At first, I thought of reviewing both Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike as one game, then noting their differences. The Twin-Stick shooter gameplay is similar to make you think that SS is the same as SA (which came first).

However, after playing all of SA and 80% of SS, there is a subtle difference in how each game plays that may or may not to be to your liking: The mission structure in SA is less "Halo" than SS, which I think is to the game's benefit.


The PC port for Halo: Spartan Strike (and Spartan Assault) is a mobile/tablet port for an isometric twin-stick shooter (made by the same guys who made Gatling Gears, Vanguard Entertainment).

Almost all buttons can be remapped, save for the fire, the grenade and the pause button. Controller support is optional, and the keyboard and mouse controls are almost all perfect. The only lacking thing for controls are the vehicles. There are also simplistic options, nothing that is going to tax your computer.

Importing the mechanics of the Halo franchise works, to my surprise, quite well for the genre change with some tweaks to how they all work. Along with some alterations to work within the new genre. For example, no reloading for weapons and the alterations to certain guns like the Spartan Laser's sustained fire.

Some carry-overs from the Halo franchise: The two limit arsenal, the armor abilities, the Skull difficulty modifiers, the later addition of loadouts (which uses XP you earn in completing missions to unlock one-time weapon unlocks and other changes for your loadout), and the expanded arsenal and vehicles. (Yes, you can board them.)

You'll fight both the Covenant from the original trilogy and the Prometheans of Halo 4. All of their AI acts exactly like how they would in the Halo games.

Examples: Elites are more mobile, Grunts go on sucide runs, Brutes charge at you. Promethean Knights teleport when hurt and they try to rush at you. The droids around them can catch your grenades, ressurect fallen allies and shield some enemies.

Honestly, I'm surprised they were able to impliment all of the AI abilities into this game so perfectly.

(And the human AIs for your teammates are useful for once. Go figure.)

The weaponry and the vehicles are much larger than in SA. You get the BR, the grenade launcher from Reach, the Warthog with remote turret controls, and a new vehicle called the Kestral (a human Ghost with grenade turrets). Most of the Halo staples are here and, again, all of them feel useful.

Despite having a larger amount of weapons, their diversity is worse than in SS. Some of the human weapons are held back from you unless you happen to play a mission on a human settlement. You still have the rocket-launcher, the Spartan laser and the sniper rifle unlocks, but I'm surprised they didn't expand upon the unlock system. (Now it's Credits not XP.)

As you would expect from a mobile game, your objective is to complete simple missions and to get the best raiting. In this game's case, beat the 5 to 10 min missions in the quickest time with the most flare. This is through the medal system from the Halo franchise, which fits in to providing an enjoyable experience.

However, and the one thing I think will irritate players, is how the game plays more similar to the Halo campaigns. That means being sent backwards for an arbitrary reason you can't move forward, or having delays/changes to your objectives scripted for you.

Campaign 1 of 5 (there are still 30 missions total) is the worst offender as the first-section of the game is padded with needless backtracking and showing off the fancier graphics and mechanics. Once you get past the first campaign, the next missions (2 to 4) feel more similar to SA.. But it still can suffer from changing the objective constantly in a scripted manner.

Perhaps it's a personal preference, but if you're going to focus a mobile game on doing your best in the quickest time, you should have a simple objective with zero abitrary timers (unless if it's a holding-the-line mission). It feels as forced as the moments in Halo that pads its game out.


The narrative for Spartan Strike is as unimportant as Spartan Assault. Argubly even more pointless because you play events as a nameless Spartan who wasn't really there--it's just part of the simulation. However, this game does shed some light on the Conduit for Halo 4. (Not that it ever really bothered me to know more about that device.)

Vehicles control vastly superior to SS. Now the controls are back to the Halo style movement of hold the forward button while turning with the other thumbstick (or A and D) and it looks smooth.

For some reason the player now has a cursor for its direction, but the movement looks more stiff as a result. (Was that an issue to some people who couldn't tell where they were going?)

