STACK #148 Feb 2017

GAMES FEATURE

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Halo is back, sans Master Chief.We can finally return to the realm of Captain Cutter and The Spirit of Fire in the long-awaited HaloWars sequel. Words Alesha Kolbe T he Halo Wars real-time strategy series is a welcome departure from the first- person shooter genre the Halo franchise

Comprised entirely of a rebel legion of Covenant and Brute forces alike, The Banished aim to rid the galaxy of humans and claim it for themselves. Having worked with Ensemble and Robot Entertainment on Halo Wars , it was essentially a dream come true for the passionate 343 team to be able to work with

is best known for. Halo Wars – a game still regularly played by fans – launched way back in 2009, and since then demand for a sequel has grown. With the help of distinguished Total War luminaries Creative Assembly, 343 Industries has finally given the people what they wanted – Halo Wars 2 . Set 28 years after the first, and just after events of Halo 5: Guardians , Captain Cutter

Halo game and not just a separate, standalone Halo Wars entry. CA really applied the same rigour they would to creating a Roman Legion as they did to crafting The Banished.” The conception of this new faction in the Halo universe is one that will undoubtedly affect the core series of games – once they have wrought their havoc against Cutter and co., of course. “The Banished is something we’ve been waiting to do for a long time,” says Jensen through a grin. “We have a new viable villain in Atriox, their leader, someone the fans can really get invested in. Even thinking about The Spirit of Fire and Captain Cutter, the two groups aren’t so different; they’re both breakaways trying to get as much control as they can. They’re both fighting over one of the most dangerous things in the universe, in that it can keep popping out Halo Rings whenever it pleases. In the hands of Atriox, it could undeniably be very dangerous, but the thing with him is that his motivations are ultimately something you can understand. He’s up against the wall just like the UNSC is – granted, he’s taken a slightly different approach, but he’s relatable. "Now that the story line follows events

We have a new viable villain in Atriox... someone fans can really get invested in

returns with his crew aboard The Spirit of Fire , unaware of how the human/Covenant war has progressed. His ship has lost its slipspace drives and yet has remarkably found itself above The Ark, or Installation 00 – the creator of the Halo rings, and one of the most dangerous objects in the known universe. Investigating a UNSC distress call from the Ark's surface, Cutter discovers there is now much more than just the Covenant to worry about. Enter The Banished. An entirely new enemy faction in the Halo universe, this ragtag group of exiles is led by the fearsome Atriox.

someone as prolific in the RTS industry as Creative Assembly. “It was ultimately a perfect match," says Clay Jensen, design director at 343. "CA has an interesting combination of skills; they can do historical strategy really well, as you’ve seen in their Total War series, but they can also do a really immersive horror-survival game really well ( Alien: Isolation ), and that was one of the big tipping points for us. "Another big thing was that it felt grounded in the Halo universe, that it was ultimately a

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