I’ve just finished playing the first 2 episodes of spartan ops and rather than make a seperate review ,I’ve decided to make a list of things which I hope will be improved, continued and expanded upon in Spartan Ops and eventually the Halo 5 campaign.
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Jul mdama, the storm faction and the rest of the elites
If you didnt get this impression from my campaign review then let me say it now,I love sangheli culture.It is one of the two cultures (besides forerunner culture ofcoarse) which I personally find the most interesting in the Halo universe.To see the elites reduced to mindless animals to be shot at in Halo 4 was perhaps one of the most painful things about the game because there was a reason why the elites were there and there was a reason they attacked the chief.If 343 had taken a bit more time,peharps had a level were you reconed a capital ship or perharps an encounter were you ask(interrogate) a dying elite after a fight then maybe the presence of the elites might have felt more organic. Ofcoarse I know 343 has been banging on about the storm Faction since January and both the chief and Cortana mentioned that the enemies they were fighting seem different however that still doesnt excuse the fact that there was a lack of proper ingame explanation as to why the new covernent are on requiem and who leads them but maybe they were saving that for spartan ops.
My hope is that Jul’mdama and the storm faction will be characterised more like the elites in Halo 2 and that they will have a bigger role in the events to come in Spartan Ops .And perhaps this might lead to a mission on Sanghelios in Halo 5.
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Crazier weapons and armour abilities
I mentioned this before that while weapons specifically designed for multiplayer are significantly less ‘fun’ to use in a campaign setting.This isn’t to say the new forerunner weapons weren’t fun to use, sure killing a knight with one shot from the cannon in fun but the weapons still din’t offer that same badass/alien feeling the needler,energy sword , gravity hammer offer or even the plasm rifle gave. Hopefully in Halo 5 we’ll get to see more imaginative ,non-grounded weapons for campaign. -
More enemy variety-Don’t get rid of the Knight concept art just yet I’m hoping that Halo 5 will have hunter-esque mini boss fights and you know maybe a real boss fight.After the first 3 levels of Halo 4,I pretty much used the same tactic for all the Promethean knights for the rest of the game and spartan ops.
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Terminals should expand the story and not tell the story that should be in the game already-This is just an opinion stemming from my campaign review however I will explain what I mean by this if you ask.For now I will say this, Please include the terminals on disk for Halo 5, Im thinking about the off-line gamers who are only interested in the story and so should you 343i.
If you have anymore suggestions I would be glad to hear them.
Link to campaign review; https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_postst140064_Halo-4-s-Campaign--You-can-do-better-343.aspx
Please note;
I know a lot of people don’t necessarily agree with my points and you know what Im okay with that.In fact I would appreciate it if you told me why you disagree with my points but please refrain from using reasons like “You dont know how to design games” or “This is their first game so lay off!!” or my personal favourate "Stop your -Yoink- Halo 4 is a great game ". And to those who would use these reasons I say to you, there is a difference between constructive for criticism and complaining.To argue that because its 343’s first game and that they should be exempt form criticism is an insult to other new game developers who poured their hearts,sweat and tears into their games and still got a lot of criticism.It is only by collecting critical feedback that all new studios get better (every game studio had start somewhere and 343 isnt any better)If 343industries is to develop as a game studio then it must learn to take criticism and push itself to improve.However its fans must also learn to stop whinning at the smallest change as well as learn to acknoledge the faults the game might contain.
Great games are made by game developers but greater games are made when both the developer and the community work together.
Thank you