Coming in at over 22 minutes long, this video has some neat insights of how Spartan Ops came about. Topics range from the initial idea of Spartan Ops to development, to the intense weekly schedule and fan reactions.
As a Halo fan who LOVES playing Spartan Ops, I enjoyed this vid. Nothing is given away past episode 7. So no spoilers to worry about.
I recommend clicking the link and checking out the vid.
-Sal
Hmm, Halsey isn’t expendable. So I wonder then about the title? Is someone important going to die in this episode?
Oh My GAWD. I have a guess as to what happens in this episode! SARAH PALMER DIES! Master Chief then comes back to the Infinity and takes over as new Commander of the Spartans!
GAWD! I HOPE this is what happens. WHile I’d like to see Palmer character fleshed out more so that I could actually start to like her, having Master Chief back and in charge is WAY more appealing to me.
Whoops here it is. After several weeks off due to the tournament, Spartan Ops is back! Not only that, now I’m able to make the comic books again! I had an issue with uploading images to my blog due to a recent upgrade. That’s been fixed and now I can finally present to you, Spartan Ops Episode 6: Scattered, in comic book form!
I love making these and hope you enjoy reading them. Please feel free to download the images. If you do repost or relink them, please give me credit as “Designed by Sal Salerno of HaloFanForLife.com.”
And again, I’d love to hear your comments on this episode and comic book. Reply here or e-mail me at sal@ halofanforlife.com and I’ll be sure and get those comments in the Episode 7’s comic book, which I’m already working on!
-Sal
It was released a little early. At like 2am EST. I’ve already watched it twice and played through it tiwce. It’s FAN-FREAKIN’ TASTIC! While the video part ends rather abruptly, that keeps you wanting more.
In the meantime the 5 chapters are quite fun. I don’t want to spoil it. Let’s just say you’re not going to be on Requiem for a little bit of time.
The chapters increase in enemies, or at least they feel like they do. But it’s not just one big firefight each mission. There are clear objectives. While there is repetitiveness in the latter chapters, it’s still quite a blast (pun fully intended) to play through them.
Here’s the vid for Episode 7 “Invasion” on Waypoint.
-Sal
Taking a little longer than expected, but for good reason. I just finished the layout completely. All graphics are in! Eh, but now I need to add all the text in. I’ll do that tomorrow and should have it ready some time mid-day. I had to really decide what panels I was going to cut out here. I wanted to keep them all but realized some where a little repetitive, so some cuts had to be made. Pacing is just as important in comic books as it is in an animated or filmed production.
-Sal
Grr, this “upgrade” to my blog sure has screwed up my ability to post graphics and some vids. Well, anyway, check out the link above. I can’t wait!!!
-Sal
https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/intel/spartanops#episodeId=6
Make due with the link for the moment. Once it gets put up onto Youtube, I’ll directly link to it.
Good stuff here and you can bet I’m already at work on the comic book for this episode. I’ve got more than 130 shots to edit, Photoshop, layout, etc., into the book.
Woot! Spartan Ops is BACK!!!
-Sal
SPARTAN OPS EPS 6-10 TRAILER
In case you need a reminder, here is the official trailer for episodes 6-10!
IGN has this regarding Spartan Ops:
First look at Halo 4’s Spartan Ops episode 6
Gametrailers has two videos of the forthcoming Spartan Ops second half of the season.
Briefing with Chris Haluke of 343
Halo 4 Spartan Ops season 2 briefing
Listening to Chris, he seems genuinely excited about what Spartan Ops is and will become.
Walkthrough with David Ellis of 343
Halo 4 Spartan Ops season 2 walkthrough
It’s cool to see that we’ll have a few different ways we can play the same mission. That definitely helps give the feeling like YOU are in charge of the action instead of scripted events. Glad to see 343 is listening to us!
Polygon.com gives us several screenshots from the episode 6:
While I am working on the rest of the Spartan Ops mission by mission articles, I wanted to give you folks a chart in the meantime that shows the enemies per mission.
Bear in mind that with suicide grunts, totals may vary. As well, with watchers reviving knights, those totals may vary slightly.
