Halo: Spartan Assault Reviews
It does some things very well, but drops some stitches. The single player is roughly entertaining, but isn't made for long play sessions: the missions are often very short and simple in form. The co-op makes up for a lot, only this mode has a big lack of content. This is a great pity, as it is precisely that multiplayer that brings out the fun. Halo: Spartan Assault doesn't impress as much as had been hoped for beforehand, but it's worth it. Even if you don't have anything with Halo.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Spartan Assault proves that Halo can power a solid and entertaining twin-stick shooter. Though short stages and annoying mobile holdovers can spoil the fun, we have our fingers crossed for more - so long as future games remember that what works on a mobile device sometimes isn't fit for the living room.
Halo: Spartan Assault is a pretty fun twin-stick shooter that works even without its relationship to the core Halo franchise. Xbox One users should certainly try it out if they're fans of the genre, but first-person shooter fans might want to wait until Halo makes its proper debut on the Xbox One in the future.
As long as your expectations are tempered, Halo: Spartan Assault is a serviceable game. It works as a top-down shooter, but you'll miss the enemy intelligence of the older games. The bite-sized missions can be good, but unfortunately, that means the whole game amazingly short. The presence of co-op is nice, but when you see how limited it is and how little online community engaged there is, the mode might as well be invisible. Most of all, the presence of microtransactions that are not only highly disposable but also pricey is hurtful when you consider that this is the most expensive version of the game. If you already have the game on a Windows 8 device, then it isn't a bad idea to get the Xbox One version if you're a fan or just want to share progress back and forth. Otherwise, wait for a sale or wait for another first-person Halo.
I don't know that I'd be disappointed by a game like this if it didn't bear the weight of Halo moniker. That's the double-edged sword of cashing in on name recognition. Spartan Assault is an installment of a venerable franchise whose technical savvy and artistic flair are marred by missed the spectre of missed opportunities. Even as a dumb college kid I couldn't have played this game for hours, because you just can't lose yourself in a shooter where all there is to do is shoot.
Master Chief is on vacation, and with no intergalactic war to fight we'll have to settle for a simulation. Not a facsimile, nor a cheap knockoff, it isn't even something in the middle. It's something off to the side. Understanding that virtually any genre privy to guns and bad guys, that 'Halo' technically works as a twin-stick shooter isn't surprising. It's just there isn't much surprising beyond that either. It works, and those with a propensity for some laid-back, arcade-style gunplay will certainly be happy, if not happily overwhelmed, with the result. The best thing you can do is find a friend and go after the flood.
It’s not surprising that Spartan Strike is an incredibly fun game to play, and 343 Industries certainly has the experience under its belt to produce high-quality action games. Can it compare to the upcoming Halo 5? Of course not. Spartan Strike is an stylish little package, and is being sold for an amazing price. As such, 'true' Halo game or not, it is easily one of the best games to come out on the iPad this year.
The game, as an extension to the history of the Halo universe, contributes little and leaves some loose ends in its attempt to narrate the origins of the Spartan Ops that the colossal Infinity fleet conceived for the Spartan IV project in Halo 4. In the end, Halo : Spartan Assault has a lot to do as a member of the imposing franchise to which it belongs, and it definitely does not feel like a new generation. If you're a fan of the series, you don't want to miss it, but if the Master Chief saga doesn't fascinate you, skipping it won't affect your everyday life.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Some of these issues could be excused with enticing gameplay and exciting action, but things never come full circle. Halo: Spartan Assault is a soulless, boring, chore of a game. The small glimpses of fun arcade like gameplay are drowned away by frustration and money grabbing.
A reasonable twin stick shooter elevated from complete mediocrity by the licence - not really worth the asking price due to limited amount of content on offer but at the discounted rate for Windows 8 game owners it's probably worth picking up, if only for the addition of co-op and the inclusion of the DLC for free. Halo fans will purchase regardless and likely love every minute of it, this is the nature of adoring everything about a franchise, for anyone who doesn't live and breathe the franchise though there just isn't enough content and what there is has been done bigger and better many many times over.
Even though there are a few moments where the game is quite satisfactory, you're always wishing for more than it ever truly delivers.
A decent entry into the Halo franchise. It trades in the grand scope of the original games for some bite sized pieces of action that fit the mobile platform well. There are some control quirks which are annoying, but don’t go as far as ruining the experience. All in all, it’s well worth the $8.99 asking price.
A solid port of its mobile and PC counterparts, Halo: Spartan Assault is an enjoyable twin-stick shooter that provides little in the way of real longevity or value for money. Still, if you've nothing else left to play on Xbox One, you could do a lot worse.
Besides its impressive sound effects, everything about Spartan Assault felt like a rushed-over port and does not offer any type of depth or impressions to warrant its release as an Xbox One downloadable title. Nevertheless, it still felt like Halo, which means a lot to would-be buyers.
As a first attempt at bringing the incredibly popular first-person shooter franchise to mobile and downloadable platforms using twin-stick mechanics, Halo: Spartan Assault is a decent result. However, the game's lack of originality and recycled mission types eventually catch up with it.
A cheap port of a mobile game with glaring flaws at its very core that does a disservice to the Halo brand, Spartan Assault should be avoided like the Flood.
In the end the game isn't bad but unfortunately I just found it a little boring and that to me is one of the worst things a game could be.
Vanguard Games gives Halo fans something to cheer about in 'Halo: Spartan Assault,' distilling the essence of the first-person series into fun top-down shooter play.
The choice to propose the exact same title on smartphones, tablets and PCs is welcome for those who own Microsoft's mobile devices but makes it difficult to judge in an absolute way a title such as Halo Spartan Assault. If on mobile it is quite complicated to find such a well-groomed twin stick shooter, with a hint of texture all in all adequate and the game mechanics gnawed but well adapted to the controls via touch screen; on PC the market has already offered much better in the past, such as titles like Renegade Ops that have been able to age such a classic genre, pushing the accelerator on the graphic impact and spectacularity.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Spartan Assault is a title that only halo fans won't want to miss. Vanguard Games offers us a rather classic twin stick shooter, for a direct and no-frills arcade experience.
Review in Italian | Read full review