Spartan Ops

Spartan Ops is an episodic cooperative campaign that appears in Halo 4 as part of the Infinity game mode in lieu of Firefight. It allows up to four players to play cooperatively. Though it is designed primarily as a cooperative experience, Spartan Ops can be played solo as well. It follows the SPARTAN-IV units Fireteam Majestic and Fireteam Crimson on their many missions. Missions intertwines directly with events in the main Halo 4 campaign, expanding on the story of the UNSC Infinity and her crew, who interacted with John-117 during the series; this new mode is being likened to a second full-scale campaign for the game.

343 Industries supports additional Spartan Ops missions for months after launch of the game and players will have the opportunity to play from the beginning of the episodic campaign regardless of when they started playing. The first season is included with the price of the game, though 343 Industries has not ruled out charging players for additional Spartan Ops seasons. Frank O'Connor has stated that it will "bridge the gap" between the events of Halo 4 and the future release of its sequel, Halo 5.

Features
Each week, players with an Xbox LIVE Gold membership will have access to a cutscene that will tell the story of the 's mission, set six months after the events of the campaign. Each new story component will have five objective-based missions to go along with it. The missions offer new content, as well as challenges to complete for each week.

Production note

 * The weekly cinematics are animated by the British studio Axis Animation.
 * Prior to the adoption of the photorealistic CGI used in the final game, Spartan Ops episodes were to be accompanied by stylized motion comics akin to those featured in the Terminals.