A friend of mine shot me a link to these totals and I cross referenced them with my own stats. I fixed a couple (lining up to my stats) and came up with this chart.
Here’s the chart and a little explanation of the colors after.
If you want to see this supersized, click and save or open in a new window.
I split up high Covenant kills and Forerunner kills as blue and red respectively. Solid red and blue denotes the mission with the highest count of that particular enemy, lighter filled boxes denote high counts of that enemy, but not the highest.
Note mission 3-4 has the highest concentration of highest kills counts for Covenant in most categories as does 5-1 for Forerunner enemies. These two missions I highly recommend playing over and over again if you want to get the majority of enemy commendations up in Spartan Ops. Then pick and choose from the other missions to finish up on enemies for commendations. I completed the Covenant Destroyer commendation last night and was rewarded with VERY COOL emblem!
The bigger triangle in the background of the emblem is the standard triangle, while the rest is the awarded emblem.
Feel free to download this chart. If you repost or link to it, please give me credit as “chart designed by Sal at HaloFanforLife.com”
-Sal
Episode 1 “Departure”, Mission 3 The Challenge
Map: Fortress
Objectives: Destroy Jammer, turn off jamming arrays, turn off main power.
Recommended Loadout: Since there are a fair amount of Crawlers you combat during this mission, I recommend using a BR. It’s a powerful scoped weapon. However, the main reason I recommend it for this level is for it’s 3-shot burst. You only need put one shot into the head of a crawler and it will go down. So dont’ waste your energy on a DMR where you have to be more precise. Use the BR and give yourself 3 shots to hit them. For your secondary weapon it’s your choice. AR is perfectly acceptable here, as is the Carbine. Bear in mind though, that you’ll likely have to switch out weapons at some point for more ammo. So pick up those dead crawlers suppressors! I use Jet pack heavily on this map as it makes it much easier and quicker to get to objectives, especially given the objective atop the center tall tower.
Walkthrough:
Okay so as you see, I’ve added different color arrows to the paths I normally take. This is to show divergent paths that I typically take during this mission. Start off following the green path. Along the way you destroy the jammer (point 1). You can pick up a rocket launcher along they way. Do it. It will help clear out those crawlers easily. From there, jet pack up to the mid-level of the tower and wait for the next two objectives to activate. Keep in mind that Watchers will spawn intermittently during this mission. As with ANY Spartan Ops mission, it is imperative to take them out. While they themselves do not pose a huge threat to you in gunfire, it’s their ability to spawn Forerunner Turrets and in other missions, respawn Knights that can cause you serious problems. So take them out!
At this point you can choose which one you go for first. This is where I show the divergent paths. You can take the red path to point 2 then point 3, or, the dark blue path to point 3, then point 2. It doesn’t matter which. If you’re playing co-op, then have a teammate go to the opposite one you went to, to shut them both down quicker.
From here, go to the top of the tower to power it down. Pick of any remaining Prometheans and wait for your evac point. Before going straight to it, if you want to get some real fire power, go to the base of the main tower, opposite of the ramp (in the pic it’s the weapon cache at the south point of the main tower). There you will find an Incineration cannon. This is extremely helpful as you will face a small horde of crawlers. The cannon can take out several easily in one shot. You can still easily defeat the crawlers without the cannon. That just makes it easier. Follow the light blue path to your evac point, kill off any remaining crawlers and watchers and wait for extraction.
Commendations you can work on with this mission: There are certainly plenty of crawlers to kill here as well as well as watchers. However, there are missions in later episodes that offer far more crawlers to kill. You’re choice, but I’d choose those other missions over this one to kill crawlers, just for the shear numbers.
Mission Stats:
As you can see I diversify my weapons usage here. I make heavy use of my initial loadout weapons. Then as my ammo is depleted I switch to those power weapons as mentioned above and snag a suppressor.
Again, this mission is good for Crawlers and Watchers. But if you want more in one mission, then you can by-pass this one. Still, it’s a good mission to replay if just for the pure firefight enjoyment of it.
