My first thoughts on the Crimson map pack

Games Other Halo
1

My first thoughts on the Crimson Map Pack DLC.

Jump straight to conclusion to see my personal rating of the map pack!

  1. Intro
  2. Harvest
  3. Wreckage
  4. Shatter
  5. Conclusion TLDR!!!

1)INTRODUCTION

Hello Everyone,

Today 10-12-2012 (12-10-2012 for America) is the release date for the first DLC for Halo 4.
Halo 4 had a hard launch(that’s what she said) and 1 month after its launch still have a couple of issues and missing features. But 343 industries promised us a title update in the future so hopefully Halo 4 will turn out alright!

Does Crimson map pack makes up for the flaws at launch? Well lets find out shall we?
These are my first opinions of the DLC, I would like to hear your opinion of the maps.

First note: the owners of the war game map pass(including me) had some issues with downloading the map. Although waiting a few hours more was not an issue its not very professional and I hope the launches of the other map packs will have no issues when they launch.
Second note: I’m from the Netherlands, although I try to fix grammar mistakes my writing style is not perfect.

Other then that, lets jump straight into the maps.

  1. Harvest

I love the background story of Harvest, it’s a nice wink to the Halo fans who’ve read contact harvest. But that’s not why we are here, we are here to play some Halo!

Not much forge options here, and I was hoping you could be able to get on top of the level but no the soft-kill barrier ruins it just like they ruin every Halo map since Reach.
Time to hit multiplayer and get some kills going then!
This map is pretty fun to play on, from tearing down people from above with the DMR or using the Warthog to make a flanking manoeuvre to using Promethean Vision to see what lurks behind the rocks.
The games of capture the flags are pretty fast phased 6v6 and with a good team its pretty easy to lock the enemy down and just drive the flag back to your base.
Overall I had a pretty good time playing on this map and its one of the best 343 made maps there is. (next to Ragnarok and Haven )
The feeling of the map is pretty good , it looks a lot bigger then it is especially in a warthog.

  1. Wreckage

This map is not as much fun as it seems at first, I’m a bit disappointed with the layout and we are yet again in a map made for 6v6 or more. Even worse the map structure reminds me a little bit of several other maps from different games. One thing that I like is the covenant and human scrap metal everywhere it gives a awesome vibe.
First I played oddball on this map and it felt way to big for oddball, so I gave up on going for the objective and went on a rampage with the battle rifle/DMR combo.
Killing things was fun but I feel this map is just boring.

Second match I played went better and then when I realized what was missing in this map: Decent walkways and platforms. Al tough there are some I do not feel much to use them like most other platforms in maps.

4)Shatter

Great another Mantis map and that means: another btb map!
I absolutely hate the mantis, it reminds me of James Cameron’s avatar.
Not that the movie was bad but I just feel that a mech is not very handy in the timeframe of humanity. A lot of people loved the UNSC aircraft (hornet and falcon) and instead they made a walking suit!
Enough of my mantis rant lets get to the map.

Playing this map made me want to put up the song kryptonite since the green glowing rocks surrounding the map reminds me of the materials in Superman.
Other then that the map had nothing special, just another big map for chaotic gameplay. The map lay-out made no sense to me and I felt 343i just wanted a map to include the mantis in because they where so proud of their huge mech.
What was fun however was extraction on this map, using the speed of the ghost to my advantage I was able to support my team mates defend both available extraction sights.

  1. Conclusion TL:DR

The Crimson map pack overall is a map pack designed for 6v6 or 8v8 games and only harvest might work on a 4v4, if you like smaller more competitive maps the Crimson map pack is not for you. However if you like gigantic robots shooting rockets out of its arms and a total war then the Crimson map pack is definitely for you!

Coming back to the introduction where I asked myself if the map-pack makes up for the issues at the launch of this game: Yes! Yes! Yes!
You can see 343 industries at-least know what is vital to a map and they added al their love into the maps. (sadly also their mantis love but hey thats just personal)

My rating for the maps:

Harvest: 7/10.

Wreckage: 5/10

Shatter (minus Mantis) 6/10

These ratings might change over time as more constructive criticism reaches 343 industries and some gameplay tweaks are made.

  1. Next map pack!

Let me know what you guys think of the map pack, and also what would you like for the next map pack!
The next map pack will also contain 3 maps as stated by 343i but which maps would you like to see?

My ideal second map pack would look like:

1 competitive map like The Pit, Haven or Lockout
1 large btb map like Sandtrap , Ragnarok or Exile
1 Forge map on a covenant world!

EDIT: will try to rewrite it tomorrow since I feel the writing style is off. Apology if the text is hard to understand, again I’m Dutch so I tend to use Dutch writing style’s whilst writing English.

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I feel the Mantis Dominates bit too much on Shatter when I played that map on extraction.

3

> I feel the Mantis Dominates bit too much on Shatter when I played that map on extraction.

Yes had that the first game, but hiding behind a rock and EMP it with a plasma pistol and you see it is really not that good.
Of-course watch for enemy infantry defending the mantis before you attack it .

4

Let me know what you guys think of the map pack, and also what would you like for the next map pack?
The next map pack will also contain 3 maps but which maps would you like to see?

