Great news fans of the Halo series, the journey will soon continue with Halo: Spartan Assault. Available in July for $6.99 for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, Halo: Spartan Assault brings Halo’s rich storytelling and best-in-class action, audio and graphics to touch-based devices for the first time in franchise history.
[youtube id=”BxsYQtltOco” width=”600″ height=”350″]With ‘Halo: Spartan Assault,’ we wanted to take ‘Halo’ out of the living room and create a brand new experience that was built specifically for a different screen,” said Dan Ayoub, Executive Producer on “Halo: Spartan Assault.” “This is an opportunity for us to define what makes ‘Halo’ unique on mobile platforms and really raise the bar for what is possible.”
Developed by 343 Industries in conjunction with Vanguard Games, Halo: Spartan Assault is a top-down, action shooter that provides an accessible, pick-up-and-play experience for Halo fans and newcomers. It uses an intuitive and simple control scheme that combines touch with console-like controls, and there’s also the flexibility to use a mouse and keyboard on Windows 8 PCs and tablets.
We went through multiple control scheme iterations before arriving at something that we felt was perfect,” said Ayoub. “We designed a system that is adaptive and helps bring that old-school flavor of fast and frenzied twin-stick shooting to life.”
Set between Halo 3 and Halo 4, Halo: Spartan Assault gives you control of either Commander Sarah Palmer or Spartan Davis on 25, action-packed single-player missions featuring battles never before seen in the Halo universe.
This is Palmer’s first Spartan Op,” said Ayoub. “The story follows her first major mission after her transformation from an ODST to a Spartan-IV and gives more insight into the character that fans got to know in ‘Halo 4.’”
Equipment load outs can be customized with Halo’s iconic arsenal of armor abilities and weapons, including the Magnum, Assault Rifle, Spartan Laser and more. Fan-favorite vehicles, such as the Wraith, Scorpion, Ghost and Grizzly, can also be commandeered to even the odds against the Covenant onslaught.
Halo: Spartan Assault’s campaign is developed for replayability, with competitive leaderboards, weekly challenges, difficulty modifier Skulls, and more than 40 earnable in-game Achievements and Medals. You can even progress your Spartan Career in Halo 4 by playing Halo: Spartan Assault to gain experience points (XP), all-new Achievements and emblems, and more integration features will become available after launch.
If you’re still hungry for more, 343 Industries has you covered. Not only will be additional in-game content be available through the Microsoft Store in the months following launch, but 343 Industries has also teamed up with Dark Horse Comics to create a separate, three-part comic series, Halo: Initiation. Halo: Initiation reveals how Commander Sarah Palmer became a Spartan-IV and connects directly with the events of Halo: Spartan Assault.
