YMMV / Halo Wars 2

• Ass Pull: The survival of High Charity and the Flood, both of which were destroyed during Halo 3, but are back seemingly no worse for wear. It's particularly blatant in the case of the former, which was very visibly exploding.
• Badass Decay: The Banished are extremely intimidating in the cinematic and their backstory, but they spend the UNSC campaign trying and failing to defeat the crew of the Spirit of Fire. A huge step down from somebody whose army was a thorn in the side of the Covenant at the height of its power. This is reversed in Awakening the Nightmare, which features a Banished Campaign going up against none other than the Flood.
  • Later materials have shown that the majority of Banished forces were elsewhere, and the ones on the Ark were just an expeditionary force. Trailers for Halo Infinite have shown that the Banished as a whole are a serious threat to the UNSC.
• Demonic Spiders: On Legendary, many enemy units fit this:
  • Elite Rangers can pick off your units and buildings while obscured by the Fog of War.
  • Hunters can easily decimate your ground units, and if they're in a garrison, they can absorb a LOT of damage. It gets even worse if they have the Beam Cannon upgrade. Even if you come after them with twelve Marine squads, ten Warthogs or four Scorpions, they'll turn your units into swiss cheese in no time.
  • Locusts are even worse. Not only can they eat away at your units and buildings while obscured by the Fog of War, but they can take quite a while to kill as they have shields.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Of the downloadable Banished leaders, Colony is a particular favorite for giving the Hunters some representation and having an all-around fun playstyle.
• Evil Is Cool: Atriox completely embodies this trope, and he's been a fan favorite ever since the first trailer showed him curbstomping three Spartan-IIs. It helps he's completely different from almost all of his more bestial Brute kin.
• Fridge Brilliance: The idea that some individuals are Born Lucky is a popular theory in the Halo universe; in the novel Halo: The Fall of Reach and the intro to Halo 3, it's explicitly stated to be the attribute for which John 117 was selected to become a Spartan. ^note It's also a common theme in the Larry Niven novels which Halo borrows much of its inspiration from, i.e. Teela Brown from Ringworld. Yet it's unlikely that humanity has a monopoly on "abnormally lucky" individuals, and sooner or later there is bound to be an antagonist toting the same kind of good fortune which turned the Master Chief into a legend. Enter Atriox, who survived several dozen suicide missions in a row, thwarted his own execution, withstood the combined wrath of an intergalactic empire, trounced three Spartan-IIs simultaneously, and is now set to conquer the most important Forerunner installation in the galaxy. He's in some ways the Brute equivalent to John-117.
• Narm: After Cutter's dramatic Rousing Speech, Isabel responds with an utterly anemic "Sir yes sir." It sounds like Blur Studios accidentally went with the practice take instead of one where Erika Soto actually bothered to act.
  • There's a minor example of Narm from the Official Strategy Guide. Twice in the guide, a picture is used of Douglas hijacking the Banished Scarab in the third-to-last mission... but, due to the position of his body and limbs in the particular shot the guide uses^note taken when he was midway through leaping down through the Scarab's open roof-hatch, it looks like Douglas is standing atop the mech while flexing his biceps in a hammy pose.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Flood prove as nightmarish as ever when they make their return.
• Squick: As per usual, the Flood. By the end of Awakening the Nightmare, Voridus and Pavium are absolutely caked in gunk. The first Brute Combat Form since Halo 3 is particularly disgusting, with bloated bulges rendered in loving detail.
• Tear Jerker: While Isabel is seizing control of the Banished Carrier's main gun, she flashes back to the Banished's initial arrival to the Ark. Specifically, the panicked cries of her friends and colleagues while the Banished slaughtered them and she was helpless to do anything.
• That One Level: Mission 11 on Legendary is a nightmare for even highly-experienced RTS players. You start off under heavy attack from Banished forces with just enough forces to have a chance of fighting them off. And then that damn Forerunner Retriever shows up and starts mowing you down, easily bringing your base to critical damage levels and wiping out whatever you had left from your fight with the Banished, forcing you to spend a good while recovering. Afterwards, the Retriever is still around attacking everyone, your base will get attacked frequently by Banished forces, you have to secure 3 control towers within a limited time, and the computer loves to spam Glassing Beams on your forces(which shouldn't be possible since the Enduring Conviction was destroyed), making those towers almost impossible to defend. And if that wasn't enough, the Banished will repeatedly drop off units around the towers. YEESH.^note Thankfully, there is a way to make the mission easier: When the Retriever first attacks you, if you can lead it away from your base with some sacrificial units, it may end up hovering in place rather than attacking your base. Build up while it's idling and then attack it when you're ready. WARNING: Do not build early turrets, as they may end up shooting at the Retriever and leashing it over toward your base, which it can easily destroy.
  • Even if you turn on skulls that buff your units, income, and cooldowns, the mission isn't a cakewalk.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Downplayed with Atriox. While he was well received and avoided getting abruptly and unceremoniously killed like Jul 'Mdama in Halo 5, many players felt he should've appeared more throughout the campaign. The marketing built up Atriox to be in a personal Battle of Wits against Cutter, but he's really only in the story for three cutscenes and he and Cutter only interact twice, over radio.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Both fans and critics can unanimously agree the Blur Studio Cutscenes in this game are among the best and most detailed there are.
• Win Back the Crowd: After criticism from fans over the Art Evolution in Halo 4 and 5, the art direction in this game brings back a lot of design elements from the original trilogy.
• The Woobie: Isabel is clearly traumatized by being the Sole Survivor of Atriox's attack, and has flashbacks to the deaths of her friends while taking control of the Enduring Conviction, leaving her noticeably hyperventilating and exhausted despite her being an AI. Combine this with her wide, innocent-looking eyes, and it's hard not to wish an AI could be given a hug.