Posted by 
Halo Wars 2 was not my favorite game in the Halo canon, but as a huge fan of the original Halo Wars, and as someone who greatly appreciated the incredible work done by Blur Studios, I still found it an enjoyable enough experience. While the gameplay was fairly polished, my largest complaints were due to the story, which didn’t do all that much, and failed to capitalize on its most interesting element, Atriox and The Banished. So when 343 Industries announced Awakening the Nightmare, a story expansion featuring the Banished and the Flood, I was actually fairly hopeful.
The Flood had been something of a staple in Halo games until 343 Industries took the reigns, an all-consuming parasite that warps people’s bodies and uses their memories to expand its own hive mind. They featured prominently in the original trilogy and have been conspicuously absent ever since, sidelined in favor of the Prometheans in Halo 4 and 5. Personally, I’ve always found the Flood fascinating from a concept and design standpoint, and I was excited not only to see their return, but to experience that return from the all new perspective of the Banished. After completing the expansion however, I have to say that Awakening the Nightmare, while a pretty engaging few hours of content, doesn’t quite live up to its own potential.
(The ODSTs in Spearbreaker have some personality, but are pretty forgettable)
Before I go any further in depth, it’s worth mentioning that there has been other DLC released as well. In fact, Awakening the Nightmare is not included in the Halo Wars 2 Season Pass, which comes with new leaders for multiplayer and two new campaign missions. If you want to play Awakening the Nightmare, you will need to consider whether or not it’s worth $20 on top of what you’ve already paid, though there is a complete edition of Halo Wars 2 available if you are jumping in for the first time. The two campaign missions, which together are named Operation Spearbreaker, are pretty standard Halo Wars 2 gameplay. In fact I’m convinced you could slot them into the middle of the game’s campaign without anyone noticing, they follow the same formula as many of the regular campaign missions: Begin with a small, fixed number of troops, including some hero units, fight a few enemies, establish a base, and then move out to complete objectives dotted around the map. There’s not much else to say really, if you liked the main story missions and want some more than Spearbreaker isn’t a bad option. The story is pretty superficial and the balance seems a bit out of whack; I failed the first mission around ten or twelve times on Legendary while the second only took me three attempts, but I enjoyed the experience well enough and it’s good fun if you liked the main game, and benefits from not being overlong. Just don’t expect anything new.
(No clue what the “Terminus” is, but it looks cool)
There’s also a new multiplayer mode, Terminus Firefight, which pits the player against various waves of enemies, which can be UNSC, Banished, or Flood, and provides a central location that must be protected by building defenses and growing a base from which to produce units and upgrade things. It’s alright I suppose. If you like the raw gameplay but don’t want to fight other players than Firefight will probably be an ideal option. There’s a wide variety of units, there are modifiers that ramp up the difficulty over time, and the player has the freedom to build lots of defensive buildings and huge armies without the restrictions of campaign objectives or time limits.
(Building defenses is actually pretty varied and interesting)
In the small amount of time I spent with the mode I enjoyed being able to build more creative defenses, as the new Terminus map is both ridiculously big and loaded with defensive options, but I wouldn’t call it a breath of fresh air as much as it is more of the same. Firefight mode is fun, but it isn’t exciting or new; you fight off some enemies and then you build some more defenses. There aren’t any alternate objectives or bonus goals beyond boss waves, even something as simple as taunts from enemy leaders with each wave would have been a cool way to create additional investment, and after so much time already spent on story missions and multiplayer I would’ve appreciated something to shake up the formula.
(Atriox seems to really enjoy dramatically crushing things with his robo-hand)
As for shaking up the formula, that’s where we return to Awakening the Nightmare. The first thing you’ll likely notice about the expansion is that, unlike the main game, players command The Banished, the former Covenant-turned-renegade faction composed mostly of Brutes. There is an immediate sense of personality that comes with The Banished as, even in the opening cutscene, the style and tone of their faction is entirely unique compared to the UNSC. Players are introduced to Pavium and Voridus, two Brutes working under Atriox, the Leader of the Banished. The Brutes are far more aggressive and driven than their human counterparts, having recently fallen from favor for being a bit too gung-ho for Atriox’s tastes. Blur Studios delivers again with their incredible cutscene work for this expansion, though it is disappointing that they were given so little to do, clocking three cutscenes in a five mission campaign, only one of which has any real action. Regardless, Pavium and Voridus have enough character to be superficially interesting, despite lacking any real character arc, and the chatter between them helps greatly to flesh out the world and provide some context for The Banished’s beliefs and attitudes.
(The reveal of The Flood is extremely predictable, but effective nonetheless)
As the campaign begins the player is sent out on a scouting run, told to scavenge near the former Covenant Capital, High Charity, but not to approach it. During the mission random troops and the two leaders bicker over rumors of “The Parasite” lurking within High Charity, but these are dismissed as Covenant lies to be ignored. The first few objectives are basic, but engaging enough, serving to introduce the player to The Banished’s unique elements and troops by fighting standard Sentinel enemies, as well as some humans (which, funnily enough, may be the first time a halo game has made the UNSC a default enemy). While the standard strategy of “build up a huge army with a little of everything and win” still works for the most part, there are a few quirks with the Banished that make for a change of pace: Turrets can be upgraded multiple times, bases can be given shields for extra protection, and there are, of course, a load of new units with different counters and new abilities.
To be fair, most of this is not new, strictly speaking. The Banished have been playable in multiplayer since the game’s release, and anyone who spends a lot of time online might not find their playstyle very fresh. However, both Pavium and Voridus serve as new leaders with their own special powers on the battlefield, and there is a lot of fun to be had experimenting with their new tricks and gadgets.
