You just made a huge tactical error, egghead.
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Halo |OT12| Last One Out, Get the Lights
- Thread starter The Librarian
- Start date
You just made a huge tactical error, egghead.
MaximumFlipFlop
Banned
Palmer can bring her 6'9" 250lb frame by my place anytime... As long as she keeps her mouth shut.
SNOO SNOO.
Is it just me or was
Jen Taylor not acting Halsey during the 4th SpOps mission
The P of Poland
Member
"Get Crimson air support and get it to them NOW!"
Marry me Sarah Palmer
Marry me Sarah Palmer
Zeouterlimits
Member
I did not get to see any cute tiny Covies, but that's super cool. Super cool.
My Spartan Ops Season 1 Episode 3 Review - 343 giveth and 343 taketh away
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For 4 out of 5 of the missions, I enjoyed the first half of the mission a lot more than the second half.
Overall, I am happier with Episode 3 over 1 & 2, they learned to focus less on bombastic explosions and "heart-pouding" pacing. They had some good firefights in there.
It's a mixed bag, but standing next to its brothers, it's a lot prettier.
P.S. I have no problem with them reusing any environments, it's not what matters.
My Spartan Ops Season 1 Episode 3 Review - 343 giveth and 343 taketh away
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The C.G. cutscene was fine, if not mind blowing. I did like getting some Jul, some Covie scenes, I'd love more of that from my in-game fiction.
It's the best set of missions yet.
The first 3 were played on Legendary with 2 people.
The last 2 were played on Heroic by myself.
It started off well, the two of us dropped a side way and engaged in some fun vs Covies combat. A few FRG here and there, but we got past it, enjoyed our time. Reached a bunch of UNSC kit, got into Scorpions and kind of instantly died to Wraiths thanks to our positioning at the time. Now if this was campaign, we'd go back to a checkpoint and be given another crack at it. But no, we had to climb that kind of unfun challenge.
Sp Ops feel so much more trigger volumed than the Campaigns normally do. You know as soon as you take down the last one (or as happened on Vahalla, most of them) it'll fling more Dropships and Drop Pods at you. And the FRG Elites start increasing.
But we finish the mission and move on.
And the same is kind of repeated for the next mission. Clear the inital set of enemies and prepare for a boat load to drop in. Thankfully on Exile, they spare us from any vehicles. That was an alright mission, but not in anyway memorable (I had trouble remembering it out of five really, but my brain feels slightly melted after playing it. Halo 4 is so audiovisually taxing :-/).
Chapter 3, we arrive on Valhalla, have a fun initial clearing of the enemies, reach the pelican and before I could catch my breathe, enemies were right on top of us. I wish we'd be given a moment to not be standing in the open, right next to the pelican...
We fight through them, reach some Hunters. 4 hunters. Well that's cool isn't it? I don't recall 4 Hunters at once really. Oh.. some FRG Elites too at the same time. Oh... Christ.
Once we cleared the Elites I had a great time jumping around and trying to expose the Hunters for my partner to kill them, that WAS fun. Get through them and ... reach a Wraith on the left and a FRG Elite on the right...
FRG Elites should not be used where the player is going to be in a close-to-mid range scenario. The projectile just moves too quickly for you to react/move out of the way.
We clear them and eventually get inside, where the enemies spawned next of me. Seriously. They spawned right next to me. And so I was sword killed instantly.
:-/
We mopped them up (had fun here with near misses and saving each other - "Oh god oh god, wooah, thank you!"). And suddenly, in what I thought was a failure in pacing, the radar is filled with enemies. I've never seen so many on my radar at once. We were down in the underground bit of the bases trying to poke our head out and kill a few, but we just died and spawned out the bases where we eventually cleared them out.
I really think they should have saved that encounter for the opening of the next mission, because it was cool to see our radars filled with red. The actual fight was mediocre.
But so was pretty much all of mission 4. This one and the next went on way too long. I'm not sure if 343 do any balancing or pacing based on how many players are playing, but they really should.
