I know this might sound dumb, but is there any reason why Halo 5 had so many maps that just felt…bland, aesthetically speaking? In most all of the Halo’s the at least had some visual flair and looks like counterparts from the campaign. But in Halo 5 some of the maps are literally just bland, almost lazy like constructions from an artistic perspective. Any thoughts on if Halo Infinite will return to making each map look like an actual part of the campaign?
Bland? nah… i think that certainly is a wrong way to describe halo 5’s maps…
I think I understand what you mean thou. I think what comes to mind is usually when playing halo… each map has its own unique atmosphere… even if it wasnt exactly pulled from campaign.
So … for example, guardian in halo 3 … its atmosphere certainly unlike any of the campaign that i can recall, but it was so distinct… had its own features reminisceint of what you could imagine was part of the universe.
Construct certainly was campaign inspired (also halo 3…) as was sandtrap, and epitaph. So it is the case with many maps… but there were so many maps that were not of campaign at all. The pit… snowbound… lockout (halo 2)… actually im gonna stop naming them because actuallly most maps arent campaign inspired.
But most of them could easily fit in the universe.
So one thing i think that plagues games today is they arent setting an identity within the game… something unique to them… and now that graphics are kind of all getting to a similar standard with AAA games … each game looks like other games. So setting an idenity within the game… something unique to the universe… can go a very long way.
Halo used to accomplish this with very simple moves… Ancient technologically advanced race is something not seen in many universes (forruner structures)… and a sky box showcasing a halo ring often goes a very long way…
Covanant structures are also very distinct from other alien races in other video games (or at least they used to be)
and Unsc… future but old aesthetic certainly brings the right mood as well.
But then i belive you run into the issue of enviroments and nature… and halo isnt exactly distinct from any other universe and all of them are trying their best to look more “beautiful” rather than unique…
Its vivid… its varied… but really , not much is done to say “this is halo” and frankly im not sure how one would do that.
I’d think if forruner structures were embeded within the natural forms like caves… and stuff… that might go well.
SO… to paraphrase, I dont think halo 5 maps are bland, but rather , they lack sufficient indication that they belong to a halo game. They are beautiful , but without identity… or at least without a related identity that is sufficiently recognized by the community. (In my opinion)
Some of that is the Promethean aesthetic influence in Halo 5.
The Prometheans, as a whole, have a fairly generic “space robots” aesthetic with everything being a variant of “angular, metallic, and glowing orange”.
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> I know this might sound dumb, but is there any reason why Halo 5 had so many maps that just felt…bland, aesthetically speaking? In most all of the Halo’s the at least had some visual flair and looks like counterparts from the campaign. But in Halo 5 some of the maps are literally just bland, almost lazy like constructions from an artistic perspective. Any thoughts on if Halo Infinite will return to making each map look like an actual part of the campaign?
^This 100%. It feels like they don’t really stand out because of the similar color palettes and design philosophies. What makes this even worse is that in matchmaking there are Forge maps, and since there’s no splitscreen you’re going to be spending some time (more time than you should) playing forged maps instead of real maps, and forged maps, as good as some of them are, are all built with the same (usually gray) parts.
I feel like in Halo Infinite, they should put more emphasis on letting the players just kind of have fun versus the rigid competitive focus of Halo 5. They should take more risks; yes, you can make some maps symmetrical or even three lane (which doesn’t make them inherently bad), but I’d like for there to be more bizarre maps too that are more memorable because of the variety. And color palettes/skyboxes make a huge difference in players being able to recognize different maps; Remnant from Halo 2A has the most gorgeous skybox ever designed in my opinion.
Most of the arena maps in H5 feel like forge maps instead of actual real maps with their own unique lore. Blood gulch, Sandtrap, Waterworks had their own unique feel, just to name a few. I would love to see a more aesthetic design put into new maps for infinite. I am almost wondering if they had to limit 5’s map design due to keeping a stable 60fps and the lack of power from the X1.
