No Firefight or Spartan Ops in Halo 5 Guardians

In this video interview of Kevin Franklin, multiplayer design director and Chris Lee, director of production, with Halo 5 Guardians., Polygon gets answers on various things regarding Halo 5 Guardians.

In specific, I’m pointing out their question and the answer regarding Firefight and Spartan Ops not being included in Halo 5. You can go to the 5:18 mark of the video for this.

It seems as though 343 is touting War Zone to be the replacement of both former game modes.Depending on your likes of different game modes, this could be good or bad news.

Looking at the good side of it. It’s a new mode. While they say it’s not a hybrid mode, I will disagree with that. Though not exactly Firefight, War Zone does have enemy A.I.’s that spawn in matches, in various ways. So there are element of Firefight.

Likewise, War Zone is not all Slayer or Objective specific either. It incorporates both of those into matches.

This is definitely something that some fans have wanted. I’ll admit back in the Halo 3 days, there was a video by Bungie on the map Rat’s Nest that had Covenant on it. I recall being very excited by that idea, thinking we’d be able to fight against them on multiplayer maps. It wasn’t until Reach that this came to life. However, unlike War Zone, Firefight was pure Spartans versus Covenant. It is a mode you can mess around in and have fun, without having to be serious.

So with that, let’s take a look at the bad. For those who really love Firefight, myself included, looks like we’ll have to wait until Reach makes it to the XBOX One via reverse comparability, if it does. The loss of Firefight, be it in the style of ODST or Reach is a loss felt by many fans. With ODST coming to the HMCC, some had hopes that this was an indication that Firefiht might be coming to Halo 5. When 343 didn’t include Firefight with ODST, that was a knock back, but we still had hope.

Alas for Spartan Ops, while I personally loved playing the missions over and over again, it wasn’t so well received by the overall Halo community. Recall it was dropped after its first season. it was implied enough that this was to be ongoing. However, with the sharp decline in Halo 4 players, and even sharper decline of those in Spartan Ops, 343 did not feel it was worth the manpower to continue on the episodic adventure. instead, they are using Darkhorse Comics Halo title “Escalation”, as the continuing Spartan Ops missions.

You may u dee stand now why 343 didn’t include Spartan Ops. But Forefight? That one still perplexes me. I do get that 343 wants to continue to move away from Bungie’s Halo. However to completelly disregard a still popular mode is disappointing. War Zone does indeed look like a blast to play. But, when your looking to mess around or not have to focus on the PvP aspect, you won’t have that option on Halo 5 Guardians. As well, War Zone is a chaotic 24 person mode, while Firefight was a lot more intimate at only 4 players. Firefight is a mode you could relax in and play either by yourself or with a few friends while waiting on more of your friends to come on to Halo.

For me, War Zone as of this writing is a mixed bag. It certainly includes a mode I have long hoped for by brining A.I. Into multiplayer. as well, it has a significant increase in team size, something I know many fans have wanted. Not being able to forge or have custom games with War Zone is a bit of a downer, as I had immediately thought to make Firefight gametypes from this. We can only hope that 343 hears enough from the community and will either make War Zone available to forge with or they themselves will create a Firefight mode. The former more likely than the latter there.

What are your thought of this folks? Will you miss Firefight and/or Spartan Ops? Do you think War Zone will fill that gap in nicely, partially or not at all?

Please let me know by dropping a reply to this article below or e-mail me at [email protected]. All answers will be compiled and sent to 343, in hopes they will consider the community’s feedback.

-Sal

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About Sal

I’ve got tons of experience with Halo gaming and collecting. I feel I have something to offer to the greater Halo fan community. Posts along the way will be about tips and tricks in the games as well as collecting and many more Halo related things. I’ll also repost interesting articles from the official site, Halowaypoint.com, or from fellow Halo fan sites. As I continue this blog, I hope to help gamers who want advice on the games, as well as any collectors with regards to where to find collectibles as well as deals, coupons and so on. You can also follow me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/HaloFanForLife or Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/halofanforlife11. Welcome to my blog and I hope you’ll come back again and again. -Sal

4 thoughts on “No Firefight or Spartan Ops in Halo 5 Guardians

  1. I feel halo needs firefight and maybe spartan ops. Just for the fact that theres big games like battlefield and fallout 4 coming out the same time period as halo 5. I feel like warzone will get stale and boring after some months. I know i will be playing ALOT of battlefront which will feature offline modes. With everything being online with no couch co-op it wont be as fun too me in the months after it comes out and i will just move on to other games. I do travel alot and i have been in cases where i cant get good internet, if all i can play is campaign and forge offline….thats going to get boring

    • I’m not disagreeing with you there. I am disappointed by no firefight. There are times when I just want to play alone or with a few friends and not stress in multiplayer or replay the same campaign levels. Nothing wrong with those at all. But firefight was another mode that you could have fun slaying A.I. enemies, while also chatting with your buds without having to think too much about what was going on it game. It was there for FUN. I think that’s something that is being lost in games these days. They are taking things too seriously. In the case of Halo, certainly with Halo 5, it’s way to slanted to the competitive/Pro side. I say this as someone who considers himself competitive (not pro level of course).
      Not even being able to forge or run custom games on War Zone maps is another misfire. I’m certain there could be a way to make custom firefight games from War Zone. In fact, I had already thought up a way to make Competitive Firefight. I’ll talk about that in another article soon.

  2. Will I miss Firefight and Spartan Ops? Definitely. Will Warzone be a good replacement for those modes? Hah! No.

    Firefight was fun (although it did get a bit boring for me eventually). Many fans liked it. But like you said, Firefight is probably not in Halo 5 because 343i wants to do its own thing.

    Spartan Ops I quite enjoyed (more than Firefight). It fixed a problem I had with Firefight: it actually had objectives! But its negative reception ended any hopes of it continuing.

    Now Warzone come along.

    The problem with this “replacing” Firefight and Spartan Ops is obvious from the start: it isn’t pure PvE. I’m sure Warzone is pretty fun (it’s like Halo+MOBAs) but like you, I also want a PvE option not PvPvE. However, the only way we will get a PvE mode is if enough fans speak out.

    • True enough. While I think I may enjoy 12v12, plus A.I., I’ve always enjoyed the more ‘intimate’ small squad game types. Firefight did that for me when either no friends were online or I just wanted to game without being intense, as matchmaking tends to make me. WarZone is going to be intense for sure. My big worry is that with such a high player count needed, what happens if gamers don’t populate that game type. It should be good for a month or two. But if what happened to Halo 4 happens to Halo 5, Warzone might end up being more like a dead zone. Though I sincerely hope not.

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