I'm sure there are those of you who, like me, lost countless hours in the mid-90s to a game series by the name of Marathon. Who waged vicious battles over Appletalk networks against fellow Vidmasters. If you are one of those people, then you already know exactly what this map is. This is not a homage, this is not my take on the map, this is House of Pain. The definitive arena. Painstakingly re-created at 1:1 scale, exactly the way you remember it right down to weapon and player spawns. Those of you who were not able to experience the Marathon Trilogy can now enjoy House of Pain for Halo: Reach. House of Pain is a large, open arena with three tiers: the center field, a moat around the entire circumference, and a high ledge circling the entire map. The weapon layout focuses on high-damage weapons like the shotgun and rocket launcher, brutally punishing any players who stand still for too long. In Marathon, House of Pain was designed to be an arena for Slayer, KotH and Oddball. Not content to let it sit at that, I have added and playtested support for every single gametype. Hopefully this re-creation can live up to the map it was inspired by. Let the carnage begin.
This looks like it would be a kickass grifball arena, I'll be sure to test this when I can get on my box. In the original, were the trenches filled with water, or some other type of liquid, or were they empty like in your remake, 'cause that makes me curious
The trenches were and are completely empty. They provide another route around the arena (albeit a sometimes less than optimal one thanks to low-flying explosives) and have lifts at the red and blue sides of the arena. Just for kicks, here's the original map in Marathon-era Forge so you can get a good view of the layout.
Look pretty fun and hectic for sure. From an aesthetics standpoint the only thing I may have tried differently is you said it's surrounded by a "moat" so I may have tried to have a bit of water around the edges by building the map lower. But since that doesn't impact gameplay at all I still say this looks very nice.
Im DLing ht now! Marathon is so good and even though the gameplay doesn't translate to Halo I must get this! Its hard for me to get into a remake project so kudos for picking up this one! Make Mars Needs Women next! I was gonna but Ill prolly never get around to it. -------- Edit: Ok I have been playing this in custom games on oddball. You people should try it out! Oddball is the best on this map!