Halo: Spartan Assault is a Twin-Stick Top-Down Shooter

With all the attention surrounding the Xbox One, it almost seems as if Microsoft has forgotten its other gaming platform, Windows 8. Thankfully, gamers who are wondering what to play on their Windows tablets and phones will soon have the chance to experience the latest game in Microsoft's flagship franchise, Halo. Halo: Spartan Assault is a new top-down, twin-stick shooter due out this July for Windows 8 devices.
While it's a bit of an arcade experience, the requisite Halo freedom is there in full force. Players will be able to customize their roles on the battlefield through various loadouts, and will also be able to hop in and out of familiar vehicles like the Wraith or the Warthog. It's all part of the same seamless sandbox experience we're used to on the console. The only difference is that now we're looking down at it all from above. Players control the movement of their character or vehicle with the left stick, and control the direction of fire with the right stick. Options to lob grenades or enter vehicles are available with a simple tap.
The story marks the return of Sarah Palmer, the UNSC Commander and veteran of the First and Second Battle of Requiem. The whole context of the game borrows from the Spartan Ops model, which has players running through missions in a tactical simulator, complete with daily challenges. In a sense, the tablet and phone version of the game serves as the simulator through which the player is meant to relive the storied battles from the Halo lore. As the player completes challenges, he or she will unlock new content for Halo 4 and Waypoint.

You can see from the trailer just how good the game looks. This being Halo, that's not necessarily surprising, but it does show just how far developers can push the graphics on the current generation of mobile devices. The animations, effects, and overall style of the game make it as authentic a Halo experience as possible. Halo Spartan Assault pushes the hardware well past the line at which you immediately follow "it looks good" with "for a tablet game." The audio, provided by Skywalker Sound, completes the presentation.
I'm less confident in Microsoft's marketing line that Halo is always at the forefront of Microsoft devices, as it ignores the lack of Halo content on Windows-based PCs over the last six years, including Halo 3, ODST, Reach, Halo 4, and, yes, even Halo Wars. That said, the growth of Halo on a new platform is encouraging.