Forum:Halo: Spartan Strike

I suppose it was inevitable. Can't say I have anything against the idea—Spartan Assault was pretty decent all-around though it had its problems, many of which they seem to have addressed here. Removing the microtransactions is probably the high point of all the improvements. Now if only they'd patch it in to the first game too. A little surprised they'd introduce a new vehicle and basically make it a reskinned Ghost. I guess that only continues the trend of redundant sandbox elements that's been going on in the Halo games for a while.

From what we know the story doesn't look to be anything to write home about. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's tired of the writers using Forerunner MacGuffins to drive every plot; it was fresh back in Combat Evolved but when it's been used in 90% of Halo fiction it's become more than a little stale. Oh, and ONI too. They apparently have bases in every random Earth city including New Phoenix which the Didact just happened to choose as his target. It realize the story for an arcade shooter like this is probably going to be cheap filler but a little more imagination wouldn't hurt. Just to surprise us.

Timeline-wise, the player character's presence in Mombasa in 2552 is curious; is he or she another "prototype" S-IV or a Spartan from another generation? I definitely hope it's the latter (the Threes have been criminally neglected as of late and making the player Spartan one of the deployed Gamma Company ones, picked to test the GEN2 armor, would be a nice reminder they haven't been totally forgotten about). Another obvious question is whether Prometheans will appear in New Mombasa, which would require some major continuity bending to work. Hopefully Mombasa will just act as a prologue of sorts (which is likely, as it comprises only one operation) and the Prometheans will only be in the levels set in 2557.

I predict the game will end with the player character being composed along with all of New Phoenix in a surprisingly dark twist. That or the Conduit will be used to magically save them and a few plot-critical characters. Speaking of plot-critical characters, I wonder if the new talking head, Lt. Kwon, is meant to be the same character as "Lieutenant Elizabeth Kwan" of the Spartan Assault loading screen quotes fame. The gender and rank match up and either name isn't too common so I wouldn't chalk it up to mere coincidence. --Jugus (Talk  | Contribs ) 05:32, 16 October 2014 (EDT)
 * Catalog has confirmed that Prometheans will only be in the stuff set in 2557. I agree that it's an odd move to turn the Kestrel into a ground based vehicle, and some of the descriptions seem to suggest it's meant to be like the Chopper. I do wish they'd given the main character a different suit. That helmet and those bright colours just seem wildly out of place to me.


 * In terms of plot, they said somewhere a while back that they were planning on covering some of the gaps in information, such as how Regret found Installation 05, perhaps it's something to do with this conduit. The settings of New Phoenix and Gamma Halo both create strong connections to the more recent fiction so maybe we'll see something from Black Team, that'd be pretty nice. Maybe the presence of the Conduit in New Pheonix is connected to the Didact's attack. If this takes place before then it could be the reason he focused on that point, if it's after they may have moved all Promethean based research to one place.--Soul reaper (talk) 06:32, 16 October 2014 (EDT)


 * "" The Gamma Company theory Jugus mentioned is popular on Waypoint. I really hope that's the route the story takes. Failing that, maybe the TACSIM projects the likeness of the in-universe "player" into engagements regardless of whether he was actually present. -- Our vengeance is at hand. Gravemind.svg ( Talk to me. ) 12:48, 16 October 2014 (EDT)


 * Yeah, I'm definitely not digging their choice of appearance for the main character. They already had an orange Spartan (Davis) in Spartan Assault, and the blue visor and racing stripes look bad. Why can't they have more Spartans with the classic olive drab coloration or other military-friendly color schemes? As for the Kestrel, it might not actually be a purely ground-based vehicle and could be like any other UNSC VTOL, but is restricted to hovering near the ground in Spartan Strike for the purpose of gameplay. In either case, I hope it appears in Halo 5. It would fill the role of 1 of 2 lost vehicles if it does (either the Hornet or Chopper). Man, I miss the Chopper. Also, did anybody else get really bugged by the guy who kept saying "war-thog" in the IGN video? Ugh.--[[Image:PENGUIN4.gif|15px]] Fluffy Emo Penguin ( ice quack! ) 16:24, 16 October 2014 (EDT)