Many of the maps in H5 are copies of each other, a little bit. Maps like Plaza and Overgrowth, for example. Besides that, I like the H5 maps. But the forge maps get a little rigid and artificial sometimes. I think Halo Infinite will fix this with massive and unique maps. Like, bigger than any multiplayer map we’ve ever seen before. The new software will have new scenery opportunities, like huge mountains, waterfalls, and trees, more real time lighting and ray tracing. That’s what I hope for, at least.
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> > 2774539056153731;1:
> > I know this might sound dumb, but is there any reason why Halo 5 had so many maps that just felt…bland, aesthetically speaking? In most all of the Halo’s the at least had some visual flair and looks like counterparts from the campaign. But in Halo 5 some of the maps are literally just bland, almost lazy like constructions from an artistic perspective. Any thoughts on if Halo Infinite will return to making each map look like an actual part of the campaign?
>
> ^This 100%. It feels like they don’t really stand out because of the similar color palettes and design philosophies. What makes this even worse is that in matchmaking there are Forge maps, and since there’s no splitscreen you’re going to be spending some time (more time than you should) playing forged maps instead of real maps, and forged maps, as good as some of them are, are all built with the same (usually gray) parts.
>
> I feel like in Halo Infinite, they should put more emphasis on letting the players just kind of have fun versus the rigid competitive focus of Halo 5. They should take more risks; yes, you can make some maps symmetrical or even three lane (which doesn’t make them inherently bad), but I’d like for there to be more bizarre maps too that are more memorable because of the variety. And color palettes/skyboxes make a huge difference in players being able to recognize different maps; Remnant from Halo 2A has the most gorgeous skybox ever designed in my opinion.
Thank you all, I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I realized it was forge maps that were a large part of it. Agreed, Remanant is a great example! If I’m going to die constantly at the hands of a 13 year old from Kansas, I’d prefer that my rotting, decaying corpse suffer the plight of being tea bagged whilst staring into a beautiful landscape.
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> Most of the arena maps in H5 feel like forge maps instead of actual real maps with their own unique lore. Blood gulch, Sandtrap, Waterworks had their own unique feel, just to name a few. I would love to see a more aesthetic design put into new maps for infinite. I am almost wondering if they had to limit 5’s map design due to keeping a stable 60fps and the lack of power from the X1.
Interesting theory and that actually makes sense. Never thought of it that way but that lines up. I wonder what affect that will have on Halo Infinite however, as it’s required to support the same architecture in the Xbox One.
> 2774539056153731;1:
> I know this might sound dumb, but is there any reason why Halo 5 had so many maps that just felt…bland, aesthetically speaking? In most all of the Halo’s the at least had some visual flair and looks like counterparts from the campaign. But in Halo 5 some of the maps are literally just bland, almost lazy like constructions from an artistic perspective. Any thoughts on if Halo Infinite will return to making each map look like an actual part of the campaign?
I wouldn’t say bland. Halo 5 in general lacked the bright and vibrant feel Halo 4 had in their maps in my opinion (warzone maps were an exception since they were brighter). One key example was when Haven was remade into Mercy, I preferred the bright Forerunner feel of Haven. The pre-covenant Sangheili version in Halo 5, Mercy was just dark and depressing to me.
> 2774539056153731;1:
> I know this might sound dumb, but is there any reason why Halo 5 had so many maps that just felt…bland, aesthetically speaking? In most all of the Halo’s the at least had some visual flair and looks like counterparts from the campaign. But in Halo 5 some of the maps are literally just bland, almost lazy like constructions from an artistic perspective.
In my opinion, there are two major problems with Halo 5’s maps.
- Halo 5’s advanced movement requires a very specific type of map design with constant platforms, ramps and walkways joining everything together. The way Halo 5’s maps have to be designed to cater for advanced movement means that they can’t be divided up in the way classic maps from Halo CE to Halo 4 were able to. This leads to many maps looking and feeling indistinct from one another. - Halo 5’s maps were created by two separate teams. One team worked on geometry and gameplay before passing the map on to the art team. This is a rather uninspired way to work on a level, and it prevents true synergy between the maps’ visuals and gameplay. Both teams should be equally involved in the process the entire way through.At this stage, I don’t believe Halo: Infinite will repeat that problems Halo 5 had. 1. I highly doubt Halo: Infinite will have the same movement system as Halo 5. 2. I’m sure 343i would have learnt from their mistakes after ending up with Halo 5’s utterly forgettable list of arena maps.