While the gunplay is just as satisfying and more interesting with the larger loadout, I noticed far more delay on shooting with my mouse. (Sometimes punching would be the best way to fix it.) I didn't have this issue in Spartan Strike as often as I have experienced it here.

As I mentioned before, the mission structure is almost the same, but because of those abitrary timers on your mission, when you fail an objective you'll quit far more because you'll have to sit through those scripted sections, again. Many times I would quit the mission and come back with a rocket-launcher to vent my frustration. It wouldn't be bad if there were checkpoints--optional--that would take off lots of points.

Another huge change that I don't find useful to the type of game SA tried to be is the removal of the time-bonus feature. Now you have a base score, and your medal score. There is no incentive to rush through missions for a bonus surplus of points.

Visual fidelity is obviously an improvement, and I wonder if this engine will be used for Halo Wars 2. (It looks good enough to work for that game.) And the environments look less samey as they were in SA. Plus, seeing other character do things in the background is a nice little attention to detail to make the battles feel more lively.

Oh, and to unlock the final selection of missions, you have to earn gold stars on ALL the missions to unlock the final six. It's abitrary for all the wrong reasons and if you don't know that will extend your gametime.

Needless to say, I am not a fan of how the final operation is unlocked--but it is simple to get over it without much stress.Save up credits for the score-booster, and you'll have no problem.


If you are interested in these games, I would definitely recommend the bundle whether on a discount or full price. You'll get your money's worth together rather than paying for them individually.

I would definitely say Spartan Assault is the better of the two games because the game plays similar enough to the Halo FPS series while making something new. Spartan Strike suffers from the same problems Halo missions can suffer from; abitrary restraints on the player.

This problem is fine for a linear FPS with checkpoints, but for a mobile game with short missions, you'll find the abitrary mission objective changes the bane of your time. Not the brevity of the missions nor the simplicity of the genre.

