It may be hard to believe, but almost five years has passed since the Master Chief was left tumbling through space at the close of Halo 3. Understandably, fans of the franchise and character have high hopes of the story that 343 Industries will be telling (not to mention the new trilogy being launched) with the campaign of Halo 4. After concerns recently arose that the singleplayer portion of the game would be lacking in length, those within the studio have set the record straight.
Not only will Halo 4 be just as long and in-depth as Bungie’s past releases, but the episodically-released season of co-op campaign coming with Spartan Ops will contain even more content than Halo 3: ODST.
The concerns all started after the Halo 4 achievements list was released by 343 Industries, revealing that the singleplayer campaign would be built around only eight Missions. While that doesn’t give any indication as to the exact length of each respective mission or total game time, some online began to voice skepticism that the new development team would be delivering a lengthy, varied experience. Given the increased emphasis that has been placed on the new UNSC Infinity multiplayer systems, those feelings weren’t completely unfounded.
Fans took to NeoGAF to discuss the potential reveal of a shortened campaign, where Halo Franchise Director Frank O’Connor appeared to allay fears. Commenting under the name ‘Stinker,’ O’Connor claimed that the number of missions had “no bearing” on the overall length of the game itself, stating that Halo 4′s campaign would absolutely be “Halo sized.” Not to mention all of the additional story beats being integrated into the multiplayer and Spartan Ops.
343′s David Ellis elaborated further, explaining that those who had feared a repeat of the somewhat shorter campaign of Halo 3: ODST had nothing to worry about, since the Spartan Ops campaign “alone is longer than ODST.” How is that possible with limited resources? Ellis explains:
“Spartan Ops and Campaign are completely separate teams. As Frank mentioned earlier, the main campaign is substantial and will compare favorably with previous entries in the series.”
Nobody had been doubting the size or scope of Spartan Ops, with over fifty missions in the first season confirmed, spread out through groups of five ten-to-fifteen-minute missions each week. But to hear the amount of content directly compared to a game that Halo fans likely have had some experience with speaks volumes. It’s hard to tell if the Spartan Ops season will live up to the same consistency of narrative or storytelling aspirations, but everything we’ve seen so far looks poised for success. And that’s not even getting to the greater mystery of the role played by Majestic Squad’s Gabriel Thorne.
Whether 343 can release a Halo title that rivals those previously-released – or if that’s even possible, given the power of nostalgia – remains to be seen, but at least the campaigns offered will offer at least as much gameplay as fans have come to expect.
Halo 4 will be released on November 6, 2012, exclusively for the Xbox 360.
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Time will tell.
halo 3 only went for around 8-10 hours no ? i dont expect there to be this super long sandbox style campaign (that bungie lied about halo reach being) but i dont want it to be like CoD where by the time you turn the console on the game is already finished
the reason fans would be pretty pissed is b/c there has always been a nice balance between sp modes and mp, if they focus more on mp this time around then it will sum up fans hears of microsoft wanting to appeal to the mass market (CoD fans) by emphasising mp over sp (or balancing both like bungie did).
I’m a Call of Duty fan but I agree, Halo is still the superior game and it shouldn’t try to emulate Call of Duty in anyway. Halo is about a great single player first.
well the halo series has always had a nice balance between fun/engaging narrative and fun/engaging mp/co-op. the reason some butt hurt ‘fans’ are hating on 343′s take on the series is b/c they (343) have made the game more like CoD with the load outs, almost instant respawns etc. like i said if the sp is short and boring/repetitive then it will confirm that microsoft is worse then EA in wanting to compete with the ‘best’ in the fps market.
So we should expect the campaign to have as much longevity as the previous titles. Well that’s comforting… considering the fact that the previous titles were all lacking a campaign packed with content. Seriously, I and a lot of others were expecting a longer campaign with even more of an intense storyline instead of a COD campaign in size and only slightly more depth. Very dissapointing to hear that Halo 4 is following suit with the “Only multiplayer matters” attitude. Not expecting a Skyrim but was expecting more then eight missions were all othe titles have had around the ten to twelve margin and they were still short games.
i watched the ign video and he said its just about as long as halo odst so but not longer than halo 3 so roughly 9 to 10 hours give or take
Well the days of the great first person shooter campaigns are far behind us.Replaced by the never ending demand for more live MP content.Which is a good thing in and of itself.
There is a need for a new campaign game experiences in the industry.One where new content can be added as time passes.Would this be a money maker?has this been tried before?
After trying to play through the latest version of MOH campaign/garbage.A good campaign is needed.
If the campaign is short on this it will prove that regardless of what Microsoft says the MC is still floating in space, he’s just dreaming. Man I hope that they try more than just a short hiccup storyline to flesh out the MP. Aside from Mass Effect most studios are doing just that, and its getting to the point where some gamers are ready to go back and replay good old titles until good new ones finally launch. The last thing 343 needs in their resume is a tag line of “remember remember the 6th of November, the lies, the hype, the lack of plot….”
just because cod sells the best doesnt make it the best. most ‘gamers’ nowadays are mindless and stupid and dont have the ability to think outside the objective of what do i shoot next. rather than focusing on what great games were. with stories with length and are told well. so halo jumped on that bandwagon quicker than an alcoholic at a liquor store. good to see them making a change, hopefully.
just because cod sells the best doesnt make it the best. most ‘gamers’ nowadays are mindless and stupid and dont have the ability to think outside the objective of what do i shoot next. rather than focusing on what great games were. with stories with length and are told well.
hi there 15,000 rpm hard drive means you finish your game faster