What were your favorite Halo maps and why were they awesome?

Note that this thread's goal is not to figure out what the best map would be to remaster. This thread is made so the dev team(or at least I) can dig deeper on what elements in a map give it replay value and what makes it fun? Ideally I'd have a list of each map with it's pros and cons.

As an example:

Highground, Halo 3
I liked it because the giant door made sure the attacking team couldn't charge the base as easy, there are three other ways into the base. The sniper near the attacker's side could potentially protect the other attackers by taking out the gunner or the Splazer guy. The rocket added a bit of explosiveness to it. The mauler inside the base gave the defenders an easy way to protect the flag or whatever needs to be protected after the attacking team breach the base.

Hmm, which map did I like most?

district of H2V, I know, people have said that it's the worst map in the whole halo franchise, but why I think it's good:

The gameplay was pretty balanced between vehicles and on foot, there were some roads where you could drive on with your vehicles and then there were many corridors which was hard/impossible for vehicles to use and by that giving you some cover when you're heading to the other base.

The map looks nice and it got many variation in it, it was easy to come to other places and there were many places perfect for big battles or small ones.

The fact that it's good, is the fact that the map is very random, but they made it just the way that it's balanced which is very cool :D

I liked Sidewinder/Avalanche. It wasn't like Blood Gulch where the entire map has 1 line of sight that makes sniping a cake walk. Avalanche especially gave players a motive to go for the center of the map where they could pick up snipers, a shotgun, the splazer, and other goodies.

Epitaph. Surprisingly, not many people seemed to like this map. I enjoyed the verticality of it, although the shield doors were kind of a pain. It kind of reminds me of Lockout, only with more interior focus.

Midship. Because Midship.

SilentGamer64 wrote:I liked Sidewinder/Avalanche. It wasn't like Blood Gulch where the entire map has 1 line of sight that makes sniping a cake walk. Avalanche especially gave players a motive to go for the center of the map where they could pick up snipers, a shotgun, the splazer, and other goodies.

Epitaph. Surprisingly, not many people seemed to like this map. I enjoyed the verticality of it, although the shield doors were kind of a pain. It kind of reminds me of Lockout, only with more interior focus.

Midship. Because Midship.

midship :D

Why did I post it here again? These forums are dead.

Thar not dead :D, but anyways i had a ton of favorites so i just picked a few too say.

Highlands from reach: I just loved the mix of nature and the facilities, plus the background was pretty sick.

Tempest: I loved the forerunner structures and the mix of a oasis type land.

Isolation: Flood Caves.

Im just going to list the rest Isolation, Cold Storage,Avalanche, Stand off, Last resort and Coagulation.

What you just stated was purely graphics, what I want is why gameplay wise

Zenith
Shrine
Epitaph
Tempest
Ghost Town
Sandtrap
Standoff
Monolith
Skyline
Guardian
Anchor 9

I love these maps because they are beautiful Fun and or have alot of dynamic elements! Or unique stuff like sandtrap with the elephants!

sidewinder and good ol blood gulch.

I think all of you are missing the point. From a gameplay standpoint, what makes these maps so fun. There are certain things that work in maps and others that don't, and figuring out what they are is crucial to map design.

Here's some:

Halo 1
Hang Em High - This map had an interesting mix of vertical and horizontal gameplay. The map was clearly separated into a low, mid, and high section, and the differences made for some interesting encounters. The "tombstones" provided some sparse cover that made the open area below less of a no man's land and more of a maze to control.

Sidewinder - This map played well because there were 3 different ways to obtain a single objective: the enemy base. You could cut through the center and grab a flamethrower for the quickest path, but often built with the highest amount of defense. The main roundabout was the general path most people took as it was convenient for vehicular use, and made controlling the center of the arc with the overshield a task that could really change the balance of domination. The outer rim was the longest path to take, but was filled with sniper cover, heavy weapons, and stealth. Not many treaded this path because of the low amount of cover but generally, if you could control this place you could take a flag and back in a decent amount of time, or pick off the enemy with relative ease.

Prisoner - a Totally vertical map with so many varieties of control points. You can easily play off the lower side as much as the higher, although you would need to be careful since the cover was minimal at best. The snipers located at the upper towers on either side were probably the most combated points, since it was one of the few places that had cover but could be flushed out with a well placed grenade. The position of the flamethrower and rockets also gave incentive to take the center, where there's no cover, in order to benefit.

Wizard - The classic Octagon map, fully symmetrical, but the lack of cover (as opposed to derelict which had a lot more) and holding of the back platforms with the overshield and the camo made for some interesting battles along the way. Holding the outer rim was something you couldn't really do for an extended period of time either, so you had to be careful to know when to leave and when to fight.

Blood Gulch - The slightly Asymmetry of the map helped its battles out. The main cut-through path was notably the most used area, but there are side paths which experienced players would use to flank or snipe out enemies, since most of the map had a clear sightline across. These multiple paths really strengthened the flow of the map, where the vehicular gameplay and open area made the map ideal for both large and small fights.

