Halo Reach: Those Maps

Before I start this large, hopefully enlightening rant, I'd like everyone to know that I love Halo.  I was a huge fan of Halo 3, putting thousands of hours into that game, and even playing a few Grifball tournaments with the big leagues.  To put it simply, I love Halo 3.  So you can guess how excited I was to get Halo Reach.  I was ready for new weapons, cool abilities, different map types, the list goes on.  I got the game, started it up, and played for a few days, trying to grasp my opinion on the game.  There was something about it I absolutely couldn't stand, and it was ruining the game for me.

Map design.

I dislike a vast majority of the maps in Halo Reach.  For the sake of this rant, I'm only going to use a few maps and compare them to one of the greatest maps from Halo 3, Valhalla.

Let's start with my least favorite map from Reach to get all a majority of my anger out of the way.

Reflection.  For those of you who don't do maps by names, Reflection is the level where everything is orange and oriental and clean.  This is the first point I'll address: visuals.  Everything looks the same.  There aren't any visual cues or landmarks that I can use to help navigate the space.  Sure, they have a center area with a pond full of koi fish, but running through hallways and different levels can get confusing fast.  Also, from a visual standpoint, the area doesn't seem to have a function or purpose.  Purely by looking at it, I can assume its some fancy executive building, or maybe a hotel, or maybe an art gallery since it's so EMPTY.  From a gameplay aspect, yeah, leaving narrow hallways empty during fast-paced combat is good for the gamer, but, for immersion's sake, I just can't find the space I'm running around in believable, and it leaves me with too many questions.  I don't stand for all gamers (or even a majority), but I get distracted and slightly frustrated when the space I'm playing in doesn't make even the smallest bit of logical sense.  Alright, enough about visuals.  I'm going into layout and design.

Here is a heatmap of Reflection.

The warm colors indicated lots of kills in that area, the cooler colors representing less so, and the grey space meaning that nothing really happens over here.  In a map for gameplay such as Halo's, there should NEVER be any grey space.  As you can see, in this map, there's quite a lot and only the lower half of the level seems to be where the most action is going down.  All in all, this map is not being used to its full potential.  Also, the area of most action is not at a central place, which is probably why I found myself running around with nothing to do, hoping to happen upon an enemy.

Now let's take a look a Halo 3's Valhalla.

Compared to Reflection, Valhalla is a lovely mess of color.  There is literally no grey space in playable areas.  It also has multiple points of high combat that covers a majority of the playable space with two at either end of the map and one giant glob of red in the middle.  With all of the areas of high interaction in this map, I'm told that I can be anywhere and still be in an area of combat.  Also, visually, I'm able to understand the map.  In each corner of the map, there's a visual landmark that not only helps players work their way around the map, but they also work as a combat motivator. At each end of the map is a base (friendly and enemy), to the right is the crashed Pelican, which can provide cover, allow players to be sneaky, and is a great sniper spot, and to the left is the cliff with the turret, which is another good sneaking spot as well as a nice wide space for vehicles to drive through (plus there's the turret, that's always cool).  Such a beautiful map.

I'm going to hit one more point before I close this post up.  Another thing that irked me about the Reach maps was this "King of the Hill" design.  One team spawns SUPER FAR AWAY from any action and spends most of their time trying to make their way back to any point of combat.  Two maps guilty of this crime?  The Spire and Boneyard, respectively.

I remember playing these maps and being extremely frustrated that I would have to run a long distance just to finally get to someone, where most of the time I would die anyway because I was on the low ground.  It's like those games that keep giving the better players more and more advantages over the less skilled players (I'm looking at you, Call of Duty).  And in this case, it might not even be the more skilled players, it's just the team that happens to spawn there.  I know this design is meant for the "defend territories!" style of gameplay, but it's just not fun for those at the disadvantage.  I already have to run halfway across the map, infiltrate their large defensive structure that's on higher ground, and somehow manage to stay alive as I capture their defense points.  I just want to cut these maps in half and get rid of all that pointless extra space.

Alright, I'm done hating on Halo Reach for now.  Any comments or other opinions are always welcomed!

Erica
(heatmaps from bungie.net)

Limbo

created by Playdead

Let's talk about Limbo.  I'm a huge fan of Xbox Arcade games; they're short and sweet.  Limbo is no exception.  This game has incredibly unique visuals that we haven't seen in this field yet, and its in these visuals I think they find success.

For those of you who haven't played the game (shame on you!), here's a little teaser to give you a quick summary.

