Most Loved Map Elements

How dare you list boarding action.

 

I liked the extreme verticality of prisoner, tho other elements are left wanting.

Rocket race with mongeese was always a good time (dat boost tho!)

Explodies with a purpose (ex. Pit splattering with cones)

 

Dynamic elements... H3 highground had alot of little touches that made the map feel alive, trap doors, swinging gates, deployable jump pad, and interactive gate switch.

 

-Ice Fields had a cool forerunner base design.
-Headlong's vehicle options and verticality offered variety.
-Rat's Nest let you drive around on the outside, or storm the inside.
-Tempest had nice open bases with man-cannons and a cool laser.
-Longbow had nice vehicle routes and UNSC bases.
-Spellbound is supremely pretty and lets you slide around its fun spiral paths.

 

And a crouching pipe through the wall for hiding, flanking or the occasional ninja.

 

Longbow was a pretty good btb map

 

I forgot about rats nest! I remember the frequency I played it grinding in squad battle tho God Damn.

 

Longhall on The Pit

 

Ew

Edit: that explains so much

 

The rest of Legion.

 

I can't help myself, its like a secret fetish for terrible gameplay. I just love fighting for them and how all players are funneling into one area making it a catastrophic, hyper action packed experience. Don't forget the stage one nade fest!

The Incineration Cannon spawn on Antifreeze was inspired by The Pit. The name location volume is even called 'Longhall'.

 

I really dislike long hall on The Pit, but probably for a different reason than most. I think something like it can work really well. I just hate where it is on The Pit.

One thing I really enjoy that I've found a lot of forgers don't like is the pink side of Midship. P2 and P3 control can often be the main factor in who wins a match on the map. It's the only map I can think of that implements an overpowered position in a way that works really well.

Midship is the map everyone refers to when they start talking about 2 base 2 tower maps. It's become synonymous with safe and boring level design. This is selling the map way short. I think most people overlook how many things it does exceptionally well. On top of the successful implementation of an overpowered area, it's probably the best super small map ever when it comes to spawning and lines of sight. It also has a lot of both long and short range fights, while still creating really interesting battles in the medium range, where players are almost always at different elevations, and moving both vertically and horizontally. So yeah, Pink side of Midship is one of my most loved map elements.

 

I liked the bridges in Swordbase. Vertical advantage with limited motion... I also liked the top of reflection for basically the same reason, although I think its reward was less great. The side access routes on Reflection were good though.

I liked The Pit towers, although I don't like the access points for them (too long or too loud). But I like how they can see each other and long sight lines while leaving a lot still covered.
One of my favorite elements is when there's an unexpected place you can be. One of my favorite things to do on Boardwalk was to hop up on the grassy areas with active camo and a sniper. So areas that are walls to the paths but are in themselves areas with high sightlines I always think are cool.

It's hard for me to justify some of these bc Reach was my favorite Halo gameplay, map, and art-wise and 5 is much more like 1-3 than it is like Reach...

Um High Ground and Last Resort were two of my favorite maps in 3, I liked the ocean (Valhalla too), basically I like maps that have a bit of life without going overboard and being practically shaped entirely by nature. Maps that have bases that work with the environment and use it to their advantage... especially open to the air, not closed off from the world. I like when there are defined bases, too, rather than just a sort of starting point that could be arbitrary in the map. I like when the bases feel like actual bases, but if the starting spawn isn't/doesn't feel like an actual base, I don't like when it's treated like one. Last stand has good bases, valhalla has okay bases although I always think they're missing a little something, but like eden/empire and the one on the space station or frozen in 5 (gah, so unmemorable... especially with basically reusing map aesthetics), those "bases" don't feel like bases to me. There's hardly any reason to use them, especially for protection of any sort. Bases should generally offer a little protection and slight advantage to someone who's in the base to defeat someone who's trying to storm it, given the same weapons. I do think Valhalla does a great job of this, there's just something lacking... maybe that thing is a good team lol