Halo Wars: The Great War

"You know how it started and seen how it finished but you haven't heard the whole story."

- Heading of the back case of The Great War

Halo Wars: The Great War (also dubbed as Halo Wars 2, Halo: The Great War, Halo TGW or just The Great War) will be the second Real-Time Strategy video game and the twelfth instalment in the Halo series, it will developed by 343 Industries and Robot Entertainment with a little bit of help from Vanguard Games and will be published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox One and a year later for PC and Mac. It is the first game since Halo 2 to be on more then one platform and the first since Halo: Combat Evolved in to be on Mac. It's the first RTS game developed by 343 Industries.

Even though it is a RTS game and does have some story connections to Halo Wars and is referred to by some as Halo Wars 2, it is not a sequel to Halo Wars. It follows all the major battles and events of the Human-Covenant War, from the first battle of Harvest to the final battle at The Ark, it's the longest Halo game designed to flesh out the history and timeline of the Halo Universe. The Great War is the name of the ere of the Human-Covenant War.

The Great War was first officially announced at an E3 two years before the game was released - like many Halo games before it. The game doesn't have a set release date yet, though it is assumed that it will be released from late 2018 to early 2020. The game uses an updated and modified version of the Halo engine merged with others to work with the worlds and RTS gametype. The Great War is rated "M" for Mature like most Halo games, though unlike the previous Halo RTS - Halo Wars which was rated "T" for Teen, it'll be 16+ in the UK and M in Australia rather than PG like Halo Wars was in Australia.

Halo Wars: The Great War has many new feature than from its predecessor Halo Wars. What many fans and reviewers didn't like about the original Halo Wars was the fact that the player could play as or see all the vehicles, aircraft, ships, soldier, weapons, factions, characters, etc in the Halo Universe, as well as many other things, in The Great War many of these things are now possible one very notable thing is the new first and third person mode which allows the player to play as a single unit like the other Halo games. The controls are very similar to Halo Wars's, although there are many new features and strategic options, there are many factions in The Great War and unlike Halo Wars each major faction has its own campaign or more. New game mode such as Forge, Theater and Domination will be added to the game. Many other new features are also going to be available. The cinematic aren't CGI like Halo Wars's, there made with the in-game engine or it will be like the motion comics similar to the ones from the terminals from other Halo games, also with a commentary related to the mission or other relevant events before the mission about to be played.

Many downloadable expansion packs will come available with content for every category.

The game is being hyped up to be more than twice as successful as it's predecessor Halo Wars.

Content Summaries and Campaign
Halo Wars: The Great War’s goal is to flesh out the timeline of the Human-Covenant War, specifically all it’s major battle. The game will start off where The Great War started at the Battle of Harvest. It is an RTS game like Halo Wars, so it share many gameplay similarities, players can control armies giving their units orders, collecting resources so they can upgrade and create units, producers and weapons. The game can be played in single and multiplayer modes and also in online gameplay. Many events from previous Halo games and media will appear.

Campaign
The Great War has several campaigns covering all the major battles during the Human-Covenant War, each campaign will be set during a certain part of the war, from the first battle on Harvest to the very end of the war at Installation 00. The Human-Covenant War wasn’t the only war at that time many insurrections still existed and affairs from both wars sometimes collided, so these other wars will also appear in campaigns. A new campaign will be unlocked when two campaigns share a related timeline event. The first campaign is Age of Reclamation, its played with the Covenant faction. There are seven (playable through campaigns) factions (not including natives). The campaigns are divided up into time periods of the war. each faction has its own name for their campaigns, there is 9 (main) larger campaigns in The Great War and 7 shorter:

Tutorial (UNSC and Covenant) Tutorial - Non-Canon (short)

UNSC Campaigns 2525-2531 - The Harvest Campaign (large) 2525-2536 - The Outer Colony Battles (large) 2536-2552 - The Inner Colony Battles (large) 2552 - Halo (large)

Covenant Campaigns 2524-2535 - Age of Reclamation (large) 2536-2550 - Final Purge (large) 2551-2552 - Journeys End (large) - also played with Covenant Loyalists

Insurrection Campaigns 2526-2531 - The Next War (short) 2531-2537 - End of The Insurrection (large) 2545-2552 - Inner Colony Insurrections (short) - played with Colonial Insurgents

Heretic Campaigns 2526-2530 - Dispute of a New Age (short) 2532-2536 - Walk of the Unfaithful (short) 2552 - The Truth (short)

Caretakers Campaigns 2552 - Maintaining Protocol (short)

Flood Campaigns 2552 - Awakening (short) 2552 - Virus (large)

Note! The other factions that don’t have their own campaign may appear in other factions campaign and sometimes even playable in some missions. They are still playable in other game modes.

Controls
The Great War’s controls resemble Halo Wars's, though there’s a few changes and new features, one noticeable feature is the ability to zoom in and out a lot more than from the games predecessor.