 * That was one of the first things I noticed when I watched the video: "war-thog...war-thog." I was annoyed too. I think 343i is getting too buck wild with the armor styles. The protagonist's armor doesn't look militaristic at all. And the bright colors don't make sense because he stands out way too much. I can understand if it's black or olive like you said. Or even a more subdued coloration. Not mp-like. It just seems unrealistic. I like the Kestrel but like Jugus said, its redundant. Its almost like what we said earlier about 343i copying old designs for new designs. They might have been better off putting the Quad Walker in the game instead as it's more unique (albeit ridiculous & impractical). The story sounds like plain-jane Forerunner non-sense w/ a splash of the past. I want to fight some insurrectionist for once. When is that day going to come? Oh, and based off the way they sidelined (& barbequed some of) the S-III's so far, I highly doubt 343i will make the protagonist a S-III from gamma company but more along the lines of a prototype of S-IV. Like everyone else I rather him/her be a S-III but who knows. Whatever the case, I might pick this title up. Be nice to have this game on my laptop since I have win 8.1 w/ touch screen.-- Killamin7  [Comm |Files ] 20:46, 16 October 2014 (EDT)
 * I think the bright colour might have been chosen specifically to make it stand out more on the small screen, not that I like it, but then, I'm not a huge fan of some of Noble's colourings, or Majestic running around in bright blue all the time. According to the game's official page; "You are a Spartan IV in this classified ONI simulation of New Mombasa set during the events of Halo 2. Lead UNSC troops through numerous missions and battle against your enemies to save Earth." So basically, we play as an S-IV the entire time but the prologue missions (or possibly all of them) will be done through a simulation. I'm hoping it's a case of the S-IV going into a simulation to experience a mission related to his present day assignment. If the whole story is a simulation I'll lose it.--Soul reaper (talk) 22:32, 16 October 2014 (EDT)


 * The thing that baffles me the most about the neglecting of Gamma Company is the way they're easily the most exploitable SPARTAN-IIIs. We don't know anything about them other than that they got deployed which leaves a lot of options for Noble-esque special teams and even making the combat doctrine of the company as a whole different from the previous ones (ie. making them more distributed, allowing them to be featured in more diverse stories). There's a lot more opportunities than they had with Alpha and Beta, and they bent and twisted canon to make Noble fit anyway. However, there's also the inconvenient bit that the Gamma Company Spartans would be twelve by 2552 and they might want to shy away from the idea of playing as a chemically-infused child soldier in a mainstream game. You could get around that by keeping the player character a blank slate and never showing their face or mentioning their age, though—it's not like you'd know much about Palmer and Davis going by Spartan Assault alone. The Gamma Company bit would just be for the lore fans who care enough about that sort of thing. But this angle is probably the reason 343i seems to be avoiding the previous Spartan generations while thrusting the Fours in the spotlight—because they're morally unproblematic, inoffensive Spartans. They're just normal people who get all the cool toys without any of the morally questionable bits of the Twos and Threes that might turn some people off about the setting. I don't like this or the general attitude of the IVs in general, but I think it's the rationale for underselling the Threes. --Jugus (Talk  | Contribs ) 05:34, 17 October 2014 (EDT)


 * I agree with the guys above who say the Kestrel is basically redundant, but my concern is that they're adopting the Mega Blox vehicles as canon. Not for any real canon-violating issues, or because it sets a precedent for anything, but because they contradict the aesthetic that the UNSC embodies in the series - military realism, to counterpoint the more esoteric designs of the Covenant and Forerunners. Wheeled vehicles, ballistic ammunition, chemical rockets versus anti-gravity, directed plasma and lasers. It makes you feel like the underdog, and makes victory more satisfying. The Kestrel is a hovercraft - one using ducted fans, yes, but still a hover craft - and the Quad Walker is a mini-Locust/Scarab. They feel inconsistent with the theme of their ostensible sandbox. --  Qura 'Morhek   The Autocrat     of Morheka   03:05, 17 October 2014 (EDT)


 * Tearing down the UNSC's underdog status is a theme that's been going on in a while in 343i's Halo. We are now the ones with the invincible supership (that gets rendered helpless every other day, but I digress) and all the best tech while the Covenant have been reduced to a bunch of feuding, underequipped warlords forced to make do with what they've got. Hell, they redesigned the battle rifle to make it look more powerful relative to Covenant weapons. Throughout the Kilo-Five novels, the UNSC is portrayed as soaring high above the Covenant technologically speaking. None of it makes any sense, of course, especially from a storytelling perspective (audiences tend to root for the underdog), but it's clearly a theme they've been trying their hardest to sell. Lasky's speech in the Spartan Ops intro really exemplifies this attitude—"We are the giants now" and all. You could argue it's meant to be unwarranted arrogance, even a pre-written marketing speech in-universe, but based on the aforesaid examples I get the sense it's meant to be earnest and "true" as far as authorial intent is concerned. --Jugus (Talk  | Contribs ) 05:34, 17 October 2014 (EDT)

