I Love Playing Halo Wars 2 More Than Almost Any Other Game: Here's Why

I have a special appreciation for video games, even if I haven't been playing them as much as I used to. I'm not usually good at them, but as just an artist-designer in general, there are situations and experiences that only games can give me. A lot of times, I get caught up in the monotony, turning on my Xbox out of habit just because "oh, it's video game night," but it's not always like that. Halo Wars 2 is on my top 3 list, and not because I need something to fill that space on the list but because I love so many elements of it.

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1) The cutscenes are just beautiful. We know what we're getting with 343, Creative Studios, and Microsoft, and while they have a trash record of handling stuff practically, they have a big budget. As my friend Elijah pointed out, this is made acute by the fact that strategy games get more budget dedicated to cutscenes since they have so much less work needed for in-game visuals than FPS games need.

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2) I'm playing it with my friends. I know it sounds cliché, but it's cliché for a reason.

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3) It's a strategy game. Not only were strategy games the thing that got me into games at all, but they were the genre that I loved playing so much with my dad in Age of Empires, and with my friends in Supreme Commander 2.

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4) The mechanics are solid. Except for occasionally buggy AI-- which are only half as bad as engineers in SupCom2-- the majority of the game experience is just solid. Normally, that wouldn't be a big deal, but in this case, we're dealing with a AAA title from big company in 2017. We thank God it runs. And two years later, I can still match-make people to play in just about any mode, even if it does take a few minutes for PvP.

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5) Blitz rocks, even from my perspective. The mode itself isn't as rewarding for me as building up an army and multiple bases, but while the cards that I unlocked from the campaign and from ranking up were rewarding in and of themselves, they also pushed me to play blitz way more than I would have. I cannot express the satisfaction, anticipation, and growth I felt as I opened a new pack of cards to find I'd unlocked or even just upgraded some cards.

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6) They exercised presentation as part of design. You'll have to hear me out on this one, but this is where it really gets good: the way the game plays before you ever build your first building, collect your first bit of mass or energy, or capture your first energy point. You open up the menu to find different scenes fading in and out of various units, but they have all the detail that the commander's view of a normal game wouldn't portray, with the modes clearly laid out in a pleasant blue. When you enter a lobby, the layout is the kind of thing you'd be happy to expect from a Halo game, however, it right after this point that I was truly "sold" on the game. I was sitting on the rug in front of my Xbox, and I saw a virtual set of cards laid out, each with the leader's name and portrait. I thought, "Wayii. These leaders are unspeakably epic."

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These things aren't about whether the game is objectively good or not; these things are about how Halo Wars 2 "woke me up" from my expectations and kept me interested by not "dropping the ball" in the realm of fulfilling my new expectations. While the gameplay might fail to be as dazzling to me as the cutscenes and other visual design elements, I still didn't feel let down because there always seemed to be more cutscenes, more cards, and more leaders I hadn't fully explored. The novelty has mostly worn off since I finished the campaign and since my friends moved on to other games, but I'll always look back to this game to inspire me with the reasons I love games.

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Thank you so much for reading! I'd love to hear about your experiencing Halo Wars 2's design, or inspiration from your own favorite video game. I always like to improve my design skills, humble though they may be, and I hope this was thought-provoking.