When displaying a greyscale image, special attention needs to be put on the value and contrast of the image.  Can I read the foreground/background?  What am I supposed to be looking at?  Can I recognize everything?  And most importantly, is it interesting?  Limbo uses value and contrast extraordinary well; they're able to stand on their own as artist pieces.  Without using color, the game has managed to convey a sense of emotion in a world of black and white.

Dem silhouettes...

Excellent value and contrast can only get you so far; what all good games need is some badass lighting.  Limbo especially.  The world in this game is meant to be dark and creepy, but the player has to be able to see at least some of the environment, right?  In Limbo, lighting is used not only to make the environment easier to read, but to also guide and help the player.  Usually, glowing objects in the game are key parts of a puzzle.  Even the boy has eerie, glowing eyes so that the player does not get lose in darker areas.  Combing the lighting and filtered camera give the game a movie film noir feel to it, without the use of realism.  I'm an avid fan of stylized games; realism is becoming boring.  I want something different from the usual color schemes of brown, brown, and more brown.  Sure, Limbo doesn't offer me more color, but it does communicate a strong, emotion atmosphere without a massive amount of polygons.  To quote Playdead's co-founder and CEO, Dino Patti, "We definitely feel it's best to avoid competing for realism and high polygon counts, instead focusing on making something with what you have.  I believe in using the most resources on the essential parts of a game, and for me that is definitely the game play.  That being said, creating something which feels like a complete package always takes a lot of time and dedication."  I want to kiss this man.  Game play is definitely the most essential part of a game, and spending a ridiculous amount of time on it shows.

/end massive wall of text

I'll move on to my next point, which combines both value, contrast, and lighting to form the super being known as atmosphere.  As mentioned before, this game is creepy.  This world is creepy.  That boy is creepy!  And a majority of this creep is achieved with atmosphere.  The soft and foggy background mixed in with the diluted rays of light give Limbo its eerie feel.  The entire game has no music, only environmental sounds, making immersion almost instant.  I totally forgot about the real world as soon as this game starts.  Limbo brings the player right into this creepy forest in god-knows-where and slowly takes you through even creepier tribal villages to industrial cities and beyond.

Really, Limbo?  Bodies in crates?

Is that...a hanged body?

Ah...yeah, that's definitely a hanged body.

I've given this game so much praise on its visuals, but what about this game play I speak so highly of?  Yes, it's an incredibly fun game, but instead of ranting on about what was fun, I'd rather point out the things I believe this game lacked.

So let's talk about the progression of game play.  When you start the game, game play starts immediately.  You learn the few and easy mechanics of the game and the puzzles begin.  There are giant insects, gruesome traps, but all of this terrifying fun turns into gravity puzzles near the end of the game.  I can enjoy the transition from forest to industrial city, but that transition happened fast and I began to miss some of the earlier imagery the game had, as well as the sudden traps and puzzles the game threw at me.

And then there's what you actually do in the game, which is basically environment interaction, such as jumping, climbing, and moving objects around.  There's nothing wrong with that, but other than these simple actions, there's nothing else going on in the environment.  It's very still.  Even subtle movements in the background, like a creature moving or a distant tree swaying would add to the overall atmosphere of the game.  If the environment moved more and perhaps gave the player more to interact with, it would take away from the strictly linear structure of the game that can get a tad bit repetitive, like that whole gravity puzzle deal.  Seriously, Limbo?  The last half of the game felt like one giant gravity puzzle.  And the gravity changes didn't even make sense in this world!

So it seems that all of my game design issues are stemming from these gravity puzzles that apparently consumed the entire game in a fit of repetitive-ness.  But I think that's just a symptom of the main issue, which is the overall level design.  I feel like they spent a large amount of their time and energy on the earlier parts of the game, which I have no complaints about.  But the design seems to get dull and bland as the game nears an end.  The environment is all the same, which is making game play all the same, since it's based off of the environment.  In these types of games, the creation of the map and environment needs to be synced with mechanic design.  While reading up on Limbo, I stumbled across some of its concept art.

Look at these designs!  If the environment looked more like this, imagine the variety of game play you could get, instead of just areas with gears and boxes, toggling gravity on and off.  These original sketches have more organic and foreign-looking architecture, which gives off a familiar yet unknown vibe that matches the essence of the game.  So not only do these original designs give an opportunity for a variety of game play, but it also pushes the feeling this game is trying to convey to the player in this creepy and unsettling world.

This game is still amazing, and I suggest everyone play it.  It's a great break from the norm, and yes, even the gravity puzzles can be exciting.  It's cheap, it's short, it's fun, check it out!

If you've played this game before, I'd be interested in what you thought about it.  Leave a comment if you feel active.

Erica