00:28You
00:43RTS players are the guys who don't just do something, they think about why they're doing something.
00:47When you watch an intense chess match and you're seeing a battle of the minds, a battle of tactics that
00:52isn't even just on the board, it's five moves ahead, ten, twenty moves ahead.
00:57This ability for the action to just kind of turn on a dime.
01:00If you know the person you're playing, you might know what their favorite tactics are.
01:04They think they've got you, they've got their units coming in, and then you just drop death out of the
01:08sky.
01:10Do you build for long-range siege? Do you go air? Do you go heavy guns?
01:14What's my enemy doing? How am I going to counter-react to that?
01:16Time's ticking down, the score's ticking up.
01:18I've taken on board what you've thrown at me, and now I'm going to dismantle that.
01:27The first thing I had to figure out was who we were going to work with on this, and my
01:30mind immediately went to Creative Assembly.
01:32They are synonymous with RTS.
01:36These guys have been doing this for twenty years, they're still at the top of their game.
01:41We wanted to make this feel like a game that was very much a sequel to the original.
01:45We already have a wonderful RTS, and we're trying to build on top of that.
01:48What we really wanted to do was add layers of depth, so that a wide range of players could have
01:54a fantastic time.
01:55Bring those players in and go, actually, it's not really that complicated.
02:00It's a real action-focused strategy game.
02:03We're also doubling down on the size of these environments, so they have the space to get involved in some
02:07serious combat.
02:10If you want to practice your base strategy, you can go into domination, you can go into deathmatch.
02:15If I'm in the mood for a fast game, I can jump into strongholds.
02:18So we've got different kind of ways to play the game for different kind of players.
02:22We absolutely want those hardcore players, and we've absolutely got games and game modes that are suited to that.
02:27But then we've got, on the other end of the spectrum, modes like Blitz.
02:30It's something nobody's ever done before.
02:39Blitz is a whole new way to play RTS.
02:42We're really excited about Blitz.
02:44It really changes the way people will look at RTS games.
02:48Blitz is a fast-paced arcade action version of Halo Wars 2, where instead of building your army at a
02:54base,
02:54you're building them before a match as a deck of cards.
02:59And you fight by deploying cards from your hand into the battlefield in real time.
03:09There's no base building, there's no economy management, it's all about the combat.
03:15I don't want to worry about tech trees, I don't want to worry about resource collection.
03:18The original design intention for Blitz was to make something really accessible that everybody could enjoy.
03:23Whether you're new to strategy games or an RTS veteran.
03:27Experience the really cool bits of RTS, so commanding a huge army, bringing down huge leader powers.
03:35It's all about playing the right card at the right time.
03:38At the end of the match, you're wielding these large forces with all sorts of different powers and abilities.
03:43You can start bringing out bigger guns, marauders, blister backs.
03:47Even if you're a really seasoned vet, it's such a different way to play an RTS.
03:53Building a deck is going to be heavily influenced by the leader that you choose going in.
03:58You'll have a number of cards that are unique to that leader.
04:01Trying to differentiate each leader to make them feel like they have a unique purpose and a unique play style.
04:06I tend to be a little more aggressive when I play, so I will lead towards like an Atriox or
04:10a Decimus.
04:14I like that we're taking a risk. We're making something really exciting that I think people haven't seen before.
04:25You're playing with the units on the field, you're playing with the leaders and the abilities.
04:29I think it's also taking on the player and you're reacting to what their actions are.
04:33You really can turn the tide.
04:36There's always an opportunity to kind of fall back to your base, shut down your opponent's tactic and then come
04:42forward with a strategy of your own.
04:44That's one of the joys of RTS is that the battle's never over till it's over.
05:06What happened down there?
05:12Isabel?
05:14Five months ago, the portal from the Ark to Earth shut down without warning.
05:19A month later, he arrived.
05:22He?
05:23The brute.
05:27Their leader.
05:30His name is Atriox.
05:35During the war, the Covenant used his clan as expendable muscle.
05:41Told them dying in battle would speed their holy journey.
05:46And none ever returned.
05:49Until he did.
05:52And so battle by battle.
05:55War by war.
05:59Atriox was born.
06:01With every victory his legend.
06:05And his hatred.
06:07Grew.
06:09Eventually both were impossible to conceal.
06:13And they tried to banish him.
06:17In everything we know about the Covenant's thousand year history.
06:22Atriox was the first to defy the Covenant.
06:26And survive.
06:29And his defiance inspired others.
06:36The Covenant had two targets in those years.
06:40They almost got us.
06:45But Atriox...
06:48They never came close.
06:52If we don't stop him now...
06:54We leave the galaxy at the mercy of a monster.
06:57He killed everyone I was supposed to protect.
