After going over the recent Halo 4 information I can easily say that I am most excited for Spartan Ops. So much so, in fact, it will be the deciding factor for me when it comes to purchasing either the Legendary Edition or the standard edition.
Spartan Ops has the potential to blow Firefight out of the water. It has the potential to be my favorite feature in any game. But there are some concerns I hold and I would love for them to be clarified. I am well aware that may not be possible at this point in time.
“Spartan Ops is easily comparable to campaign in terms of size and scope”
This is followed by:
“Spartan Ops will act like a TV series and last for about 5-6 months, with each week bringing about 5 brand new missions that the player can replay at their heart’s content.”
This is a clear contradiction. Halo campaigns are typically 6-7 hours in length. If Spartan Ops is comparable to the campaign in size and scope then we can expect Spartan Ops to offer about 6-7 hours of new gameplay.
With 5 missions a week for 5 months, this means 100 missions. That is a pretty impressive number. However, I am worried that:
A. The missions will be 10-15 minutes in length.
B. Not entirely replayable.
On to my second worry:
Forgotten Feature - I fear that Spartan Ops will become a forgotten feature once the first Season is done. Much like how Daily and Weekly challenges were hyped up prior to Reach’s release, I fear that Spartan Ops will become irrelevant down the road.
Hard drive space - Five missions a week available for free download is going to be quite the space-consuming endeavor.
Season Two - A feature like Spartan Ops is just screaming to be charged for. Upon seeing its success, I fear Microsoft or 343 will slap a MS Point tag on the new missions/Seasons.
Lack of Variety - Ideally, these missions are going to be immensely varied in scope and nature. For example, one mission will involve a stealth/assassination mission while another will bring about a direct assault. What I’m worried about is that they will all be fundamentally the same thing. I want to see missions that involve unique vehicles (such as being a gunner for a Vulture or the driver of a Grizzly tank).
I am just saying that Spartan Ops has immense potential. But it is also the primary selling point for me when it comes to Halo 4 and I would HATE for it to completely fall on its face.
I’m sure the missions will be longer. Think of a mission mixed with Fire Fight. Where each mission or a few of these may have sections which you hold out in an area for a good amount of time.
For example walking through one of these missions would be only 10-15 minutes. Yet with an FF type area adding another 10-15 minutes would make it 20-30 minutes. And some of these areas could be pretty big areas with vehicles and such.
I mean honestly even if they were only 10-15 minutes then it would still be fun. Even more fun if 343 is smart enough to allow customization to some degree.
> > My main worry is hard drive space, and that in the article it said ‘halo 4 pushing the X360 limit’
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> I have over 100 GBs left so I’m not that worried
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> I’m quite glad they’re pushing it.
Not everyone is fortunate enough to have that much space or a more recent Xbox with a ton of space. I have 1.6 gigs left.
Why would they be 15 minutes a piece? CE can be beat in under 4.5hrs on Legendary, does that make CE a short game because someone can speedrun faster than others? Wouldn’t it all be up to your team’s abilities?.. Further, aren’t 90% of Halo’s MP and FF matches 15minutes (Invasion 30)?
Why would you worry it won’t take off, and then worry what will happen when it does take off?
Once the week is over, it’s a new set of OPS to play. There is no need to keep last week’s missions when you can only play the current ones. Even if we can keep and play the older missions, you don’t have to keep them on your HD to play as you get new ones each week.
It’s all fundamentally the same thing, it’s an FPS. We have foot moments, vehicular moments, aerial moments and firefight moments. It’s all a mix of these and not going to change… It’s an FPS.
I’m just basing it off of numbers here. They may be shorter for some and longer for others but the gist of my concern is simple: I am afraid they will be too short to enjoy. Very much like Modern Warfare 3’s Spec Ops missions. They are so short there is very little replay value.
I like the idea of “Spartan Ops” but I hate the name. couldn’t 343i have chosen a better name? Like: “UNSC Assignments”, “MJOLNIR Missions”, “Assignments”. Or my favorite: “100+ Excuses to Keep Playing”.
> > Why would they be 15 minutes a piece?
>
> I’m just basing it off of numbers here. They may be shorter for some and longer for others but the gist of my concern is simple: I am afraid they will be too short to enjoy. Very much like Modern Warfare 3’s Spec Ops missions. They are so short there is very little replay value.
And since they’re up for a week and then we get new ones, and the average FF game is under 15 minutes and we play the repetitive hell out of those, honestly, what is your concern?
What is your concern of sitting down and playing the same 1hr15minutes or so everyday for just a week when we already do that?
(it’s honest, not flamitory)
I don’t see HDD space being an issue, that’s what jump drives are made for. Or an external drive via USB. As for the length of missions, I’m just happy to see a nice meshing of the campaign and the multi player being a possible addition. I’ve always felt they were way to far separated and had no ties to each other. Story driven multi player would be a dream come true.
> Only thing I’m concerned about is the name. It’s a ripoff of CoD’s Spec Ops, so it needs to change.
But they ripped off the military with the Black OPS/Spec OPS thing, while the Chief is from the Naval Special Warfare Command / Naval Special Weapons (NavSpecWarCOM/NavSpecWep) division of the UNSC, while Johnson used to run Black OPS from his SpecOPS as a Spartan 1.
So when you think about it, Bungie invented the FPS-survival/mission mode with Marathon.
4. Season Two - A feature like Spartan Ops is just screaming to be charged for. Upon seeing its success, I fear Microsoft or 343 will slap a MS Point tag on the new missions/Seasons.
Oh, it’s going to happen. Let’s just hope they charge us per season and not per episode/content drop.
> Where the hell are you getting this “Five missions per week” from?
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> They stated in the magazine 1 new mission will be released weekly. so that would be 20 missions
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> Also the first season, or at least the first lot of missions, will already be on the disk to play, just like CoD Spec-Ops missions.
No man you read wrong, I read the magizine it said 5 a week.
> > Only thing I’m concerned about is the name. It’s a ripoff of CoD’s Spec Ops, so it needs to change.
>
> But they ripped off the military with the Black OPS/Spec OPS thing, while the Chief is from the Naval Special Warfare Command / Naval Special Weapons (NavSpecWarCOM/NavSpecWep) division of the UNSC, while Johnson used to run Black OPS from his SpecOPS as a Spartan 1.
>
> So when you think about it, Bungie invented the FPS-survival/mission mode with Marathon.
I understand that, but with CoD being as big as it is, 99% of people associate “Spec Ops” with Call of Duty. Out of all the names 343 could’ve picked, they picked one that sounded extremely similar to Call of Duty’s co-op mode.
A simple name change is in order, that’s all. The mode itself sounds like it’s going to be great.
