Spartan Ops Season 2: Is It Worth It?

Games Other Halo
1

Right, so I made this thread mostly for 343i. If they lurk these forums (and I’m sure they do) than they might find such a topic useful. There was a very mixed reception to Spartan Ops first season. I’ve got to say I enjoyed it very much- but mostly because of the CGI cutscenes, which are perfect BTW.

The actuall gameplay was terrible in the first half of the season (with few exeptions) and the second half had two good episodes so far with a third okay episode which would have been great had the maps been new. So this brings us to the centeral problem in Spartan Ops- the maps.

Playing on the same space again and again and again is not fun when given a story structure because it makes it feel cheap. When we replay these spaces three times, we know we’re in a game and we know the the story was shaped around the maps and not the other way around. Paired with rediculous excuses as to why we’re coming back to these places and a story so far away from that of the cutscenes (which we actually care about), it just leaves a bad taste in our mouths, and it takes away greatly from the experience.

If anything of the like of the first half of Season 1 will happen again, 343i, DON’T BOTHER. Go work on Halo 5’s Campaign and make it amazing (and appropriately lengthed) instead. That would be a much better place to put your money in. We will not buy it.

We as a Community understand its hard making 50 maps every season (and even impossible) and we’re not asking you not to repeat maps at all. Go back to a space if the story takes you there, repeat maps in episode (look at episode 7’s Infinity or Episode 3’s Two Giants, it worked out fantastically) and not stretched out in every episode. Maybe even consider chopping it down to 3 missions per episode…

What I’m saying is- I’m sure there is a solution which can actually work for this problem, but if you can’t find it don’t make season 2. It won’t work and it won’t be a success and it won’t be well recieved, especially because we’ll have to pay for it.

Spartan Ops is a great concept and episodes 1, 3, 6 and 7 were great fun while playing on newish maps. If Spartan Ops can keep hold of that quality, it will be the best thing that happened to Halo since Forge but if it goes down the path of episodes 2, 4, 5 and (I guess) 8 (the missions themselves were great but it really bummed me out to replay the exact same maps again) than just save yourselves the pain and let it go.

I’ve added a pole for fellow Forum roamers to see just how many people feel the same way, and also I urge you people to express your opinion to help 343i out for the future by replying directly.

Sorry if this was a bit harsh, but then, the truth always is. I hope this helps :slight_smile:

2

I agree that the first half season 1 seemed repetitive. I also agree that the story doesn’t “need” to be 5 missions long every time. But I do think 343 is doing good with SOps.

Did you play firefight? Those maps were repetitive but I played them like crazy. I think a scoring system would freshen things up a bit to give you reason to keep going back. An option to play the older missions on matchmaking would be nice too.

5 new maps each week would be a tall order. I’m no game designer but I’d imagine that would cost a lot. Plus you have to consider how much storage that would take. I would hate to have an arcade Xbox and have to clear all my memory just to download the next season. The high quality of the maps we have would undoubtedly take a dive or it would take longer for the maps to come out. It would crush their timetables and ultimately make the story suffer.

All things considered, 343 is going good with SOps. It’s not much compared with the campaign, but fun in its own right.

My only question with SOps is where is the Chief?

3

If I can advance in halos story why not.

4

I believe the Spartan Ops is a great idea and if they can keep the stone rolling then that would be epic.

5

The CGI cutscenes were phenomenal. I was blow away by how realistic they looked and often times struggled to tell if it was CGI or not. All I have to say, is 343i is going to make Halo 5 look AMAZING on a new console… Highly impressed.

Gameplay wise, the first half of the season was pretty boring but the second half so far I’ve been very impressed, except with episode 8. Im very curious how the next two episodes wrap up this season…

6

that currency is 15$??? i’d pay $15 american though.

7

If it is better then season one yes. If not I can just watch the cut scenes on Youtube.

8

…it depends on how Season 1 ends. If it’s a definite ending, I dont mind if it stops there. But if it’s a cliffhanger. It BETTER have a season 2!

9

The mission maps DID get very repetitive, which took away from the experience. HOWEVER, I was looking at spartan ops in two ways:

(1) it’s like firefight but with a story and objectives which is a huge improvement over the original firefight mode we had in the past.

(2) it was free, so we can only expect so much.

If season 2 were to be released, I would definitely pay for it. But since I’d be paying for it, my expectations would be higher. By paying for it, there’s no reason why 343i couldn’t or wouldn’t devote more resources to spartan ops to bring us an even better experience (I.e. no or less map repetition). But if season two were also free, they could follow the same format that they did with season 1 and I’d still be happy.

spoiler alert
Stop reading here to avoid spoilers. I don’t know how to hide this from view. Given how episode 10 ended, we can say at the very least we wouldn’t be playing any of the maps from season 1 over again… Except for maybe the maps onboard the infinity. So that’s a major plus!

end spoilers

One idea that I had for 343i, if they’re reading this, is to release the spartan ops seasons on disc. Not only would that contribute to their income, but it would allow avid fans such as my self to permenantly acquire these missions to replay in the future regardless of whether my Xbox has the memory for it, OR when the next consol comes out and the current Xbox live gets shut down. They could even do a promotional thing where if you pre order a spartan ops season on disc, you get the next season for free or something. And the disc for a particular season would release the same week as the start of the new season. Something like that would be cool in my opinion.

Nonetheless, good job 343i with spartan ops! I really hope you guys decide to continue the story with a new season…

10

Add a new option. Make H5:Spops and them make it DLC, release every 3 episodes with the final being equal in length to 3 episodes that way -Yoink!- cant force them to release a $60 DLC. Looking at you ODST. I’d pay $4-$5 for 3 episodes.

11

PS. I also think it would be cool if they made spartan ops prequels… Like showing us what fire team crimson and majestic were up to before halo 4, during halo 4’s campaign or during the 6 months between halo 4 and spartan ops season 1.

12

I would definitely buy it! I’d like it if it was around $10, but I’d probably still buy it even if it was $20.

13

I’d buy a second season.

14

Spartan Ops was amazing in my opinion! So yes, take my money!

But, there is one thing I strongly DISAGREE about your post, and that was when you were talking about how they should make more maps. It would take a long time, not to mention how much space the xbox would need for all the different maps. The second half was excellent because you would play the same mission, but then new parts of the map would be playable! For example, Episode 10, Chapter 3. So keep up the good work is what I say!

15

The Linch boarding mission was my favorite SP OPs mission.

16

After the -Yoink–fest of an ending to season 1, hell no.

17

What didnt you like about it?

18

Hey there’s another benefit to releasing spartan ops seasons on disc!! If they distribute hard copies, then the seasons could be removed from the halo 4 servers when the next season starts thus creating more memory for future maps!!

19

The second half of Season 1 was barely repetitive whatsoever. I don’t know what you guys are thinking. Almost every episode opened up new parts of the map you were on and even if you revisited places it felt way fresher than the first half. I enjoyed the second half A LOT. AND I WOULD LOVE TO SEE A SECOND SEASON.

20

It is essentially campaign dlc, the first time ever done for a halo game.

Maybe if they made more intricate level designs and no revisits/rehashes, I would consider purchasing a good season or two.