Halo 4 is probably one of the most anticipated games this year; fans just can’t seem to wait until November to get their hands on the next entry in one of the most iconic franchises in the FPS genre. But as the game’s release inches closer, fans are also becoming a little bit more nervous.
Halo 4 is developed by 343 Industries and will be the first game in the series not worked on by Bungie, the studio that ushered it into greatness. While this is enough to make some people skeptical about the success of the game, the leaked achievement list, which reveals Halo 4 will only have eight missions, has a lot of once-excited gamers now shaking their heads and asking, “Why 343i? Why?” This has prompted 343 Industries boss Frank O’Connor to respond to fan concerns about Halo 4.
Posting as “Stinkles” on the NeoGAF forums, O’Connor has stated that the “number of missions [on Halo 4] has no bearing on the length of the campaign. It’s a Halo sized campaign. PLUS Spops [Spartan Ops] etc.” 343 Industries designer David Ellis corroborated this, posting under username “lybertyboy,” and said that Spartan Ops DLC alone is “longer than [Halo] ODST.”
Spartan Ops DLC is a new story-driven game mode that will replace the Firefight mode which was featured in Halo 3: ODST and will allow players to go at it on their own or cooperatively with up to 3 other players. The first season of Spartan Ops promises five new objectives (with cinematics) every week for 10 weeks. And the entirety of this, Ellis claims, will provide more content than Halo 3: ODST.
I think this should relieve some of the panic Halo fans are feeling right now and should bring back some of the excitement for the November 6 release date.