'Halo Wars 2' news, release date:'self-contained story' for second installment

A promotional image for "Halo Wars 2"Xbox/Microsoft

Apart from its gameplay, "Halo Wars 2" will be unique in the sense that it will make things easy for new "Halo" fans to get a good grasp of the story while it will also have its effects on the franchise.

The head of 343 Industries, Dan Ayoub, said during an interview with Windows Central that the sequel is a "self-contained story" and that the players will need no prior knowledge to the world of the Spartans.

Ayoub said that "Halo Wars 2" essentially assumes that the player has not played the original "Halo Wars" or any other "Halo" game for that matter.

"You can see we've set the game around that, with the crew of Spirit of Fire set asleep for 28 years," he went on to explain. As revealed before, "Halo Wars 2" will pick up from where the original game left off, where the team was warned about "something different."

But as emphasized, fans will know what they need to know when they begin the game. However, those who have been following the events in the video game might potentially get more out of it.

Speaking to GameSpot, "Halo Wars 2" narrative design director Kevin Grace revealed that the sequel will "absolutely" affect what comes next in the military science-fiction video game hit.

"It is a part of what's happening in the universe right now. So, yeah, it's absolutely going to have a big impact on what's coming next," he explained.

"It's still early for whatever's going to happen in the future, but I can tell you for sure that if you played Halo 5, there are some important implications in Halo Wars 2 that you'll be able to pick up on," he went on to say.

He said that they have built some "connections" to the whole "Halo" universe in "Halo Wars 2," teasing that the modern day setting allows them to have "some pretty big crossovers if we want to have big crossovers."

"Halo Wars 2" will be released on Feb. 21, 2017 for the Xbox One and PC.