: The writing is just bad. Whoever wrote this has never served in any military,
: and WOW does it show. [...] It's not that the voice actors were amateurs -- that's not what I'm talking
: about here, because they weren't: it's that what they were told to say,
: and how they were directed to say it, just makes me weep. [..[] It's entirely incongruous with the mythos surrounding
: SPARTAN-IIs.

: I'm struggling to think of anything in the game that suggests the Spartans
: are dumb. You could argue Palmer showed more intellectual disdain, and she
: was far more eloquently spoken. The Spartans actually get personalities in
: this game, versus being blank slates aside from a few stray bits in the
: ancillary black boxes and timeline events.

Yeah, I can't picture any specific instances where the Spartans came off as dumb. I admit Alice did sound kinda "Michelle Rodriguez", but I actually liked it and appreciated the personality being heightened a bit over their complete stoicness in the previous game.

My own opinion of Halo Wars 2 is that it was decent enough, and appreciated as a new Halo RTS, but didn't take many risks or surprising turns in its story.

My mixed feelings about Halo 4's story aside, I can't call it unmemorable. Halo 5 too also had many memorable scenes and new plot developments even if it was mostly just filler and setup. Halo Wars 2 feels like its plot boils down to "Cutter and co. arrive at the Ark. They fight the big bad Brute for a while, and then it ends." It's like ending Halo CE before the Flood gets to show up.

The first Halo Wars was REALLY cliche, but it made up for its corny writing with genuinely memorable visuals and scenes. The Spirit of Fire being pulled into a Shield World. Ramming a destroyer. Five Long Years. Monsters. Halo Wars 2 has a few scenes that seem like they're supposed to be memorable, but they're shot in ways that make them seem kind of awkward instead.

Cutter giving a dramatic speech about "family" should be uplifting, but it looks instead like overconfident bad timing boasting since it comes RIGHT AFTER being told that even the FULL MIGHT of the Covenant couldn't beat Atriox. Isabel ripping a Covenant carrier apart should be awesome, but then she starts hearing voices and it becomes really confusing as to whether they're flashback voices, Banished she's killing, or people on the Ark?? Anders launching a horde of Banished into space should seem amazing, but the wailing music and lingering shots of her face make it seem instead like she feels really guilty about it then doesn't? And the Spartans don't get as cool a showing as Monsters because their fights are shot in dark rooms with constant intercuts to black that make seeing anything a strain on the eyes.

As for Atriox, he has kind of the same problem as Bane from The Dark Knight Rises. He has a decent premise and a few unorthodox traits, and is said to be SO SMART but then after kicking the hero(es)'s butt(s), just walks away for some reason. We only really see him for a few cutscenes, and he and Cutter only interact once or so over radio. That whole "personal vendetta" the trailers were building up never happens. It's a shame we get more of an idea of Atriox's supposed cunning from a joke car sale ad.

The other characters don't fill up the gap of Atriox either. Cutter, Anders, Serina, and Forge in HW1 were cliche, but they had distinct personalities and bounced off each other. Here, most the characters' lines are the same exposition. Nobody really has an arc. Maybe Isabel, but it boils down to: "She fears the Banished. Then she kills them. The end."

Meh. Nothing so outright incompetent as Halo 5 or bombastic as Halo 4, but nothing really excited me either. It boils down to another "oh by the way Halo 6 exists."