Halo Wars 2 will feature a robust, story-driven campaign and plenty of multiplayer action. While we’re not talking about the game’s story (or where it takes place in the Halo timeline) just yet, we are very excited about the way it contributes to the expanding Halo universe, and we look forward to sharing more in the future.

The last time we saw the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire in Halo Wars, they were settling in for a long cryosleep on their way home, knowing that with a little luck, they’d make it back to civilized space in one piece. Nearly 30 years later, they’re awakened to a new threat to the Halo universe and find themselves as the one thing standing between hope and annihilation. Halo Wars 2 will take you back to the Ark, introduce new heroes and villains, and deliver a new multiplayer mode that has the potential to push the real-time strategy genre forward.

Beyond the terrain and the world in which Halo Wars 2 takes place, its compliment of heroes and villains helps broaden the world. And because the UNSC Spirit of Fire and its crew are essentially in a place out of time, having been asleep for 28 years, they’ve missed all of the recent events that the Master Chief was a part of. This creates a unique setting for new players to the series, as they will be learning about the state of the universe alongside the crew of the Fire.

Halo Wars 2: Awakening the Nightmare sets the stage for an epic conflict between the Banished and – that’s right – the Flood!

Halo Wars 2: Awakening the Nightmare promises to expand on the epic story from the main game, where players will battle through a brand-new series of campaign missions from the perspective of the Banished and experience their desperate struggle against the terrifying Flood.

Halo Wars 2: Awakening the Nightmare is more than just a story expansion though; it is jam-packed with new content that also includes new multiplayer maps (available for all Halo Wars 2 players), gorgeous Blur cinematics, exclusive new multiplayer Leaders and Terminus Firefight, a unique game mode in the expansion set on a dynamic map where players build bases and armies to defend against waves of enemy forces. In this tower-defense style firefight mode, you can build various types of walls, mini bases, and turrets to protect your Terminus from every enemy unit imaginable including new mini bosses!

Halo Wars 2: Awakening the Nightmare expands upon an already burgeoning Halo Wars 2, where new DLC leaders have been released each month including newcomers Kinsano and Colony, as well as the cigar-chomping legend himself, Sergeant Johnson. For June, we’re releasing two new Leaders that will be playable at the Xbox E3 booth, and we still have four more Leaders (six if you include the expansion) and a new two-mission experienced called “Operation Spearbreaker” coming this year!

Halo Wars 2: Awakening the Nightmare iscoming to Xbox Play Anywhere on September 26, 2017.