Spartan Ops: Fix it. Don't ditch it.

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Sorry, Im ganna say it. Spartan Ops as an idea is a lot better than Firefight ever could be. However the “idea” didn’t work as well as it could have. So thus far Firefight>Spartan Ops.

However it’s not too hard to make Spartan Ops a much more solid, rewarding, fun, and awesome new mode. It just needs a touch of challenge and a touch of custom ability.

1-Don’t make it XBL exclusive. 343 could easily find a way to make this a FREE timed on disc “DLC” type thing. Where the season is on the disc but can’t be played until it’s unlocked in time. Again it will be 100% free. And don’t give me some -Yoink- that “Oh lol non-live users don’t deserve to have Spartan Ops”. That kinda thing was a big negative for Halo 4. Imagine if Reach didn’t allow players without XBL to play Fire Fight. It would suck

2-CHALLENGE. I think 90% of people know this. Firefight had a challenge. Lives. Which were limited. Add Lives to Halo 5’s Spartan Ops. But give out lives per beating out missions, add in campaign style check points. And if all players die=restart or go back to checkpoint. Spartan Ops seems like an awkward mix of FUN when it should be more of a tactical style game.

3-Options. Add in options. Like Firefight. Make it so players can pick what enemies appear, or allies, or what style weapons are on the map. Maybe custom skulls. Infact if 343 really wants to make Spartan Ops amazing add in a forge mode allowing some basic changing [including NPC placement, spawn points, weapon points, some other things]. This would allow a HUGE amount of player downloadable content, replay value and overall better Spartan Ops experience

4-If 343 re-uses multiplayer or campaign areas [like they did in halo 4]. Please don’t re use them 100%. Like make a map a night time map, or add rain, add fog. Imagine if Shootout in Valhalla was at night, or something like that. Make the map look different. Variety in maps is good.

2

I agree with you wholeheartedly. I may be in the minority here, but I absolutely loved playing through Spartan Ops! Every Monday night, my brother and I would play together over Xbox Live, and we’d speculate about where the story would go from there. It was great fun, and I always looked forward to the next Monday to play through the next episode with him.

Sure, it wasn’t perfect, and there are many many ways in which it could be improved, as you showed here, but the concept was fantastic, and it would be an absolute shame if they dropped it merely because it wasn’t entirely successful the first time around.

3

Agree.

Spartan Ops let down was it didn’t have any settings that could be changed other than the deficulty.

It needs to have the same settings a FireFight. The more options the better. You should be abe to choose your starting weapons. This could allow for very fun and interesting games. Even have an option for Random weapon, so each time you die, you spawn with different random weapons.

I love Fire Fight, and enjoyed Spartan Ops. Spartan Ops has much potential, and agree it should be available offline. I like it if we had both options. And Fire-Fight worked on the standard multi-player maps.

4

I just can’t see Spartan Ops, even with some much needed improvements, being anything more than a second campaign mode, and that’s not preferable to Firefight. If 343 can add both while still dishing out a quality game, so be it, but if one must be chosen over the other, my vote goes to Firefight.

I like what 343 tried to do with Spartan Ops; I really do. But do we really need a second campaign, even when we have an ongoing comic series and planned TV series?

5

Greetings this is about Spartan Ops Season 2… I urge you to read this whole post…

I have finally come to terms with Spartan Ops Season 2 never showing up… I just realized that Halo: Escalation (at least) the Diplomatic Peace Summit Arc would have set the story for Season 2. The new story arc would have taken place directly after the Second Requiem Campaign (Season 1), been on Ealen IV (to start off with), and would have set the stage for reintroduction of Arbiter Thel 'Vadam and Lord Terrance Hood… as well as the Jiralhanae and Eldar Chieftain Lydus. It also would have paved the road to Halo 5… alot better… still Halo: Escalation is for-filling that goal.

“It was rumored by 343 Industries, that he may appear in Spartan Ops.”

Yet this is what Spartan Ops should have been… Season 1 was a good beta-test and start to figure out some bugs… yet after Season 1 each further Season should be about $15 - $20 to pay the developers, voice and body actors, composers etc. for their time. As well as give additional maps for the WARGAMES simulator… each new location met… is a new map. So really for the $ 15 - $20 you get a whole Season of new missions and story… as well as a new map pack… this should be the future of map packs… more value for money.

I know you would say that this theory is ludicrous. What would be the missions… what would Fire Team Crimson be doing… and it would be a short season…

However the story arcs could expand over 2 - 4 episodes, giving each season a variety of locations and situations, and break the repetitiveness. Episodes would not have written-in-stone amounts of missions… so some story arcs could have 2 episodes that expand only 4 missions, spanning about 1 hour or more; while others could have the intended 10… the amount depends on the flow of the story… rather than stop-starting and breaking the immersion. Each episode would have one cut scene… an opening to the story arc and a close… and perhaps a middle.

