Halo Reach Map Retrospective (1 hour long)

Community General Discussion
#1

In anticipation of Halo 4, my friends and I are doing a complete retrospective map review of every Halo map. This week we did Halo Reach’s maps. We aren’t rating them based on any sort of high level technical aspects or anything, just fun factor and the map’s versatility with gametypes based off the experiences we had back in it’s heyday. So if you are into hearing 4 Halo vets who have played a ton of Halo from the beginning up until now, come check out our video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4ggEKE1zP8&feature=plcp

If you like our stuff and want to see a lot more Halo stuff, subscribe! We have impressions on Halo 4’s maps coming later this week, and Halo CE, Halo 2, and Halo 3’s are already up.

#2

Great Footage. But you do know there are map variants right? Complain about changes on Battle Canyon when there is a Beaver Creek variant where it’s exactly the way we like it. Same with Penance/Damnation, Breakneck/Headlong, Ridgeline/Timberland, solitary/prisoner. You have the option to play on variants that are almost perfectly like the original.

And you bring up Paradiso but not mention its improved version Utopi… Mention how bad the cage is but not show uncaged. I guess you where pressed for time though. This video just feels like it should be a year old because many of the concerns in this video have been addressed. Except for the jetpack of course

#3

Reaches maps were dull, I agree. I really think the DLC maps were great though, but they never come up. I would like to find the person who decided to take the dlc and anniversary BTB hopper out of matchmaking and have a rant.

From worst to best: (Original, DLC, Anniversary)
Anniversary maps rated for the Halo CE classic versions/gametype

Boardwalk - 2/10
Did not have a single fun time on this map

Paradiso -2/10
Just urgh…

Sword Base - 3/10
Camping in the bounce room…

Zealot – 3/10
Purple donut with pointless low grav area…

The Cage – 3/10
Really dull gameplay and visuals

Pinnacle (Ascension) – 5/10
Same old map but with horrible visuals and no banshee

Boneyard - 5/10
Pretty fun for invasion but nothing else

Spire – 5/10
Was pretty boring but the Falcon made for some fun moments in BTB

Haemorrhage (Blood Gulch) – 5/10
Bored of this map. Too open. Coagulation was better

Asylum (Sanctuary) – 5/10
One of my favs from halo 2 just made duller and dominated by jetpacks

High Noon (Hang em High) - 6/10
Getting tired of this map now but still some fun moments

Countdown - 6/10
Some fun games on this one but visually very dull

Powerhouse - 6/10
Used to like this map but grew tired of it quickly

Reflection - 6/10
As long as your not playing with jetpacks this map this map is still great.

Ridgeline (Timberland) – 7/10
Never played the original but pretty good BTB map

Solitary (Prisoner)– 7/10
Very Chaotic and still a blast to play if you can avoid being dominated

Battle Canyon (Beaver Creek) – 7/10
Enjoyed it much the same as Beaver/Battle creek nothing special though

Tempest -7/10
Some good games of 2 flags on this but other game types don’t work as well

Condemned - 7/10
Really liked the tight combat and the low grav room. Vistas out the windows were amazing too

Penance (Damnation) – 8/10
Still plays great in the classic playlist

Anchor 9 - 8/10
The best small map in Reach, had lot of great games on this one

Breakpoint - 8/10
The best invasion map and one that also works well for BTB

Breakneck (Headlong ) -9/10
Just as fun as the old. Shame it never comes up in matchmaking…

Highlands - 9/10
The best BTB map in Reach, loads of great objective games on this one

#4

> Great Footage. But you do know there are map variants right? Complain about changes on Battle Canyon when there is a Beaver Creek variant where it’s exactly the way we like it. Same with Penance/Damnation, Breakneck/Headlong, Ridgeline/Timberland, solitary/prisoner. You have the option to play on variants that are almost perfectly like the original.
>
>
> And you bring up Paradiso but not mention its improved version Utopi… Mention how bad the cage is but not show uncaged. I guess you where pressed for time though. This video just feels like it should be a year old because many of the concerns in this video have been addressed. Except for the jetpack of course

Yes, of course we know of the variants, as well as the classic versions of each Anniversary map. However, what’s the purpose of rating the map if there’s no change to take into consideration? We already rated the classic maps in the previous videos for the respective games. We are rating Halo: Reach’s versions (Battle Canyon, Penance, High Noon etc.) not Halo CE/2’s versions (Beaver Creek, Damnation etc.)

You know how many variants there are to each map? You know how long that would take? With 24 maps, we managed to get this video’s time to an hour and 15 minutes. Usually we do this with 4 people, as we did with CE-3, but this time only 2 of us were available. Our Halo 2 and 3 videos were over 2 hours each. We have to do 8-10 minutes of gameplay on each map to get enough footage for each map just incase we talk about one for longer than usual. We average about 4-5 minutes of talk per map. Asking for an hour of someone’s attention is already a lot to ask for, let alone 2 hours. If we did all the variants, it would seem endless and redundant at that point.

Besides time constraints and attention span issues, we are merely doing the official maps given to us all either on disc or by DLC. Not added in variants to each one to tweak them etc., nor any forge world variants besides the ones included already on the disc. It’s so we can judge each game fairly, and compare them equally. Taking the base maps as they are in CE-Reach. Variants would just mess all that up and over complicate things.

So no, this video should not feel like a year old, nor do I feel it should be criticized for covering what was initially given to us. You are very welcome to express and have your opinion, but to discredit the video because we don’t take all the variants and changes over multiple updates to the game into consideration, I feel, is an unfair judgment. The idea is to rate what we got out of the box, or the initial download of the DLC.

Lastly, this video isn’t meant to be the be all end all of reviews. It’s not like we picked apart every little aspect of each map. Once again, that would take far too long, as each map could essentially be discussed and analyzed for 15 min. on it’s own. We were just trying to express our opinions in a streamlined way, to sum up how we each feel, and how fun/useful we felt each map was as we played them over the years. It’s not meant to be taken so seriously. We share our ratings and reviews etc. and reminisce about what was good or bad, and we want to hear everyone else’s as well. That’s it. I appreciate the feedback though, and always encourage anyone to express their thoughts as well.

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