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> > 2577506572474191;5:
> > Most of the arena maps in H5 feel like forge maps instead of actual real maps with their own unique lore. Blood gulch, Sandtrap, Waterworks had their own unique feel, just to name a few. I would love to see a more aesthetic design put into new maps for infinite. I am almost wondering if they had to limit 5’s map design due to keeping a stable 60fps and the lack of power from the X1.
>
> Interesting theory and that actually makes sense. Never thought of it that way but that lines up. I wonder what affect that will have on Halo Infinite however, as it’s required to support the same architecture in the Xbox One.
I agree, too many maps in Halo 5 were or felt like they were forge maps. I also believe the base Xbox 1 is weak and could have been part of the problem. Also, they made a new engine for Halo Infinite, maybe the Halo 5 engine was another reason we got the maps we did. Or, maybe it’s because they just made an average fps game but not a great Halo game imo.
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> > > 2577506572474191;5:
> > > Most of the arena maps in H5 feel like forge maps instead of actual real maps with their own unique lore. Blood gulch, Sandtrap, Waterworks had their own unique feel, just to name a few. I would love to see a more aesthetic design put into new maps for infinite. I am almost wondering if they had to limit 5’s map design due to keeping a stable 60fps and the lack of power from the X1.
> >
> > Interesting theory and that actually makes sense. Never thought of it that way but that lines up. I wonder what affect that will have on Halo Infinite however, as it’s required to support the same architecture in the Xbox One.
>
> I agree, too many maps in Halo 5 were or felt like they were forge maps. I also believe the base Xbox 1 is weak and could have been part of the problem. Also, they made a new engine for Halo Infinite, maybe the Halo 5 engine was another reason we got the maps we did. Or, maybe it’s because they just made an average fps game but not a great Halo game imo.
Ah good point. I forgot that the engine for Infinite will be the first brand new refresh for the Halo series in a while!
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> > 2577506572474191;5:
> > Most of the arena maps in H5 feel like forge maps instead of actual real maps with their own unique lore. Blood gulch, Sandtrap, Waterworks had their own unique feel, just to name a few. I would love to see a more aesthetic design put into new maps for infinite. I am almost wondering if they had to limit 5’s map design due to keeping a stable 60fps and the lack of power from the X1.
>
> Interesting theory and that actually makes sense. Never thought of it that way but that lines up. I wonder what affect that will have on Halo Infinite however, as it’s required to support the same architecture in the Xbox One.
I am thinking that they will use low cost or no textures and drop the resolution greatly. CD Projekt Red got the Witcher 3 to run on switch implementing some of this. The new engine will hopefully help a lot.
There are few reasons multiplayer maps in Halo 5 seem aesthetically bland that I can think of. There are very few unique environments to start with. Most of the maps are set on aesthetically identical human industrial/military complexes consisting of grey floors, white walls, some accent stripes, cylinders, and pipes. Then there are four non-human maps.
The lack of unique environments isn’t necessarily a problem in itself. But what is a problem is that the aesthetic 343i chose for human architecture is very bland. It’s very sterile and hits a spot where it’s not down-to-earth enough to feel familiar, but not out there enough to look interesting. Not that human architecture should look too out there. Human architecture in Halo has traditionally been more down-to-earth. What I mean by being sterile is that these maps don’t really tell a story. Sure, Molten is a visually cool idea. But because it’s the same kind of visually non-descript industrial complex, it doesn’t tell why the people who built it built it, or what they did there. It has no signs that anyone has ever been there. Stasis obviously tries to tell a story via its skybox, but you could play your whole Halo 5 career on it and never pay attention because the skybox isn’t prominently displayed, so it’s all for nothing and it’s the same architecture inside the map. Plaza and Overgrowth are somehow immediately more interesting, because they mix up the architecture with neon signs and nature, and have some story by default because there are signs (literally and figuratively) telling that somebody actually lived there.
