I figured since this is map design discussion, this was the appropriate place. What is your favorite map from any FPS, and why? (geometry, environment, structure, memories, innovation, etc.) OnSlaughT is a given, so let's exclude that masterpiece from the discussion.
Favorite Map in Halo Reach: Asylum and Uncaged -I've been there the most and its fun Favorite Map in Black Ops: NukeTown -I've been there the most and I suck at any other map Favorite Map in MW3: Dome -Only one I've played on Favorite Map in Halo 2: Beaver Creek -Only one I played on Favorite Map in Modern Combat 2: Temple -Its small Thats about it.
Reach. None Halo 3. Guardian Halo 2. Terminal Halo combat evolved. Chiron tl35 CoD 4. Chinatown Mw2. Trailer Park Bf3. Damavand Peak (rush and TDM) seine crossing (conquest) I feel each one of these either had a very original setting, like Chinatown, a cool gameplay concept, the skydive of damavand, or just very clean memorable gameplay like terminal or guardian. The reason that I didn't choose one for reach is because it has no standout maps. Their environments are basic, and their gameplay is pretty flawed. My hope is for 4.
Overdoziz, don't be an ass. It would be great if you could elaborate on why exactly those are your favorite maps.
Reach: Boneyard MW3: Don't know MW2: Terminal? Cod4: Shipment Halo 3: Valhalla Halo 2: Ascension Black Ops: Well that wasn't a good game. No good maps either.
Reach: Powerhouse Halo: Reach is when I started to really appreciate good design and Powerhouse demonstrated that exactly. It may not be obvious with a dull aesthetic, but an excellent layout still remains. Movement options and clear power-positions made for a solid 4v4 map that could accommodate many objective types. This is not only my favorite map of Reach, it's also up there when it comes to the whole trilogy. Halo 3: Construct I must admit, most of my fascination of this map came from countless hours of MLG. It may not have been great for Slayer, but it truly shined when it came to KotH. Especially with the bottom hill. This is where proper set-ups were rewarded and that alone makes it my favorite map of Halo 3. Halo 2: Headlong Back in a time where I could appreciate BTB, Headlong fell into my list of favorite Halo 2 maps well... Headlong. When other large maps were content being two bases with dead space in between, Headlong offered diverse gameplay to Halo. Building-to-building engagements coupled with cross-map paths like the crane was my favorite thing, other than, you know, you're in a CITY! Halo CE: Chillout What can I say? Chillout still inspires me to this day. To be honest, I didn't really like the roster of maps in Halo CE. Unlike most maps back then, Chillout was fast but paced, complex but easy to learn, dull but it found itself embracing it's look with a chill atmosphere. This was my introduction to asymms. It also seems more quake-ish than the others, thats gotta count for something. Team Fortress 2: Hightower One of the most dynamic maps Valve has made for it class-based shooter. One look at Hightower and you can just see soldiers rocket-jumping while scouts and pyros patrol the bottom, engineers setting up in their respective bases; Action was everywhere. There was never a dull moment at Hightower, it had a place for everyone. Hightower is the epitome of TF2 map design and that's why it's my favorite TF2 map. Counter-Strike: Dust2 It's Dust2, do I really need to explain it. Quake: ??? Too many maps to choose.
Thank you, Career. Most people seem to be missing the point of the thread. I am asking for the reason that the maps appeal to you. When we study other successful designs, it prepares us to create one of our own. But If we just post a list of maps, that goes against the purpose of the thread.
Its a mix up between Lockout in Halo 2, or Terminal in mw2 Lockout is just a classic for 1v1, and i basically learned how to play halo on that map, it just brings back so much nostalgia every time i play it. The layout was just fun and didn't get boring. Terminal does the same, and i thought the gameplay on it was great, because there was never a time where you had to go the same way you did last life, It was full of ins and outs and made the game awesome, i have the version in mw3 though, its the same, but mw3fags are annoying as ****.
ANY fps? I choose Temple Tournament from Jedi Outcast II. Map was so bad ass at the time with multiple huge ass stadiums, and a complex catacombs. CTF on that **** was boss. The few pics I could find on the interwebz don't serve much justice: Spoiler
Halo CE | Downrush (by Ponytar and sicfish): Best 2v2 design I know of. Simple as that. Quake | qztourney7 aka Furious Heights: A tri-atrium map that has three very solid atriums with a bunch of very intuitive connecting routes between the three. Quake | ztntourney1 aka Bloodrun: Watching two pros duke it out on this map is just amazing. Here's just one quick example of said games: Map 5 - Quakecon 2010 Grand Final: cooller vs cypher (Blood Run) - YouTube Black Ops | Summit: Damn good Call of Duty map that manages to allow one team's side to be located on the highest elevation, yet be balanced enough to play CTF and Domination, while also being a blast to play on. Nexuiz | Strength: A very solid vertical design that played very dynamically at even the highest levels of play. There are so many more but it's early and I'm blanking.
