Halo: Spartan Assault

Halo: Spartan Assault is a top-down shooter game developed by 343 Industries and Vanguard Games. The game takes place between the events of Halo 3 and Halo 4 near the end of the Human-Covenant war and details some of the first missions of the SPARTAN-IV Program through the eyes of Sarah Palmer and Edward Davis.

Halo: Spartan Assault was released for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 for $6.99 on July 18, 2013. The price dropped to $4.99 on April 10, 2014. On April 17, 2014, Halo: Spartan Assault became available for Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8 with a single purchase.

Halo: Spartan Assault was released on the Xbox One on December 23, 2013, and for the Xbox 360 on January 31, 2014 for $14.99. These prices dropped to $9.99 on March 25, 2014. Players who purchased and logged into the Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8 versions of the game on or before December 15, 2013 are able to purchase the Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions of the game for the discounted price of $4.99.

Halo: Spartan Assault was released for Windows Vista and Windows 7 via Steam for $4.99 on April 4, 2014.

Plot
A Covenant Remnant fleet, comprised of four s and five s, jumps into the Draetheus System and attacks X50, Draetheus V's moon. Merg Vol, the Sangheili leading the attack, finds and reactivates a monolith deep within X50's arctic circle, revealing the moon to be a Forerunner planet constructor. The moon begins to deconstruct Draetheus V. Although Davis manages to shut down the device, the damage caused to Draetheus V is severe and the planet is evacuated.

Palmer commandeers a Phantom from Parg Vol's camp and travels to the moon to eliminate Merg Vol. After killing Merg Vol, Palmer is assigned to find the source of a signal being broadcast from inside the moon. She discovers that the signal was Davis' last words relayed by a Forerunner construct and she retrieves Davis' body.

UNSC

 * Sarah Palmer
 * Edward Davis
 * Roland

Covenant

 * Merg Vol
 * Parg Vol

Gameplay
Halo: Spartan Assault is a top-down shooter. It supports three different control schemes: touchscreen "twin-stick" controls, mouse and keyboard, and an Xbox controller (Xbox 360 wired controller in the Windows versions).

There are 30 missions which typically take 2 to 5 minutes to complete. Before starting a mission, players can purchase new options for their loadout using XP earned from completing missions or real money via microtransactions. These options only last for the duration of that mission. During a mission, players can pick up weapons and grenades, enter vehicles, and use armor abilities.

After a mission, players are scored depending on their kills, medals earned, and time spent. Each mission has a different score requirement to earn a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Star for that mission. Players earn XP depending on what Star they earned. The XP earned can be multiplied by activating skulls prior to starting the mission. Players can earn a rating higher than Gold if they complete a mission with the Thunderstorm and Black Eye skulls on and meet the score requirements for Gold.

Integration with Halo 4
Certain Halo 4 achievements give the player a free use of different loadout options. Additionally, players who complete certain requirements in Halo: Spartan Assault and then enter a glyph combination in Halo Waypoint's Classified section will unlock the following in Halo 4:
 * 50,000 XP
 * Flying Colors emblem
 * DMR Striped (STP) skin
 * Air Assault Vision (VISN) skin
 * C.I.O. Rush RUSH skin
 * Determined stance

UNSC

 * Human
 * UNSC Marine Corps
 * Orbital Drop Shock Trooper
 * SPARTAN-IVs

Forerunner

 * Automated Defense Systems
 * Focus Turrets

Flood (Simulation Only)

 * Flood Forms
 * Infection Forms
 * Combat Forms

Covenant

 * Unggoy
 * Unggoy Minor
 * Suicide Unggoy
 * Unggoy Ultra
 * Kig-Yar
 * Kig-Yar Minor
 * Yanme'e
 * Yanme'e Minor
 * Sangheili
 * Sangheili Minor
 * Sangheili Major
 * Stealth Sangheili
 * Sangheili Zealot
 * Jiralhanae
 * Jump Pack Jiralhanae
 * Jiralhanae Chieftain
 * Lekgolo
 * Mgalekgolo

UNSC

 * MA37 Individual Combat Weapon System
 * MA5D Individual Combat Weapon System
 * M6H Personal Defense Weapon System
 * M7/Caseless Submachine Gun
 * M6 Machine Pistol
 * BR85HB SR Battle Rifle
 * M45D Tactical Shotgun
 * M319 Individual Grenade Launcher
 * Asymmetric Recoilless Carbine-920
 * M41 Surface-to-Surface Rocket Medium Anti-Vehicle/Assault Weapon
 * Sniper Rifle System 99-S5 Anti-Matériel
 * M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle
 * M9 High-Explosive Dual-Purpose grenade
 * Napalm Grenade

