Halo: Spartan Strike

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Halo: Spartan Strike is an upcoming isometric shooter video game and the spiritual successor to Halo: Spartan Assault, developed by 343 Industries. The game is set for release on December 12, 2014 on Windows devices and Steam for $5.99 (US).

Synopsis

As with Spartan Assault, the campaign story of Spartan Strike employs the UNSC Tactical Simulator as a fictional framing device. The story is set in two primary points in the Halo universe timeline, beginning during the events of Halo 2 in New Mombasa in the year 2552. The narrative centers around a Forerunner artifact known as the Conduit and the UNSC and the Covenant's struggle for control of the relic. After the section set in New Mombasa, the narrative jumps five years forward to the year 2557, with missions in New Phoenix and on Gamma Halo, both of which were previously featured in the Halo 4 story. Covenant forces open a slipspace portal to New Phoenix, unleashing a Promethean invasion on the city. The player must deliver the Conduit to an ONI facility in New Phoenix in hopes of using the artifact to close the portal and deter the attack.

Features

Halo: Spartan Strike includes a number of refinements to the gameplay of Spartan Assault, including improved controls and having the player's "virtual thumbsticks" as visible circles on the screen. Grenade throwing has been made more precise and new armor abilities will be included. The game sandbox has also been expanded with the inclusion of the Promethean enemy units and weapons, as well as new vehicles including the Warthog (which was unusable in Spartan Assault) and the Kestrel, inspired by a Halo 2 cut vehicle.

The missions and the campaign overall will be longer, the latter totaling at four to five hours whereas Spartan Assault's campaign was estimated to be three to four hours in comparison. The difficulty will increase progressively throughout the campaign more prominently than in Spartan Assault. Like its predecessor, Spartan Strike will feature no multiplayer mode.

The game will feature in-game credits which can be used to purchase weapons and equipment, although the microtransactions featured in Spartan Assault have been omitted; credits will only be earned through gameplay, although three Achievements in Halo: The Master Chief Collection will award the player a number of extra credits. Playing Spartan Strike will also unlock exclusive multiplayer content for The Master Chief Collection, including an in-game nameplate, emblem and avatar.

The Windows version of Spartan Strike will support cross-platform integration; a copy of the game will be playable on all Windows 8.1 devices irrespective of the platform the game was purchased on along with shared stats. As with Spartan Assault, the Steam version will be excluded from this integration as the Steam platform does not share the Xbox Live gaming profile.

Appearances

Characters Kwon (First appearance) Species and entities Human Kig-Yar Sangheili Unggoy Forerunner Promethean Promethean Knight Promethean Crawler Promethean Watcher Organizations UNSC UNSC Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Covenant Ecumene Warrior-Servant Promethean Locations Earth Kenya Mombasa New Mombasa United Republic of North America New Phoenix Installation 03 Altar (First appearance)

Events Human-Covenant War Battle of Earth Battle of Mombasa Post-Covenant War conflicts Weapons UNSC Usable M41 Vulcan M6H magnum M7 SMG M9 fragmentation grenade MA5D assault rifle Covenant Usable Type-1 plasma grenade Type-25 plasma pistol Type-33 Needler Type-51 plasma repeater Type-52 focus rifle Forerunner Usable Z-130 Suppressor Z-390 incineration cannon Z-750 binary rifle Vehicles Kestrel (First appearance) M12 Warthog LRV Type-25 Spirit Technology and equipment Conduit (First appearance) Hard light MJOLNIR [GEN2] War Master