The first bit of fighting your way out of Valhalla was good fun, I was able to grab the ghosts and make great use of them. The turrets you're turning on.... can't see beyond 20m and are therefore largely useless, and feel so out of place as I'm next to them nailing dudes with my Ghost guns and they aren't even registering they're there.
Fight through a few more waves and Palmer sends down "new toys" - a bunch of Mantis's, which mop up a lot of Hunters (they loved sending out 4 hunter packs and FRG Elites here, they loved it! It didn't do much to the Mantis). The spawn point, singular, on this mission seemed to be the river by the inner base, which was both a curse and a blessing depending on where the enemies were .e.g. spawning right next to a bunch of Elites - unfun, spawning next to a clear space, much handier. Eventually you just have to kill many many Banshees and Dropships, with banshees getting stuck in the base structure twice. It just felt pointless. The mantis could chew through them, and it wasn't particularly exciting. The Dropships would just hover and look so odd as they would be the last to be killed and just hover left and right over the river, doing nothing.
There's a weird note about the scripting too, every so often Palmer will say something like "Watch out Crimsion, a dropship!". But she'd say it every 6 or so dropships, as if this one new dropship was a surprise or in any way important. It just felt to bizarre and disconnected from what was going on.
The 5th and final mission was, probably the best. Well the first half of it. Fighting up to the Elite and finally killing him was mostly great fun. It was a neat and effective mission linker, finding and killing this important Elite. One only effective once or twice 343 though, don't overuse it.
As I was saying fighting up to him was fun, save for this weird 5 minute chunk of the mission where they send so many grunts out from the left side. They just kept and kept coming. But I got through it, killed the Elite and all was good.
And then the mission went on for another 20 minutes of dropships and lots of Elites and lots of jackals and some hunters and here are some weapons but they're so far away they're useless to you until you die and the game spawns you there.
I... went from having a great time to a poor one.
One big tough way of enemies after killing him, an Elite hit squad or something would have been far better than so many waves, they just kept on coming, god!
The first 3 were played on Legendary with 2 people.
The last 2 were played on Heroic by myself.
It started off well, the two of us dropped a side way and engaged in some fun vs Covies combat. A few FRG here and there, but we got past it, enjoyed our time. Reached a bunch of UNSC kit, got into Scorpions and kind of instantly died to Wraiths thanks to our positioning at the time. Now if this was campaign, we'd go back to a checkpoint and be given another crack at it. But no, we had to climb that kind of unfun challenge.
Sp Ops feel so much more trigger volumed than the Campaigns normally do. You know as soon as you take down the last one (or as happened on Vahalla, most of them) it'll fling more Dropships and Drop Pods at you. And the FRG Elites start increasing.
But we finish the mission and move on.
And the same is kind of repeated for the next mission. Clear the inital set of enemies and prepare for a boat load to drop in. Thankfully on Exile, they spare us from any vehicles. That was an alright mission, but not in anyway memorable (I had trouble remembering it out of five really, but my brain feels slightly melted after playing it. Halo 4 is so audiovisually taxing :-/).
Chapter 3, we arrive on Valhalla, have a fun initial clearing of the enemies, reach the pelican and before I could catch my breathe, enemies were right on top of us. I wish we'd be given a moment to not be standing in the open, right next to the pelican...
We fight through them, reach some Hunters. 4 hunters. Well that's cool isn't it? I don't recall 4 Hunters at once really. Oh.. some FRG Elites too at the same time. Oh... Christ.
Once we cleared the Elites I had a great time jumping around and trying to expose the Hunters for my partner to kill them, that WAS fun. Get through them and ... reach a Wraith on the left and a FRG Elite on the right...
FRG Elites should not be used where the player is going to be in a close-to-mid range scenario. The projectile just moves too quickly for you to react/move out of the way.
We clear them and eventually get inside, where the enemies spawned next of me. Seriously. They spawned right next to me. And so I was sword killed instantly.
:-/
We mopped them up (had fun here with near misses and saving each other - "Oh god oh god, wooah, thank you!"). And suddenly, in what I thought was a failure in pacing, the radar is filled with enemies. I've never seen so many on my radar at once. We were down in the underground bit of the bases trying to poke our head out and kill a few, but we just died and spawned out the bases where we eventually cleared them out.
