This is destined to the Spartan ops team at 343 industries so it’s intended for Mr. Ellis, and the rest of the amazing team of Spartan ops. This is my feedback and although I’m not part of 343 industries, I would like to contribute in the creative process in some shape or form and I’m doing so through this feedback. My service record indicates that I’ve played a bit over seven and a half days worth of Spartan ops time. During that time, I’ve had a lot of experience with the gameplay, story and environments of Spartan ops. I’ve had many enjoyable moments while playing Spartan ops so I would like to congratulate the team here.
Spartan ops: Feet first into universe:
Spartan ops takes players into locations of the halo universe. In the season of Spartan ops, we have experienced Requiem. We went to different locations on Requiem and returned there several times. However, many times, we just went to places, we don’t know what they do, what they’re for and we come back like if they were new. The covenant come and occupy the place for a while. But it brings the question: why? Why would they chose a certain location to occupy and so on? Further on in the missions, we learn what certain places are meant for. However moving forward, I think Spartan ops could do a better job at doing this. Many times, some things happen in Spartan ops but we don’t really know what happens with those things. Let’s take Gagarin. There was a big build up to them and we’re not exactly sure where they ended up. Another example is the big ball the ragnarok tower shot. We know it gave some interesting stuff but we don’t know exactly what happened with it. How does this help us? when do we see it being useful?
By giving importance to certain places and making those places have an impact, the player can feel better invested in Spartan ops and in the universe. Here is an example of what I think could make a player feel more invested. We’re on this new planet and the covies are there before us. There is a forerunner facility. We don’t know what it does but the covenant are there. There are sections that are locked to us. We clean it up. This is a chapter done. During another chapter, Scientists come in and we go deeper in the facility, we find promethean knights defending the bowels of the facility. Deep below we see something impressive. We go around cleaning the area up and we find some stranded covies. We stop them and learn that it’s a gas mining facility. So we capture some covenant phantoms for example and some covenant crates/vehicles. It is mentioned by the characters that we capture it. During a later mission, we could be delivering some of these very weapons and tech to these kig-yar in exchange for information. Here we could be escorting a pelican and using the new reap-X vehicles for example. We’d have an impact here in the universe, us testing new UNSC tech. But back to the mining facility. Let’s say during a third time we return to the area, the covies are trying to drive us off and get some of the gas themselves. So we have to defend them and stop them. Here, we should see the area change. We should see some human mining equipment and make-shift landing platforms for example. Has containers with civilian companies, let’s say BXR industries for example. We should see forklifts and even Anti-Air batteries. We should feel that this place is going to have an impact to humanity. We could stop the covenant from stealing the gas the companies started mining for example. Basically, we could feel like we have a part in the human reconstruction effort for example. Things like that should be mentioned.
This is just an example of a single area and the importance it could have in the universe. We could also have other areas. Let’s say a weapon’s production facility loyal to the arbiter and we have to defend it. Basically, learn about the universe while playing the missions. We should feel like we’re having an impact and we should learn about the significance of things in the universe. Spartan ops is an excellent medium to deliver these kinds of windows into the universe while providing gameplay content. Universe building can be done through short bits, such as Spartan ops, while staying impactful and resonant. The environment should tell a story. If we see damaged barricades, craters, we should know there was a battle there. Let the players be able to explore like forensic detectives. Perhaps finding optional data pads with interesting information, not required to complete the objective but for the sake of exploring for example. During the second gas mining facility mission for example, we could find a covenant console that is translated and tells us what the gas will be used for and find some covenant equipment that shows how things work. During the third gas mining facility mission, we could find some data pad belonging to a civilian that comes to work here. It could tell a nice story, optional but fun for those who like lore.
In short, there is a lot of universe building that you guys can do. These are just examples illustrating some of the concepts that I talked about. Players should feel this interesting feeling when seeing these strange new places while having a long-term impact in the universe and discovering about various elements of the universe.
Spartan ops: The gameplay
Obviously, one of the most important aspects in a video game is gameplay. The first season of Spartan ops had some nice stuff and sometimes some areas that could be improved. Let’s examine the factors that can change gameplay:
- Enemies
- Environment
- Toolbox
The enemies consistency is very important and there are a few improvements that could be made from season 1. Let’s say we reach an area where there is a high concentration of fuel rods. Before we reach the area, we could get a heads up telling us there are various heavy weapon enemies. Those heads up, before the enemies have time to inflict a lot of damage, can change the player’s behaviour. Sometimes, in the first season of Spartan ops we encountered snipers. Sometimes, they would kill us or shoot us before Miller even said," watch out! Snipers!" What would be good here is if Miller would warn us before they engage us. The same goes for when there are phantoms coming in and drop pods. Sometimes it’s a bit inconsistent. A phantom might come in and Miller wont warn us, but then a second one comes in and Miller sounds worried and he’s like, Oh no! Phantom coming in! Instead, Miller should tell us that the phantom is coming in before the first one comes and if there is a second one, he should say, another phantom. The same goes for drop pods. The way enemies are delivered is also important. We have this high-tech gear that should detect them. This is mostly for covenant than prometheans as prometheans just teleport. There should be this moment of warning where players can know using either Miller or the motion tracker. If there is a covenant jammer, if we don’t destroy it fast enough, Miller could perhaps not say anything but if we destroy it, Miller would give us a warning. On the subject of motion trackers, having a motion tracker item for the covenant would be appreciated. The phantoms don’t show up on the motion trackers when it’s in the area.
