Halo Wars 2 ViDoc: Know Your Enemy

Bv-VAGUuc34 Halo Wars 2 ViDoc: Know Your Enemy is a video documentary by 343 Industries which discusses the development and direction of the story and characters of Halo Wars 2, focusing in particular on Isabel, Atriox, and Captain Cutter.

Transcript

 * Dan Ayoub: "We had a very specific story we wanted to tell, and in particular, new characters that we wanted to introduce. And I think RTS players have higher expectations from story, and we wanted to make sure that we did that in the strongest way possible."
 * Kevin Grace: "At the end of the original game, the Spirit of Fire and its crew adrift in space. The crews is in cryo-sleep and, fast forward twenty-eight years later to Halo Wars 2, they awake to find themselves above a forerunner installation. Halo fans, especially those who've played Halo 3, will recognize it as the Ark. Its the largest and the most powerful of the Forerunner creations, and its also the birthplace of the Halos; its literally the place that made all of the Halo rings. So that's the kind of power that's contained there. The only connection they have when they wake up is a small signal, one emergency beacon, that's coming from the surface of the Ark down below."
 * Dan Ayoub: "We wanted to put everybody in this position where things are different, things are new, no-one's really sure what's going on. Y'know, Isabel is a very different kind of AI, she's a Logistics AI. She's not a Military AI, she is not like a Cortana or a Serina."
 * Kevin Grace: "She shows up in a way that we haven't seen AIs behave in Halo before. She's freaked out. She's seen all of her friends die, she's seen her outpost destroyed."
 * Dan Ayoub: "She's a little trepidatious, does not want to stick around."
 * Kevin Grace: "She warns them that something bad is still on the Ark and that they need to run away."
 * Dan Ayoub: "The Spartans from Halo Wars, last you saw them was in the original Halo Wars just tearing down a pack of Elites. And, here are those same Spartans being taken apart by one guy. Who is this guy?"
 * Kevin Grace: "They meet Atriox for the first time, he surprises them. The Spartans expect a Brute; they get much more than a Brute in Atriox."
 * Dan Ayoub: "There's actually more to this guy, he's not just a really strong Brute."
 * Kevin Grace: "He's good at tactics, he's good at out thinking his opponents."
 * Dan Ayoub: "That was the genesis of that character. What if one Brute was not only stronger than the others, but also incredibly intelligent. Atriox is, is something the Universe hasn't seen before."
 * Kevin Grace: "The fact that he can surprise and then beat three Spartans in hand-to-hand combat, uh, sets the stage for who's in charge of the Banished, and the kind of threat they pose."
 * Jeremy Cook: "From a visual standpoint, we're willing to carry over the original Covenant technologies. But at the same time, being in your face, more about hard-hitting and close combat."
 * Kevin Grace: "You know what a wraith does if you've played Halo, but you've never seen a wraith look like this before."
 * Jeremy Cook: "Lots of layered armor, lots of ramming spikes. Things that spoke to a Brutes sensibilities and aesthetic choices."
 * Kevin Grace: "This is who they're gonna have to fight, this is who Captain Cutter has to beat. As the captain of this ship, he is twenty-eight years out from his last set of orders. Like, what do you do you are supposed to report into this hierarchy but you literally haven't seen them for almost three decades."
 * Dan Ayoub: "The crew wakes up, they have no idea what's going on. And he comes across this massive Banished force. He's always chosen his crew over his own advancement. They've been through Hell and back, and they wake up in this universe they don't understand. And he's gonna do whatever he needs to do to protect his crew, and that sets off a really fascinating face off."