Spartan Ops Season One has concluded, and I thought that this would be a good time to talk about it, what we liked, what we disliked, and what the future holds for it. Like many other people, I enjoyed Spartan Ops but felt that it got off to a somewhat inconsistent start. The general consensus is, correct me if I’m wrong, Season One showed a marked improvement from episode 6-10, which is an assessment I have to agree with. It’s here that I saw a greater hybridisation of Halo 4’s campaign and Firefight from previous Halo games, where in the previous episodes the way a narrative was weaved into returning to the same maps felt a bit awkward. Anyway, there’s a few things I think can be put under a microscope here, so let’s get the discussion going.
Sarah Palmer
Now here is perhaps the most divisive character in Halo 4. Tough-as-nails Spartan 4 CIC Sarah Palmer has been the target of a lot of insults, some a bit more justifiable than others. What the character suffered from most, in my opinion, was that the writers weren’t entirely sure what exactly was to be done with her at first. Obviously the creators of the game would want us to like her, but I think that desire was a bit too obvious at first. It seemed to me that the creators very quickly wanted to establish a character along the lines of Sergeant Johnson, she was cocky, confident, and unsentimental, and while it was IMPLIED that she was formidable, in my opinion some fans rejected her because her skills were never really SHOWN, at least at first. Where I thought she really came together as a character was in the later episodes, where the presence of Dr.Halsey started driving a real wedge between the warmer Lasky and the more hierarchy minded Palmer, who had no time for rogue agents such as Halsey, and in my opinion relished the opportunity to take her out. I think she’d do well in future Spartan Ops and Halo games as a figurehead of the establishment, somewhat like Del Rio in the campaign.
What was done well
.Parallel stories between Majestic and Crimson, obviously they couldn’t accurately represent Crimson in the cinematics, and the way they got around that was great, which brings me to the next one…
.The cinematics. Incredible CGI here. The people behind it should really be proud of themselves.
. Diversity of maps in later episodes, this one is a no-brainer. Some of the later maps, such as the big Forerunner facility in Ch6e1 ‘Escape Plan’ were just incredible.
. Set pieces that brought replay value to already used maps, differing objectives, enemy fortifications, Forerunner devices etc.
.Roland and Miller’s interactions. Light-hearted fun, broke up the occasional monotony, I hope to see more of it.
Room for improvement
. Infinite respawns. A feature introduced with co-operative online play in mind, but ultimately harms the gameplay experience in my opinion. Deaths don’t matter, and tension or pressure is absent. I think some form of penalty is required for deaths, perhaps a finite number of lives as in Firefight of old, or a Checkpoint system akin to the campaign. I am not 100% certain how effective these suggestions could be, but maybe someone out there can provide an alternative.
. Diversity of objectives. I have seen SpOps referred to as ‘Button-Pushing Simulator’, and while I think its a bit more complicated than that, it does highlight a good criticism. The amount of objectives in Spartan Ops seem to be limited to either pushing a certain button, blowing up something specific, and finally mopping up the survivors. I wouldn’t mind seeing such things as more assassinations of high-profile targets (where the targets could actually escape such as the Zealot from Reach), big demolition jobs, and stealth based missions where getting caught was actually a bad thing. I don’t know how workable any of this would be, however, but a bit of spit-balling doesn’t hurt.
The future of Spartan Ops
I don’t know how popular SpOps proved to be, but I sincerely hope 343 decide to produce another season. With the destruction of Requiem, and the introduction of the Janus Key, other Forerunner locations are the most probable stage. Maybe other Halos? Or even human worlds, where as we know insurrections are resurgent? I’d like to see some Ops on a Covenant facility too, maybe raids in a ships interior like Long Night of Solace? Let’s not limit our imagination to just S2, what would you like to see in Halo 5 Spartan Ops, where it has the opportunity to be radically different? What would you have changed about S1, and what do you hope to see in later installments?