07:00At this rate, it'll be over soon.
07:05That is what you're up against, James Cutter.
07:09We need to run.
07:11As far and as fast as we can.
07:31The process starts with character, right?
07:33It starts with story and character.
07:35And that drives everything else.
07:36Because all the detail and explosions and fidelity we add on top of that.
07:40Is nothing.
07:41If you don't believe in those characters and the story they're telling you.
07:44They're not going to fail again.
07:48I think one of the first things we did when Kevin was talking to us about it was...
07:52Okay, well these are the characters we have.
07:53Who are the new people we want to introduce?
07:55The biggest of which was Atriox.
08:07We put a lot of effort into establishing a new enemy.
08:09Because you can have a great good guy, but he really needs to have an equal bad guy.
08:14The brute who can out-thank you as well as out-fight you physically is a very different kind of
08:18a threat.
08:19And so that's really where Atriox was born.
08:21He was often sent on suicide missions and he always returned.
08:24And that made him dangerous to the Covenant.
08:27So when we encounter him, he's at the crux of finding a way to amplify and strengthen that army.
08:33From a visual standpoint, everything should look like it should hurt you or potentially kill you.
08:38We wanted to layer that on top of some of that recognizable Covenant technology.
08:41So lots of ramming spikes, lots of layered armor.
08:45Things that spoke to a brute's sensibilities and aesthetic choices.
08:50And then we've also given him little trophies, little very subtle elements that kind of speak to maybe what his
08:55past has been.
08:57Like, you know, things that could have just been from somebody that he's dispatched in the past and decided to
09:02just keep as a trophy and make it part of his collection.
09:04But also, the form from function, where armor is at, serves a role.
09:09You know, he would be more protected around the core, like his chest and he's got a larger shoulder pad
09:13because he's got an augmenting gauntlet.
09:15Like, this should feel like a bipedal tank.
09:23Yes, run, little demon.
09:27I wanted to have a reason for you to fear him.
09:30And the best way to do that is have Isabelle tell you who he is and why we need to
09:35run.
09:37Spartans, thank God. We have to get out of here.
09:39When we first meet Isabelle, she shows up in a way that we haven't seen AIs behave in Halo before.
09:45She's freaked out.
09:46When we created Isabelle, we wanted to make a different kind of AI.
09:49AIs are generally perfection. We wanted a flawed AI from the outset.
09:53We wanted her to be a little bit more rough around the edges. She's logistic, so she's, you know, kind
09:57of like the tank girl.
09:59Ripley from Alliance 2 was a big influence in that.
10:02I need her down there with me.
10:05Isabelle?
10:06Sorry, sir. After recent battle reports, you should have figured out that there are rules around here.
10:11I intend to break one.
10:14We had a real task set out for us in finding not only the person who will be Isabelle, but
10:19what that voice is.
10:21And I think we couldn't have had a better actress for the job.
10:24Sir, yes, sir.
10:25With the way that we shoot mocap, it has to be the same person who we're scanning for our character
10:30model.
10:30So this person not only has to look like the character, but has to act like the character and has
10:36to sound like the character.
10:37To get the likeness and fidelity that we really wanted, the technology demands that you essentially cast who you want
10:44to be that character.
10:45It's a creative choice, but it's also to showcase the best technology that's available out there.
10:51When it works, it works so well, and you just get everything at once and you really breathe life into
10:57that character.
10:58It's almost like directing a movie, right? At the end of the day, I mean, cinematics has always been somewhat
11:02like that.
11:02But now you've actually got us in the studio directing these actors.
11:07The process has just changed so much.
11:09I really think those first cinematics of the original Halo Wars just kind of raised the bar for the industry
11:14as a whole, and that's what we're doing again.
11:16I think it's important not to miss, you know, the point that people love these characters that we're creating, and
11:22that requires us spending time and effort making sure that they're well-rounded and real.
11:28From the first word on the page, to the first design we draw, to the actors that breathe life into
11:33them, to the final lighting and animation parts that we do here.
11:37Every single piece needs to fall into place. There's a lot of people out there that expect a lot from
11:42this franchise.
11:42That to me is the most exciting thing when you are putting a face to a brand new character.
11:49You're creating a new digital life, which is pretty awesome.
12:14We're doing a lot of people out there.
12:22I wish you, too, that my fate came out here, but that's why.
12:22The same thing I can imagine to really walk into these characters below.
12:23If you look at the site where you can definitely go right into place, I love it for a moment
12:23to change your life.
12:23That, like me, my city's and I'm getting close to my vision of certain çap carn osales has just been
12:23easily influenced and changed myometry.
12:23I want to amazicинеus because I like the news, I think they're moremans with this angle.
