So I was browsing the forums, and saw a post from A Chunky that caught my attention Personally, Im not a huge fan of midship and dont get the love as much as others. Which asks the questions....What is your favourite map, and why? (Feel free to add on a favourite forge map too). Detailed posts are encouraged and welcomed. Anyone saying "just my opinion" gets handed a ban.
Favourite map? Prisoner. There's something about the blending of vertical elements, the unorthodox z-shape, multitude of powerups and weapons, and interesting dynamic player encounters that maps the map amazing to me. Only downside to it, lacks random spawns so games can get a bit nasty in CE. Second favourite? Construct King. Just like the way hill played on that map. Nexus King was pretty good too (similar style), but Construct really was the King. Aside from that one gametype though, map sucked balls. Honestly, I'm tired of the 2B2T genre... But I'll take that over uninspiring cookie-cutter asymm designs such as the boxes-in-boxes bollocks the forge community has pumped out for ages or the unintelligible cluster-****ed messes that seem to be the rage now. At least the 2B2T excels at something amazingly well, where as the latter choices appeal more to design snobs.
Damnation for me. Always enjoyed a map with high verticality to it, constant levels to fight on, multiple ways to approach the map as an individual and a team, worked excellent with CE, ZB Reach, CEA and GP Reach. Lots of cool nade trick potential, and faily unique in the series. As for forge maps, not sure if Downrush counts. Enjoyed Titan in Halo 4 greatly and Oversoul in Reach. Titan with doubles extraction was superb, all 5 points offering a different playstyle due to the maps geometry. Oversoul was a linear map that worked amazingly well with bomb, think Station 9 but done right.
Rat Race- I really enjoy the amount of teamwork this map takes in a competitive. I like how it is important to put a guy in tunnel to help control spawning as well as how it can put you in really good position to pinch. I also like how it linear nature makes flanking with teleporters a constant thought in a players mind. Also there are no power weapons and only power ups. I say this because I love the pistol. I only think there is only like one or two randoms on this map as well that helps emphasize teamwork. Damnation/Chill Out- I love the amount of baiting that happens on both these maps as well as how spawning makes what would be otherwise be terrible positions good places to move to as well as hold. One of my favorite things to do is sit by the health pack random spawn with sniper bottom middle on Chill Out. It is really nice if someone is baiting or sitting rockets because their teammate just keeps spawning within that room because there are so many spawns there.
I would say Prisoner, but since shnitzel already took that one, ill just say Epicenter (Just my opinion!)
I don't think it's fair to pick one map since each game plays so differently. Same for BTB. It's a cop-out but whatever. CE-Hang 'Em High/sidewinder H2-Ascension/headlong H3-The Pit/rat's nest Reach-Powerhouse/highlands H4-Landfall/perdition Obviously these aren't the maps I think are best in the most competitve sense, just ones I enjoy to play. I guess I really enjoy larger assymetrical maps. I didn't list Zanzibar or Highground but I must say the attack/defend fortress style of map is one of my favorite to play and I would go so far to say it's my favorite map archetype. That being said maps like Powerhouse and Ascension also scratch that itch. If I had to pick just one map, I might say Zanzibar/Last Resort because it has a good deal of hight variation and various ranges of encounters. I enjoy slayer on it and it can be played with varying team sizes. It supports attack/defend Gametypes which I find very enjoyable as well as supporting the full sandbox. It's a map that supports vehicles and also enjoyable vehicle play while also leaving pleanty of viable vehicle-free routes. Maybe not my favorite map to play but a good all around map for casual enjoyment that has replayability. Honorable mentions: Prisoner, The Creeks, Most H2 BTB maps, The three C's (colossus, construct, countdown), and lastly Lockout and Guardian. PS- just realized I said I like large assymetrical maps without saying: Yes these maps are fun with assymetrical gametypes, but screw playing symmetrical gametypes on assymetrical maps. <--- screwed up a lot of things in h4 but at a casual matchmaking level this was one of the worst. Symmetrical CTF on complex and abandon made me nearly homicidal. EDIT: On the 2b2t discussion. I never loved midship, in fact I never really liked it. But that being said, if it or some version of it is always in competitve settings so be it, just as long is it one map among several and of those several maps it is the only midship. Personally I think midships should only be used for flag and bomb. If that's the case then fine.
Since I'm already quoted in the OP, I'll elaborate a tiny bit... Midship is my favorite map simply because of its flexibility. It's not the best map for any gametype (except maybe FFA), but plays several gametypes REALLY well. If I had to choose a map for only one gametype, I'd go with either Slayer on Prisoner or Snipers on Boarding Action.
I'm just gonna list my favorite map from each game because picking an all time favorite is kinda hard. CE - Prisoner is by far my favorite, But Damnation is up there. H2 - Sanctuary favorite overall. Headlong favorite BTB H3 - Guardian by a long shot. High Ground is pretty close though Reach - Countdown. Zealot in a close second. H4 - Definitely Skyline. Vertigo is also pretty cool.
All this prisoner love is making me sick. The map is like playing amplified in h3. You are always spawning and shooting immediately. Except you can shoot people through the floor. I honestly prefer Derelict because I don't have to move my cursor as mush to react to people shooting me from above when I spawn. Nothing is worse in CE than someone getting rockets and camo on Chill Out though.
Had a discussion a while back, with who I can't remember, about how Construct is just a shitty Ivory Tower.
Prisoner is a really cool vertical map, but the spawning completely ruins it for me. With my experience of spawning mere feet away from enemy players, in plain view of a million powerful sightlines from the atrium, I can barely consider the map to be playable. Unfortunately when it comes to CE, I think a lot of people are blinded by nostalgia. I'm not claiming that anyone in this thread is guilty of it per se, but its a recurring theme I've seen. This is particularly the case when it comes to BTB. Blood Gulch is a bad map. The ridiculously open design where vehicles roam around vast open spaces and infantry hide from them in exterior caves and tunnels shared by Blood Gulch and other bad BTB maps is what's responsible for the false assumption that BTB and vehicles don't have a place in competitive Halo. In CE, my favorites would probably have to be Damnation and Timberland (Timberland was the lesser evil of BTB designs in that game). For H2, I think I'd have to go with Ascension for small team and Headlong for big team. For Halo 3, I think I'd go with Guardian (but I love me some Ghost Town too) and Standoff. Reach didn't ship with a single BTB map except for atrocious forge variants. Tempest was a solid DLC map, but I still can't count it as a favorite. I really liked Powerhouse, though. Halo 4's map pool was a travesty, but Daybreak at least could have been a good BTB map if it were set up properly and played with good settings.
Before Battlefield, there was Blood Gulch. It's like "hey, here's the entire vehicle sandbox. have at it!"
It has such a unique theme and is a great map for one-sided objective and FFA. It's a really underrated map.
Halo 1: Damnation and Prisoner are godsend. Halo 2: It'd be a sin to not mention Lockout. Ivory Tower is kool gui. And Colossus. Halo 3: Everything but Snowbound Isolation and Epitaph Halo 4: Nothing Halo 5: Nothing Reach: Powerhouse and Nothing Else