Halo holds most of my favorite maps, so I'll touch on games that are outside of the franchise. UT3: "Sentinel" video Really interesting pathways for a 1v1 map. Great flow system, there's something about the gameplay that really resonates with me. Lots to draw from here. Quake: "DM12 - Spirit Place" video There are so many great Quake maps, Hazmat, house of decay, etc. But there's something really fantastic about DM12. The verticality, pathways and acrobatics are really enjoyable. Love the lift to get red armor (crazy snipe paradise there) and the underwater tunnel for powerups is different. Goldeneye: "Complex" & "Facility" These maps aren't noteworthy in terms of design but there was something fantastic with the game settings in these spaces. Proximity mines on "Bunker" was great too, spawn traps with mines I mostly pull ideas for design by looking at other maps but these are some that I enjoy playing.
Timesplitters 2/3: Disco It was a very hectic, but fun FFA map. In terms of Halo, it would be a conventional 1v1 layout (I forged this a while ago actually), but there's nothing like playing deathmatch on a solid map with great aesthetics and great music.
Well my favorite map has to be toxicity from quake. I just really enjoy how all the connections work on that map. Wow, this is harder than it looks. I will come back later when i am not at work with some more.
Long post ahead. I can really only discuss Halo since I haven't spent much time in the multiplayer of any other FPS (I've played some CoD multi, but I don't think their maps have particularly interesting or good designs at all). From CE, my favorites would be Damnation and Chill Out. In both cases I like the mix of ranges you have to master to be really good at the map - you might very quickly go from firing through hallways and between rooms at long range, to fighting someone right on top of you. Chill Out has a very underrated design: it's room-based with two central areas and lots of areas of different sizes and elevations, and with varying number of points of entry, and yet action moves around in most games and seldom just stagnates in one area. It's a very good room-based map, seemingly one of the easiest sort to emulate in forge map-making, yet so many forged maps follow the same basic outlines and come up way short. Damnation is similar with a larger footprint and less claustrophobic feel, and made for very fun 1-flag games thanks to the extremely varied ways to get from red team's flag back to blue's capture point. I've come to realize now that the map has one major design flaw (all traffic to the upper level is forced through two extremely tiny choke points that are easily guarded by a good team) but in our chaotic games back in the day this was seldom an issue, and I think a good re-imagining of the map could easily account for that without heavily compromising the basic design. In Halo 2, Lockout (duh). The sheer genius of Lockout is how all traffic has to flow through the middle, either upstairs or down, if it wants to move between the two halves of the map, but this ends up making for fun and tense games rather than the feeling of being bottlenecked all the time. (I tried to emulate this basic principle in a map I forged for Reach, and ended up adding a couple more ways to move through the middle; Lockout is unappreciated for pulling off something basically impossible, and I think part of the secret is that the middle area is mostly a very undesirable place to be, and a lot of the positions that let you cover the middle are pretty vulnerable in their own right, so it's hard to just sit in one place and control those avenues.) And then Midship of course is one of the apex arena-style maps in the Halo universe. It illustrates beautifully how a thoughtful design can be incredibly simple and still work, and make for highly interesting games. I love the balancing act pulled off with the top areas and sword bridge (all of which is powerful as high ground tends to be, but vulnerable and not overpowered), and the base design is smart with plenty of points of entry, yet enough cover and available positions for defensive-minded players to hole up for at least a few moments. It's also a good CTF map despite the flag locations being physically not that far apart, and that's just smart design - your most protected routes are the longer ones around the outside; dropping straight out of the middle is quickest but extremely exposed and dangerous, and forces you to reroute to get to the cap point. Great map. Last, I would single out the immortal Sanctuary - many a forger would benefit from trying to understand how such a butt-simple design could work so well for competitive play, and how an obvious hotspot like ring1/ring2 doesn't just become a cluster**** every single game. In Halo 3, Valhalla takes first place for realizing my best wishes for a BTB map: it's Blood Gulch but slightly more broken up and segregated. Still a great vehicle and snipe map, but the hills and rocks give infantry with BRs only a fighting chance and greater freedom of movement. Not to mention the base design is superior to the Gulch's death-bunkers, and the mancannons beat the more readily-camped teleporters for quick exits (which are needed in BTB for objective-running and moving out of the base on respawn). I also appreciate Guardian for making one improvement to the Lockout design: the one-way mancannons on the map's "arms" widen movement so you aren't forced through the center, and