"The memory of those who have asserted their courage on this ancient structure will last through the ages."
DESCRIPTION
This map is an attempt to fill the gap between the old school and the new era Halo games. Trying to catch the essence of Halo CE mixed with the architecture of Halo 2 and the game mechanics of Halo 5, I present to you: Memento.
Memento is a mirrored symmetrical map taking place on Installation 06 of the Halo Array, supporting 4v4 competitive games and FFA. In fact, it's a 1-1 scale remixed version of Halo 2 campaign mission Regret's underwater temple, adding some new aesthetics and technological assets while improving the layout for H5 gameplay. The map is emplaced on a snowy-frozen environment as a remembrance of Halo CE.
Memento trailer video
The Gravemind Community Memento gameplay (4:55)
GAMEPLAY
Each team's base features two energy shields that can be depleted and restored for offensive and defensive strategies, the switch is located at mid of each team's main room. The rest of the layout speaks by itself while being an exact remake of Halo 2's campaign. Just few improvements were added to adapt it to Halo 5 mechanics like two bridges (to join the lateral sides of the map while providing cover to the semi-open mid area) and the top of the bases were made playable to provide fire cover to each side of the bases and prevent spawn trapping inside the bases. Memento is founded on a Forerunner architecture, so weapons are in their majority Forerunner, but wanted to include some H2 basic weapons as the BR and the Plasma Rifle. The map supports every team based and FFA core gametypes like Slayer, CTF, Assault and Strongholds.
Memento overview
NOTES
With lot of ideas sprouting on my mind, I wanted to accomplish the one I've always had the intention to do. Since the first time I played the Halo 2 campaign I noticed the great potential that Regret's underwater temple layout had, so I made it reality. Like I said before, I just didn't want to remake the building but to gave it a twist to create a nostalgic and full embracing ambience. While giving it all these characteristics, it creates a unique and awesome experience. I always want to offer a immersive experience for the players, so besides the layout it features an extraordinary work of lighting and effects like a working forerunner beam, flying sentinels, even Installation 06's monitor 16807 can be watched passing by.
In the creation of Memento I took a serious design process which involves scouting the building on Halo 2's campaign mission in oder to get scales, aesthetic and geometry references, then I proceeded to model the layout on Sketchup using Halo 5 units. This last part saved me an incredibly amount of time because I already had the exact pieces I needed for the map geometry. The rest was the outcome of personal knowledge and research on Forerunner's architecture.
Initial sketches / Model axonometric / Model perspective
CREDITS
Special thanks to @DC Valorstrike , The Gravemind Community members and my crew at Achievement Hunters for helping test this map for positive improvements based on feedback.
Prefabs:
Sentinel -by Spine Crush3r
Closed Sentinel Entry -by @Ryouji Gunblade
War Sphinx -by @K27R
Hope everyone enjoys it! Any feedback you want to provide will be appreciable. AB out!