E3 2017: Be The Bad Guy In Halo Wars 2's Next Expansion

Right on schedule, Microsoft today announced the next Halo Wars 2 expansion. Revealed during the Xbox Daily show at E3, Awakening the Nightmare adds a new campaign and two new leaders for multiplayer, as well as a pair of multiplayer maps.

The campaign flips things around and lets you play as the evil Banished, seeing the world from their perspective as you fight against the Flood. The effects studio Blur, which worked on cutscenes in Halo 2: Anniversary, worked on the cinematics for Awakening the Nightmare.

As for the multiplayer content, the new Terminus Firefight mode is a Horde-like mode that challenges teams of up to three players to fight off waves of increasingly difficulty enemies.

"Battle against UNSC, Banished, and voracious Flood forces while fighting for survival," reads a line from its official description. "With the ability to construct new defense measurements such as spike floors and barricades alongside classic Halo Wars gameplay features like base-building, tech trees, and Leader power usage, Terminus Firefight adds an entirely new tower defense-style twist to the beloved wave-based Halo mode."

Awakening the Nightmare is not included with Halo Wars 2's season pass, but will be sold separately for $20 on Xbox One and PC. It launches this fall. In addition to the campaign and two new Banished leaders, there are a pair of multiplayer maps that everyone gets for free.

The new leaders are Jerome-092 and Arbiter Ripa 'Moramee who have been given a "Banished twist." They will arrive in June, included with the season pass or available to buy separately.

Awakening the Nightmare was developed in part by Creative Assembly, which is interesting given that a rumor said that studio was making a Flood-themed Halo game called Gravemind. You can read more about Awakening the Nightmare here on Halo Waypoint.

In other Halo news, Microsoft has confirmed that the next big Halo game--presumably Halo 6--is coming along well. However, it's not ready to be announced just yet. For more on what Microsoft did announce at E3, check out GameSpot's roundup of all the big news.