RTS Controls (Default) Triggers and Bumpers Left Trigger: Zoom in - screen. Left Bumper: Click and selects all units on screen, double click and all units are selected on the battlefield, hold and select all currently solo units. Right Trigger: Zoom out - screen. Right Bumper: Click to warp to random units of the player, hold for Battle Examination. Thumbsticks Left Thumbstick: Camera movement, click and hold thumbstick for cameras movement to speed up. Right Thumbstick: Move rotate screen/map and mini-map, click thumbstick and goes back to default camera view and map positioning. D-Pad Left D-Pad: Reinforcements Menu. Right D-Pad: Leader Command Menu. Up D-Pad: Combat Support Menu. Down D-Pad: Building Menu - create producers and structures (or import units from the Unit Production Menu within it). Standard Buttons A: Click A for individual units, double click A to select all units of a type, hold A and select a group of near units - a blank circler image will appear around the crosshair and all units within it will be selected. B: Click B cancels, hold B deletes/recycles (click A to confirm deletion click B to cancel). X: Click X and move/send units, collect resources and attack, double click X and units will sprint to their target, hold X to make units kill their target and after retreat or find cover. If a producer is selected and clicking X places a waypoint for units recently produced. Y: Click Y for special ability, double click Y for automatic use of special abilities, hold Y to go into first and third person mode. Center Buttons View Button: Brings up a library of individual screens which the player can change by using the bumpers: Screen 1 - objectives. Screen 2 enhanced mini-map and ally support. Screen 3 - information on relevant subjects, stats, trading resources and the ability to choosing allegiance. Screen 4 - timelines and skulls. Menu Button: The in-game pause menu were the player can resume, save, load saved game, change sound and other options and quit the game.

RTS Controls (Variant) There is variant of the controls where up on the D-Pad and the Left Trigger swop actions and down on the D-Pad and the Right Trigger swop actions.

F&TPS Controls The controls for first and third person mode are almost identical to Halo 6's except that holding "Y" will take the player back to RTS mode and "up" on the D-Pad will change first to third person views, the mode also includes the new combos that were added to Halo 6 like, click “A” then “B” will to a forward roll like the evade ability from Halo Reach, click and then hold “A” while pushing on a direction on the left thumbstick and whatever direction the thumbstick is being pushed the character will flip in that direction and by clicking “B” the player will continually do various smooth melee strikes.

Cutscenes & Cinematics
Cutscenes in The Great War are not like the ones from the original Halo Wars, instead of using CGI the only cinematics will be made with the in-game engine during missions and at the begging of a mission or campaign a series of images and artwork like some terminals from previous Halo games will be screened and a commentary about the upcoming mission will be present. The only CGI for this game appear in the trailers.

Battle Examination
The new battle examination mode is when the player can watch the battle in different views following random units as they fight and move, its very similar to when a player in earlier Halo games dies in a multiplayer game - the would camera follow random units as they fight while the player waits to re-spawn. It acts a little bit like a cinematic.

Heads-Up Display
The HUD or Camera View is the set of displayed symbols and stats that appear spread out on the screen in gameplay that help guide and keep the player aware of their progress. Its set up is almost identical to the one in Halo Wars: Crosshair - The crosshair (sometimes referred to as cursor) is a small symbolized object on the screen that's part of the camera moving around when the player moves the camera, it is used for selecting, if the player is targeting something the crosshair symbol will change. Visual COM - At the top left corner of the screen a circular shaped visual communicator will appear, team members, allies (and enemies) will use this to speak and communicate with the player/other team members regarding the current mission or main story plots of a campaign, the communicator also give new objectives. Objectives - Shown to the right of the Visual COM, the most important and relevant objectives will be shown, a full list of objectives and other information is available when pressing the View button. Mini-Map - At the top right corner of the screen the circular mini-map is placed, it shows units and occupied structures that are present on the battlefield, the landscape, shape and size of the battlefield is also shown, there’s also a compass around the mini-map. Advancement Data - Just to the left of the mini-map, a box is there with the information of the players population (current and maximum), tech level and resources. Direction Indicator - An arrow may sometimes appear just above the crosshair which will indicate the direction of a current goal or a guide requested to a specific location on the map. Circle Menu - When the player uses a combat support or selects a building the circle menu will appear in the center of the map, it takes up a decent part of the screen and is used for getting/producing upgrades, units and combat support. The circle menu has eight icons one on the top (Icon 1) and bottom (Icon 5) and three on the right (Icons 2-4) and right (Icons 6-8), for a building/producer the top icon upgrades the structure and the bottom icon will recycle the building - not for the same as its original price but the player will gain some of his/her resources back, the icons on the right (if a unit producer) will be for units and the icons on the left will be for upgrades, other uses of the icons in the circle menu will vary in uses. When the player selects one of the icons on the right or left a box to the right of the right icons or the left of the left ones will appear with information about the thing selected and another spot in the center of the circle menu which shows the cost, required tech level and population it will take of the selected thing. In regarding to unit producers, once one or three of the three units available at a unit producer is fully upgraded, the upgrade icon may go blank but it can also allow the use of a new unit icon, it will cost 1.000 resources to allow the production of the unit and then the unit will go to its standard price, the extra unit will also come fully upgraded. Forge Menu - Just like the Circle Menu except it appears to the right of the screen and it is in a square/rectangle shape which is used for constructing buildings and in Forge mode it is used for all Forge purposes. The forge menu can have as many icons as it needs for its subject. It works just like the menu for creating forge items in the main Halo games, there is a single line like an icon which the player can scroll down by using the left thumbstick and in Forge the bumpers will change to the items of another factions. The player will be able to flick from each base type; camp, stronghold, fortress. Note! The player can rotate items by holding “A” and moving the right thumbstick. Unit Selection Icon - If a unit has been selected an icon will be shown at the bottom of the screen. An icon will appear for each unit type selected - regarding selecting groups. Timer - A little bit under the top of the center of the screen will be a timer if its needed, it will normally count down but can count up. Further Notes: Other bits of notes and information may also appear on the screen at random times and places. Zooming in and out of the screen has increased a lot since the original Halo Wars. Each faction will have their own unique look for their Heads-Up Display, the biggest changes would be the crosshair symbol and the color of the HUD. If the player selects an enemy unit its name may be different to what the name would be if that enemy selected it - like if the Covenant faction selected one of its own units such as a Kig-Yar Sniper when a UNSC team selects it would come up as a Jackal Sniper. The HUD/Camera View in first and third person mode changes with different units but resembles the one used in Halo 6.￼

