A new expansion has just released for real-time strategy title Halo Wars 2. Titled Awakening the Nightmare, the expansion features several new campaign missions, two new multiplayer leaders, two new maps for the multiplayer mode and a brand new co-op mode called Terminus Firefight.
The new campaign missions will be presented from the perspective of the Banished. The Banished are the mercenary Brutes, or Jiralhanae, that are lead by Atriox, the human’s main foil in the Halo Wars world. The Banished have stumbled upon the parasites of the galaxy, The Flood. This certainly explains the expansion’s title of Awakening the Nightmare. This will be a new perspective for the campaign as players have previously only controlled the human UNSC forces as they fought against Covenant and Banished forces.
The new Terminus Firefight mode is described in the trailer for Awakening the Nightmare as co-op tower defense. In the mode, up to three players can take the field to build up their armies and bases against an onslaught. Players must also defend their terminus node, a structure of Forerunner origin. The attacking enemies can be UNSC, Flood or Banished in origin. To aid in the defense, players will have new capabilities such as the ability to erect barricades, spiked floors in addition to the tradition Halo Wars units.
Halo Wars 2: Awakening the Nightmare will support 4K Ultra HD and HDR meaning that this may also be the prettiest way to see one of the few RTS games on a console. It has been released exclusively on Xbox One and Windows 10. For those that have yet to buy the core Halo Wars 2 game, there is also now a Complete Edition. The Complete Edition features all of the content that was available with the Season Pass as well as all of the content released for Awakening the Nightmare.