Review: Halo: Spartan Strike

Just like Halo: Spartan Assault before it, Halo: Spartan Strike is Halo, yet it is not. It’s also a mobile game, but again, it is not.

Best on Windows PC — and more specifically, the Microsoft Surface — the game is a sequel to Spartan Assault, a top-down, ultimately mobile experience that’s filling the void ahead of Halo 5: Guardians. Simulation of events that take place during Halo 2, mirroring elements of Halo 3: ODST, Spartan Strike replaces Orbital Drop Shock Troopers with a single, solitary Spartan.

A weirdly coloured orange one, at that.

I didn’t mind the original Spartan Assault, but found it too difficult to play on mobile or PC. With mobile devices, the dual-stick control scheme is just too fiddly; my thumbs take up too much of the screen. On PC, the game’s a bit better, but a keyboard and mouse simply don’t work as well as a Surface PC and its larger touchscreen. The same’s true with Spartan Strike.

So too is this iteration’s look and feel. Even as a twin-stick shooter, Spartan Strike captures the essence of Halo and puts it into a top-down affair. You’ll be able to use headshots to one-shot Grunts. You’ll be forced to wear down the shields of Elites as they attempt the same on your MJOLNIR armour. Pretty much all of the vehicles, turrets, enemies and weapons from the main franchise make their way into the twin-stick shooter, providing for a ton of variety and strategy in a genre that’s usually more of the run-and-gun nature.

In fact, if you decide to rush in, guns blazing, you’ll suffer the same fate you would in a Halo FPS title – you’ll be destroyed in seconds. Just like in the main franchise, you’ll need to take cover at times to recharge your shields, or else suffer the consequences. As in the FPS, you’re much better off trying to take out Elites before finishing off weaker cannon fodder. New to the top-down world of Halo are the Prometheans; they look, act and fight just as their first-person counterparts. In that they take a lot of punishment and generically suck as a result. ‘Cause they’re hard to kill. And mean.

The game has just one difficulty setting, but in true Halo fashion, you can set yourself a bigger challenge by activating a series of skulls. With skulls enabled, you’ll lose shield strength when firing, only be able to regain shielding through melee kills (yes, they made the cut, as did plasma and frag grenades) and more. As in the main franchise, scoring is enabled and more kills mean more XP to spend on armour abilities and weaponry. So many points equates to a different star tier, with your overall goal to obtain a gold star in each level.

Achievements are also attached to the game, and like the Halo FPS, challenge you to complete levels in a certain manner. Again, tried-and-true Vidmaster Achievements make their way to Spartan Strike, and let me tell you, they’re a bitch to obtain. Which is how they should be.

Don’t let the difficulty of the Vidmaster Achievements fool you; the game’s much easier compared to Spartan Assault. Sure, the on-screen targeting reticule has been improved so it’s easier to aim, but on the whole, things seem toned down. If you own Spartan Assault and love it for its difficulty — especially in Chapter 6 — you’ll be somewhat disappointed with this iteration. If you simply must play this one, use Skulls. Lots of ’em. Unless you’re just going for Halo 5: Guardians unlocks, that is.

Halo: Spartan Strike was reviewed using a retail code on Windows PC, as purchased by the publisher.

Review: Halo: Spartan Strike

The good Just like Spartan Assault. Cheap and cross-platform.	The bad Hard to control on anything other than a Surface. Easier than the last game. Pretty much more of the same.

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