"Halo" fans may generally not be fans of the real-time strategy genre, which is the series spinoff "Halo Wars 2." However, if they're interested at all in what's gonna happen in the upcoming sequel "Halo 6," they might want to reconsider playing "Halo Wars 2."
That's what "Halo Wars 2" developer 343 Industries is saying as it gears up for a February 2017 release of the game. Game Rant reports that "Halo Wars 2" takes place directly after the incidents in "Halo 5: Guardians," so that fills in the gap between that game and "Halo 6." Why is this the case? It's because 343 wants to make the overarching story of the entire franchise feel consistent across all games, a noble effort for such a sprawling property.
According to an interview with their narrative director Kevin Grace and art director Jeremy Cook on GameSpot, they're planning to take characters introduced in "Halo 4" and "Halo 5" and do more with it. Players playing "Halo Wars 2" will not only be able to connect the dots moving forward to "Halo 6" in the future but will also be able to figure out plot threads from "Halo 5." Assuming like they've played "Halo 5," that is.
Game Rant speculates that this new directive to intertwine the games in the series better will allow "Halo Wars 2" to possibly do better than the original game. This might be because "Halo" fans who want to see what happens next in the story will want to play the game for it. On the other hand, the "Halo" series has been known for its great multiplayer action. Players who just want to frag other players online in a next-gen game would probably be waiting for "Halo 6."
"Halo Wars 2" will be releasing on February 21 next year for PC and Xbox One, while there isn't any word yet on when we can concretely expect "Halo 6." One could expect it around the first half of 2018 the earliest since 343 Industries hasn't put any word about it at all.