I posted a response over on HaloWaypoint.com regarding the topic of paying for SpOps season 2. I was surprised by the negativity towards SpOps as well as the notion of having to pay for a second season. Here is my response.
Wow, I sincerely hope 343 doesn’t listen to the majority of responses in this thread.
Spartan Ops is awesome. Since Firefight was taken out, this replaced it. IMHO, SpOps is MUCH better. Not only do we get a 5-7 minute video, but missions to go with it. It would be near pointless and wasteful if 343 just had the vids made without the missions.
As well, those missions actually mean something other than defending the same map over and over again ALA Halo Reach.
Talking about maps and their reuse, let’s just take a look at the numbers so far. There are 8 episodes/40 missions.
Here is a listing of the maps in SpOps and what Episode/Chapters they are used in:
Quarry: Ep1/Ch1 Ep3/Ch1 Ep5/Ch5
Sniper Alley: Ep1/Ch2 Ep2/Ch4 Ep4/Ch1
Fortress: Ep1/Ch3 Ep2/Ch3 Ep4/Ch3
Refuge: Ep1/Ch4 Ep2/Ch5 Ep5/Ch2 Ep5/Ch3
The Cauldron: Ep1/Ch5 Ep2/Ch2 Ep4/Ch4 Ep5/Ch4
The Gate: Ep2/Ch1 Ep3/Ch5 Ep5/Ch1
Galileo Base: Ep3/Ch2 Ep4/Ch5
Two Giants: Ep3/Ch3 Ep3/Ch4 Ep4/Ch2
Lockup: Ep6/Ch1 Ep8/Ch4
Control: Ep6/Ch2 Ep8/Ch5
Warrens: Ep6/Ch3 Ep8/Ch3
Cyclone: Ep6/Ch4 Ep8/Ch2
Harvester: Ep6/Ch5
Apex: Ep7/Ch1 Ep8/Ch1
Infinity: Ep7/Ch2, Ch3, Ch4, Ch5
Looking at this, no map was used more than 4 times. However, when used multiple times, missions were using a distinctly different route. Infinity was used 4 times, yet each time was different due to different portions of the map being unlocked.
Now let’s just look at the amount of maps made for season 1 so far. FIFTEEN! Come on folks, we didn’t even have that many in Reach, yet we got that many so far within 3 months release of Halo 4. You folks who are complaining about reuse of maps are with respect a bit ridiculous.
We only got 10 Firefight maps in Reach and it was the SAME THING EVERYTIME. Maybe a slight variation on which vehicles showed up or which enemy squads came out, but it was the same thing. Okay sure there were some slight variations like Score Attack/2X Score Attack/Gruntpocalypse, but they were essentially the same thing. You NEVER unlocked new areas of the maps, you were never tasked with objectives (other than Generator Defense which, IMO was boring). You always defended the same areas of the map. BTW, those Firefight maps in Reach were SMALL. Well most of them in comparison to Spartan Ops maps.
We still have two episodes to go in Spartan Ops and I know there is at least one more NEW map.
Given all this, PLUS the videos AND cut scenes, if you can’t find some fun in Spartan Ops, then you need ot look at yourself and not complain about Spartan Ops. It’s MILES beyond Firefight. The fact that you get to engage in a campaign like atmosphere, with a firefight like gameplay AND achieve objectives…Wow, that’s just awesome.
Is the issue that certain maps are redux of Campaign or War Games maps? Um, hello, Reach’s Firefight did that too and with LESS maps. Also, just looks at what the Spartan Ops team at 343 is doing with those redux maps. Different times of day, unlocking areas not seen in Campaign or War Games, creating new areas within those redux maps. They are NOT the same. Similar yes, but not the same.
As for me, I’d totally pay 800MSP, maybe even 1200. This portion of Halo 4 is what keeps me coming back over and over again, especially when I might not have XBL friends on to game with.
I really think that majority in this thread are being unfairly too hard on Spartan Ops. Just think about this. If 343 where to listen to you folks, they would likely stop making SpOps. Then what? No more story to keep us intrigued until Halo 5. No more NEW maps to discover and game on and being forced to play War Games when you otherwise might not want to?
Give me MORE Spartan Ops and take my money while your at it 343! I LOVE Spartan OPS!!!
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So what do you folks think? Would you be willing to pay for a second season of Spartan Ops? If so how much. What might you want to see changed/fix/added in the next season.
Heh, I haven’t gone into what I’d like to see added. Ad far as changed? Nothing. I like who SpOps is progressing. As well, I don’t really see much that needs to be fixed. I really REALLY enjoy Spartan Ops.
-Sal
I think I was a bit too harsh on one of your other articles. I absolutely LOVE Spartan Ops. I’ve even made dumb videos of me and my friends messing around on them. BUT, my point was that I don’t think the gameplay sections seem relevant enough to the story for me to consider paying for it. Most of the time it seems like you could put the missions in any order, or any episode and it wouldn’t matter. That doesn’t decrease the amount of fun I get from them, but they don’t seem to line up well with the cutscenes (which are incredible BTW). A good example of this is when we had to destroy the anti-air mortars in the last episode. That mission could have been put anywhere, as we don’t even fight alongside Majestic, just some random Spartan fire-team, and are told that we are helping Majestic. I don’t want to call it lazy as I can’t imagine the amount of work that goes into the missions but… you know… it… seems lazy.
To summarise, I don’t think I’m missing anything by not playing the missions. If I had to choose only the cutscene or the missions each week, I’d choose the cutscenes every time. The missions should be very specific to the where the story is at that time, not just blowing up generator A,B and C. Again, the missions are really fun, and have progressed so much since the first few episodes, but I wouldn’t pay for them as they are now… well I would… ’cause I’m a fanboy… but I would feel like I was taken advantage of.
I know 343 can do it. They just need time to settle in to this relatively original way of delivering content. Not like there’s many success stories with episodic gaming yet (other than the amazing Walking Dead of course).
Oh and don’t listen too much to the Waypoint forums, they’re the biggest group of complainers and haters since Bungie.net. Official forums are always that way. Microsoft would have stopped 343 from making Spartan Ops already if people didn’t like it.