Halo Wars 2 is a cool game.

No wall of text? Are you sick today?

I've played all the games too (except ODST and wars 1, yep should hurry up) and I think this game looks pretty good, specially for the campaign. I think this game is gonna be better than H4 and 5 for sure.
343i are good only with the cinematics. I have to agree with ya this intro looks amazing.

Vlam is jealous because Vhazen can construct compound sentences.

Honestly though Halo cut scenes have always been pretty fab.

So... should I get it?

It's got a bit of a shaky release so far like 100% of every game these days, with some connection problems, random crashes and sound issues... But besides that, it actually seems like a very good buy so far. I spent like $70 or whatever it was for the Ultimate Edition so I could also get the HD version of the first game, and honestly I feel very satisfied so far. It's story is great so far, and its gameplay has three times as much depth as the original.

My only complaint is that the Jackals seem absent, and their role is replaced with Elite sharpshooters. This is apparently because in the lore, the Jackals were never completely loyal to the Covenant faith and were just mercenaries. But still, I kind of wish we could see them around still.

They might add them as a part of some DLC later though. The first free DLC was Seargent Forge, a character who died in the first game, so they could easily bring back the traditional-covenant era Arbiter whatshisname. As in, the Arbiter from a different era who /wasn't/ the Thel'Vadam we know and love. So maybe he'd come back someday and give us some jackals?

Also, it's not impossible for there to be some kind of story-expansion where Atriox just starts hiring Jackals.

I assume the HD version of the first game is an XB1 exclusive? Cause I don't have an Xbox.