Crimson Map Pack

Pretty decent maps, I think. There isn't any one that I particularly care for more than any of the others, though, they all have a pretty good feel to them for the Slayer, KotH, and CTF gametypes available for them in Matchmaking at the moment.

 

I think all of the maps play very well, but I think they all look like mostly just dirt.


Wreckage is the only one that feels like it has a reason to be mainly just dirt to me. It reminds me of Burial Mounds from Halo 2. I think its my favorite map.

Shatter is ok. I don't get why the volcano is green in the background. I think a normal, yellowish, orange-ish, or red-ish color to the volcano would have made the map much better, and if the green fog lighting wasn't drowning the map. I can't stand the green lighting tint. Its so bad if you get a speed boost everything just looks normal visually still. I think Shatter should have had a normal colored volcano in the background, and had an on-fire and/or burnt theme to it, along with keeping the crystals around the map. They should be a distinct color like blue or white though. Well then again blue or white could be confused for ice, and pink would be associated with the needler, so I guess red, yellow, or green would be the best colors for the crystals, and since the volcano would be red, yellow, or orange, I guess green would visually be the best color for the crystals.

If Shatter had a normal colored volcano, green crystal, a lot of snow, a little ice on the ground in open areas (just for looks not anything gameplay altering), no or extremely little dirt, some burning buildings and/or trees/plants, fires, and ice melting rapidly all over the place, it could have been one of the best looking maps in Halo. But no, 343 loves dirt.

Harvest is the same way. Would it have killed 343 to have covered it in grass instead of dirt and replaced a few of the rocks or structure pieces with nice looking cherry trees or something like that? And put a couple of small fountains in each base areas? Apparently it would have, because we got more DIRT instead!

At least it plays good though lol.

 

I like the maps I just think they are too cluttered for 16 players. I had a couple BTB matches on Wreckage and both teams kept going inside the center structure. It was so choatic that the framerate dropped.

I don't think the maps are anything special. I'd like to see some maps in future DLC that rival Exile, Ragnarock, Longbow, and Vortex. Still hoping for a Sand Trap and Sandbox remake.

 

Vortex?

Vortex sucks. It was even changed at the very last second of development by 343 adding the gravity lifts or man cannons to create another way into the middle structure because people were complaining they couldn't get there. And really, you still can't. Its like that map emphasizes that middle structure but then gives you no way to get there, so most of the time you're stuck off in the wilderness with random rocks or whatever just waiting to get dominated by a wraith or sniper.

Vortex also looks horrible to me. It looks like nothing but dirt and purple thanks to the lighting being way too strong on it.

There's a reason Vortex is never voted for in matchmaking lol.

I agree with the rest you said though, especially Exile! I love using the banshee on that map.

 

Yeah... I just played on Vortex and now I hate it. I couldn't even do anything with these super-aggressive parties I am being matched with when playing solo BTB. I don't think it's the lighting that is the problem with Vortex but rather the saturation of color. They did to vortex what they did to red vs blue, desaturated the colors to look like ****.

 

I like Vortex... o.o

 

Besides the middle structure I love Vortex. Hell of a good hogging map and generally very fun. Middle structure is campy but I just tend to avoid it.

 

And you may be right about it being a good hogging map...however I haven not had the chance to find out if any map is good for hogging because the moment I get in the gunner seat the driver drives us to our death or we get lasered or plasma pistoled.

 

Always know your driver/ gunner man, you have to drive pretty differently in Halo 4 and just rushing in usually leads to a quick death. That is why I usually stay out of hogs unless I'm playing with people I know will drive defensively.

 

Yeah you aren't kidding lol. I gave up getting in warthogs after the 2nd day playing. Although I do jump in the gauss for some easy kills but that really depends on the driver too cause 80% of the time I still get driven to my death or they drive right in front of the tank. And yeah, I think you are right about having to drive different in Halo 4...I was never good at driving in H3 or HR but now I really suck probably. The only time I got 40 kills on the gauss on Exile was when the driver was going real slow and going in reverse, staying at a distance, etc. Today, one kid started doing laps around the map at full speed and I couldn't really get a shot, then he proceeds to jump out, sticky the gauss and blow it up because he thought I sucked I assumed. Then later in the match I saw his buddy with similar gamertag shoot down our own banshee.

 

Man, i just went to get some games on the new maps. And they are all frickin' awesome. I have an opinion for all of them

Harvest - This started up very slowly for me, and the enemy team clearly knew what they were doing (Had 1 game on this only, CTF) But as soon as i began to drive the warthog it began to become more and more awesome. Had a few splatters, an nice shooter and amazing jumps. The fights in the middle were pretty good too, this is an really ,really good map.

Shatter - I wished they added warthogs instead of Manti, however there are many easy ways to disable the manti by using the many sideways. Its an good map, and the atmosphere is nice. I think this plays best with either KotH or Extraction, i played one of both and i though KotH played best.

Wreckage - Maybe it was the team i was with, but this game of CTF that i had was absolutly awesome. The best i had on halo 4 so far. I had an great time. This map is amazing, and it has an beautiful skybox too. Me and my team defended together, and attacked together and so did the enemy, it was epic. Leading into a narrow but deserved win

 

i initially had lukewarm impressions of the crimson map pack,
but it has started to grow on me a bit.

wreckage is actually pretty fun in BTB playlist.

i still dont particularly care for shatter,

but one thing i already said and will say again of this map pack is that goddamn the maps are sexy looking, especially the skyboxes.

edit- also, so far i completely hated extraction on shatter.
its just like KOTH on ragnarok, it just doesnt belong. because by the time you run your ass all the way across the map, the damn countdown is over and then you die.