Fire Team Crimson would undertake missions that would be alot more to the main stories structure… rather than in the background…

In the Diplomatic Peace Summit Arc they could have been assisted in escorting the diplomats (Thel, Lydus and Hood), and quite possibly could have died at the end of the Diplomatic Peace Summit Arc, but they escaped due to Fire Team Bailey and Spartan Paul DeMarco… this would have made the players feel a sense of dread that their spartan almost died, and that a supporting “main” character was targeted instead… really giving them that feeling that no one is safe.

In the Spirit Of Fire Arc they could have assisted in capturing the rogue freighter, and in one mission fly broadswords to counter the rogue long swords and vultures… this give different situations and locations… Infinity’s Hanger, Freighter and Space…

The way to change Spartan Ops for the better rather than the kill enemy, clear wave or target, push button/open door and rescue civilians then rinse and repeat… which create very similar situations is… too add main cast NPCs, to assist in some mission, make different battle situations… instead of just infantry… space battles… mammoth clearing… different enemies… like insurrectionist and automated turrets, Covenant, Promethean, Flood (if-applicable)…

6

So Spartan Ops Season 1
Pros

  • A on-going story line
  • A squad based story mode.
  • Great CGI cutscenes.
  • NPC interactivity.
  • Skulls… although limited selection.

Cons

  • Exclusive to only live gold-members.
  • Lag time in firefights was quite inconsistent.
  • Recycled environments.
  • Recycle combat and objective scenarios.
  • Poor character development and dreary one-liners.
  • Infinite lives, bad respawn points and no fear of defeat.
  • Stop-starting missions… breaking story immersion.

Improvements

  • A continually on-going story mode.

  • A squad based story line.

  • Great CGI cutscenes.

  • NPC interactivity and communication.

  • Fire Team Crimson needs to feel more intact with the main story progression.

  • NPC are characters shown in CGI cinematics or from other mediums, like books… rather than randomized ‘lasky scientists’.

  • Exclusive to all live-members… gold and silver. Other wise do not advertise your game with it… it false advertising! It basically means someone only gets 2/3rds of their game…

  • The connection to each team mate needs to be highly improved. They need to be able to fight as a squad rather than glitch robots… just improve the lag times between players.

  • Environments and locations need to be fresh and new… we need multiple locations… not just Requiem, that is half the reason why you were quite limited… say for example you created a map for multiplayer and then used it for spartan ops… this is really wrong, canonically and playability. Firstly canonically how can the WARGAMES acquire the simulation of that location… if by timeline you or anyone hasn’t visited it yet… please don’t tell us it is coincidental that it is a replicated location… playability is just the fact that you have played this mission so many times in matchmaking it has become boring. Improvements to this would be make the location for spartan ops missions so they are new, then perhaps make a dlc map pack or the locations you have fought through… or if thats too tedious at least change the environment on the surface… like weatheral or time of day changes… could be nighttime with rain, or snowing and have the surface covered in a snowy terrain…

  • The combat situations need to feel memorable like “holy crap dude… did you just play season 2, episode 4, mission 2 that battle was so epic”. They need to be changed up… and if that means changing locations… DO IT! We need to think what made memorable experiences in Halo’s campaign… gameplay wise; The Mammoth in Halo 4, The Scarabs in Halo 3, The Tank Bridge in Halo 2, The Flood Library in Halo CE, Blowing up the spire in Halo: Reach… see the pattern each game has those epic momments… that are great memorabilia. So my suggestion instead of just doing lame, constant infrantry encounters… make it different. For Example:

  • Space Battles, in Broadswords and Sabres, to take out a Remnant, Promethean and Flood hostile vessel/satellite.

  • Mammoth/Scarab Battles, inside moving bases, to which you can attack or defend them, against the Remnant, Promethean and Flood.

  • Assassinate a high-priority target via sniping… think Halo: Legends…

  • Defend and escort high-priority targets… think Halo: Escalation Battle of Ealen IV.

  • Lich/Vulture, inside mobile gunships, to which you can attacj or defend them, against the Remnant, Promethean and Flood.

  • Capture/Disable a Forerunner, Covenant or Precursor artifact.

  • Hold Out against insurmountable odds.

  • Use environmental guns to assist in situations… for example control a covenant AA gun so that no more enemies can be flown in.

  • Different enemies… Flood forms, Promethean types, Remnant Species… Elite, Brute, Jackal, Skirmisher, Grunt, Hunter, Drones, Humans, Prophets? Heck even indigenous species like the Moa and Guta… and automated base defences like automated turrets.

  • Stealthy missions… that are at night and require night vision, assassinating and insertion.

  • ODST drop behind enemy lines… the spartans can drop behind enemy lines to rescue targets, capture intel or clear the way for another spartan team.

  • Vehicular combat fights… tanks vs everything… mantis vs locust… falcon vs infrantry.