I really think they should have saved that encounter for the opening of the next mission, because it was cool to see our radars filled with red. The actual fight was mediocre.
But so was pretty much all of mission 4. This one and the next went on way too long. I'm not sure if 343 do any balancing or pacing based on how many players are playing, but they really should.
The first bit of fighting your way out of Valhalla was good fun, I was able to grab the ghosts and make great use of them. The turrets you're turning on.... can't see beyond 20m and are therefore largely useless, and feel so out of place as I'm next to them nailing dudes with my Ghost guns and they aren't even registering they're there.
Fight through a few more waves and Palmer sends down "new toys" - a bunch of Mantis's, which mop up a lot of Hunters (they loved sending out 4 hunter packs and FRG Elites here, they loved it! It didn't do much to the Mantis). The spawn point, singular, on this mission seemed to be the river by the inner base, which was both a curse and a blessing depending on where the enemies were .e.g. spawning right next to a bunch of Elites - unfun, spawning next to a clear space, much handier. Eventually you just have to kill many many Banshees and Dropships, with banshees getting stuck in the base structure twice. It just felt pointless. The mantis could chew through them, and it wasn't particularly exciting. The Dropships would just hover and look so odd as they would be the last to be killed and just hover left and right over the river, doing nothing.
There's a weird note about the scripting too, every so often Palmer will say something like "Watch out Crimsion, a dropship!". But she'd say it every 6 or so dropships, as if this one new dropship was a surprise or in any way important. It just felt to bizarre and disconnected from what was going on.
The 5th and final mission was, probably the best. Well the first half of it. Fighting up to the Elite and finally killing him was mostly great fun. It was a neat and effective mission linker, finding and killing this important Elite. One only effective once or twice 343 though, don't overuse it.
As I was saying fighting up to him was fun, save for this weird 5 minute chunk of the mission where they send so many grunts out from the left side. They just kept and kept coming. But I got through it, killed the Elite and all was good.
And then the mission went on for another 20 minutes of dropships and lots of Elites and lots of jackals and some hunters and here are some weapons but they're so far away they're useless to you until you die and the game spawns you there.
I... went from having a great time to a poor one.
One big tough way of enemies after killing him, an Elite hit squad or something would have been far better than so many waves, they just kept on coming, god!
Overall, I am happier with Episode 3 over 1 & 2, they learned to focus less on bombastic explosions and "heart-pouding" pacing. They had some good firefights in there.
It's a mixed bag, but standing next to its brothers, it's a lot prettier.
P.S. I have no problem with them reusing any environments, it's not what matters.
That is amazing. Bravo's best video. His reaction...
NullPointer
Member
Seriously this. Ran into several of these guys last night, hiding behind rocks, holding perfectly still, only to break out a SAW or assassination when a lone spartan would cross their path. Absolutely annoying as shit, and is there no way whatsoever to spot a crouching camo user?
Does Promethean vision work against them? If so, I'll build a loadout dedicated to that purpose.
I don't see why they kept it as an AA. It would've worked so much better as a powerup. Same with PV.
"People will fall in love in Spartan Ops" - Frank
You know what that means. LOVE IS IN THE AIR.
Vire
Member
Spartan Ops Episode 3 had the best encounters yet.
However, it's still hard not to shake the feeling that these are leftover scraps from something else.
Reusing the multiplayer maps is kinda disappointing and the supposedly climatic battle where you have to
in the final chapter takes place at an area you have been to twice already (Campaign and Spartan Ops Episode 2, now 3).
Some of the dialogue remains hokey and corny as well. "Take out his cronies." What is this a 1920's mob movie?
I don't fault the designers, since these encounters were pretty memorable in their own right, but it would have been so much better with unique areas to play in.
Shame that they blew their load in Episode 1 in terms of new stuff. Have the feeling we'll be seeing lot's of familiar stuff from here on out. :/
For all the talk about such a large budget this game had, it's kinda puzzling to see so many corners cut in Spartan Ops.
