Reflect

Bumping your own map stevo... shameful

 

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Reflect​

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Reflect is a symmetric two-vs-two or four-vs-four map. It was made for team based gameplay and that is where the map excels. The map handles some gametypes better than others though. Objective gametypes is where this map shines. Not there is anything wrong with team slayer, the gameplay is solid and almost perfect for the competitive minded player, yet team slayer is just not as fun.

The great thing about Reflect is that in its size and location of power weapons, movement is encouraged all throughout the map, no matter the gametype. This means action will be seen by the sword, the sniper rifle platforms, the lower levels, basically every location on the map will see traffic. Because of the multitude of cover, pathways, ramps, and levels, Reflect is a competitive players dream. Players will need a good shot and understanding of what weapons are better in what situations to succeed in this map.

The lower levels have more cover and more locations susceptible to campers waiting for someone to round a corner or move down a ramp. This location is where players will find opposing players with a shotgun or sword. The upper levels are more open and allow for players to perceive more of the play area. These levels will have DMR battles or sniper battles. As previously mentioned, slayer is solid, but not as enjoyable as objective gametypes.

Objective gametypes really encourage team cooperation. The small nature of the map means whether a team scores or not depends on their numbers and from most vantage points a member from the opposing team is visible. To combat this, often teams will split their teams up into defense and offense, where half the team defends their objective and the other tries to take the opposing teams objective. Casual players seeking less competitive style play can function without as much team cooperation but it is encouraged for teams to have success in battle.

One objective game that could use some work is the base hill locations for team crazy king. Eventually a hill will appear in a team’s base allowing members of that team to instantly spawn in the hill and hold it. It is near impossible for the opposing team to dislodge the spawning team from the hill at their base as the bases are large enough to have that team spawn somewhere near no matter where the opposing team is positioned. This is a minor annoyance to deal with in crazy king but one worth nothing as if will affect the final outcome at times.

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For a competitive team oriented map like Reflect, weapon balance and map balance are essential to gameplay. The small, competitive nature of Reflect means that balance between players revolves around player skill. The amount of cover, ramps, and levels will weed out the less accurate, skilled players from the true competitive masters.

Reflect’s weapon focus is on mid-range battles. There is a DMR on just about every level or somewhere near wherever the player might be at any given time on the map. The level of cover on reflect and blocks in line-of-sight means the sniper is a challenging weapon on the map but a talented sniper can really excel on the map in the upper platforms.

With all the angled corners on the map, the grenade launcher becomes a competitive players friend and because of this makes the weapon a true power weapon. A skilled player can rack up the kills quickly and is a good defense against possible campers looking to spring on a player from around a corner. The same can be said for the plethora of grenades on the map, which is a great counter for potential campers.

For close-quarter minded players, they have the sword or shotgun to pick from. Each team has a shotgun by their base while there is one neutral sword. The neutral sword is a good decision as the lunge really does give the sword an advantage over the shotgun with all the change of levels and cover.

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Thanks to Scorch199 for the section.
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Reflect manages to give players the feeling of an open air map using its exposed middle section, but still remains inescapable due to a kill boundary. Any jetpack equipped player that manages to fly to the pyramid pieces bordering near the top edges of the map will be met with a hard kill boundary to block any attempt at escape. This hard kill boundary has but one warning, the pyramid piece borders, yet this is fine as most players will not accidentally run into it, only those with the intention of escaping the map will meet their demise. As the rest of the map is indoors and fully enclosed, no other options for escape are available. No breaks, glitches, or frame-rate problems appear to be present on Reflect, which helps improve the smooth game-play and feel of the map.

Spawning was solid, save for a slight flaw in certain objective maps. Players grabbing flags or preforming any task in an enemy base occasionally found one or more enemy players spawning in the base rooms with them due to their size, making activities such as flag pulls and hill captures unnecessarily difficult. During slayer matches and any gametype where player movement in the enemy base was limited, spawning had absolutely no flaws. In short, spawns in objective matches could become slightly annoying at times, but otherwise the system was flawless. Few hiccups were encountered in spawning, but no noticeable flaws exist in Reflect's frame-rate, escapability, and in any other game-breaking area.

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Reflect’s aesthetic theme has been fashioned after Halo CE and Halo 2 campaign missions as well as Halo 3’s The Pit multiplayer map. This theme helps make the map familiar to players and helps the map keep a consistent feel.

There are few key aesthetic highlights in the map, at least highlights that the author meant for the player to stop for a moment to stare. The intent was competitive in the moment action, so aesthetics came second. However, the bottom floor does have a few aesthetic touches that help keep the map on theme. Colored pillars and little statue like cover dot the bottom floor. They are more gameplay functional than aesthetically pleasing. The pillars and little statues provide cover and block line-of-sight to keep the bottom floor from being too open.

The middle of the play-space has an open ceiling to provide a respite from the otherwise overwhelming grayness of the map. This was a nice decision but is something players will not consciously be aware of while in the heat of combat.

Overall there is just enough aesthetic content within Reflect to keep the map constant to its sought after theme but not enough to consider Reflect an aesthetic wonder. The map was designed for competitive function first and that is where it exceeds in.

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Reflect has a spawn system very similar to The Pit from Halo 3, which is not common within Halo Reach forge maps, however this hard to notice innovation within Reach does little to separate Reflect from the rest of the competitive map crowd. The architecture is functionally aesthetic but also not something novel.

It is important for the player to know they are not getting anything new nor innovative out of Reflect, but they are getting a solid competitive gameplay experience.

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Rating Multipliers

Enjoyment: 8 x 3.0 = 24 out of 30
Balance: 9 x 3.0 = 27 out of 30
Durability: 8 x 1.5 = 12 out of 15
Aesthetic : 5 x 1.5 = 7.5 out of 15
Originality: 2 x 1 = 2 out of 10

Final Score​

Apparently at the time of this review the spawn issues mentioned for crazy king have been resolved by the map author, however they do not factor into this review as the changes were not enacted during the testing of this map.

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