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Raid on Apex 7 vs. Blood Gulch scale map.
By:Gravemind
Date: 11/15/15 5:00 pm

So, 343i made a pretty big deal about the size of Warzone's maps, calling them the biggest maps ever. At E3 Josh Holmes claimed that Warzone's maps were "four times the size" of any previous map in the series. Well, just from playing Warzone I knew that claim was a bit exaggerated, and just like when Bungie insinuated that Boneyard was the biggest (or one of the biggest) maps ever, I feel I have to put this one to the test. Using the in-game distance indicators in Halo 5, I was able to get an estimate of how big Raid on Apex 7 is (the indicator for the Spire is about 150 meters from the near side of the East Armory). It's the only Warzone map we have an actual overhead view map of (albeit a rather low-res one), and since I have overhead maps of the various Halo 1 maps, I decided to do a visual comparison of Apex 7 with that all-time classic big Halo MP map, Blood Gulch:

So, Apex 7 is indeed a big map, and at first blush it seems a bit larger than Blood Gulch, but it's certainly not "four times" the size of the biggest MP maps in past Halo games. However, unlike Blood Gulch, it has large mountains that serve to break up the terrain, so walking a roughly straight line from one side of the island to the other across its longest extent (i.e., Red Base beach to Blue Base beach) is not possible. To sneak around the long way across the beaches to get from one armory to the other (instead of crossing in front of the Spire) is quite a hike. But those large mountains, which appear to cover at least a third and perhaps as much as half the map's total area, also have the effect of reducing the actual usable surface area of the map. The actual amount of play space is at best about as much as what BG provides, and 90% of the combat takes place in the span from the East Armory to the Spire to the West Armory, a space maybe one-third the size of Blood Gulch. The beaches are largely ignored in most circumstances, with the Legendary bosses (the Phaeton and the Wraith) being the only draws. Boneyard had a similar issue, with the area where Phase 1 of Invasion took place in being largely ignored in Slayer and non-Invasion objectives gametypes.

Warzone's maps are big, and it's a fun game type. But the biggest maps ever? Maybe only slightly.


Messages In This Thread

Raid on Apex 7 vs. Blood Gulch scale map.Gravemind11/15/15 5:00 pm
     Methodology?davidfuchs11/15/15 9:34 pm
           Re: Methodology?Gravemind11/15/15 10:00 pm
     4 Times the File Size *NM*zanezavin111/16/15 5:14 pm

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