However, it's still hard not to shake the feeling that these are leftover scraps from something else.
Reusing the multiplayer maps is kinda disappointing and the supposedly climatic battle where you have to
kill the Elite terrorist
Some of the dialogue remains hokey and corny as well. "Take out his cronies." What is this a 1920's mob movie?
I don't fault the designers, since these encounters were pretty memorable in their own right, but it would have been so much better with unique areas to play in.
Shame that they blew their load in Episode 1 in terms of new stuff. Have the feeling we'll be seeing lot's of familiar stuff from here on out. :/
For all the talk about such a large budget this game had, it's kinda puzzling to see so many corners cut in Spartan Ops.
Pictured is a Westboro Baptist Church counter protest. It's relevant for obvious reasons.
Are you having a laugh?
Edit - Yeah I thought so.
Fucking "epic love story", jesus fucking christ I despair sometimes.
I love how the camo guy doesn't actually move until Bravo acts like he's gonna take Bravo. Just stays still even when Bravo looks right at him.
NullPointer
Member
Playing through the campaign again makes me think there might have been two scenarios missing at least. And so many of them are stitched together with portals so they don't feel as cohesive as they might otherwise.
But in particular, the portal between
meeting the Librarian and being dropped into the middle of a tank battle near the gravity well
hanging onto the outside of the covenant ship following Didact, and boarding it before crashing into the research station. How cool would it have been to play a boarding action from outside of the ship in space?
Even still, I'd rather playable scraps than not having them at all. Reusing assets isn't a huge crime if the scenarios are fresh enough.
LAUGHTREY
Modesty becomes a woman
I thought so too at first, now I'm not so sure.
If they didn't want to do shit like this on purpose, why can't you change the ctf settings to classic/make weapons not despawn/anything else that you can't change in customs?
am dum
WHY did 343 think that Camo was a good idea? WHY??
Bregmann Roche
Member
Excellent video. Bravo has been doing great work since Halo 4 released. I'm still waiting for my TashiiiTV AR video...
A few nights ago in a game of King of the Hill on Abandon, I got an Overkill then announced to my teammates "well, I probably just screwed us over because the other team will all just instantly spawn together in the next hill". Prophet of Bregmann is what they call me now. We ended up losing that game by something like 10 seconds.
NullPointer
Member
Shake Appeal
Member
Playing Oddball with people who are casual/not gifted at Halo and they are, to a man, and without any prompting on my part, complaining about auto-pickup of the flag and ball.
Pop
Member
One second fix, has been known for about a week...
xxjuicesxx
Member
Camo users appear as part of the environment when seen in PV, annoying but I always turn it on whenever my radar gets the signs of camo users.
Hypertrooper
Member
I cannot wait to get it again. I hate the Flinch mechanic, always miss the final headset because of it. Yes. I am bad. :/
lybertyboy
Thinks the Evil Empire is just misunderstood.
Pop
Member
If you had no knowledge of this place and just so happened to stumble into this thread, you would leave knowing H4 is broken.
Hey I keep hearing give it time to get patches but hell 343i had 10 years of Halo info to know what works and what doesn't. I'm just so frustrated with this game.
Hey I keep hearing give it time to get patches but hell 343i had 10 years of Halo info to know what works and what doesn't. I'm just so frustrated with this game.
NullPointer
Member
Do they at least have spartan shaped outlines? At this point I'm looking for anything. I'll know a general area where one of these guys are hanging out, but feel powerless to do anything about it, start to run back into the battle and get assassinated for my troubles.
There's got to be something. But just spraying bullets wildly or tossing grenades will only work against campers in small cramped spaces. But out amid a cluster of rocks by your base in Ragnarok? What then? Just wait them out I guess?
The number of uses for Hologram is nigh endless. Every night I find a new technique to using it.
too much eslim
Member
I found out earlier today that the Hologram is extremely useful. I was on the wrong end of it, but I am really surprised by how much the Hologram is more useful in Halo 4.
However Does the AA efficiency allow people to spam 4 Holograms in less then 40 seconds?