Timberland - The odd way this map was set up probably gave more to making it great. The dense cover provided by the trees, which opened up at key holding points where power weapons were held, made for clever usages of stealth and assault gameplay, which in turn made each assault on a base unique, or each condensed firefight tense, especially due to the extremely uneven terrain

Ice Fields - This one mainly got pushed forward because it was one of two maps that contained ice, but this one had a much tighter playing field. The spaces between each of the bases were also filled with three distinct paths to take, and getting to each path was a chore because of the dense cover and ice obstacles. Speaking of, the vehicular play on the map was thrown off heavily by the ice, so knowing how to combat the slipperiness made encounters that much more satisfying

Halo 2
Ascension - This map had a completely asymmetric playing field, and the open-ness of the center structure along with the dual paths to the banshee forced players to know how and where to take their fights, lest they get shot the hell up from all sides. Controlling the shotgun was also important, as well as the sniper tower.

Colossus - This was a map that I loved playing on personally because it was so damn big. There's a lot of hiding spaces on the upper and mid levels, whereas the lower levels contained the moving crates which could be thrown off the conveyers and sent at enemies for interesting kills, at the expense of opening yourself up to getting shot when you least expect it. The top-down verticality of the map made the lower section a bit harder to navigate, but I believe there was a beam rifle on the lower side to help counteract that issue.

Headlong - City maps were very underplayed, and this one really knew how to hit it. Another larger map but this had a lot of interesting places to hide, and the open buildings had fun vertical segments.

Now that is what I want

DatGuyYouKnow wrote:Thar not dead :D, but anyways i had a ton of favorites so i just picked a few too say.

Highlands from reach: I just loved the mix of nature and the facilities, plus the background was pretty sick.

Tempest: I loved the forerunner structures and the mix of a oasis type land.

Isolation: Flood Caves.

Im just going to list the rest Isolation, Cold Storage,Avalanche, Stand off, Last resort and Coagulation.

2 times isolation?

Zusheqiel wrote:sidewinder and good ol blood gulch.

it's also good ol sidewinder ;D

Man why does everyone like isolation. I didn't personally and that's because of the rocket launcher and the ghost combined with the sparse cover, and I didn't really like the hill structure of the whole thing and how people above you always had a higher vantage. That's fair of course but in something like Epitaph or Guardian there was usually a hallway or doorway or corner you could duck into. As far as the ghost and launcher go high ground did it much better with narrow sections and rocks you could ambush the ghost from if you were outside and if you were in the base you could just run inside one of the doorways and round a corner. The rocket launcher could only effectively be used outdoors - that is, where it spawned and in the straight section inside the gate that went towards the missile launcher. Of course you could shoot it anywhere really but people could duck back into cover if they saw you or they were in the open in which case they could get shot by anyone. And if you weren't wandering with it in the open you were carrying another weapon because you don't want to be in the tight indoor section with the launcher equipped when someone shows up with an ar or the carbine or anything else really because of the splash damage.

lolslayer wrote:

DatGuyYouKnow wrote:Thar not dead :D, but anyways i had a ton of favorites so i just picked a few too say.

Highlands from reach: I just loved the mix of nature and the facilities, plus the background was pretty sick.

Tempest: I loved the forerunner structures and the mix of a oasis type land.

Isolation: Flood Caves.

Im just going to list the rest Isolation, Cold Storage,Avalanche, Stand off, Last resort and Coagulation.

2 times isolation?

Dun mind me im dum :D

Heatguts wrote:Man why does everyone like isolation. I didn't personally and that's because of the rocket launcher and the ghost combined with the sparse cover, and I didn't really like the hill structure of the whole thing and how people above you always had a higher vantage.

Yeah, I wasn't a fan of isolation myself. Vehicles don't really fit with the map, and all they could really do was loop around the outside and through the center lane. The overall size of the map seemed to try and compensate for the fact that there were vehicles present, which stretched it out way too much IMO. It would have been better off if it were designed as an infantry-exclusive map. I did like the aesthetics though, the Sentinels flying above and the flood-infested bottom section were nice touches.

DatGuyYouKnow wrote:

lolslayer wrote:

DatGuyYouKnow wrote:Thar not dead :D, but anyways i had a ton of favorites so i just picked a few too say.

Highlands from reach: I just loved the mix of nature and the facilities, plus the background was pretty sick.

Tempest: I loved the forerunner structures and the mix of a oasis type land.

Isolation: Flood Caves.

Im just going to list the rest Isolation, Cold Storage,Avalanche, Stand off, Last resort and Coagulation.

2 times isolation?

Dun mind me im dum :D

that's k ;D

Coagulation in H2 (so much better than the H1 version)
Nothing gets better than hitting hills and landing on people except ya know rolling tank up the side of the map to flatten people when it comes down.

Mr.Mako wrote:Coagulation in H2 (so much better than the H1 version)
Nothing gets better than hitting hills and landing on people except ya know rolling  tank up the side of the map to flatten people when it comes down.

you got my blessing

Yeah

I remember the first time I played Halo 2 me and my friend just fooled around on the multiplayer maps and we spent like 2 hours on coagulation

It was great because I hid in the cave that I think spawns a sword and he came at me with the tank and I was like "lol you can't reech meh" and then he came across the wall and we were both like "WUT"

Heatguts wrote:Yeah

I remember the first time I played Halo 2 me and my friend just fooled around on the multiplayer maps and we spent like 2 hours on coagulation

It was great because I hid in the cave that I think spawns a sword and he came at me with the tank and I was like "lol you can't reech meh" and then he came across the wall and we were both like "WUT"

lol

I like valhalla from H3, liked the 2 base aspect of it and it was a great CTF map wheere you got the flag and nicked a mongoose with a m8 and woop 1 point to us!