Standard

 * Type-25 Directed Energy Pistol
 * Type-33 Guided Munitions Launcher
 * Type-25 Directed Energy Rifle
 * Type-51 Directed Energy Rifle/Improved
 * Type-52 Special Applications Rifle
 * Type-1 Energy Weapon/Sword
 * Type-1 Antipersonnel grenade

Jiralhanae

 * Type-25 Grenade Launcher
 * Type-2 Energy Weapon/Hammer

UNSC

 * Sprint
 * Regeneration Field
 * Overshield
 * Hologram
 * Stun Blast
 * Seeker Drone
 * TR/9 Antipersonnel Mine

Covenant

 * Active Camoflage

Forerunner

 * Autosentry
 * Hardlight Shield
 * Repel
 * Teleport

Usable

 * M41 Light Anti-Aircraft Gun
 * M850 Main Battle Tank
 * M808B Main Battle Tank

Non-Usable

 * M12 Light Reconnaissance Vehicle
 * M12R Light Anti-Aircraft Vehicle
 * M9 Main Anti-Aircraft Tank
 * M312 Heavy Recovery Vehicle
 * AV-14 Attack VTOL
 * D77H-TCI Pelican
 * Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle

Usable

 * Type-29 Anti-Infantry Stationary Gun
 * Type-32 Rapid Assault Vehicle
 * Type-26 Assault Gun Carriage
 * Type-52 Anti-Aircraft Artillery

Non-Usable

 * Type-26 Ground Support Aircraft
 * Type-25 Troop Carrier
 * Type-52 Troop Carrier
 * Orbital Insertion Pod

Locations

 * Draetheus V
 * Faraday Base
 * Epsilon Expanse
 * Red Slate plateau
 * X40
 * The Fort
 * Conduction Refinement facility


 * X50
 * Research Facility Alpha
 * Mirror Flats
 * Glacial Perch
 * Basalt Maze
 * Arid Sea
 * The Cistern

Achievements
The Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 versions offer 25 achievements worth a total of 250 Gamerpoints. The Xbox 360 version offers 28 achievements for 400 Gamerpoints and the Xbox One version offers 30 achievements for 1000 Gamerpoints. Each achievement can be earned once per platform.

Halo: Spartan Assault OST
Halo: Spartan Assault's soundtrack was composed by Tom Salta, and consists of 27 tracks.

Updates
Halo: Spartan Assault has had many updates which fixed small bugs, however the following updates are ones that have added free content.

Operation F: Hydra
On August 29, 2013, a free update called Operation F: Hydra was released. The update added five new missions, five new achievements, Xbox 360 controller support, and the ability to purchase all loadout options with XP. Upon launch of the update, a cloud save issue prevented Windows 8 players from accessing their save files. This issue was resolved with an update on August 31, 2013.

Co-op Missions
The Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions include five new cooperative missions and new achievements. 343 Industries has not announced any plans to bring this content the Windows versions of the game.

Community Meld
On April 15, 2014, the Xbox One version of the game was updated to support Community Meld, a feature that allows quick access to the store and Halo news by pressing the Y button in the main menu.

Reception
Metacritic gave it 70 (PC) and 51 (Xbox), while GameRankings gave it an even less generous 68.79% for the PC version and 55.39% for the Xbox version. The game was given 6.7/10 by IGN and 7 by Destructoid. GameInformer gave it an 8.25.

Trivia

 * The cinematics resemble the art and style of the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Terminals and the Halo 4 Terminals.
 * Prior to its announcement, Halo: Spartan Assault was code named Halo: Bootcamp.
 * Halo: Spartan Assault is the second Halo title to earn an ESRB rating of "Teen" rather than "Mature." The first was Halo Wars.
 * Halo: Spartan Assault is the second Halo title to not be a first-person shooter. The first was Halo Wars.
 * Halo: Spartan Assault is the first Halo title to be made for mobile devices.
 * Halo: Spartan Assault is the first Halo title to be released on the Xbox One.
 * Halo: Spartan Assault is the third Halo title to appear on PC. The first two were ports of Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2.
 * Halo: Spartan Assault is the first Halo title to not be initially released on a Xbox console.
 * Halo: Spartan Assault is the last Halo game to be released on the Xbox 360.
 * Halo: Spartan Assault is the first game in which the player cannot change the difficulty in the Campaign without the use of skulls.
 * Although very unusual in other media, in Halo: Spartan Assault it is common to fight against Jiralhanae and Sangheili on the same battlefield.
 * Though they are seen on the cover, Halo: Spartan Assault is the first Halo game in which the player does not fight Hunters.
 * Halo: Spartan Assault is the first Halo game ever to be released on Steam.