Halo: Spartan Strike

Halo: Spartan Strike Light premise and location spoilers. Spartan Strike takes that smaller, top-down version of Halo and gives it another set of places to go. New Mombasa, Gamma Halo, Covenant troops, Prometheans, and a Spartan trying to keep all of it from turning into an even bigger problem. It’s easy for this one to disappear from the conversation when you’re talking about the main games. The names don’t help, either. Spartan Assault, Spartan Strike, Spartan Ops. Those are three different things, and somebody who hasn’t followed every release could reasonably think they were all parts of the same game. Spartan Strike is its own twin-stick shooter from 343 Industries and Vanguard Games. It launched in April 2015 for PC and mobile platforms. It isn’t a Halo 4 expansion, and it didn’t get the Xbox console release that Spartan Assault did. The opening puts you in a classified simulation of the fighting in New Mombasa during the Halo 2 period. That simulation framing is important. You’re being taken through an operation, rather than replacing Chief in Halo 2 and suddenly becoming responsible for everything he did. The campaign then takes you farther out into Halo’s universe, including Gamma Halo. I like the idea of returning to a familiar location without insisting that the exact same person has to be at the center of every story. There were other people fighting in New Mombasa. There were other operations happening while the main games followed their own characters. A place feels bigger when you remember that. There are 30 missions, and the basic control scheme lets you move and shoot independently. That means backing away while firing, working around cover, and watching what’s approaching from the sides. You’re still the one doing the fighting. Despite the overhead camera, you aren’t selecting groups of units and sending an army across the map. The enemy mix includes both Covenant and Promethean forces. That opens up the weapons too. Alongside the familiar human and Covenant equipment, there are things like the Suppressor, Binary Rifle and Incineration Cannon. The names will be familiar if you know Halo 4, but seeing those weapons in a different kind of shooter gives them a different setting to work in. The vehicles are a big part of the appeal. The Warthog is there, and Spartan Strike also introduces the Kestrel, a small aircraft you can use to attack from above. Halo has a lot of military equipment that doesn’t get much time in the main games. I’m glad a smaller release can bring in something of its own instead of only borrowing the same handful of vehicles. The abilities are another thing to pay attention to. Bubble shields, proximity mines, teleporting and air strikes give you different ways to handle a situation. You aren’t limited to choosing which gun to point at it. An ability that helps you hold a position is doing a different job from one that helps you get out of a bad one. That’s the part I’d want a walkthrough to explain properly. Saying “use this ability” doesn’t help much if you don’t explain what it’s solving. Is the problem that you’re being surrounded? Are you trying to protect something? Are you spending too long dealing with one group while another approaches? The useful advice is in the reason for the choice. The missions move through city streets and outdoor environments rather than keeping everything in one kind of arena. You have room to move, but you still need to pay attention to where that movement puts you. Being able to see more of the battlefield doesn’t automatically mean you’re using it well. There’s also the score-chasing side. If you enjoy finishing a short mission and then trying to do it better, that gives the campaign a different sort of life after the first completion. Achievements and individual mission goals are a better fit for its guides than pretending every Halo game needs the same skull-hunting checklist. For anyone looking it up now, the Steam store still lists the game. The old phone and tablet announcements are a separate matter. I wouldn’t tell somebody to buy an old device or chase a retired store just because an article from 2015 says the game launched there. Platform support changes, and it’s worth being clear about what is historical and what somebody can actually use. The Steam feature list also identifies it as single-player. Don’t go into this expecting the console Flood co-op from Spartan Assault. Similar names and similar cameras don’t make the features interchangeable. Spartan Strike is a small part of a very large series, but I don’t want to skip those parts just because they aren’t numbered sequels. The vehicles, the locations and the different way of handling combat are enough to give it a conversation of its own. Halo has room for that kind of game too.