Right from the start, the Halo franchise became popular on two different fronts. First off, it had a great story with a compelling main character that sucked fans in. However, the campaign wasn’t the only thing the games excelled at. They also had a great multiplayer system.
There was slayer, oddball, and amazing capture-the-flag game types. And the best thing is that they were all supported on amazing multiplayer maps. The early Halo games had some of the best maps in all of gaming that remains immensely popular to this day. Here are some of the best maps across the franchise.
10 Battle Canyon (Reach)
As a key Xbox title, Halo was very big on remaking old maps in newer games. A lot of times, there was just so much nostalgia for the old maps that it’s hard for the remakes to rank higher on a list. Battle Canyon does not have this problem.
Although Battle Creek was definitely iconic from the first game, it was a bit cramped. This remake fleshed it out a bit more while also retaining the same simplified base design that made it a great capture-the-flag map.
9 Cold Storage (Halo 3)
Cold Storage is another remade map where there is no question that it is superior to the original. Chill Out wasn’t even one of the more popular maps in the first Halo game. However, this remade version of Halo 3 really amplified its alien design to create an immersive experience.
The layout of the map itself isn’t the best, but the atmosphere and ambiance of the remake gave a whole new life to a map that was otherwise fairly bland.
8 Turf (Halo 2)
It’s very rare to find a map that is so good for so many different game types. Some maps are good for slayer, while others are better for one flag CTF, and others for assault. Turf works great for all three.
It provides an uneven cityscape with varying levels of high and low ground. Add in the fact that it promotes the use of a Warthog, and this map has just the right mix of ingredients to make for some truly fun matches.
7 Midship (Halo 2)
A lot of great capture-the-flag maps have bases that need to be infiltrated. This creates essentially two different fronts in the match. There are battles inside the bases and then battles going on outside. Midship manages to give the feel of bases while also having a completely open environment.
There are a few places to hide, but overall, the map is completely open and small enough to stop the other team from scoring from anywhere on the map.
6 Guardian (Halo 3)
Between Ivory Tower, the Pit, Lockout, and others, Halo 2 really stepped up its game in creating amazing free-for-all maps. It would be really hard for Halo 3 to compete. However, Guardian showed that they could still put together an original map that would be amazing for free for all.
It has a similar design to Lockout, where there is a great battleground in the middle while also having various locations along the outskirts of the map for other battles to take place in.
5 Hang Em’ High (Halo)
It’s rare for a map to really be designed for nothing particular and yet still be so good for everything. It’s not exactly clear what Hang ‘Em High should be used for, and yet, its cumbersome, unsymmetrical design works for capture the flag, oddball, and slayer.
It’s also strangely the perfect size for large-scale battles and also a one-on-one fight. Its remake, titled Tombstone, valiantly tried to recreate its magic, but the original still remains one of the greatest and a reason why Halo was such a good launch title.
4 Ivory Tower (Halo 2)
Upon its launch, Halo 2 and Ivory Tower became synonymous with each other. This was the map that most Halo 2 players cut their teeth on. It also worked well for every game type. Assault, one-flag CTF, and slayer were all able to have amazing matches in their multi-level design.
There were even great free-for-all matches too, as players took advantage of its awesome weapon spawn points to create mayhem around every corner.
3 Forge World (Reach)
It’s very hard to quantify exactly what Forge World is. On the surface, it’s a blank slate for players to pretty much do whatever they want within the game’s forge mode. They could create racetracks, Grifball courts, or pretty much anything they could think of.
And yet, the map still works incredibly all by itself. Machinima filmmakers took advantage of its incredible size to film huge battle sequences. Not to mention players can just jump into the map for a big team battle match of unprecedented size.
2 Lockout (Halo 2)
Sometimes it’s hard to nail down exactly what makes a map so special. Sometimes it’s obvious. Fans can pick out a great base layout or an intricate design that ties into the map’s backstory.
Lockout had neither of those things and yet it was still an incredible amount of fun for shotgun experts. It just had such a natural flow to its various locations that the map promoted a constant cycle of fighting regardless of where players went.
1 Blood Gulch (Halo)
Blood Gulch is the map so nice they remade it twice. And although the remakes are still an incredible amount of fun, it’s hard to top the iconic original. There was just something special about these two bases across a vast landscape that promoted matches that felt like real warfare.
It was so perfect it’s no surprise Rooster Teeth’s Machinima series Red Vs. Blue gained immense popularity using the map as a backdrop. There have been other maps that used it as inspiration, but nothing will probably ever top the original template of Blood Gulch.
