''Halo: Spartan Assault'' is a
twin stick shooter video game developed by
343 Industries
343 Industries is an American video game developer located in Redmond, Washington, part of Xbox Game Studios. Headed by Pierre Hintze, the studio is responsible for the ''Halo (franchise), Halo'' series of military science fiction games, origin ...
and Vanguard Games. Part of the
''Halo'' media franchise, the game was released on July 18, 2013, for
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
's
Windows 8
Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for download via MSDN and TechNet on August 15, 2012, and later to ...
and
Windows Phone 8
Windows Phone 8 is the second generation of the Windows Phone mobile operating system from Microsoft. It was released on October 29, 2012, and, like its predecessor, it features a flat user interface based on the Metro design language. It was s ...
platforms. The game subsequently released on
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
,
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
,
Steam, and
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
. ''Halo: Spartan Assault'' is set between the events of ''
Halo 3
''Halo 3'' is a 2007 first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie for the Xbox 360 console. The third installment in the ''Halo'' franchise, the game concludes the story arc begun in 2001's '' Halo: Combat Evolved'' and continued in ...
'' and ''
Halo 4
''Halo 4'' is a 2012 first-person shooter video game developed by 343 Industries and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 video game console. ''Halo 4''s story follows a cybernetically enhanced human supersoldier, Master Chief, a ...
''. Players control the human soldiers
Sarah Palmer and Edward Davis as they fight a new splinter faction of the alien
Covenant
Covenant may refer to:
Religion
* Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general
** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible
** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement b ...
. The game launched with 25
single-player missions; an additional campaign released as
downloadable content
Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabli ...
. The console versions also feature an exclusive cooperative
horde mode.
After years of rumored or cancelled handheld ''Halo'' projects, ''Spartan Assault'' was the franchise's first mobile game. The developers spent time adapting ''Halo''s distinctive elements to a touchscreen game meant to be played in short bursts. The game received mixed reviews on release. Reviewers praised the game for its success at replicating ''Halo''s aesthetic; the mobile versions of the game received lower average scores. ''Spartan Assault'' was followed by a sequel, ''
Spartan Strike'', in 2015.
Gameplay
''Halo: Spartan Assault'' is a
shooter game
Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range ...
where players experience gameplay from an overhead
top-down perspective
A variety of computer graphic techniques have been used to display video game content throughout the history of video games. The predominance of individual techniques have evolved over time, primarily due to hardware advances and restrictions ...
.
Players assume the role of human supersoldiers fighting against a splinter faction of the former alien alliance known as the
Covenant
Covenant may refer to:
Religion
* Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general
** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible
** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement b ...
. The control method for the game depends on the host device.
On
touchscreen
A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is ofte ...
mobile devices, players control the character through virtual
joysticks
A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...
—the left stick controls movement and the right stick controls the direction of the character's fire—along with buttons along the edge of the screen.
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
and
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
players use a physical gamepad, while Windows players can use either a gamepad, or keyboard and mouse.
To assist players, many weapons auto-target enemies in the direction the player is firing.
The game's campaign mode is divided into chapters, then further subdivided into individual missions.
The game features classic weapons and vehicles from the franchise.
Playing ''Halo: Spartan Assault'' earns the player experience points and content for use in ''
Halo 4
''Halo 4'' is a 2012 first-person shooter video game developed by 343 Industries and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 video game console. ''Halo 4''s story follows a cybernetically enhanced human supersoldier, Master Chief, a ...
''.
Completing missions or rotating weekly challenges award credits that can be used to buy boosts or different weapons for each mission.
In lieu of spending credits for upgrades, players can use real currency.
The Xbox 360 and the Xbox One versions of the game feature an additional cooperative game mode, designed to be different from that of the main campaign. Two players team up to survive against waves of enemy
Flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
on five different stages.
The game mode features new Spartan abilities and weapons.
The Windows Phone and Windows PC version support cross-play, allowing players to start missions on one device and resume on another.
Plot
''Halo: Spartan Assault'' takes place in the 26th century between the events of ''
Halo 3
''Halo 3'' is a 2007 first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie for the Xbox 360 console. The third installment in the ''Halo'' franchise, the game concludes the story arc begun in 2001's '' Halo: Combat Evolved'' and continued in ...
'' and ''Halo 4''.
Following the events of ''Halo 3'', the human UNSC and alien Elites (Sangheili) signed a ceasefire to end a decades-long war. Gameplay follows through the perspective of the
Spartan supersoldiers Sarah Palmer or Spartan Davis.
Canonically, the events are played from the perspective of human military cadets, reliving the events inside a
battle simulation.
