Whatsup guys. I am going to post an extremely biased post, that in my opinion is how most of the community feels. Here it goes:
I have played Halo since Halo 1, and I have always loved it obviously. The maps were incredibly memorable, and they flowed so perfectly it was amazing. All of the maps in the other games worked well because they were allowing players to take control in a linear battlefield fighting for map control, and mutual weapon spawns. With clamber, and thrusters the game is stressful playing every game because people can just climb on every single ledge on the map and get the first shot on you. You just never feel like you encounter someone in a fair fight. Examples of Linear fun fights for map control include:
Fighting for rockets and camo on the pit in Halo 3
Fighting for the laser on Valhalla
Fighting for control of the spire on Halo Reach
Fighting for the sniper on Haven in Halo 4
Every single map in Halo 5 has people coming from these stupid angles throwing grenades and flanking you. There is no map control in any map of Halo 5 and in my opinion, that makes the multiplayer terrible. What do you guys think, am I stupid and an old school halo fan who is stuck on his ways, or do y’all agree that Clamber and Thruster ruined multiplayer?
No matter the mechanics, there is map control. Map control is team based with strategy and precision. It can be frustrating to be overwhelmed with the many abilites the game has to offer, but that does not mean there is no map control.
Halo 5s map were built with the armor abilites in mind, and players use them to their advantage. There have been many matches of teams controlling power weapons by dominating the high points or watching spawns.
Is Halo 5 different when it comes to the past games? Absolutely. However, I would not say that there isn’t map control.
Halo 2 and 3 had clamber in it, just not for the augmented super-soldiers (aka the player)
Watch the civilian just right of center.
Now H5 maps (as well as some H4 maps) do feel flat but that isn’t really because of clamber as much as it is about the poor map design. Clamber just exasperates that fact. Now I don’t know if it could be said that the maps were designed before the mechanic, which would explain a lot is clamber does look like a late development tacked on mechanic (those 3rd person animations are horrible). I think it could be done it just has to be done right and H5 Spartan abilities was not the correct way to do things.
For map control, the sandbox could be expanded. I am surprised Halo has not explored the possibilities of mines more often. I would like to see UNSC Claymores or Covenant airburst needler mines. You could have them act as replacement for grenades and their relationship with grenades would be an interesting one where grenades can trip them setting them off prematurely if you don’t have an angle where you could just shoot at them t o disable them. That is getting off on a tangent.
Halo 5 map design was bad because of bad map design. Clamber did not help (it made it worse). But even with maps that are flat there is still map control.
You have to consider that Halo 5 maps are designed with the new spartan abilities in mind, not like a Halo CE-2-3 map copied and pasted in a new game. So there is more verticality because you can climb, wider spaces because you can sprint to cover, jumps that you can make only using a combination of abilities, etc. Map design is not something left to the case or generated randomly, there’s a lot of work and thought that goes behind it.
The reason why you feel it’s out of place is probably because you haven’t got used to it yet or you still play with the classic games in mind. If map control wasn’t a thing then there wouldn’t be any difference between players of different skill levels, aside from raw mechanics of course, which isn’t really the case.
Clamber and thrust are two of my favourite additions of H5, I’d like them to keep it. There 100% is map control in H5 even though the game itself feels way more chaotic compared to classic Halo.
I guess clamber is a tool to give more options to map control, you can access areas you couldn’t access previously. The drawback is that it slows you down a bit and unable you to shoot while clambering, but that is the risk/reward for trying to get in a vantage spot and get yourself exposed.
You can discuss the effects of movement mechanics on map design in The return of classic movement mechanics?