Halo 4: Spartan Ops...Wow!

[Saviordd1]

It was all in all a pretty good turn of events...however...

Spoiler

I find Halsey's behavior a tad...plotholish.

I haven't played Halo 4 yet but I've read the background books. I think her behavior in 4 is because of the way Karen Traviss (Star Wars fans recoil in disgust with me!) pretty much hijacked her character and suddenly gave all of humanity an intense hatred and personal vendetta against her cuz author bias. So if she acts stupid or plotholish I'd blame Traviss.
Then again I'm biased against Traviss so grain of salt and all that.

That's the thing, Travis handled her character more or less fine, it's 343 that dropped the ball hard on this one.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

It was all in all a pretty good turn of events...however...

Spoiler

I find Halsey's behavior a tad...plotholish.

I haven't played Halo 4 yet but I've read the background books. I think her behavior in 4 is because of the way Karen Traviss (Star Wars fans recoil in disgust with me!) pretty much hijacked her character and suddenly gave all of humanity an intense hatred and personal vendetta against her cuz author bias. So if she acts stupid or plotholish I'd blame Traviss.
Then again I'm biased against Traviss so grain of salt and all that.

That's the thing, Travis handled her character more or less fine, it's 343 that dropped the ball hard on this one.

I'll have to give Halo 4 a go then. Just waiting for the money haha.

And I will respectfully disagree about how Traviss handled her character. Just personal taste though.

 

[Legion]

I thought it was complete and utter crap with a ridiculous amount of recycled levels. Like most Halo games, too little of the actual story takes place in the game itself. It all comes down to "Go here and shoot everything, then press a button, shoot some more things then get picked up."

I felt that beyond the cut-scenes (which were good), they put no effort into it at all.

 

[xPixelatedx]

I just can't stand Spartan Ops; it's just an extension of the Campaign. Halo Campaigns haven't done it for me for a while now. So of course this was never meant for a person like me. That would be fine, but I am peeved it replaced Firefight. I Must have wasted 80 hours in Reach firefight alone. God almighty it was fun... I am really upset they didn't deliver more of that.

 

[Buizel91]

I thought it was complete and utter crap with a ridiculous amount of recycled levels. Like most Halo games, too little of the actual story takes place in the game itself. It all comes down to "Go here and shoot everything, then press a button, shoot some more things then get picked up."

I felt that beyond the cut-scenes (which were good), they put no effort into it at all.

Quite a bit of story is actually in the levels, if you listen to Cortana and the Chief, and whoever else talks to you.

you are pretty much describing, at least 80% of all shooters...Halo is no exception, but at least it's interesting, if you bother to pay attention, which by the looks of it half of this forum doesn't.

 

[Compatriot Block]

The gameplay was so fucking stale and boring that I could never bother making the push to the cutscenes itself. Why should I be forced to trudge through hours of repetitive boring shit in order to see a few minutes of exposition?

Jesus man, that's a pretty harsh tone, especially considering he wasn't trying to convince anyone to play it.

I'm catching up with the levels as I type this post.

 

[monkeymo4d]

Meh.

Spartan ops was a great concept let down by horrible writting,repetitive environments and boring weapons.

Seriously why anyone at 343i thought that a plot centred around monotone human military characters was a good premise for an episodic game mode baffles me. Plus the Hasley hate really doesnt help.

 

[Legion]

I thought it was complete and utter crap with a ridiculous amount of recycled levels. Like most Halo games, too little of the actual story takes place in the game itself. It all comes down to "Go here and shoot everything, then press a button, shoot some more things then get picked up."

I felt that beyond the cut-scenes (which were good), they put no effort into it at all.

Quite a bit of story is actually in the levels, if you listen to Cortana and the Chief, and whoever else talks to you.

you are pretty much describing, at least 80% of all shooters...Halo is no exception, but at least it's interesting, if you bother to pay attention, which by the looks of it half of this forum doesn't.

