'Spartan Ops' Is Halo 4's New Episodic Multiplayer Mode

So today is Halo 4 news day, evidently. In addition to the details on Halo 4's Special Edition release, Microsoft additionally revealed new details regarding Halo 4's multiplayer suite. Most notably, the Spartan Ops mode.

Spartan Ops is a story-based multiplayer mode for up to 4 players that takes place aboard the UNSC Infinity, the ship that acts as Halo 4's primary multiplayer hub. The missions that take place in Spartan Ops are essentially an offshoot of the main Halo 4 campaign, with new missions released on a weekly basis that flesh out the story of the Infinity, its crew, and a new team of Spartans. These missions will allow players to "explore the corners of Requiem in these objective-based missions, and help uncover the secrets of the mysterious Forerunner world."

This mode comes in addition to the previously revealed War Games mode, which serves as Halo 4's competitive multiplayer option.

I expect we'll be hearing a whole bunch more about Spartan Ops and War Games come E3, since, you know, that's kind of what E3 is meant for.

I love your humor Alex.

So the Infinity has a holodeck?

Neato!

Spartan Ops.........really??

Don't care about Halo 4 too much, but knew it was an Alex article, so I read it anyway.

@Purple_eye said:

Spartan Ops.........really??

My thoughts exactly.

I'm not even excited for Halo 4 or anything. I just wanted to post a Buzz Lightyear pic.

@Yummylee said:

I'm not even excited for Halo 4 or anything. I just wanted to post a Buzz Lightyear pic.

I approve of your post.

Looking forward to seeing more about this. New mission weekly? I wonder if that's just like the challenges in Reach or if there is actually some story involved. Anyway, it looks like Halo 4 is gonna cover all the shooter package angles but they seem to be doing it in a somewhat creative for for the universe. I've put a couple hundred hours into Reach over the years since it's release and I can see myself doing the same thing with 4.

SpartanOps...its no replacement for Firefight.

Too bad its a replacement for firefight.

Sounds like an awesome addition.

Never change, Alex.

What is this? Halo Wednesday?

With captions like those, who needs bylines?

Uh, sure... Wait, why is this news?

We've known about Spartan Ops for over a month I think...

EDIT 2: Although I don't recall hearing them calling the standard multiplayer War Games - only referring to it as Infinity (as in the ships name, where all the multiplayer happens).

EDIT: GameInformer had a story on Spartan Ops on the 18th of April.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/04/18/spartan-ops-the-bold-new-co-op-of-halo-4.aspx

Episodic? Valve has proven that it's literally impossible to release more than two episodes. If Valve can't do it, what makes MS/343 think they can do it?

@Scodiac said:

Looking forward to seeing more about this. New mission weekly? I wonder if that's just like the challenges in Reach or if there is actually some story involved.

It's supposed to include an actual story and unique missions including cutscenes. The missions won't be campaign complexity or anything though.

@divxz said:

SpartanOps...its no replacement for Firefight.

Too bad its a replacement for firefight.

343 said that if you like firefight you'll like this, except it's more objective based. Older missions are replayable. My *guess* is that it will be like firefight with unique maps weekly, similar to firefight maps, except they force you to move around the maps to complete objectives (maybe with a final hold-out wave).

@Yummylee said:

I'm not even excited for Halo 4 or anything. I just wanted to post a Buzz Lightyear pic.

This is fantastic.

I weep for the standards of what people consider hilarious around here.

@Yummylee said:

I'm not even excited for Halo 4 or anything. I just wanted to post a Buzz Lightyear pic.

Brilliant.

@KaneRobot said:

I weep for the standards of what people consider hilarious around here.

I concur.

I hope they have the balls to market this as the final chapter.

Don't say Spec Ops. These are Spartan Ops. They're TOTALLY different!

Will we get to know what happened to Kelly? I need to know what happened to Kelly!

I thought this was revealed when they posted that video >_>?

Ops

Alex is getting really lazy, just lashing out at whatever in really un-inventive ways. I miss his clever remarks.

Also I think this whole thing sounds awesome. Great way to keep things interesting.

@Ravenlight said:

Episodic? Valve has proven that it's literally impossible to release more than two episodes. If Valve can't do it, what makes MS/343 think they can do it?

Valve is about the only person to fail with that model (not counting folks that don't make enough money off of it), and this is just a few missions that won't be terribly complex if I had to guess. Plenty of TV shows are episodic, and most of those are run by idiots.

i really hate the approach to multiplayer this time around. i want varied landscapes i dont want every map to take place on the same got damn ship.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

@Tarsier said:

i really hate the approach to multiplayer this time around. i want varied landscapes i dont want every map to take place on the same got damn ship.