First & Third Person Mode
The First or Third Person Mode is available when the Player holds in “Y” during a game, the player will no longer be in the Real-Time Strategy but be playing as a single unit with first person view, the controls for this are almost identical to Halo 6’s except that up on the D-Pad will switch from first to third person mode and third to first person mode and “Y” will take the player back to the RTS mode. When the player is in this mode his/her team will follow their last orders an then act defensive, while the player is in the first or third person mode the current unit being played as strengths go up slightly, specifically its movements and accuracy, if the player is an infantry unit he/she can drive/pilate and sometimes hijack vehicles and other machines. This mode is exclusive to leaders and hero's, though there are some rare occasions of which other unit types can be played and the player could make the modes work for all units in Forge mode. The third and first person mode works for infantry, vehicles, air-craft, water-craft and space-craft, but not for larger units like ships.

Difficulty
The difficulties in The Great War is the same as every other Halo game: Easy - Gamers new to Real-Time Strategy games. Normal - Gamers familiar to RTS games, but just want to play a smooth and enjoyable game. Heroic - For experienced RTS players. Legendary - Players looking for a challenge. Mythic - Only for the greatest and stupidly overconfident gamers. (Skull) Custom Difficulty - This is a skull unlocked after all the other skulls have been collected. The player can change the strengths of their faction, allies or enemies, they also can shorten or make longer timers.

Library
Library is a source of (categorized) information for all the units, factions, characters, planets, species, weapons, etc. every time the player encounters a unit, character, planet, etc for the first time that will be unlocked in the library. Once all the library information is unlocked a skull will also be unlocked. This can also work like the Library from Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary using the Kinect system in gameplay.

Timeline
The Timeline is a collection of events that are slowly unlocked, every time a mission is completed a few new pieces of the timeline (with connections to the mission) will be unlocked. There is a unique timeline for each faction, sometimes they share events. Complete the timeline and a skull is unlocked. The Timeline replaces Black-Boxes from the original Halo Wars.

Galaxy Maps
The galaxy map is a view of the entire galaxy which is divided into sections of systems and territories, the player can select systems by moving the crosshair over them. Note! Some special missions may be based outside the galaxy map, such as places like the Ark.

Territories
A territory expands from a single planet within a system or to many-all systems in the galaxy. When the player selects a system, a colored outline will appear around it. the color of the outline will differ depending on which faction the system belongs to. Also when the player selects a system, a faint colored mist will appear over other systems that are part of the same territory as the selected system. But if two or more factions own a planet in a system its outline will flash between both factions colors.

Systems
Systems are parts of space in the galaxy most with several planets, moons and asteroid fields. If the player wants to conquer a system, he/she will have to claim all planets within the desired system and it will become part of their factions territory. If the player claims a planet or moon, he/she will be able to create trading roots, which will provide extra supplies at the start of a battles played in that system.

Planets
Planets and space sectors are each different types of sectors in a system, where battlefield missions can be played. Each planet will have a number of battlefields and locations, ranging in size and environment. Planets are used to perform land battles and space sectors are to perform space battles. Conquer all major battlefields on a planet or space sector and it will become part of the players territory.

Battlefields
Battlefields are locations on the map that the player will play battles and missions on. They Vary is size, environment and native plants and creatures. There are two types of battlefields; land fields are located on planets and is the standard battle location type, the player can do land and water battles on this type. Space fields are located in outer space outside a planets orbit or in an asteroid field, it is possible to play battles similar to land with this type but only if the player infiltrates an enemy ship or space station.

Editing Notes
More coming very soon, as well as some major edits.