(The logistics of a tactical retreat makes this mission surprisingly tense)
Once High Charity is finally reached, the Banished get a little too greedy, and accidentally awaken the titular nightmare. This is where the expansion gets really interesting, as The Flood represent a whole new type of threat that can’t be fought with traditional tactics. In fact, the very first time the appear is a mission that involves retreating through multiple barricades as wave after wave of Flood infection forms attempt to swarm your defenses. I have to commend 343 Industries and Creative Assembly on this one; the Flood are beautifully realized here, as a horrific wave of flesh and bodies that twist themselves into monstrous forms crafted specifically to destroy your forces and consume everything in their path. There are a good handful of never-before-seen Flood forms to fill out the ranks and all of them are a sight to behold. Almost every new form is given a brief introduction when they appear, with the Brute’s shock and scorn used to highlight their grotesque nature. The expansion’s final boss in particular has a wonderful sense of scale and power that was only slightly undercut by it not putting up much of a fight. Of course, this is not Blur Studios’ first time handling The Flood either, but I’d like to give them some commendation as well; The Flood have never before seemed so dangerous, so real, and so… fleshy.
(Blur Studios has truly outdone themselves yet again)
When it comes to aesthetics, Awakening the Nightmare nails everything important. You may have noticed however, that I don’t have much to say about the story, and that’s because there isn’t much to say. Without wishing to spoil anything that isn’t obvious: this is most definitely a side story, and while it may provide context for later events, nothing happens that doesn’t get completely undone by the end, and I’d be surprised if this expansion has any significant effect on the future of the series, especially with a Halo Wars 3 announcement not seeming likely any time soon. Pavium and Voridus are interesting, but they don’t change, grow as characters, or even seem to acknowledge their own mistakes beyond “We need to kill things now.” Atriox makes a few appearances but they’re so brief they feel like fanservice for a character who hasn’t even done much of note, and it makes me worry that Atriox will become the next Jul ‘Mdama: an interesting figure with lots of potential that gets unceremoniously killed off to make someone else look cool.
(Remember me? I bet you doooon’t!)
In many ways the expansion suffers from the same issues as the main campaign, the lack of a strong narrative means most events don’t really stand out, and the objectives all have the same tone that, after a while, makes it hard to be excited for the next mission, especially when it comes after an exhausting, narrow victory with only a few lines of radio chatter in between. The original Halo Wars solved this by providing a Blur Studios’ cutscene after every mission, giving the player time to wind down and enjoy the visual spectacle while hyping up the next mission, but like the main game, those cutscenes are in shorter supply. While the missions themselves are enjoyable, they’re also fairly lengthy and most feature the same routine of building up a base and producing units that eventually becomes a bit of a slog, especially when going from one mission to the next with nothing to break them up.
(This radio chatter is Atriox’s most significant moment in the expansion by the way)
In fairness, Awakening the Nightmare makes an effort to diversify things a bit, with one mission in particular having players command a small group of units through hostile areas with limited resources, which ends up being one of the most interesting missions in the whole game, main campaign included, throwing a bunch of new tactics at the player but never overwhelming them. There’s a few underwhelming ideas as well, like a short sliding puzzle that locks into place when you find the right spot, meaning you can just spam the buttons until you get right position then move onto the next one. Overall though I’d say the new mechanics are mostly well done, I just wish it had experimented more, or at least given us some more leader variety. It seems like there’s no real reason we couldn’t have had one or two extra missions as the UNSC, seeing as they’re already part of the game and I find it hard to believe they wouldn’t notice a massive outbreak of The Flood.
(Pictured above: The easiest puzzle I’ve ever solved)
Maybe they could have journeyed into High Charity at some point as well, since, y’know, it’s a huge part of the Halo lore and the original trilogy. The fact that we never get to go inside seems like a huge missed opportunity, especially for a game that already missed an incredible opportunity to revisit locations from Halo 3 in its main story. Instead we’re relegated to more nondescript forerunner structures that, while covered in interesting Flood corruption, have very little personality. I’d have happily paid thirty dollars instead of twenty if it meant we got a few more missions with some iconic locations and maybe an extra cutscene.
(High Charity is right there! Why can’t we explore it?)
All that said, I can only review what I purchased, and what I purchased was a decent expansion to a decent game. Re-reading my original review, I was actually surprised to see how harsh I was to the original game; perhaps as a long time fan of the series I was simply frustrated to see yet another underwhelming entry that could’ve done more. To some extent, I think Awakening the Nightmare is more. It’s more colorful, it’s more diverse, it’s more engaging, it’s everything the original was, and just that little bit more. There’s a lot of promise underneath a rough exterior, and I believe this expansion is proof-positive that 343 Industries have the ability to do something great with the Halo license, or at least, the ability to work with companies that can. They’re just lacking that x-factor that made the Bungie-era Halo great, whether it’s confidence, or determination, or resources, or vision, or some combination of all those and more. Walking away from this expansion after a fairly long break from the series, I can’t help but think that, with the right direction, and maybe a little luck, Halo’s future could be very bright indeed. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see. As for now, Awakening the Nightmare is an entertaining little romp that, while it doesn’t quite escape the main game’s pitfalls, gives returning players something fresh enough to make it worth revisiting, and proves that while Halo isn’t quite what it used to be, it certainly ain’t dead yet.
Halo Wars 2: Operation Spearbreaker
6/10
Decent
Awakening the Nightmare
7/10
Good