If you're a Halo fan looking for a more digestible take on the series, a gamer with a Microsoft or Apple smartphone or tablet looking to play something meatier and more action-packed, or even a casual observer trying to figure out what all the Halo fuss is about, Halo: Spartan Strike is a great entry point.Halo: Spartan Strike makes you a Spartan supersoldier battling evil forces.Дelve into 30 challenging missions through cities and jungles using a devastating arsenal of weapons, abilities and vehicles including the iconic Warthog against the Covenant and Promethean enemies. That reason alone makes Halo: Spartan Strike a similar yet superior sequel, but it doesn't even need that kind of qualification. While players can spend in-game currency for better guns and armor abilities, they'll never have to open their real wallets. They have gotten the boot, and the game is so much better for it. However, this sequel does fix one major flaw from its precursor, a flaw many mobile games today can't seem to quit: microtranscations. Premium, Not FreemiumThe thing is, most of that praise also applies to predecessor Spartan Assault, making Spartan Strike just a little less exciting this time around. Completing a mission with these modifiers pays out bonus points, and they typically make the firefights a more enjoyably tactical experience. One skull makes ammo drop less frequently while another causes shields to drop while firing. As in the main Halo games, players can addВ skulls toВ their loadout at the start of a mission to dynamically alter the challenge. Checkpoints would also encourage players to experiment with the game's difficulty. The large scale impresses, and some levels are so lengthy that they could actually use a few checkpoints to make restarts less time-consuming. Meanwhile, scouring a forest for enemy outposts was a relatively more relaxed and nonlinear objective. One set piece had me racing down crumbling highways alongside fellow Spartans to recover a stolen artifact. The 30 missions, spread across five areas, often feature multiple objectives, with players either shooting their way through scripted sequences or exploring an open map. The Warthog still has its slightly wonky driving physics, and special abilities like recharging health, speed boosts, and the Bubble Shield can still instantly turn the tide of battle.Д«eyond those surface details, Spartan Strike also marries Halo's more-measured pace with the typically more arcade-style gameplay of the top-down shooter genre. Guns like the Needler and the awesomely overpowered pistol behave like they always have. But as an excuse to revisit classic Halo locales, and use classic Halo weaponry, it works.Д¬arrying the classic Halo feel into this new perspective brings the game together. However, the actual plot, which has players reenacting famous historical battles in virtual reality, makes the timeline much murkier. War MachineWhereas Spartan Assault piggybacked off of the then-recent Halo 4 by taking place between that game and Halo 3, Spartan Strike similarly ties into the upcomingВ Halo 5 by setting its story before the events of the highlyВ anticipated Xbox One exclusive. And Tom Salta's orchestral score adds an almost-unearned amount of poignancy to something as simple and silly as blasting hordes of monsters from the back of a space truck.

Spartan soldiers, Covenant enemies, and signature vehicles from both sides of the conflict retain their iconic designs even when the view is zoomed out. Levels are large and lush, taking place in varied environments such as ravaged futuristic cities and dense alien jungles. Fortunately, the game's not nearly as broken as last year's Halo: The Master Chief Collection, whose ongoing issues caused this game to be delayed by several months.Дespite running on moreВ modest hardware, Spartan Strike features enough production value to make it a worthy younger sibling to its AAA console counterparts. At one point I got stuck inside some level geometry at the end of a mission and had to restart. I encountered mild frame-rate issues whenever the action got too hectic, and Spartan Assault's occasional glitches return as well. However, supporting so many devices also means your own performance may vary.

Halo spartan strike on xbox one