At first, I thought of reviewing both Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike as one game, then noting their differences. The Twin-Stick shooter gameplay is similar to make you think that SS is the same as SA (which came first). However, after playing all of SA and 80% of SS, there is a subtle difference in how each game plays that may or may not to be to your liking: The mission structure in SA is less "Halo" than SS, which I think is to the game's benefit. [h1]It Plays Like Halo, And Suffers For it[/h1] The PC port for Halo: Spartan Strike (and Spartan Assault) is a mobile/tablet port for an isometric twin-stick shooter (made by the same guys who made Gatling Gears, Vanguard Entertainment). Almost all buttons can be remapped, save for the fire, the grenade and the pause button. Controller support is optional, and the keyboard and mouse controls are almost all perfect. The only lacking thing for controls are the vehicles. There are also simplistic options, nothing that is going to tax your computer. Importing the mechanics of the Halo franchise works, to my surprise, quite well for the genre change with some tweaks to how they all work. Along with some alterations to work within the new genre. For example, no reloading for weapons and the alterations to certain guns like the Spartan Laser's sustained fire. Some carry-overs from the Halo franchise: The two limit arsenal, the armor abilities, the Skull difficulty modifiers, the later addition of loadouts (which uses XP you earn in completing missions to unlock one-time weapon unlocks and other changes for your loadout), and the expanded arsenal and vehicles. (Yes, you can board them.) You'll fight both the Covenant from the original trilogy and the Prometheans of Halo 4. All of their AI acts exactly like how they would in the Halo games. Examples: Elites are more mobile, Grunts go on sucide runs, Brutes charge at you. Promethean Knights teleport when hurt and they try to rush at you. The droids around them can catch your grenades, ressurect fallen allies and shield some enemies. Honestly, I'm surprised they were able to impliment all of the AI abilities into this game so perfectly. (And the human AIs for your teammates are useful for once. Go figure.) The weaponry and the vehicles are much larger than in SA. You get the BR, the grenade launcher from Reach, the Warthog with remote turret controls, and a new vehicle called the Kestral (a human Ghost with grenade turrets). Most of the Halo staples are here and, again, all of them feel useful. Despite having a larger amount of weapons, their diversity is worse than in SS. Some of the human weapons are held back from you unless you happen to play a mission on a human settlement. You still have the rocket-launcher, the Spartan laser and the sniper rifle unlocks, but I'm surprised they didn't expand upon the unlock system. (Now it's Credits not XP.) As you would expect from a mobile game, your objective is to complete simple missions and to get the best raiting. In this game's case, beat the 5 to 10 min missions in the quickest time with the most flare. This is through the medal system from the Halo franchise, which fits in to providing an enjoyable experience. However, and the one thing I think will irritate players, is how the game plays more similar to the Halo campaigns. That means being sent backwards for an arbitrary reason you can't move forward, or having delays/changes to your objectives scripted for you. Campaign 1 of 5 (there are still 30 missions total) is the worst offender as the first-section of the game is padded with needless backtracking and showing off the fancier graphics and mechanics. Once you get past the first campaign, the next missions (2 to 4) feel more similar to SA.. But it still can suffer from changing the objective constantly in a scripted manner. Perhaps it's a personal preference, but if you're going to focus a mobile game on doing your best in the quickest time, you should have a simple objective with zero abitrary timers (unless if it's a holding-the-line mission). It feels as forced as the moments in Halo that pads its game out. [h1]Some Improvements/Regressions from Spartan Assault[/h1] The narrative for Spartan Strike is as unimportant as Spartan Assault. Argubly even more pointless because you play events as a nameless Spartan who wasn't really there--it's just part of the simulation. However, this game does shed some light on the Conduit for Halo 4. (Not that it ever really bothered me to know more about that device.) Vehicles control vastly superior to SS. Now the controls are back to the Halo style movement of hold the forward button while turning with the other thumbstick (or A and D) and it looks smooth. For some reason the player now has a cursor for its direction, but the movement looks more stiff as a result. (Was that an issue to some people who couldn't tell where they were going?) While the gunplay is just as satisfying and more interesting with the larger loadout, I noticed far more delay on shooting with my mouse. (Sometimes punching would be the best way to fix it.) I didn't have this issue in Spartan Strike as often as I have experienced it here. As I mentioned before, the mission structure is almost the same, but because of those abitrary timers on your mission, when you fail an objective you'll quit far more because you'll have to sit through those scripted sections, again. Many times I would quit the mission and come back with a rocket-launcher to vent my frustration. It wouldn't be bad if there were checkpoints--optional--that would take off lots of points. Another huge change that I don't find useful to the type of game SA tried to be is the removal of the time-bonus feature. Now you have a base score, and your medal score. There is no incentive to rush through missions for a bonus surplus of points. Visual fidelity is obviously an improvement, and I wonder if this engine will be used for Halo Wars 2. (It looks good enough to work for that game.) And the environments look less samey as they were in SA. Plus, seeing other character do things in the background is a nice little attention to detail to make the battles feel more lively. Oh, and to unlock the final selection of missions, you have to earn gold stars on ALL the missions to unlock the final six. It's abitrary for all the wrong reasons and if you don't know that will extend your gametime. Needless to say, I am not a fan of how the final operation is unlocked--but it is simple to get over it without much stress.Save up credits for the score-booster, and you'll have no problem. [h1]Interested? Buy the Bundle[/h1] If you are interested in these games, I would definitely recommend the bundle whether on a discount or full price. You'll get your money's worth together rather than paying for them individually. I would definitely say Spartan Assault is the better of the two games because the game plays similar enough to the Halo FPS series while making something new. Spartan Strike suffers from the same problems Halo missions can suffer from; abitrary restraints on the player. This problem is fine for a linear FPS with checkpoints, but for a mobile game with short missions, you'll find the abitrary mission objective changes the bane of your time. Not the brevity of the missions nor the simplicity of the genre.