-Sal
Last night I recorded the first in a series of podcasts with POD Dust Storm from Podtacular regarding the episodes of Spartan Ops. During the podcasts we talk about the CG vids/storyline and go over each of the missions briefly as well as a short stat report.
Here’s the link to the Podcast.
And don’t forget that you can also follow the HFFL specific portion of this partnership through my “Mission by Mission” articles for a further more detailed look at each of the missions through gameplay.
Here are the first two articles in that series:
Spartan Ops, Mission by Mission: Episode 1 “Departure”, Mission 1 “Land Grab” (or SpOps 1-1)
Spartan Ops, Mission by Mission: Episode 1 “Departure”, Mission 2 “Sniper Alley” (or SpOps 1-2)
-Sal
Episode 1: Departure; Chapter/Mission 2: Sniper Alley
Map: Sniper Alley
Objective: Disrupt Covenant energy supply
Walkthrough:
Recommended Loadout: I go with jet pack and the DMR/BR combo. At the least be sure to have one of them, preferably the DMR. Carbine would be ok,but not as good as the DMR here. Besides, with plenty of UNSC ammo crates, going with UNSC weapons is a great choice.
At the start of the mission, you face a few grunts. They’re easy to take out (point 1-green box). Move along the path I’ve shown and get ready to camp a little (camp spot 1-as noted by the triangle-as in camping tent…). Pick off the jackals, grunts, and elites before moving to the first objective, shutting down the first shield.
Now I highly suggest once you’ve lowered the shield to go to camp spot two. There is a DMR there if you didn’t choose that in your loadout, so pick it up now. You’re going to need it! Stay right there and pick off the Jackal Snipers first as they are deadly. Next you can tag the grunts and the few elites here, point 2.
Moving up and to the right a bit, BEFORE taking down the second shield, move the the lower shield control and through the gap in the shield, take out more jackals. This REALLY helps as most of the time they don’t shoot back, especially if you stay far enough back. It also makes it a lot easier to get through the mission after you’ve taken down the second shield. Click the lower shield control first, then move to the upper shield control. Before clicking it, reload your weapons and pick up more ammo at the crates located close to the control seen below:
From here you can pick off most of the current enemies. Move across the bridge, pick up more ammo at the crates and wait a little bit for some elites, point 3. Take them out then move to camp spot 3. This spot is on a rock ledge. Just below you (on the path you were just on) is an ammo crate. So it’s good to stay around here for a bit, being able to get more ammo as needed. Here you’ll face many grunts, elites, jackals, and over that rock on the ground below are some sniper jackals. From your camping perch it’s easy to pick them off.
At point 4 there is another ammo crate. Get yourself resupplied. Move close enough to the checkpoint to trigger it the move to camp spot 4 (you’ll need jet pack for this spot). It’s higher up on the rocks and gives you a great vantage point. Beware the Sniper Jackals in the distance at a Covie sniping tower. Take them out and any other snipers. There might be one by the cliff wall Shade turret. You’ll get an ordnance drop around this time. You DO NOT need it. The DMR is more than enough to handle the enemies. Trying to get the ordnance drop may get you killed. On easier levels fine. But on Legendary…no way. Stick with the DMR, it’s your friend.
Once you’ve eliminated all the remaining Covies, you’ll be given a checkpoint. Go to it, click the button and haul ass. Really, you don’t need to get too far away. I usually make it a game of getting to the shade turret and blowing away the sniper tower before the area is bombed. No extra points there, just something fun to try.
When the bomb decimates the area the mission is done and a Pelican comes to pick you up.
Commendations you can work on with this mission: Jackals! Especially Sniper Jackals. There are also a few Zealot Elites that you can get here to.
Here are my weapons stats for the mission (I’d have included the enemy stats as well, but for some reason they weren’t saved on Waypoint… weird. Though as you can see I had 120 kills):
As you can see, I made judicious use of the DMR. Yes, I did this on easy. It’s just to show weapons used and enemies (had they been recorded…).
And yes, I’ve done all the missions on Legendary. I’m just doing them again on easy for the mission by mission articles.
