Halo Wars/YMMV
- And the Fandom Rejoiced: 343 Studios' restoration of stat tracking.
- Cliché Storm: The story's a simpler retelling of the first game and it shows.
- Demonic Spiders: In Halo Wars multiplayer, Gauss Hogs are this, with Gunner/Grenadier Hogs only being Goddamned Bats.
- Memetic Mutation: HAAH WAAW
- That One Level: 'Scarab'. The titular Covenant walker tank acts as a stationary turret tearing through all your troops. If you take too long it's game over, and it can take a hell of a beating. To get the gold medal you almost have to glitch.
- Arcadia and Dome of Light are also nightmarish. Arcadia forces you to play defense and offense as well as babysit blink-and-they-die transports. Dome of light brings wave after wave of Covenant forces to your base to keep you from planting 5 mildly durable tanks. It's insanely difficult to protect the Hunter flooded base and still guard the tanks,even using leader transport powers tends to barely finish the mission.
- That One Sidequest: 'Running The Show' achievement requires a million points in multiplayer. This is reduced from the original three million. This represents literally hundreds of hours of play.