail and artistry I once would have expected only from Blizzard. This graphical prowess (which hopefully looks even better on the PC) is used to good effect to tell its story, which centers of the crew of the Spirit of Fire as they wake up from almost three decades of hibernation only to find themselves facing down a new Covenant faction called the Banished. There's no Master Chief or Cortana here, but Halo Wars 2 manages to distinguish itself with a fascinating cast of characters. I particularly enjoy Isabel, the sentient AI who contacts the Spirit of Fire, and Atriox, the big baddie of the Covenant himself.

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say the story here is at least on par with some mainline Halo stories.

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say the story here is at least on par with some mainline Halo stories. The problem, though, is that it ends without any real resolution (and thus perhaps paving the way for future content), and most of the scenarios seemed aimed at preparing players for the multiplayer mode. It's not even that long. Despite its narrative strengths and memorable characterizations, Halo Wars 2 comes with only 12 missions, which I was able to get through under some severe time constraints in only eight or nine hours.

But on to what really matters: How does it play? Victory in the original Halo Wars for the Xbox 360 was largely a case of amassing a big blob, selecting all, and tossing them at an enemy like a bucket of water on a campfire. You can still attempt to do that here, but it's harder now, possibly out of a desire to make Halo Wars 2 a proper PC RTS, thus allowing for greater nuance than we normally get on a gamepad. For one, multiple missions require multiple objectives, forcing you to have troops in different places. Units move at vastly different speeds, and they'll all end up going the speed of the slowest unit in the group if bunched up.

That's not to say the gamepad controls are rubbish. Halo Wars 2 does a decent job with what it has to work with. Selecting all units with the right bumper allows you to switch though specific unit types with the right trigger, for instance, or you can select an individual unit and then double-tap the A button to select all units of that type. The D-pad enhances the action, too, mainly by allowing quick shifts between bases and other elements. It's never exactly elegant. Halo Wars 2 is never exactly difficult, either, and back in October I remember laughing at how much easier it was with a mouse and keyboard, unburdened by the need to perform acrobatic fingerwork on a gamepad with limited buttons. Even with possible balance tweaks, I expect that hasn't changed.

Halo Wars 2's best prospect for longevity rest in the multiplayer matches, and particularly in the new "Blitz" mode. I haven't had much time to play it yet, but I admire the way it integrates a card game. You build decks with cards representing different unit types, and then use them, Hearthstone-style, to choose a combat unit to put into play from one of five randomly drawn cards. The matches themselves mainly revolve around capturing bases, but the randomness of the cards injects each round with a bit of variety that's sometimes lacking in multiplayer matches with set loadouts. But what makes it fun is also what makes it a little annoyingno matter how well I crafted my deck, I couldn't escape the feeling that luck may have played a greater role in my victory or defeat than my choices.

Above: Wes and James' Halo Wars 2 impressions from earlier this year.

I'm more than a little worried about the stability of the PC version after spending so much time with the Xbox One version. Put simply, the Xbox One version of Halo Wars 2 comes off as a buggy mess. At times the whole game would just freeze up, or worse, it'd crash, and loading screens drag on long enough to allow for bathroom breaks without missing a thing. If the PC version is at all worse, it will be really bad.

Sometime over the next couple of days, I'll post a final review outlining my thoughts after playing with the PC version. If you need an answer right now, though, take this: Halo Wars 2 isnt a bad game, but it will likely struggle to match the many richly rewarding real-time strategy games we've had for ages on PC.

See the original post here:

Halo Wars 2 review in progress - PC Gamer