However Does the AA efficiency allow people to spam 4 Holograms in less then 40 seconds?
Shake Appeal
Member
Never encountered the Complex glitch. Glad it's gone.
Did they fix the glitch on Complex? Haven't played in almost a week, I'd been staying out of Oddball because of that.
Edit: Oh apparently they did, good news.
Vire
Member
I just wanted to also mention that the Hunters vs Mantis was particularly fun solo on the fourth mission of Episode 3 in Spartan Ops.
Rarely if ever do you see more than two Hunters in a playspace in Halo (and for good reason), but with the proper tool (the Mantis) it was a joy to take them out like that. It felt fresh and unique - in the end it left me feeling kinda surprised the campaign didn't have a portion like this in it.
Overall, the enemy encounter design was much improved in Episode 3 and I hope to see some more of these "special" sandbox moments in the future. (As well as some more unique environments, but I already harped on that enough in my previous post).
Rarely if ever do you see more than two Hunters in a playspace in Halo (and for good reason), but with the proper tool (the Mantis) it was a joy to take them out like that. It felt fresh and unique - in the end it left me feeling kinda surprised the campaign didn't have a portion like this in it.
Overall, the enemy encounter design was much improved in Episode 3 and I hope to see some more of these "special" sandbox moments in the future. (As well as some more unique environments, but I already harped on that enough in my previous post).
Shake Appeal
Member
Best AA in Reach, even bester in Halo 4.
too much eslim
Member
You guys honestly can't see the camo or have problems with it? lol It is only hard to see from a distance plus it is easy to spot them on radar. Step up your game HaloGaf.
Bregmann Roche
Member
Hologram is fantastic as it counters PV and Camo (to varying degrees), which are two of the most annoying things in Halo 4. I haven't yet tried it with AA efficiency.
The P of Poland
Member
That one was by far the worst of them all. Endless Phantoms w/ Beam Rifle Machine Guns, Banshees, and Hunters. Terrible.
NullPointer
Member
You can spot them only when they're moving, visually and with the motion sensor. If they stay still and crouched they are invisible in seemingly every way, even up close, where they do their most annoying work.
too much eslim
Member
It was useful in Reach? I laughed when people did it in reach. I get caught way more than I would like to admit in Halo 4.
Don't think I was ever surprised by it in Reach.
Got it. Thanks!
too much eslim
Member
I must have good eyesight then lol (I don't though) However I never had an issue when encountering them. Honestly the only AA's that has given me trouble are the HLS on Adrift and the Hologram mainly on Haven.
It probably has more to do with the maps more so than the AA I think.
Stability is way better than dexterity. With stability you completely bypass a gameplay mechanic. Dexterity only speeds it up a little bit.
Ugh, I am going to be so frustrated when all snipers have stability and there is no stopping them :/
squidhands
Member
I prefer playing them solo on Heroic the first time. Feels like a nice, solid experience compared to some of the problems that only seem to happen with 4 people (missions are way too short, can't tell if I'm getting the kills, general poor connection, etc.).
That's awesome. Fuck camo and it's inclusion as an AA
lololol, you win, brah. We're all just chumps compared to your eagle eyes.
bobs...onGaf
Member
Taking on 4 hunters with Thrust is a LOT of fun.
AR Strat video? lol Maybe.
Also, I've noticed that since I've been trying a ton of different loadouts and starting weapons, I've not really perfected any of them. I'm constantly changing stuff that I can't keep up, I'm not playing as well as I know I can. What's that line? Jack of all trades, master of none? That's me right now. I'll probably keep doing this until I've unlocked each Specialization.
xxjuicesxx
Member
Yall a bunch of babies. I use camo all the time. Adapt.
too much eslim
Member
That is the thing though, my eye sight isn't all that great. You guys really can't see the distortion? Maybe all the camo players I've encountered have been bad players, but the only AA that have been giving me problems is the HLS and the Hologram.
The radar point them exactly where they are too so I never found them to be an issue.
too much eslim
Member
I have a friend who lives and die by the camo. He has no problem getting just 2 kills in a game as long as he keep his K/D up lol.
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