That's just the hub for multiplayer. I'm pretty sure there will be maps on the ship and on Requiem(the forerunner planet the ship is orbiting).

@MordeaniisChaos: Lashing out? What in god's name did I even lash out at?

UNSC or USNC? The story says both.

@Scodiac said:

@Tarsier said:

i really hate the approach to multiplayer this time around. i want varied landscapes i dont want every map to take place on the same got damn ship.

That's just the hub for multiplayer. I'm pretty sure there will be maps on the ship and on Requiem(the forerunner planet the ship is orbiting).

interesting.. so its like a spartan war battle ship and you walk around and get deployed to different places including the planet and other ships?

that sounds acceptable and quite cool and interesting.

Hmmm..wonder if these episodic updates will be free?

@iAmJohn said:

@Purple_eye said:

Spartan Ops.........really??

My thoughts exactly.

I would assume it is because of name familiarity, but that doesn't excuse it. Super lazy naming.

This seems like it could be pretty neat.

@EmuLeader said:

@iAmJohn said:

@Purple_eye said:

Spartan Ops.........really??

My thoughts exactly.

I would assume it is because of name familiarity, but that doesn't excuse it. Super lazy naming.

You know the audience they're aiming for!

So... that's a thing.

Awesome

@Tarsier said:

@Scodiac said:

@Tarsier said:

i really hate the approach to multiplayer this time around. i want varied landscapes i dont want every map to take place on the same got damn ship.

That's just the hub for multiplayer. I'm pretty sure there will be maps on the ship and on Requiem(the forerunner planet the ship is orbiting).

interesting.. so its like a spartan war battle ship and you walk around and get deployed to different places including the planet and other ships?

that sounds acceptable and quite cool and interesting.

Not quite. That wouldn't really make sense, considering it's Spartans versus Spartans. The Infinity has training simulators on board (think holodecks from Star Trek) that create varied landscapes for the Spartans to battle each other in. The Spartan Ops mode will be where you're actually doing combat in other locations on the planet that the ship is orbiting.

@Brodehouse said:

Don't say Spec Ops. These are Spartan Ops. They're TOTALLY different!

They're operations undertaken by Spartan teams. Sounds like "Spartan Ops" is a reasonable term to use to describe them, even if its similarity to the term Spec Ops (and the mode's similarity to Spec Ops in CoD) is rather blatant.

@Alex said:

@MordeaniisChaos: Lashing out? What in god's name did I even lash out at?

Just giving you a hard time :3 And it was more of a general thing, earlier you posted an article, I forgot what on, where you were a bit aggressive on the subject, so I think that's what I was getting at. But not I was not leveling an actual complaint.

@EchoEcho said:

@Tarsier said:

@Scodiac said:

@Tarsier said:

i really hate the approach to multiplayer this time around. i want varied landscapes i dont want every map to take place on the same got damn ship.

That's just the hub for multiplayer. I'm pretty sure there will be maps on the ship and on Requiem(the forerunner planet the ship is orbiting).

interesting.. so its like a spartan war battle ship and you walk around and get deployed to different places including the planet and other ships?

that sounds acceptable and quite cool and interesting.

Not quite. That wouldn't really make sense, considering it's Spartans versus Spartans. The Infinity has training simulators on board (think holodecks from Star Trek) that create varied landscapes for the Spartans to battle each other in. The Spartan Ops mode will be where you're actually doing combat in other locations on the planet that the ship is orbiting.

@Brodehouse said:

Don't say Spec Ops. These are Spartan Ops. They're TOTALLY different!

They're operations undertaken by Spartan teams. Sounds like "Spartan Ops" is a reasonable term to use to describe them, even if its similarity to the term Spec Ops (and the mode's similarity to Spec Ops in CoD) is rather blatant.

ah, thats much less cool.

Because Black Ops and Spec Ops weren't Ops enough.

Renegade Spartan Black Covert Special Ops you say?

What is this Infinity they're talking about, and does it have wards?

Spartan Ops is an incredibly lazy name but it sounds really cool. Spartan Ops and Single player is where this game can make itself stand out, multiplayer might be fun but too CODified to be special.

Sounds like multiplayer is a cross between COD and Syndicate and will probably have some classic Halo type multiplayer as well. I just hope they don't mess the game up like the way Team Ninja destroyed Ninja Gaiden.