I want to get this right out there at the start. Spartan Ops is a great idea however, like everything else in Halo 4, 343i have really screwed the pooch in how they implemented it. What follows is a list of all of the problems that stop this really good idea from being enjoyable.
1: Firefight. This is the obvious one. Why the hell has this replaced Firefight? Spartan Ops is a good gametype however I believe the reason that this gametype is here and not firefight is because 343i were worried people would play firefight rather than Spartan Ops. Spartan Ops is actually very good and some of the missions have a tremendous amount of replay value. My favourite so far is the Mantis Mission but because of all it’s flaws it really does not deserve to replace firefight. More below.
2: The typical Halo 4 problems are here too only they are magnified because you also have the Spartan Ops problems as well. When playing Halo 4 you’ll quickly notice that your shields drop very fast and recharge very slowly. Even with the shielding perk I find myself dying at least 5 times on normal difficulty because of the -next- problem in the list.
3: It forces you to play in ways you do not want to. I like to think myself a very good shot in Halo (Not just in Halo 4, because frankly that’s not hard to do… at all… thanks 343i, but ever since Halo 2 when I started getting good.) but what I really love the HELL out of is going around with a power weapon and BLOWING SH•T UP! I love jumping around in firefight with a rocket launcher and heck, I love even more in Halo 4 the idea of jumping around with a Rocket Launcher -AND- a SAW. Those two power weapons together are great fun to play with!
But the game forces you to play in a -sensible- way. If you run out there even on normal difficulty then you’re going to get shot at from all corners of the map, which would be okay if your shields recharged at a sensible rate rather than you having to then hide for the next 5 seconds waiting for your shield to come back and hoping that a crawler doesn’t come in and then shoot you once and your countdown starts all over again. But what ‘really’ makes having fun in Spartan Ops hard is…
4: Weapon Despawning. My GOD this is so freaking stupid… I have no idea what 343i were thinking when they made my weapons despawn almost instantly after I die. Because of this there is always a frantic rush to get to the weapons you want again but your spawn point often has a troop of enemies around it by that point. Which brings me to…
5: Spawnng! Why can’t I choose where I spawn? I once got spawn-camped by NPCs ffs… On Legendary Difficulty you’ll find that if the enemy kills you then you will never get your weapons back, partially because they despawn so quickly but also because you don’t get a choice about where you spawn. In firefight I would always just pick two or three favourite spots and cycle between them. My rockety style gets me killed a lot but hey, that’s part of the fun. NOT IN SPARTAN OPS! They spawn you back, surrounded by strong enemies coming from all sides and when you’re fighting the Prometheans who have the ability to bring their dead back to life (love that mechanic) and have Knights who are the second-strongest infantry unit in the game (just losing out to Hunters) going up against them with your basic loadout weapons on legendary difficulty will have you tearing your hair out in some missions.
6: Replay Value. Sadly, I can not play Spartan Ops co-op because the 1/2 second lag I get between input and reaction is just abysmal, especially in a game as fast-paced as Halo 4 (Because we can’t have a game that takes it’s time now can we?). So I find myself playing it solo all of the time. Naturally this means that the replay value does not come from having a laugh with the guys (if there were anyone talking on Halo to make friends with in the first place of course…)
So the replay value comes purely from Spartan Ops itself which is pretty damn good, even with all of the above gripes. I also like having the commendations to work towards (even though I know they will run out soon enough.) So why can’t I customise the missions? Why is it that all of the customisable fun of Firefight is lost in Spartan Ops?
Imagine fighting off a huge wave of Banshees and Wraiths in a Mantis whilst Drop-Pods come down and litter the ground with enemy troops. How much fun would that be? What about having a territory to protect and all the enemies are trying to get into it and you have to stop them staying in it for more than a few seconds or you lose. Imagine how much fun you could have with a customisable gametype like that! However we have taken a step BACKWARDS from Reach in that we get no say in these missions past our loadouts.
343i have sh•t out a golden egg here but rather than cleaning the faecal matter off the surface they’re proceeded to push the existing, polished golden egg off the pedestal and dump theirs in it’s place, expecting us to enjoy the gold through the mire of… stuff.