Spartans Palmer and Davis are stationed on the planet Draetheus V when it comes under attack from a splinter group of the Covenant who have ignored the ceasefire. Palmer and Davis work to repel the invaders. This new Covenant faction led by Merg Vol discovers that Draetheus' moon is actually a weapon built by an ancient race known as the
Forerunners. Merg Vol's Covenant activates the weapon, tearing apart Draetheus and triggering an evacuation. Spartan Davis gives his life to allow the remaining human forces enough time to escape. Spartan Palmer tracks down Merg Vol, kills him, sabotages the Forerunner weapon, and escapes the moon.
In the Operation Hydra campaign, Spartan Palmer returns to X50 in search of a mysterious signal. She discovers that the signal is actually a distress signal from Spartan Davis. Palmer reaches the core of X50, but finds Davis dead; the moon is using his remains to create an unknown device, which Palmer extracts for study.
Development
Over the years, rumors swirled of a handheld or mobile version of ''Halo'' for the
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...
,
Gizmondo
The Gizmondo is a handheld gaming console developed by Tiger Telematics. It was released in the UK, Sweden and the U.S. starting in March 2005. Its first-party games were developed in studios in Helsingborg, Sweden, and Manchester, England. Gi ...
,
Ultra-Mobile PC
An ultra-mobile PC, or ultra-mobile personal computer (UMPC), is a miniature version of a pen computer, a class of laptop whose specifications were launched by Microsoft and Intel in spring 2006. Sony had already made a first attempt in this d ...
, and
Nintendo DS.
Then-''Halo'' developer
Bungie
Bungie, Inc. is an American video game company based in Bellevue, Washington. It is a studio owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The company was established in May 1991 by Alex Seropian, who later brought in programmer Jason Jones afte ...
quashed speculation they were developing an
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a digital video game download service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360. It focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent ...
title in 2006.
When ''Halo'' overseer
343 Industries
343 Industries is an American video game developer located in Redmond, Washington, part of Xbox Game Studios. Headed by Pierre Hintze, the studio is responsible for the ''Halo (franchise), Halo'' series of military science fiction games, origin ...
was interested in developing a mobile game, Franchise Development Director Frank O'Connor recommended an arcade shooter, having wanted for years to see a ''Halo'' game in the vein of ''
Moon Patrol
is a 1982 arcade video game
An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are ...
''.
Having come up with the idea for the game, 343 Industries approached Vanguard Games, who had prior twin-stick shooter experience, to develop it.
During development, the game was known by the codename ''Bootcamp''.
343 Industries Executive Producer Dan Ayoub described the challenge of adapting ''Halo'' for a portable device as crafting the right experience for the device.
"If we'd gone down the
first-person shooter
First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the p ...
route, we might have built something compelling, but it couldn't on its own merit play as well as a traditional ''Halo'' game," O'Connor recalled.
While focusing on optimizing the game for touch controls, the developers wanted to make sure the elements that made ''Halo'' distinctive—its weapon sandbox, abilities, and look—remained.
The focus on a mobile game experience also meant that the developers broke up the game's missions into smaller chunks for short playthroughs.
More than fifteen control variations were tested.
The developers designed adaptive controls that move around the screen to match the drift of player's hands on the touchscreen and reduce frustration.
For the console release of ''Spartan Assault'', the developers took feedback from reviews to further tune the controls and adjust balance and scoring.
Tom Salta
Tom Salta, also known as Atlas Plug (stylized ATlA5 PlUG), is an American recording artist and soundtrack composer. He has composed soundtracks for many video game titles, including '' Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 1 & 2'', ''Cold ...
composed ''Spartan Assault''s music. The game was the first time Salta had worked on a project where the sound had been established by another composer—Salta called the original music of Combat Evolved "sacred ground for me" and his inspiration to compose for video games. Previous to ''Spartan Assault'' Salta was part of the team that reorchestrated and recorded the music for ''
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary''.
Because the game was designed to be played on mobile devices, Salta and the music team worked to make sure audio quality would be high on small mobile speakers as well as through headphones or higher-end hardware. Since there was a limited budget for the music, Salta chose which sounds and instruments he would record live.
Salta starts composing on a keyboard and uses
Logic
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premise ...
.
Release
''Spartan Assault'' was announced in June 2013 at San Diego Comic-Con.
The game was released in North America and Europe on July 18 and 19, respectively. In the United States, the game was initially restricted to
Verizon
Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas ...
phones before being released to all Windows 8 enabled devices in August.
The game's release coincided with a tie-in comic series, ''Halo: Initiation'', which detailed Palmer's path to becoming a Spartan.
