A touch-enabled version of Halo officially arrived on the Windows platform today with “Halo: Spartan Assault” exclusively for Windows 8 and Windows Phone.
Priced at $6.99, the game is not a classic first-person shooter in the mold of traditional Halo games. Instead it’s a top-down shooter that gives a third-person perspective as the heroes of the United Nations Space Command battle Covenant forces.
“Halo: Spartan Assault” was developed by Vanguard Games (known for Gatling Gears) in conjunction with Microsoft’s 343 Industries. The Verge’s Tom Warren spent some time with the new game, and found it a little weird playing Halo on a touch screen.
Only Verizon Windows Phone customers with high-memory smartphones (1GB of RAM) will be able to purchase the game for the first month of availability, though it’s available now outside of the U.S. to any WP carrier. After August 16th, a lower-memory version will be out, and those without Verizon will have access.
For those using the Windows 8 version, Microsoft allows gamers to connect a keyboard and mouse if the touch-screen isn’t favorable. If you want to play both on your phone and tablet/PC, unfortunately you need to pay $6.99 twice. Although, one cool feature is the ability to sync the games between devices, meaning if you pause Halo on your phone, you’ll be able to continue playing from the same spot on your tablet (given you bought the game for each device).