Another problem, which I touched on briefly with Stasis, is that the maps tend to be very closed off. There are very few maps where you can actually easily see outside the playable area from almost everywhere on the map. Most of the maps are boxes open on one side with maybe some small Windows into the outside world. The skybox is a huge part of the visuals of many a map because it ties the map to the surrounding world, and just having a sense of that instantly makes the map aesthetically more pleasant. It’s also a free story-telling method, because it instantly raises the question “Why is this here? What is this world?”
None of the things I mentioned here necessarily makes or breaks a map by itself. But every Halo 5 Arena map suffers from at least one of these issues, and most have multiple of these flaws. Apart from that a lot of it comes down to small aesthetic choices. If we don’t just restrict to the visual aesthetic, the ambient soundscape also contributes to the aesthetic of the map by breathing life into it. You often don’t hear it or at least pay attention to it during regular multiplayer, but listening to the ambient sounds of a map can give you new appreciation for it. I haven’t admittedly listened the Halo 5 maps so I can’t comment on that, but a number of Halo 3 maps have some amazing soundscapes that contribute a lot to their aesthetic.
The notion that all the maps are bland is subjective… what some loves, others will find bland… or worse… will hate.
your milage may vary.
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> The notion that all the maps are bland is subjective… what some loves, others will find bland… or worse… will hate.
> your milage may vary.
While I agree that is the definition of subjective, judging by the response (and narrowing down to the overuse of forge maps) I think one can concretely say that by incorporating so many forget maps into the rotation gives off that feeling that in general, it’s bland. But yes I know all may not share that view which is why I was asking, as certainly it could just be me.
I get what you mean. I personally want more maps based in outdoor areas with natural terrain, and just more variety in settings overall.
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> I get what you mean. I personally want more maps based in outdoor areas with natural terrain, and just more variety in settings overall.
I’d like that too… maps with more variety, geometry and layouts.
But that’s me.
> 2774539056153731;1:
> I know this might sound dumb, but is there any reason why Halo 5 had so many maps that just felt…bland, aesthetically speaking? In most all of the Halo’s the at least had some visual flair and looks like counterparts from the campaign. But in Halo 5 some of the maps are literally just bland, almost lazy like constructions from an artistic perspective. Any thoughts on if Halo Infinite will return to making each map look like an actual part of the campaign?
This 100%… Halo 5 Maps are plain and simple boring with just a few being aesthetically pleasing (Have to think really hard for Maps I liked… Overgrowth maybe… Truth was the best with the Haven Remake as the second best, both of them were Remakes and one looked like Proper Covenant, not like Storm-Fraction or whatever… Torque I liked, too… But I think that was just because the Colours were a bit more poppy, because it was mainly black and whitish)
If I think back, I could literally name dozens of Maps from older Halos that were 1. diverse and 2. aesthetically just so beautiful… Especially MapPack Ones… They seem to tried extra hard there…
Halo CE: Sidewinder; Blood Gulch, Timberland
Halo 2A: Just every Map, simple as that, never saw such beautiful Maps, but here you go: Shrine, Remnant, Warlord (Wizard; dunno if it was called that)
Halo 3: Guardian, Narrows, Epitaph, Sandtrap, Valhalla, Avalanche
Halo 4: Solace, Pitfall, Landfall, Monolith, Perdition, Harvest
Reach: Spire, Solitary, Penance, High Noon, Battle Creek, Reflection
I don’t know, what 343i was thinking when they developed the Maps… I mean… Look at this red brownish map with the big hurricane (or so) beneath it… Regret; Mixups in general… Remixes, as they named them… Nobody wants a map basically be just upside down and call it a new one… If they repeat that for Infinite, I’m out 
Personally I hope they put as much love in the Multiplayer Maps as they did with the H2A and DLC Maps from other Halo Games.