Halo 3 Heroic Pack Hands-on
Dec 5, 2007We won't hold it against you if you've been too busy playing Halo 3 online to have heard about the
With the Halo 2 downloadable map packs, gamers weren't exactly rewarded for taking the plunge early. Due to matchmaking limitations, Bungie didn't have a way to filter those who had the maps from those that didn't. This forced the company to hold off on including the new maps on the matchmaking rotation until they were made available to everyone for free. For Halo 3, the matchmaking is a much more robust system. When the Heroic Map Pack is released, a separate matchmaking list that uses only the new maps will be created. Even better, the three maps will be added into existing matchmaking lists immediately. Those who don't have the new maps yet simply won't be matched into those games.
Standoff
This map is essentially a condensed Blood Gulch. With two bunker bases and some rolling hills in between, the map is perfect for team objective games like capture the flag or one bomb. Since the space between the two bases is significantly smaller than a map like Blood Gulch, Standoff is designed for four on four matches with a heavy emphasis on vehicle use. It's flexible enough to be played with more or less people, but things do get pretty hectic once the map is filled with 16 players.
Standoff takes place in Africa at a UNSC missile facility. The two bunkers are heavily armed and easily defended in objective type games. Each base has an entrance in the front, two on the sides and one in the back. The trick is that most of the entrances are closed when play first starts. Opposing teams will have to infiltrate the base and push a button to open the side and back doors. There's also a shotgun waiting just outside of the front door and a turret on the roof, giving defenders all of the firepower they need.
When you move outside of the base, you'll find a mostly symmetrical field of play. The asymmetry comes from a tree being swapped for a radio antenna just outside of the base on opposite ends of the field. This gives you the ability to quickly look up and recognize visually which side of the map you're on without giving one team any sort of advantage.
As we said before, using vehicles effectively is central to success on Standoff. Given its small stature, the only vehicles on the default map setup are the warthog and mongoose. There are three of the light mongooses and one warthog at each base. While the mongoose is useful for CTF or making bombing runs, the warthog rules Standoff.
There aren't any sniper rifles on the map, making the couple of battle rifles you can find outside of each base the best long range weapon. Take a few steps further from the base and you can find a rocket launcher. In the center of the map, there is a solitary spartan laser. These last two weapons are the best tools against the warthog, but simply getting to them on foot can be tough against a sufficiently good warthog squad. Of course, there's always the active camo on the hill beside each base to help you.
Standoff is a fantastic map for objective games. We had the most fun playing CTF, bomb, and king of the hill games on it, though it wasn't half bad with a simple team slayer match. It's also pretty good for a zombie infection game -- the tight confines force the action while the ample supply of vehicles keep things fast paced.
Perhaps the best reason to hop into Standoff is the lack of sniper rifles. Too often in Halo 3 do you have open maps that are dominated by snipers, making it impossible to cross open tracks of land. Standoff is open with few obstacles aside from rolling hills, enabling you to see your enemy across the field without any way to easily engage them. This sets the stage for more planning and strategy to get tossed into the fray. And that's never a bad thing.
Foundry
The first map designed specifically for the Forge is easily the best reason to look forward to the Heroic Map Pack. Once you go into the Forge level editor and start removing the default set up, you'll find that you can wipe it almost entirely clear, leaving just an empty box of a playing field, a back hallway and a platform along one wall. From there, you can let your imagination run wild. With the new forge items that you'll find on this map, things can get pretty crazy.
The default map layout, before you go crazy in the forge, is built for small skirmishes. Territories and slayer game types are what Bungie had in mind here. Making use of new environmental structures such as empty crates, walls, bridges and fences, Bungie has laid out a multi-tiered space where tight encounters and ambushes are the status quo.
The ground floor of Foundry is a series of halls and pieces of debris, made deceptively open by fences that allow some types of ammunition to pass right through. There's a sniper rifle up for grabs, though we found quickly engaging enemies more effective in slayer matches. Needless to say, if you're on the ground floor you'll be using the assault rifle, tossing grenades and throwing out melee attacks at breakneck rates.
The second tier in Foundry gives the map its charm. Using debris, staircases, or a portable grav lift, you can quickly move up to the series of platforms and bridges that make up the high ground. There's a rocket launcher in one of the tunnels to rain death down on the poor saps below. Obviously, a battle rifle is a weapon you'll want up here since the extra height gives you a nice view of your surroundings. The whole map reminds us a bit of what Rat Race would be like if you knocked out a bunch of walls and ceilings.
After playing around in the Forge for a while, it's clear that Foundry has a lot of potential for fans to create some truly fantastic playing spaces. Stacking boxes and walls, you can easily create floating bases for objective games, massive hills for a true game of king of the hill, or crazy halls with choke points to funnel all of the action into one spot. Rocket race tracks have great potential on Foundry.
There's even a new giant soccer ball that has been added to the Forge list, encouraging people to get creative. We played a game where we removed all of the walls and then put down goals on each end for a makeshift soccer field. The catch was that we only used gravity hammers to knock it (and each other) around and turned the shields on each player up to infinity. It only works if people play on the honor rules system, but when it did work it was a ton of fun. If you want to get crazy, put a few flamethrowers on the field too. A flaming soccer ball is very cool indeed.
Rat's Nest
This map was designed to help fill out the Big Team Battle playlist. It also fulfills Bungie's desire to create an indoor vehicle map. Designed to be played with 6-16 players, Rat's Nest is thematically based on the Crow's Next level from the Halo 3 campaign. It's also great for a 16 player capture the flag or territories showdown.
The outside of the map is designed as a loop for vehicles. Each base has a default setup with multiple warthogs and mongooses, setting the stage for numerous vehicle confrontations and fast strikes at the opponent's base. One side of the loop is entirely closed off, while the opposite is open air with a view of a pelican sitting on a landing pad and a cliff you don't want to fall off of. In the center of the map, there's a large hallway with a turret and a ghost that connects with the outer loop.
If you prefer to travel by foot, there's an interior spine that allow you to quickly travel from one base to the other. It also sets up massive choke points where the battles get insanely intense. Grenades and brute shots constantly rocked the corridors with shockwaves.
One nice touch we noticed about this series of halls becomes apparent during territory matches. The territory inside the opponent's base is easily the most difficult to capture. It sits on the opposite side of a wall, right where everyone spawns. However, attackers do have a small chance at victory. You can capture the territory from the opposite side of the wall, giving you a small amount of protection.
Rat's Nest may be the best of the three in terms of overall design sense. There are numerous subtle touches that add to the fun. A pipe that runs near the ceiling on the outer vehicle track is a great hiding place for oddball or infection games. The open air cliff face seems like a simple piece of visual flair, but it opens up the effective use of brute shots and gravity hammers against unsuspecting vehicle riders. The design is simple enough that you'll know your way around after just a few minutes, but the map has enough options and paths for new approaches that we felt there was still a lot to experience after several hours of toying around.
Is it worth it?
You'd be hard pressed to find anybody around these offices that thinks three maps for $10 is a good deal. If you want to make a stand against the cost, just wait until this spring and you'll get the same content for free. However, there are some reasons to look beyond the price tag with the Heroic Map Pack. If you're an avid Halo 3 player, the new maps will add a much needed shot of variety to your online playing. That alone could be enough of a reason to pony up the cash, especially if you plan to make Halo 3 the focus of your gaming for the foreseeable future. If you're a big fan of custom Forge gametypes, then this download is essentially made just for you. The Foundry is a great map in its own right, but it becomes a whole new beast with the Forge.
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