My ideal second map pack would look like:

1 competitive map like The Pit, Haven or Lockout
1 large btb map like Sandtrap , Ragnarok or Exile
1 Forge map on a covenant world!

Also I’m editing my OP since I’ve noticed several style mistakes so stay tuned!

5

The maps are great, I like that CQC style but this gametype, Extraction, it just sucks.

6

> Let me know what you guys think of the map pack, and also what would you like for the next map pack?
> The next map pack will also contain 3 maps but which maps would you like to see?
>
> My ideal second map pack would look like:
>
> 1 competitive map like The Pit, Haven or Lockout
> 1 large btb map like Sandtrap , Ragnarok or Exile
> 1 Forge map on a covenant world!
>
>
>
> Also I’m editing my OP since I’ve noticed several style mistakes so stay tuned!

I like how that sounds.

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> The maps are great, I like that CQC style but this gametype, Extraction, it just sucks.

meh, i like it

8

> > The maps are great, I like that CQC style but this gametype, Extraction, it just sucks.
>
> meh, i like it

It might be the maps or I’m having a bad strike I dunno, I’ll give it a chance.

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> The maps are great, I like that CQC style but this gametype, Extraction, it just sucks.

Well, I like the idea behind it but it does require some tweaking with time settings I think.

10

> > Let me know what you guys think of the map pack, and also what would you like for the next map pack?
> > The next map pack will also contain 3 maps but which maps would you like to see?
> >
> > My ideal second map pack would look like:
> >
> > 1 competitive map like The Pit, Haven or Lockout
> > 1 large btb map like Sandtrap , Ragnarok or Exile
> > 1 Forge map on a covenant world!
> >
> >
> >
> > Also I’m editing my OP since I’ve noticed several style mistakes so stay tuned!
>
> I like how that sounds.

Yes me to,
I’ve noticed a lot of people want smaller competitive maps and by looking at the popularity of btb people also seem to enjoy larger maps so having 1 of each is a great deal.
As much as I want a normal forge-world like in Reach a covenant world would be very interesting and would bring a lot of possibility’s!

11

I wish I could make a solid opinion on the maps so far…but I can’t for one simple reason: people keep on voting for Shatter all the freaking time!

STOP VOTING SHATTER 24/7!!!

Really, its not even that great of a map. The teleporters are especially annoying, instinctively you expect they’ll send you to the opposite direction of where they actually send you towards.

Only played half a game on Harvest so far…too bad because it seems like the best map in the pack.

Wreckage seems like good fun from the 3 games I played on it.

So based on the few games I did play on anything other than that already annoying Shatter, I guess the maps are pretty good…but that’s a guess…

12

> I wish I could make a solid opinion on the maps so far…but I can’t for one simple reason: people keep on voting for Shatter all the freaking time!
>
> STOP VOTING SHATTER 24/7!!!
>
> Really, its not even that great of a map. <mark>The teleporters are especially annoying, instinctively you expect they’ll send you to the opposite direction of where they actually send you towards.</mark>
>
> Only played half a game on Harvest so far…too bad because it seems like the best map in the pack.
>
> Wreckage seems like good fun from the 3 games I played on it.
>
> So based on the few games I did play on anything other than that already annoying Shatter, I guess the maps are pretty good…but that’s a guess…

Yeah, I’ve found myself running to my own base instead of the enemy’s a couple of times. O well, using the teleporters might be handy to escape enemy fire for a bit.

13

I haven’t played the pack yet, but thanks for the straight-forward assessment without sounding like you were in an infernal rage towards 343. I think a lot of the criticisms throughout the forums would be more listened to if put into a more cordial context.

That said, once my kids are in bed I look forward to comparing things to your comments.

14

> I haven’t played the pack yet, but thanks for the straight-forward assessment without <mark>sounding like you were in an infernal rage towards 343</mark>. I think a lot of the criticisms throughout the forums would be more listened to if put into a more cordial context.
>
> That said, once my kids are in bed I look forward to comparing things to your comments.

Hahaha made me laugh, I’m really surprised on a lot of the comments on this forum actually.
Most opinions on the map packs are just plain and simple hate comments without any reasons stated why they hate the maps.

By the way: Any one noticed the Elephant shadow on the wall near blue base in Harvest?

15

Harvest seems great, wreckage seems decent but I think shatter is just a slightly bigger not quite as bad complex with matises, and isn’t nearly as good as the other two

16

What is wrong with complex?
Its great as a 5v5 or 6v6 map!

By the way: Made the mantis rant on the Shatter view size 1 so only people interested in me ranting away can read it.

17

I like the new maps, but some of them just encourage DMR camping.

18

> I like the new maps, but some of them just encourage DMR camping.

Which maps aside from possibly Haven does not encourage DMR camping?
DMR is an absolute beast in this game and if I fail with the AR or BR I always fall back to the DMR to rack up some kills.

What we really need is a motivation for people to use other weapons.

Well, I’m of to bed got a preliminary examination tomorrow morning and it takes me 2 hours to get to Amsterdam (where my university is located).
Tomorrow I’ll rewrite some of my text to make it a better review be sure to check it out!

19

Edited the Wreckage part, will do the others later since I got to go now.

Mark