The nice folks at Bungie saw fit to supply a few of us here at Gamepro with access to the new Legendary Map Pack that's due to hit Live next Tuesday. Since the maps are not yet available in matchmaking, I was restricted to goofing around all by my lonesome in a custom game. Still, I was able to get a good feel for the new content. Hit the jump for my impressions.
Avalance
Check out Bungie's interactive map here to get an idea of what the map is like visually.
I never got into the online Halo scene until this latest installment, so I'm not familiar with Sidewinder, the map which Avalanche is supposedly based on. I'm judging it with fresh eyes. While the feeling of nostalgia is lost on me, I can't imagine it greatly hindered my enjoyment of what is all around a solid map.
As I've noted on this site before, I'm a fan of big, open maps; bonus points for lots of vehicles. Avalanche fits this description quite well. The entire map is laid out in a horseshoe shape, but it's a horseshoe big enough to shoe the horse of a god. The setting is a large forerunner power station that pulls its power from within the ice. However, I've renamed the map Man Cannon Emporium and I like to describe it as a winter wonderland of death and destruction.
If you couldn't guess from the new title that I've given it, Avalanche has man cannons placed all around the maps. While they serve an aesthetic purpose, looking like vents for the power station, they perform the same task as a man cannon, which is flinging your character threw the air. Some of them are poking out of the mountainside and are near impossible to reach, but this makes the setting all the more believable. It's set on a glacier, so the entire map - with the exception of a few structures - is a snowy white. Expect a lot of people to use white armor, as darker colors will stick out like a sore thumb.
Fans of maps like Valhalla and Stand Off will find a lot to like here. You have a couple structures that allow for some close-quarters combat, but to get to them you have to trek across a frozen field of death with warthogs and mongooses sliding around while pelicans duke it out in the sky. I can see the map lending itself well to two equally awesome scenarios: small battles where there's a lot of frantic running and searching, or huge, epic battles where explosions fill the sky and you can't afford to drop your guard for a second.
While Avalanche will make for some awesome vehicular battles, don't think that running around on foot is a bad idea. There are plenty of places that vehicles can't reach, where a lone gunmen with a spartan laser could easily dominate. The middle also contains a few sniper rifles, which could help you control the map. Each base is set up in a way that would be relatively easy to defend, so it might not be a bad strategy to grab a sniper rifle and hightail it back home, where you can wait for your opponents to come to you.
Black Out
Black Out is a re-imagining of the Halo 2 map Lock Out. Check out the interactive map here, towards the bottom of the page.
Black Out immediately reminded me of the Halo 3 map Guardian. It features a series of twisting corridors that ultimately lead to a big, open center platform. It's also the kind of map that you won't fully appreciate until you memorize some of the aforementioned twisting corridors. Black Out takes place on a UNSC weather station in the antartic and that big center platform is a helipad. One of the first things I noticed is how visually appealing the map is. If you look up, you'll see the aurora borealis (or it could be the aurora australis), which is an amazing sight to behold. If you look below the station, you'll see ice fragments covering most of the water. And if you look to the north of the station, you'll see an icy cliff glowing in the moonlight. It's all very appealing to the eye.
I'm not crazy about small maps. In fact, Guardian is probably my least favorite map. However, Black Out is something of a mystery to me. It definitely looks like a smaller map, but it feels wide open. There are pathways everywhere, but you're not restricted to them. I found myself bounding to and fro across platforms and climbing on top of walls. This is dangerous because one could easily fall to a frozen death, but it also gives you a lot more freedom than you would initially think the map offered. Black Out does offer a sniper rifle which you could put to good use if you find a nice perch, but you may be better off grabbing the shotgun or plasma sword and tearing ass through the hallways. You're going to see a lot of hectic, fast-paced battles.
Ghost Town
Check out the overhead at the bottom of this page.
Unlike the other two maps, Ghost Town is brand spankin' new, not based on any previous content. Like Black Out, it's a fairly small map that feels much bigger due to how open it is. However, unlike Black Out, which featured a series of small corridors and one big central location, Ghost Town features a series of small passageways broken up my several medium-sized locations. There isn't one centralized battleground. The middle area is big enough to drive a mongoose around (the map features two), but that's about it. In fact, vehicles fans should note that this map is basically some sort of mongoose stunt arena, filled with all sorts of ramps and jumps.
One of my favorite things about Ghost Town is that you can pretty much skirt the entire perimeter of the map undetected by using various passageways made from run-down buildings. Many of the routes are very unconventional, as you're basically carving your own path through these ancient ruins of what use to be a water purification facility. Thematically, the map bears some resemblance to the Sierra 117 mission, as the location of the ruins is supposedly just north-west of the hydroelectric facility where that mission takes place. While there is some scaffolding and other obvious paths to take, you'll spending a lot of time jumping over piles of rubble and walking through broken pipes. There are also quite a few nooks and crannies - made from years of slow destruction - that you can hide in and wait for your prey.
Cosmetically, the map is about on par with Black Out. It's the early evening and the light from the setting sun looks fairly breathtaking. The buildings look old and decrepit, like they should, and the foliage really helps the composition amidst the drab gray and brown of the concrete and dirt.
To be honest, Stand Off from the heroic map pack still holds its place in my heart as the best Halo 3 map. That being said, the Legendary Map Pack features some solid content - Avalanche especially - that is easily worth the ten bucks if you're an avid Halo player.
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