With halo Spartan assault finally coming to Xbox after being on Windows devices for nearly six month it was receiving the hype from Halo’s home fanbase, the Xbox Fanbase.

With Halo: Spartan assault it is a spinoff from the core Halo games and rather than being a first-person shooter it is a twin stick shooter.  And while the original Spartan Assault for Windows devices was $5, the Xbox One version is $15.  The good news is that there is added features to makeup for the hefty price that they’re asking for.  The unfortunate part is it still is not worth it.

As with all Halo games the artstyle is yet again beautiful and individual and While yes 343i did add multiplayer and the flood returned to Spartan Assault it just isn’t enough.  With only 5 Multiplayer missions you and your friend can breeze through this game in no time.  Well maybe breeze isn’t the right word, because it is actually incredibly challenging at times.  Multiplayer is actually very satisfying and trying to get a gold medal for each mission you go on by scoring points with your partner can be a real challenge.  Unfortunately there is a questionable way of distributing weapons and armor abilities before each game starts.  You have two options, use in game credits which you earn while playing the game to buy weapons, or use real life currency.  Neither of which is attractive in the slightest.  It would have been preferred if I could unlock these through leveling up or something.  This just seems like a poor decision for the gamers.  While this is acceptable on mobile devices, this is not acceptable on home consoles.

The singleplayer uses the same tactics but while you only fight the flood in multiplayer you fight the covenant  in singleplayer.  A lot of enemies make their return including brutes and drones.  Even old weapons like spike grenades and the bruteshot makes a return with new weapons and vehicles.  Oh and did I mention you can use dual wielding weapons?  Unfortunately you can’t choose which weapons to dual wield but this is looking good for Halo 5.  When it comes to singleplayer it offers a good amount of variety between enemies and locations.  The unfortunate part is the difficulty is a little on the easy side unlike its multiplayer counterpart.  There is a few missions that will offer a challenge but this is rare.

The story on the other hand helps nothing at all.  The whole story is based off of a simulator of battles that took place a long time ago.  Not an interesting event or characters.  The only possible way I can see you enjoying the story is if you are really into Halo’s lore.

With all that said Halo’s first game on Xbox One is uneventful with some fun for short bursts.  It does fit controllers much better than phones but the $15 price they ask for is just too much for what the offering actually is.  I’d say if you want to have some fun with your friend maybe pick it up and try it but I’d recommend on waiting for a full Halo installment.

Oh that's a bummer.

Hopefully it's cheaper when I get my system. I do enjoy these type of games, but $15 does seem a bit excessive for what it offers.

https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/games/halospartanassault

""Halo: Spartan Assault" will be available on Xbox 360 in January 2014 and will offer the same upgrade discount ($4.99) as the Xbox One version."

If you have the 360 then there is a version of it incoming before the end of the month, that discount price is referring to if you already bought the mobile version of the game for windows Phone btw.

Not just Windows Phone, Windows 8 and RT also allows you to get the discounted price. (It actually works out cheaper buying it for Windows 8+Xbox than it is buying the Xbox version seperatly.)

I already have it on Windows Phone, it's a decent game for what it is, certainly a step up from most mobile games, but it's easily forgetible and it is reptitive IMHO.
It certainly didn't have any jaw-dropping moments or an incredibly engrossing story like with the last Halo game that deviated from the FPS genre.

I've not had the pleasure of playing it yet myself, but was just pointing out that 343 and MS were bringing some love to the 360 still, always like to see that after the launch of a new system.

@underlined, you liked wars a fair bit then? I'm sad it's on my profile as the 1 halo game I've not finished, got as far as the stage with the Scarab burried at the north part of the stage beaming back and forth until it broke through a rock barrier to destroy your base, that stage drove me insane.

I did enjoy Halo Wars immensly.
It's the first console RTS that actually *worked* with the controller.
I think I have pretty much all the achievements bar one too which is a Co-Op achievement, but finding people to play with in my time zone is a little difficult.

Part of the reason why I probably connected so well with Halo Wars is because I have been a StarCraft gamer since 1998, Sci-Fi and RTS just works for me, shame that Microsoft shut down one the best RTS developers ever.

Yeah if it was cheaper id prob recommend it.

Im curious to see if it is $15 for X360 at all.  Or have they announced that or not yet?

"343 Industries has announced that Spartan Assault will be available on the Xbox One on December 23, 2013^[3], and on the Xbox 360 in January 2014 for $14.99.^[4] Players who purchased and logged into the Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8 versions of the game on or before December 15 will be able to purchase these versions for the discounted price of $4.99"

I quote that from the Halo wikia site, one thing they did say tho is if you buy it on the X1 or the 360 you don't get access to the other version and they are in no way interchangable, I guess they just wanted to be clear before someone goes and spends $30 on a game which used to be 5euros on the mobile phone and is rather upset about it.

This is an amazing game...when played on a surface and an Xbox controller. On a console for $14.99...not so much.

As a mobile game I'd give this 9/10

As a next gen console game, 6/10 sounds right.