-Sal
Episode 1: Departure; Chapter/Mission 1: Land Grab
Map: Quarry
Objective: Neutralize Covenant forces
Walkthrough:
Recommended Loadout: Mid to Long Range weapons. Though since you should be using vehicles for this mission most of the time, weapons choice isn’t as important.
This mission starts you out at a small UNSC camp. There are several Warthogs available, as well as ghosts. I highly recommend taking the gauss hog.
If you are playing alone, make sure a marine gets in the gunner position and you drive. (TIP: You will get credit for every kills the marine gunner gets!) If you choose to gun, a marine will pop into the driver’s seat. Be forewarned, they aren’t great drivers and will likely take you places you don’t want to go.
If you’re playing co-op either by chapter or matchmaking, if you are the driver you’ll get wheelmen for every kill another player spartan gets as your gunner. (TIP: This mission is GREAT for wheelmen and you can rack up that commendation QUICKLY here.)
Now usually I see other players go to the left first. Easy enough to get that power core and snag a wraith. However, as you can see by the graphic above, I choose to go to the right. If you’re running a gauss hog it’s EASY to mop up the ghosts you encounter then move on to the power core that is protected by the Elite. He has a Fuel Rod though, so keep your distance. It’s not necessary to kill him, though it makes the mission just that much easier.
At point 1 you will engage various Covies. There is a wraith you can use. Your choice if you want to switch off to that from the gauss hog. I still prefer the hog as you can aim your shots much better and the hog is swifter in combat.
At point 2 you’ll come upon another power core, shade turrets and some sniper towers. Take out the turrets, then towers, then hit the core. Be sure you got the grunt in the tower as he can be pesky.
Phantoms drop some ghosts along the way so be sure and take them out before advancing on to the next power core. Kill off any Covies you find, hit the other power cores (point 3) and start making your way back to the LZ.
If you took the right path from the start you won’t have to deal with that Elite with the fuel rod (point 4) near the end of the mission. (This is one reason why I suggest taking this route instead of going left first.)
At the LZ (point 5) a Phantom drops a bunch of Covies including Hunters and some Elites. Take your time with this and shoot from afar. No need to rush into the mix and die. Kill all the remaining Covies and the Pelican will come pick you up.
Mission End.
Commendations you can work on with this mission: This mission is good for the Wheelmen commendation and covenant kill commendations in general.
Thanks to PrimaGames for the map graphic. I added the arrowed line.
Oh on that note about Prima, I have to say a HUGE Kudos to them for an AWESOME Halo 4 guide book. I HIGHLY recommend it! I got mine for $19.99 at Amazon.com. Normally it’s around twice that much. Getting the book will also give you a code to get the book digitally, which is FANTASTIC!
-Sal
I’ve been working on these for sometime now and am still continuing to finish writing the articles. For the past several weeks I’ve also been working together with POD Dust Storm of Podtacular for a collaborative effort to bring you SPartan Ops Podacst. Those will be coming soon.
In the meantime, starting today and running until Episode 5, mission 5, I’ll be posting a breakdown of each mission, it’s objectives, tips on how to get through the mission, enemies engaged, achievements you can unlock, commendations you can work on, and maybe even those RvB easter eggs, LOL.
So stay tuned today for “Spartan Ops, Mission by Mission: Episode 1, Mission 1”
-Sal
I have been asked by several readers about creating an easier download for the Spartan Ops comic books. I’ve had it ready for awhile and was going to post this over the weekend. However, something came up that accelerated those plans.
So without further ado, here are each Spartan Ops comics in PDF form, AND if you want them ALL in one PDF, click and save the last link. Right click and save as always.
Spartan Ops Comic Book 1
Spartan Ops Comic Book 2
Spartan Ops Comic Book 3
Spartan Ops Comic Book 4
Spartan Ops Comic Book 5
Spartan Ops Comic Book 1-5
I would ask you not to repost these, but rather link back to my blog. Should you repost, please give me credit as: Designed by Sal Salerno of halofanforlife.com
Enjoy folks and look for the Forward Unto Dawn graphic novels in PDF form in just a few short minutes as well!
-Sal