Just a week before the E3 2013 event in Los Angeles, where video game developers and console manufacturers showcase their latest product developments, Microsoft has announced the upcoming Halo: Spartan Assault for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 devices. There’s been no exact date scheduled for the game’s release, but Microsoft is expecting the mobile device game to launch in July. It’s the first Halo game created for touch-based devices.
The Halo franchise is one of the best-selling gaming series of all time, made popular by Microsoft’s original Xbox. Interesting move by Microsoft here not to opt for a direct-to Xbox One game, but the with the release of the One comes one of the next-generation console’s most highly-lauded features, cross-platform syncing.
Check out the Halo: Spartan Assault Announcement Trailer:
The game itself will sell for $6.99 and feature 25 levels though there will be no head-to-head competition, at least possibly until the Xbox One hits retail shelves. Despite the lack of online multi-player functionality, gamers will be able to parlay their achievements and experiences into Halo 4 as the two plot-lines are intertwined.
Microsoft said of the game on its company blog,
“Halo: Spartan Assault is a top-down shooter featuring simple controls and a more casual gaming experience designed to appeal to Halo newbies as well as hardcore gamers. It’s set between Halo 3 and Halo 4 in the franchise’s larger storyline, and lets you play as either Commander Sarah Palmer or Spartan Davis. 343 Industries, who developed the game in conjunction with Vanguard Games, is also teaming up with Dark Horse Comics on a three-part comic series, Halo: Initiation, which will tie in with the Halo: Spartan Assault storyline.”
The user is in “control of either Commander Sarah Palmer or Spartan Davis” as the story follows Palmer’s first major mission after her transformation from an ODST to a Spartan-IV and gives more insight into the character popularized in related Halo 4.
The Next Web doesn’t think that this new mobile installment of the Halo series will have the same impact as the original, noting “Spartan Assault won’t be to Windows Phone 8 as Halo: Combat Evolved was to the original Xbox, but it will be a very welcome addition.” But very rarely, if ever, have we as mobile gaming junkies had the benefit of playing an enormously popular and engaging games of Halo’s caliber on our respective smartphones or tablets. When Xbox One finally debuts either at the end of this year or beginning of next, its cross-platform syncing capabilities will really allow the game to skyrocket.
