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Available on Xbox One and Xbox One S, the upcoming Halo Wars 2 will include an all-new mode; Blitz Mode. Blitz Mode will be a combination card-collecting and real-time strategy (RTS) game mode. Here’s a look at Halo Wars 2 Blitz Mode is all about.
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Halo Wars 2 brings players back to the Ark, introducing new heroes and villains, and Blitz Mode will bring an all-new multiplayer mode that will push the RTS genre in a whole new direction. The Ark was used to construct the Halo Rings and will be the primary setting for Halo Wars 2. It was originally thought that Master Chief completely destroyed the Halo Rings in Halo 3, but, as it turns out Master Chief only damaged them. Enough time has passed and the Forerunner construct has repaired itself, and that is where Halo Wars 2 begins.
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Jeremy Cook, Art Director for Halo Wars 2, explains:
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“Due to the Ark’s tremendous size, we basically have an infinite canvas to paint our war spaces on. That has been both a challenge and allows us to take the handcuffs off. What’s most exciting for us is we get to appreciate Halo from a completely different perspective. RTS is, more or less, staring at the ground, so there’s a challenge in how you convey epic spaces and vast horizons which are typically from a first-person perspective. Between the diversity of the terrain styles, and the fact that it’s a Forerunner construct allows for some crazy stuff within the play space.”
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In addition to the return of the original crew, including Captain Cutter and Professor Anders, a new AI character is introduced; Isabel. Isabel is a little different from Cortana, as 343 Industries Narrative Design Director, Kevin Grace details:
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“A chance to get deeper on how AIs work in our galaxy, the kind of roles they can play, how Isabel is or isn’t related to Cortana, these are all interesting questions. The hardcore fans will pick up and enjoy, but the new players don’t have to get right away. Hopefully, they get curious, but they don’t have to get it right away. We wanted to create her as a unique character. She’s a person in a universe. She’s got some rough edges. She’s got some flaws. She’s got some strengths that she comes to in course of the story. She stands right alongside of Cutters, Anders, and everyone else coming back from the first game. She’s a little more like the blue-collar worker. She’s more like a ‘I’m kinda in there with you.’”
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Blitz Mode is unique in that players will create decks of 12 cards from card packs that are earned by playing through the campaign, in addition to daily challenges created by the Halo Wars 2 team. There will also be two different variations of Blitz Mode available; Firefight and PvP (Player versus Player).
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Firefight will be a wave-based PvE (Player versus Environment) mode, available solo or co-op with up to two Xbox Live friends to survive for as long as possible and get the highest score possible. PvP matches can be custom ranked or unranked matches available with 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3 support. Stay tuned for more Halo Wars 2 news.
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Halo Wars 2 is an Xbox Play Anywhere game title and will be out on February 21, 2017. Pre-order Halo Wars 2 now.
\n\nFurther reading: Cortana, Halo Wars 2, Microsoft, Xbox Live, Xbox One, Xbox One S
