I’ve been getting back into the comp grind with the winter season, and pretty much everyone I’ve played with agrees that Russet is a poorly made map. There are a few maps that are rough in rotation, but Russet seems to be a particularly bad one. It’s way too open and the whole middle of the map is a no-mans-zone with it’s horrible construction. Just wanted to see if we can get that pulled from rotation at some point, because the design is just… bad. It could at very least be restructured to perform better at all levels (I’m diamond level-ish).
It’s a pretty good map for Swat, as far as Slayer goes it’s an ok map, maybe needs a few tweaks here in there but nothing severe.
The “no man’s land” you speak of is also a very area to spot out enemies for call outs and make quick shots at enemies to distract them for your team, so the tradeoff is definitely there. Why they put a Sential Beam at the most vulnerable spot? Who knows. I feel like something more rewarding like a sniper or sword should go there, but the sword may be way too effective on a map like that.
I agree and disagree about it being too open. Yes, some parts are too open, while the red base and blue base make your Spartan nearly invisible in the shadows.
I also disliked the map the first few times I’ve played it, but it’s definitely better than Orion or Osiris or whatever that map was called. Now that was a bad map.
I absolutely love playing Swat on Russet! It’s got some very sneaky ways to pull up behind your enemies if you’re patient about it. I think many people just haven’t found their “routines” for that map yet and instead are just trying to longshot across the map most times.