  • Those Palmer one-liners and poor character development as well as the general story progression, really surmounted to spartan ops being a quick and uneventful mode that lost its interest after the first run through… Although palmer is showing some character in Halo: Spartan Assault and Halo: Escalation… so we may have a decent person. Just need to create a better atmosphere when it comes to the cinematical and gameplay script.

  • Okay the infinite lives and poor respawn points was a huge hazard for this game mode. It meant that the players had no need for careful and frankly realistic playing… they could just run in die, run in die… etc. till the enemy was defeated… it meant no one would work as a team properly and the game lost its value. My solution to this would be lives and set checkpoints. The lives given could work like with each successful mission objective completed one life is given… as well as players start off with lives depending on the difficulty. So easy would start with 10 lives each per spartan… and 3 lives for legendary… The checkpoint would be a set bunch of respawn points that a spartan can pick to respawn to, prior to respawning… rather than always getting respawn killed. The other point is what if your whole squad dies at the same time… do we restart mission or just respawn until our lives run out… I believe we should play till our lives run out, this would be better, so that a player who perhaps died once compared, to his noob-mates die contiually… or if you want to solo spartan ops… are not instantly defeated.

  • The story immersion is also another thing… 343 Industries wanted to make players fill like their spartan was part of this rich universe… yet that is hard when the continual breaking of mission and story progression breaks the feel of immersion. This could easily be change with the number of missions per episode. The episode doesn’t need to have a solid 5 missions per episode… but rather should be about time. So if you are escorting lets say the ambassadors off Ealen IV the episode should be a continual one hour or more long mission until it is fully completed. And if you have different objectives like SOF with flying a broadsword in one mission then deactivating the reactor… this could be two missions. I example of this was Season 1 on Infinity it broke the immersion… when you stopped in one room and had to load the next… which used the same environments and rooms in all 5 missions.

  • Skulls and game changing options… although this is purely for fun… this is great addition to campaign. Perhaps even chuck a skull one per episode… so we get about 10 or so…

I believe these are pretty reasonable solutions and definitely will guarantee a greater experience for players and the developers.

7

Totally agree with the posts above.

I loved Spartan Ops and the weekly episodic content. I really seen it as the way forward for game delivery and keeping the fan base amused in between major titles.

The biggest mistake 343i have made with Spartan Ops is dropping it

8

One of the big problems with Spartan Ops Season 1 was that it was stretched way too much. Each SpOps mission took the same amount of time to complete as a Campaign mission, but it took five SpOps missions to tell the story that would only span one Campaign mission. To put it simply, the SpOps storyline is about the same length as a Campaign storyline, but takes five times as long to complete. It’s basically designed to be a boring grind (although when you think about it, 50 missions of varying enemies, objectives, and vehicles wasn’t a bad idea in the absence of Firefight).

If Spartan Ops were to return, I think it should do either one of two things:
[/li]- Be an alternative Campaign mode designed for 4-player coop.

  • Use normal Firefight settings, but in the context of a mission (e.g. Season 1 E5C1 Spartan Miller would essentially be Generator Defense Firefight).
9

I believe both can work… Firefight should fill the more survival hold out role… while Spartan Ops should take a more episodic, Halo 3: ODST dlc campaign addition… sort of like Ramms Shadow for Gears of War 3.

#SpartanOpsSeason2

Remember if done correctly the dlc will bring in greatful customers who are happy with what they are paying for… map packs and micro transactions are a dull marketing medium.

10

> I believe both can work… Firefight should fill the more survival hold out role… while Spartan Ops should take a more episodic, Halo 3: ODST dlc campaign addition… sort of like Ramms Shadow for Gears of War 3.
>
> SpartanOpsSeason2
>
> Remember if done correctly the dlc will bring in greatful customers who are happy with what they are paying for… map packs and micro transactions are a dull marketing medium.

That could work.

11

I think with the advent of the Halo TV show, a new series of Spartan Ops could be what Defiance tried to be. Spartan Ops could follow behind-the-scenes aspects of the show or even impact things that later show up on the show. Just keep the repeating levels, emphasis on button pressing and eggheads to a minimum.

12

Anyone ever notice that the episode cut-scenes are called Halo: Infinity and not Halo: Spartan Ops?

That would be a good title for a spinoff.

13

Why not both? Spartan Ops could be the story of Spartan-IVs, while Firefight could be a War Games simulation where Spartans train against Covenant/Promethean A.I.

Plus, I’m sure having both for the Xbox One shouldn’t take up too much space on the hard drive.

14

> 2-CHALLENGE. I think 90% of people know this. Firefight had a challenge. Lives. Which were limited. Add Lives to Halo 5’s Spartan Ops. But give out lives per beating out missions, add in campaign style check points. And if all players die=restart or go back to checkpoint. Spartan Ops seems like an awkward mix of FUN when it should be more of a tactical style game.

THIS. This right here. I couldn’t tell you how many times I think “Man, I wish there were lives.”

@Varmah52 - I would be REALLY happy with this. More campaign / single player/ co-op experiences is always a plus, especially for Halo.