Microsoft is making another real-time strategy game in the Halo universe.
Halo Wars 2 is coming to Xbox One and Windows 10, and developer Creative Assembly is making it. This new RTS will debut fall 2016, and Microsoft’s Halo team, 343 Industries, says that this will continue the story of the original Halo Wars.
This is an especially interesting revival for the Halo franchise because the first Halo Wars had a mixed reception from fans and critics, but the inclusion of Creative Assembly — which is renowned for its RTS games — may ensure that this new game satisfies more fans.
Check out the teaser trailer below:
Halo Wars is a RTS that debuted in 2009 for the Xbox 360. It had players controlling armies of sci-fi soldiers and creatures in massive battles. The big issue that people had with the game at the time was that it was on console only, and that turned off people who were more fans of the genre than Halo itself. Halo Wars 2 won’t have to deal with that scrutiny because if RTS fans want to play the new release with a keyboard and mouse, they can do so on their Windows 10 PC rigs.
Creative Assembly, meanwhile, is one of the top RTS developers in the world. Most recently, the developer released Total War: Attila, which is the latest take on its long-running Total War series. These RTS games have players controlling huge platoons of troops in ancient wars.
But Creative Assembly has started to branch out. The studio is working on a fantasy version of its RTS games as an adaptation of the Warhammer miniature table-top game. And now it is also going sci-fi with Halo.