First Peek at Halo Wars 2 Open Beta

The first screenshots for the open beta build of Halo Wars 2 have leaked online. The game – sequel to 2009’s excellent real-time strategy Halo Wars, developed by the now-defunct Ensemble Studios – is being developed by Total War and Alien Isolation makers Creative Assembly.

The following images from the beta of Halo Wars 2 leaked courtesy of redditor ArtilleryHobo:

The open beta is expected be available between 13^th and 20^th June, co-inciding with E3 2016.

Creative Assembly has been quick to stress that Halo Wars 2 is its own beast, and will not become a spin-off of its Total Wars series.

“There’s loads of pressure,” Tim Heaton, head of Creative Assembly, told MCVUK. “We are absolutely using Halo Wars as a starting point. This isn’t going to be a Total War: Halo kind of game – this is Halo Wars taken to the next stage.”

“We really rated Halo Wars. It’s something we can add to and build on. As we’re learning about the universe, we’ve been working closely with 343 Industries, and that’s been a really interesting learning experience.”

Heaton also revealed that its Halo Wars 2 development team is comprised not of Total War developers, but its Alien Isolation team.

“We’ve crafted the Halo Wars team, but primarily we are able to use the Alien Isolation developers,” said Heaton. “They’re our console-ready team. It’s the perfect combination: we have great strategy knowledge, great PC knowledge and now great console knowledge because of Alien.”