I don't consider listening into a headpiece good storytelling. Yes, they explained things, but it had no relevance to what you actually did. So they talk about science teams unleashing Protheans or whatnot, that doesn't change the fact that the level where that happens is exactly the same as about four other identical missions where the only difference is what I hear from the person on the radio.

Just because you like it another's don't doesn't mean people didn't "get it" or "weren't paying attention."

And what the hell does 80% of shooters being like it have to do with anything I said? Where did I say that Halo was unique in this? Where did I say that I liked it when other shooters do it?

I was asked my opinion on Spartan Ops and I gave it. If you don't agree then that's fine, but don't you dare try and tell me I am wrong for having that opinion just because I want the things you do from it.

 

[Thommo]

Lets try this again.

The story part was good, but I would be insulted if they really expected us to buy the first spoiler and if they are serious then I am calling shenanigans.

As for the second bit I wish they could of found a better way to resolve the story other than what is basically Halo tradition when more easily could have been done.

Gameplay wise it was a complete disappointment. Only partially new areas for the season finally with maybe two interesting sections. They could have cut almost half of the chapters and completely removed two episodes and it wouldn't have effected the story in the slightest. I would have easily taken fewer missions with less repitition and if they do continue spartan ops(despite my issues I hope they do) I hope they either take the time to flesh out all the areas with little to no repetiiton(within an episode is okay such as episode 3 or episode 7), or just keep the season length shorter with less repetition.

I'm in 2 minds about the first spoiler, on one hand, in reality, she was targeted and was meant to be terminated, maybe she thought it was the only option...

On the other had this is the Halo Universe...and seems a weird move, however she could be bluffing to the elite in order to stay alive.

it does kind of fit in with her character though she is a bit of a selfish *****.

 

[IBlackKiteI]

Mind-numbingly boring gameplay. They could have done interesting things like "Race a mongoose to the finish" "Jetpack platforming" or other crazy stuff, but no it had to be just "kill enemies, kill more enemies, and then kill some enemies". Mass Effect 3 and Gears of War 3 could do that in their horde modes because their gameplay was fun, they had a huge amount of unique weapons, and they have "boss type" enemies that mix it up, halo 4 has none of these.

We don't get to have cool shit because apparently these guys would rather prattle on and on with some incredibly 'meh' story, told only in cutscenes, that noone except the harder fans tend to give a crap about than do something remotely interesting gameplay wise.

Spartan Ops just isn't good. It's essentially a crappy version of campaign mode where you can play as a customized Spartan. It's levels are boring (except for the few standouts like the Mantis fight and base defence against dropships), the fights are way too samey (considering just how MANY there are), the pacing is horrible, the constant radio chatter is annoying and dull and there's no real reason to come back to it but to farm points or get achievements. Personally I'm so over the damn thing I'm not even compelled to do either.
Firefight was superior in every way that mattered, and actually had replay value with the various modes, maps, loadouts, enemies and methods of play. This was a mode my mates could keep coming back to and enjoy over and over again. The replacement is just not entertaining. Only a couple guys I know who play Halo a fair bit even started on the new set of missions earlier this year. Spartan Ops is essentially just moving from point A to point B killing stuff, over and over and over again, which you already do in the much better designed and paced campaign.

The worst part is there is so much potential for an episodic co-op Halo mode. Why not have mongoose races and jetpack levels? Why not have stealthy raids on enemy strongholds and large tank battles?
And by segregating the story from the gameplay so much players have little reason to give a shit about whatever they're doing in game. If you really need to put story into this thing why not have each episode focus on a particular group of Spartans with their own seperate objective? It'd prevent players from getting bored and by the end of it you can feel like you've done something cool and wrapped up that particular plotline, instead of feeling like you've waded through a ton of inconsequential crap to press on through more inconsequential crap, watching the odd cutscene that depicts virtually nothing to do with what you've experienced in game.