Baaaaaaadddddd. Really bad. Like, just really bad. None of what makes Halo good or interesing is present here in Spartan Assault. There's no pacing, no momentum, no pulse pounding sequences, just lifeless, flat objectives repeated over and over across samey levels fighting the same boring handful of enemies. What's worst about all this is I think this game could have been great. A top down Halo makes sense, it's not a shooter that prioritises verticality much, so this really could have worked. But instead, everything about this game feels cheap and low effort, from most levels featuring no music at all and the story being delivered entirely by text boxes and barely animated images.

Maybe I'm expecting too much, but Halo is a series that Microsoft has generally been quite careful with. There have only been twelve Halo games (including spinoffs) over 23 years, so even a mobile spinoff like this feels significant. They clearly believed that Halo should be kept prestige and not diluted by endless spinoffs and tie-ins, so why this game is so shit is beyond me. Some tiny changes would have made all the difference here, like having some actual dialogue in the levels themselves or adjusting the mechanics of Halo to better fit the perspective shift. As it stands, this feels more like a bad mod for Halo: Reach turned into something approximating a full game and shoved full of microtransactions (that are now thankfully absent) and sent out to die. For all my hating of 343's Halo offerings, this really is the black mark of the series and is best left forgotten.

After I was done with the Master Chief Collection, and Infinite still hadn't arrived, I wanted to keep the Halo hype train going and chose to play the Spartan games before the Wars games. It single-handledly stopped the train in its tracks.

Now, this games isn't awful, far from it. But it's clearly designed as a mobile game, and besides not playing that well the story is rather simple. It's honestly more worth it to watch a video talking about the events of this game than it is to play it.

Ever since I played it and got like 1/3 of the way through, I haven't touched this game's sequel, nor did I play any of the Wars games, I'm sticking with mainline entries for now. Maybe give it a shot if you have a buddy with you and a free afternoon.

SCORE: 5/10

Didn't love Halo: Spartan Assault, didn't hate it either. It's pretty standard which means it's forgettable, but was a fun time waster for a few hours and a nice change of pace to the usually more difficult games I tend to play.

Spartan Assault lives and dies on its few minute missions. It's a bite-sized game like most mobile games are, meaning you can jump in for a few minutes and jump out whenever you want while making a steady bit of progress. Plus, whenever you do die, it doesn't feel as punishing having to restart from the beginning. However, this also leaves many levels to be very one note and without a flow to them.

It also isn't the most in-depth game out there. Its arsenal and vehicles are fairly tight packed which means you learn things quite quickly, but it rarely ever goes beyond that small group. This means some of the later chapters can be a bit of a slog.

If you want to waste a few hours on a twin-stick shooter and can get this game for cheap (or free through Game Pass), then it's worth the time spent. Just gotta know what to expect.

I've always enjoyed storied franchises exploring other genres but it's not always a formula that works out. Spartan Assault is boring and inconsequential, making poor translation work of Halo's gameplay and concepts into a twin-stick shooter. The game's levels all blend together with similar objectives and environments all featuring passable gameplay. The need to go into cover and regenerate your shield slows the pace of the game when twin-stick shooters tend to feel more frenetically paced. There's nothing special about Spartan Assault.

A decently entertaining, simple twin-stick shooter. It's kind of impressive how it still FEELS like Halo despite the differences with this and a first-person shooter. The weapons work the same, the vehicles drive the same, and the game looks and sounds the same. It's worth commending that fact.

Nevertheless, this is a pretty barebones offering, not much that really stands out on it's own. Kinda forgettable in that sense, but the quality of the offering, for those who would want something like this, is worth a look.