Why were Halo 2 Maps so magical?

Why were Halo 2 Maps so magical?

nostalgia

You were 12 when you played it

That was the worst map.

Ascension was the best followed by lockout and blood gultch.

because the majority of the maps weren't symmetrical like in halo 3. really dont know why they would create half a map. halo2 had the best maps hands down, the majority of people that say its nostalgia never actually played halo 2 during its prime

>the majority of people that say its nostalgia never actually played halo 2 during its prime
>during its prime

That's nostalgia talking

>Zombies on Ascension

and turf

>the majority of the maps weren't symmetrical like in halo 3

how the fuck does that make the maps "magical"?

its prime was until they shutdown the servers

because literally the only good map in halo 3 (guardian) wasn't symmetrical. Symmetrical maps are very boring.

You do know that PC servers are still up and run by another team, right? Also, Master Chief Collection exists (that is when the multiplayer is actually working).

halo 2 for the xbox was before the introduction of private chats and group chats. people really didnt have a choice but to interact with others. it was also the first functioning console online shooter so everyone was excited to interact with eachother. not putting down the pc version or mcc, just putting it in perspective

every single fucking person yells DURING ITS PRIME as if anything changes since then aside from playercount. lmfao

Good balance of cover and open spaces that worked with the weapon design and movement.

When they started changing weapon and movement behaviors they needed to adapt the new maps to this, but they didn't - instead they pretty much just ported old maps over almost 1:1.

Relic was extremely unbalanced and strongly favoured the defenders. Possibly the most one-sided map in the game. The little hill blocking the crashed dropship even gave defenders the opportunity to push into the defender spawn and camp them.

It was supposed to balance out with the flag being really easy to steal, but in actual practice all you needed was the warthog or a ghost to completely shut down a flag cap trying to run across the open stretch.

Not Tower of power! Zombies was fun too

player interaction is a big deal. if you cant shit talk people in a post game lobby then it takes away an element that was once there. the multiplayer is still fun as fuck and i enjoy playing it, the only problem i have is finding solid competition

I played zombies on foundation for daaaaaaysss

Sometimes we'd even glitch our way out of the map

Ah, I see what you mean. I never got to play the original Xbox version until way after the servers closed (though I've played plenty of System Link games), so when MCC was announced, I was thrilled to learn that all of the multiplayers were supported online. I mostly play on the Action Sack or CE playlists, but I do enjoy the occasional H2 match. Halo 2 is just one of those games I prefer to play LAN.

player interaction means fuck all if we're talking about map design.

player interaction again is only mattering for nostalgia wizards. good games are good games -- they aren't food, they don't deteriorate with time.

defenders had the advantage of taking both snipers. the trick with relic is that you literally had one run to make it. in big team battle it was made easier as you could just storm the base. really loved team snipers on this map

Oh God YES! Spawn with sword only, humans have 3 minutes to arm themselves and attempt make defenses. Weapons don't respawn on the map after being picked up. So many hours wasted.

if we're talking map design then this is easy. halo 2 had spectacular maps

I had only 2 friends in school when halo 2 was big, and no friends with an xbox. While everyone else was doing band or sports or theatre or something, I played halo 2. Some other kids played, but only once or twice a week. All I did was play halo 2.

I had a pretty big friends list after a while, of people who I'd met in matchmaking and played well with/ tossed around some good bantz. I remember all these fun matches like the first time I played zombies on foundation.

The others who didn't play all the time have connections from their real-world memories, things that relate to normie life. All I have are vague recollections of the friendly voices of strangers.

>tfw Halo 2 was a mistake.

Chris Carney and Max Hobberman are amazing level designers, that's why.

halo.bungie.net/news/content.aspx?cid=29601

Play Halo 4 MP and you will immediately miss them.

after the first year i finally got one of my better friends to play get an xbox and halo 2. all i did was play halo 2, i had a maxed out friends list and a clan list. i didnt play any other games besides halo 2. i did sports and lots of other shit but literally any soare time i had from the age of 12-15 was spent playing halo 2

I think part of it was that this was a new experience for a lot of the people playing halo 2. Most people who owned an xbox weren't nerdy enough to organize a lan party, especially not more than once in a blue moon. Halo 2 was the first time for lots of people that it was super easy to participate in a multiplayer shooter.

So for that first few years, it was just really fucking exciting. Bungie was experimenting with the maps, trying interesting stuff out. Some of it didn't work, but some of it was way better than the focus-group shit we get nowadays.

Since then, we've had practice with shooters and new mechanics have been added and there's a broader variety so people choose whether they want to play COD, Battlefield, Halo, Rainbow Six, etc. But at the time, EVERYONE was playing Halo 2. It was a phenomenon, one that brought us all together.

And we can never go back.

and i really cant find any appeal to COD or Battlefield, or the other hodgepodge of shit shooters around. destiny wasn't bad, and i enjoy overwacheven though its far too easy and team reliant.
halo 2 and how it worked was just so perfect, halo 3 came around and it was just easier to play and over worse in terms of mechanics

Because you were 10

>focus-group shit
what do you mean by this, bro? you mean like cod's three lane BS, or what?

>assemble team of complete fucking retards
>90% of them have never even played a shooter before
>collective group IQ barely over room temperature
>ask them what sort of map they would like
>"?uhhh????"
>repeat this with a dozen groups of retards, and one group of actual FPS players and then average the results
>congrations you dun it, now you know what most of the playerbase wants out of a map!
>shit out a horrible map pack that nobody likes