An
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
version of the game—running at 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second—released on December 24; the
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
version was delayed and released January 31, 2014.
Players who already purchased the mobile version received a discount on the console pricing.
It was released on
Steam on April 4, the first game in the series to be distributed on the platform.
It was a free title for
Xbox Live subscribers as part of the "
Games with Gold
The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an Internet, online multiplayer video game, multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox ...
" program in June 2014.
On April 16, 2015, the game was released for
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
.
Operation Hydra, a free update to the game, was released August 29. The update added new missions and achievements, the ability to buy certain power weapons with XP rather than real currency, and support for the Xbox 360 controller. A demo version of the game, featuring a tutorial and single mission, was released on August 30.
The update also added compatibility for Windows Phone hardware with 512MB of
RAM
Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to:
Animals
* A male sheep
* Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish
People
* Ram (given name)
* Ram (surname)
* Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director
* RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch
* ...
, and enabled play using an Xbox gamepad on Windows computers.
Reception
''Spartan Assault'' received mixed reviews upon release. The PC version has a weighted aggregate rating of 70/100 on
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, with the Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions having lower scores of 51 and 53, respectively.
Critics including Harry Slater of
Pocket Gamer and Chris Carter of
Destructoid
''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017, and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022.
History
...
wrote that while ''Spartan Assault'' was not going to be a Windows 8
killer app
In marketing terminology, a killer application (commonly shortened to killer app) is any computer program or software that is so necessary or desirable that it proves the core value of some larger technology, such as computer hardware, a video game ...
, it was a worthwhile purchase for gamers on the Windows 8 platform.
Geek.com's Russell Holly wrote that the game was a milestone in mobile gaming, with Microsoft producing a high-quality mobile experience of an established property.
Digital Trends considered the mobile version satisfactory, but found the ports underwhelming.
More critically, reviews such as those for ''
PC Gamer
''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...
'' and ''
X-One
''XONE'' (formerly ''X360'') was a monthly magazine produced by Imagine Publishing in the United Kingdom. XONE was the UK's #1 selling independent dedicated Xbox 360 and Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Mi ...
'' considered the game a disappointment.
Reviewers praised the game for its authentic ''Halo'' look and feel.
''
Game Informer
''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...
''s Kyle Hillard called ''Spartan Assault'' "a true ''Halo'' game, even if the series' signature scope and size are scaled down", with the game featuring familiar ''Halo'' moments, enemies, and sounds.
Destructoid's Christ Carter praised the game for successfully adapting ''Halo''s gameplay formula of guns, grenades, and melee attacks to the new genre.
In comparison, ''
Polygon
In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two to ...
''s Philip Kollar called the appeal "illusory", as ''Spartan Assault'' did not contain any of ''Halo''s "subtlety or strategy."
IGN's Dan Stapleton considered the ''Halo'' trappings the main appeal of the game, as without it, ''Spartan Assault'' would be just another competent but unremarkable twin-stick shooter.
The console co-op missions were considered a highlight of the game;
''GameSpot'' and ''Polygon''s critics noted that the cooperative mode demanded different tactics than the regular campaign.
Reviewers were divided on the controls. VideoGamer's Simon Miller found the on-foot sections excellent but controlling vehicles difficult on PC and even harder on mobile.
''
The Verge
''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts.
The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media ...
''s Tom Warren agreed the touch controls were awkward.
Stapleton recommended playing the game with a keyboard and mouse if possible,
a sentiment echoed by Hillard, who felt the touch controls became more of a liability as the game's difficulty increased.
The lack of controller support at launch was criticized.
TouchArcade's Eric Ford found the touch controls serviceable once players had acclimated to their sensitivity.
The microtransaction features of ''Spartan Assault'' were generally negatively received.
While reviewers such as Carter felt that the microtransactions could be ignored and did not impact enjoyment of the game,
Hillard wrote that "it’s hard not to feel as though an important part of the game is being withheld after buying into the agreed-upon price of admission."
Kollar considered the upgrades necessary to completing levels with a high score, and considered them "exploitative and unnecessary" in a game that cost money upfront.
''GameZone'' Jake Valentine agreed, feeling XP was a scarce resource and the game heavily prodded players into shelling out real money instead.
Vanguard Games and 343 Industries announced a sequel to ''Halo: Spartan Assault'', ''
Halo: Spartan Strike'' in late 2014. This game was released as a digital download for Windows devices and Steam in 2015.
References
External links
*
''Halo: Spartan Assault'' on developer Vanguard Games's website
{{Portal bar, Video games
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