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It's not only the visuals in Halo Wars 2 that really deliver, but the audio as well. Both the UNSC and the Banished are well-realized, and some of the game's leader powers, such as the Archer Missile barrage or the orbital MAC blast have absolutely killer effects. While Halo Wars 2 is played entirely from a top-down perspective, you can zoom in and enjoy some wonderful detail on the individual units. Stay tuned for some more in-depth PC version testing in the near future. Halo Wars 2 even runs incredibly well on my Surface Book's lower-end GPU, making Xbox Play Anywhere a viable (and valuable) option for gaming on the go. 343i and Creative Assembly have made tons of improvements since its previous beta tests, even when the action on-screen is its most intense and complex. There's not a slither of screen tearing, and you won't notice dropped frames without an FPS counter on Xbox One, and its PC version is well optimized. Verdant forests, rainbow tinted waterfalls, and gigantic Forerunner constructs await those who dive into Halo Wars 2's campaign and multiplayer maps, with spectacular lighting and detail for good measure. One aspect of Halo Wars 2 that I expect will win it unanimous praise is its visuals and audio. Like the Halo rings, the Ark features artificial naturalistic landscapes that intersects with futuristic alien tech, and Creative Assembly and 343i have realized the essence of Halo with confidence in Halo Wars 2. Much of Halo Wars 2 takes place on Installation 00, otherwise known as the Ark.
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Halo Wars 2 is an assault of sensations, with vivid effects, majestic scenery and big, sweeping sound treatment. Majestic, ambitious, stunning Halo Wars 2 Visuals, Audio, and Setting Halo Wars 2 is available on February 21st, 2017 as an Xbox Play Anywhere title for Xbox One and Windows 10. Whether you're a pure Halo fan or a die-hard RTS gamer with uber micro, Halo Wars 2 is crammed with satisfying content, and well worth your attention.
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Atriox and his Banished are some of the greatest villains Halo has seen yet, and their inclusion already has me hyped for the future of the franchise. By focusing on a smaller subset of strong characters, Halo Wars 2 delivers a more focused, cohesive narrative than even Halo 5. For me, the real triumph of Halo Wars 2 is its campaign, which expands the mainstream Halo mythos in important ways.
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