Halo: Spartan Assault

Overview

Halo: Spartan Assault is a sci-fi top-down shooter developed by Vanguard Games (in conjunction with 343 Industries) and digitally published by Microsoft for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 devices on July 18, 2013.

A spinoff title in the Halo franchise, Spartan Assault is a "dual-stick" shooter originally geared towards mobile devices. Like traditional Halo games, players control Spartan super-soldiers and fight Covenant forces using a variety of Human and Covenant weaponry. In addition to standard weapons, grenades, and melee attacks, players can also take control of vehicles and stationary turrets.

Set sometime during the SPARTAN-IV Program, the game's narrative takes place in historical battle simulations on special datapads (the UNSC Tactical Simulator) aboard the UNSC Infinity. Players assume control over two SPARTAN-IV soldiers (Commander Sarah Palmer and recruit Edward Davis) as they defend the colonies of Draetheus V (and its moon, X50) from a Covenant splinter group two years after the end of the Human-Covenant War.

In addition to a unique handicap-based difficulty system (utilizing the "Skull" system of traditional Halo games), the game supports paid microtransactions (for quick boosts, special abilities, and unique weaponry), leaderboards, cross-platform game saving, and integration with Halo 4 (allowing players to earn experience points and unique content for their respective Spartan Career).

The game was later released for the Xbox One (on December 24, 2013), Xbox 360 (on January 31, 2014), and iOS devices (on April 16, 2015). The PC version was also released via Steam (the first game in the series to do so) on April 4, 2014. The Xbox 360 version was later delisted on December 18, 2020.

On August 29, 2013, the game received a free update, titled "Operation: Hydra", which added five new missions, five new achievements, and a set of updates (including official Xbox 360 gamepad support for the PC version and support for low-memory devices for the Windows Phone 8 version). The Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions add a new online co-operative campaign (for two players) where players must fight the Flood.

The game later received a sequel, titled Halo: Spartan Strike.

PC System Requirements