Halo 2's bridge
So in Halo 2, there is this scene with the Scarab on the bridge and the Pelican bringing a tank... Which strangely looks like that scene from Spartan Strike. Anyone also thinks it's the same scene, from a new angle? Imrane-117 (talk) 22:46, 18 October 2014 (EDT)
 * It definitely seems like a deliberate reference. Pretty cool if that's the case; we might even get an Sgt. Johnson voice cameo. Though I don't think there was a building there in Halo 2 that would provide a view like this (none of the buildings near the bridge are that tall). Though it's not like this is the first time they've rewritten Mombasa's layout. And it seems they're ignoring the ODST design of the city in in Halo 2 Anniversary instead of retconning the Halo 2 levels into that version. I was kinda hoping they'd use this opportunity to reconcile the two, but oh well. --Jugus (Talk  | Contribs ) 03:01, 19 October 2014 (EDT)
 * I was thinking that a terminal in Outskirts or Metropolis might be a good way for 343i to link Halo 2 and Spartan Strike, but this may be too much to ask. Some kind of Easter egg would at least be welcomed, though. I still think it's a good idea to "retcon" the existence of a parallel story into one that already exists. Something like the "Prepare to Drop" scene running in parallel with a scene from Halo 2. Imrane-117 (talk) 19:26, 19 October 2014 (EDT)

It's interesting that in the game, there are two Scorpions crossing the bridge some time after the Scarab. I wonder what this means as it seems unlikely they'd unintentionally make a mistake like that. --Jugus (Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 10:21, 17 April 2015 (EDT)

Early 2015?
Okay, what in the heck is going with the release? 343i says "early" 2015, but were nearly done with Q1 of 2015? So is 343i going to release this anytime soon or what?? I'm really anxious to get a game for my laptop and this would be perfect. Yet 343i hasn't released anymore information about this game let-alone a release date. What are they waiting for? Is the game finished yet? Are they waiting to release it for windows 10? What's the deal?-- Killamin 7 i  <font color="Gray">/// 12:19, 24 March 2015 (EDT)

Initial thoughts
Just finished the campaign up until Operation D. As expected, it plays like a more polished Spartan Assault. I found the gameplay exceedingly enjoyable at times and will be revisiting some missions if only to get better scores (and not just to unlock Operation E). Spartan Assault didn't prompt the same reaction for me so I guess the improvements are really showing. That said, I also made the mistake of initially playing Assault on the Xbox and playing Strike on the PC it's quickly apparent that a mouse is a massive advantage as far as aiming is concerned. As I purchased a bundle containing both games on Steam I'll probably be doing a second playthrough of the first game on the PC at some point to see how it holds up with the better controls (probably snapping some screenshots on the way).

As with Spartan Assault I really like the visual style and the attention to detail in the level design (it's staggering how much attention they paid to backgrounds most people will probably ignore), and Tom Salta does again good job with the soundtrack. The tunes themselves are again very Halo Wars-esque and more ambient than memorable, but despite them not rising to Marty levels of excellence they do feel genuinely Halo. The sound design is likewise decent and feels very Halo-like aside from the expected repetitiveness and some missteps (I'm not a fan of the M41 LAAG's firing sound, for example). On a side note, is it just me or does Kwon sound a lot like Jen Taylor? It's still distinguishably not her and the credits agree, but I wonder if the resemblance (if any) was intentional.

To my surprise, I loved the Kestrel. It controls great and the guns sound like they pack a real punch. The in-game credit system works quite well and is infinitely preferable to the microtransactions in the first game. As for my few complaints, I wish the Assault Ops were visible in the pause screen as I often forgot what those were supposed to be for a given mission.

I got serious classic Half-Life vibes from Operation D's final mission in the ONI facility. With the environment and the portals spawning left and right, it feels and plays like an homage to the finale of Lambda Core.

As I suspected the story is very barebones and disjointed. The idea of a Spartan replacing the ODST squad in the simulation felt awkward storytelling-wise, and I don't see why ONI's top secret research facility had to be in New Phoenix in particular (aside from name-dropping a known city) when the Didact's attack didn't come into play at all (unless it will in the classified final op). It feels a little like a "Halo: The Amusement Park Ride" with known locations as settings just because. I'm also not sure where in the timeline the Gamma Halo and New Phoenix segments are supposed to fall - is this before or after the events of Halo 4? Kwon is familiar with the Prometheans, but then again she also refers to the player as a Spartan in the New Mombasa missions so it appears she's roleplaying as part of the simulation rather than being in charge of the original missions. Frankly it would've made more sense in the context of the greater Halo story if the entire plot was made-up in-universe, being the concoction of the TACSIM scenario designers complete with the most archetypal Forerunner MacGuffin they could think of, rather than something that actually happened.

While it's true that the story is just there to be wrapping for a fun little arcade game I wish it were more substantial. Even Spartan Assault ' s story, which was nothing to write home about, felt like it contributed more to the overall lore by at least using established characters. The story was also framed better, being grounded to a set location rather than centering on an inexplicable and interchangeable MacGuffin over many years. The credits tell us that the lead writer was a third-party contractor from a consulting firm which is a bizarre choice to say the least. Of course, this is all subject to change (to some extent) once I get around to playing Operation E, but I doubt it'll introduce anything so revolutionary as to turn the plot's presentation up until that point on its head. --<font color="MidnightBlue">Jugus (<font color="Gray">Talk  | <font color="Gray">Contribs ) 10:21, 17 April 2015 (EDT)