reinforce a certain flow around the map that ends up making the best games so fun and fast-paced. The OS tower is somewhat of a flawed design (too campable) but that's a minor knock on the map as a whole. Finally I appreciate The Pit for what seems like a dunderheaded design idea (divide a square in half with a big wall, then poke some holes in it) and making a map I love for both flag and team slayer. The genius of it is how combat flows between the two sides, frequently shifting back and forth (or right in the middle as the teams battle for control of the choke points and power weapons/power-ups), and the strategic use of the sword room is one of my favorite little details. In Reach, I've really come to appreciate the flow and competitiveness of Zealot, though only the one with the soft kill in space - what they were thinking in letting people just hang out up there originally, I have no idea. Using it as an escape route that you can only be in temporarily has so changed the map's play for the better. That they couldn't implement the same fix in objective games (not to mention the broken spawning in CTF) is a shame, but I love the map for slayer. A near runner-up would be Countdown, despite the dominance of the two close-range power weapons; in particular I just enjoy the many varied lines of sight through all those windows and doors, and the perpetual battle for top health pack or balcony control (sprinkled with an occasional team deciding to hold the two lift rooms and sword bridge instead). It's a complicated map that took me longer than usual to understand, and sometimes the amount of sword/shotty kills frustrates me, but I still like it a lot.
Mine is from a game you probably have never heard of, but it's Harbor from 007:Agent Under Fire. Gameplay was super nice and it had interesting geometry in it. I might remake it in Halo 4. And of course, the video. James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire, Multiplayer Mode, Free For All - YouTube
@Ben: Disco is definitely a sick map. @Nutduster: Damnation is a truly awesome design. If I was to give a one sentence response as to why Damnation is such a great map, it would be "It is the epitome of risky design." @Berb: I was a fan of Chinese as well, but the dead-end hallways really hurt the map. [br][/br]Edited by merge: Timesplitters:* Training Ground: The map that turned me into a multiplayer fan. This map was a simple two base, but it was divided by a large rock wall which gave the map a U shaped layout. The transition area was bottleneck, while each team's territory was open. The unforgettable feature of the map was the waterfall at the neutral point. Timesplitters 2 showcase: Training Ground - YouTube Chasm: The first complex map that I wholeheartedly embraced. The structure was very similar to Boarding Action, but with hard connections, and a sequence of rooms. I loved the lines of sight to the multiple floors overlapped on the other side. This map really opened my eyes to the strengths/weaknesses of complexity/simplicity. The main feature of this map was the narrow bridges spanning over the abyss. Timesplitters 2 showcase: Chasm - YouTube Quake:* Arena of Death: The first Quake map I have ever seen. A fast paced map with varying lines of sight. Has characteristics of room based maps, but without the line of sight restrictions. An example of simplicity executed brilliantly. The main feature of this map is the furnace-like structure facing the rocket atrium. Quake 3 - Tier 1 : Arena of Death - YouTube Lost World: The first time I layed eyes on this map, I was fascinated by the sudden change of nature from the interior to the exterior of the map. In the interior, you will find yourself in a tight hallway that will lead you to the room connecting all routes of the interior layout. In the exterior, you will find yourself in an open atrium with multiple overlapping tiers that connect to the interior layout. The main feature of this map is the lava pit and the layered floors. Duel on Lost World by Cypher vs guard - YouTube Halo:* Wizard: The most versatile map that Bungie has designed. From 1v1 to 4v4, from Slayer to Flag, this map did it all. The main feature of this map is the four two way teleporter system that enabled it to play at such a fast pace. Lockout: I have spent more time on this map, than I have playing Reach matchmaking/customs. My best Halo memories were during the endless hours of FFA on Lockout. The sheer amount of depth the map had is what made those endless hours possible. *It was also the best Oddball map to be played on the circuit. The main feature of this map was the chilly atmosphere. Gears of War:* Ruins: The most versatile design Epic has designed. Ruins has an inverse symmetrical layout that presents each team with three options (flamethrower, longshot, and frags) each option having it's own strengths/weaknesses. The characteristic that sets this map apart from the rest, is how the routes interact due to clever line of sight management. Not to mention it is one of the few maps of the series that doesn't have dead end spawns. The feature of this map is the rotating objects encasing prisoners being held over a large pit of acid. Gears of War 2: AmazYn vs Release (Ruins) - YouTube
@xzamplez's lost world vid Is it just me, or is the only way around the red armor area to drop down, collect, drop down again, and go through the teleporter? Or is there another way around? That was the only way I saw used during the match...