Halo Wars 2 has an important role this year for Microsoft. Leading the charge for their exclusive home-grown stable of titles, the RTS sequel may have the advantage of being an spin-off of one of the biggest franchises in gaming, but it’s still a relatively niche genre on console. Not only does it have to carry the weight of Xbox One owner’s expectations, it also has to prove that the first game’s success was well founded, and that it can be expanded on enough to warrant a sequel.
Blitz mode is part of Creative Assembly’s attempt to do just that. This fresh new multiplayer offering looks to change up the way RTS combat plays out against a human opponent, and alter the requisite tactics that the genre has built up over the years.
The aim of Blitz is to capture and hold more control zones that your opponent, scoring points over time if you hold the majority. Each map has three control zones, with the aim of hitting two hundred points in order to win.
The key difference from the standard multiplayer modes is that your army building and powers are controlled by a deck of cards, with four random cards available to you at any one time. Each card has an energy rating, and you have to have enough stored energy in order to play it. While energy accumulates over time, holding more points increases the rate at which it does so and claiming energy cores that regularly around the map give you a quick boost.
Every match begins at your base, and you’re able to return here at any point in order to heal or regroup. If you play a card outside of your base it gains a negative effect called Deployment Fatigue which halves its health, but if the unit isn’t attacked within a certain space of time it regains its full strength and can carry on as normal.
It makes for some interesting tactical decision making when you’re in the thick of battle, and while you might be able to turn the tide by bringing in some immediate reinforcements, this might simply be throwing them away by not being at full strength.
Some cards carry additional effects such as Rally which inspires nearby troops to deal more damage or Blast which causes the unit to violently explode upon death causing heavy damage to enemy troops nearby. There are also cards or unit types that are tied to specific leaders, with six leaders available during the beta who each have their own default deck alongside two empty slots in which you can craft your own.
Each deck is only made up of twelve cards, so you’re fairly limited in your choices which forces you to get the right balance, but they can appear in your hand many times through a match. Forming your own deck is incredibly simple and intuitive, and you can easily take it out for a quick spin before coming back and swapping out whatever you think isn’t working. It could be that you don’t have enough anti-air, or that you found yourself stuck by having too many high energy cost cards.
Completing daily and weekly in-game challenges and levelling up unlocks new packs of Blitz cards. There’s clearly the set-up here for micro-transactions, with a storefront that is currently locked. I was hoping Microsoft wouldn’t be tempted to include them, but since all the same cards are available to players simply for playing the game, hopefully it won’t be too damaging to the experience.
The beta test includes access to standard 2v2 quick matches, as well as 1v1 Duel and 3v3 Brawl modes with the indication that there will also be custom set-ups and game types. There are also private matches and Firefight which we’ll have to wait for the final release to get our hands on.
While Blitz mode is a welcome attempt at refreshing the fairly staid RTS genre, it ultimately doesn’t feel all that different to what has gone before. The use of deck building, random hands and different card effects definitely introduces a flavour unlike any other RTS, but the fundamental disciplines of growing your force and deploying them in a tactical manner remain much the same. You can still find yourself doomed to lose after being outmatched early on by your opponent, but at least Blitz matches are short and sweet, so you can roll right into the next one.
That’s not to say that being a familiar experience is a bad thing. Creative Assembly are constrained by the genre itself, and they deserve credit for even trying to think outside of the box. Blitz mode is nevertheless an interesting take on a well-trodden format, and it seems likely that there’ll be plenty of fans of the card infused mode once Halo Wars 2 arrives next month.
For more on Halo Wars 2, be sure to check out our hands on with the wider game here, as well as a video preview and interview with Creative Director Al Hope. The Halo Wars 2 Blitz beta test is open to anyone on Xbox One or Windows 10, and runs until 30th January, ahead of the full game’s release on 21st February.
Tony Cawley
This sounds like an infinitely better version of clash royale, they’ve stolen an awful lot of the ideas from that game. It sounds great, just the sort of thing missing on PS4.
Stefan L
Eeeeeh, I guess. I mean, it’s using card to spawn in units, but that’s in the context of a more fully fledged RTS.
Tony Cawley
Build your deck, 4 random cards available at any one time, each card has an energy rating and you need enough stored energy to play it. Your deck is made of 12 cards with the strategy being in getting the right mix in your hand. Maybe you don’t have enough anti-air or your hand contains too many high energy cards. Opening packs which can contain new cards. It’s all very familiar to anyone that’s played clash royale, but like I said it sounds like they’ve taken those ideas and built on them to make something better.