Those who have read my review of the Heroic map pack know exactly what I think about Halo 3 and it’s multiplayer gameplay, so I’m going to dive straight into this review of the brand new Halo 3 Legendary map pack.

Like the previous downloadable content, the Legendary map pack has three new Halo 3 maps; Blackout, Ghost Town, and Avalanche; and like I did with Heroic, I’m going to go through all of them individually.

Blackout
Blackout, a map for 4-12 players, is an exact reincarnation of the Halo 2 map ‘Lockout’. Blackout is deceptively large; built with multiple stories, raised platforms, and exterior walkways, and this means you get to experiment with different types of gameplay; and I found myself using just about every tactic that I know to survive. What I thought was best about the map is something that Bungie mentioned in the previews: the weapon placement. For example, the Power Drain and shotgun are together, but because of the differing strategies of the two items you won’t get any real advantage from having the both. It really balances at the start of a match, and also means that teams have nothing to gain from camping. Blackout works perfectly for Slayer games, and also for Oddball and King of the Hill, so you’re not going to be left short of options when you play this superb map.

The sticky grenade is a weapon to be feared in close quarters environments.

Ghost Town
Another close quarters map, Ghost Town is built for 4-12 players. With it’s overgrown and tumbledown appearance, Ghost Town is full of hiding places and tactical promise. There are a mind boggling amount of ways into each area, and you’ll be caught out if you aren’t attentive to your surroundings. This makes camping with a sniper rifle nearly impossible and, as far as I’m concerned, this is only a good thing. Ghost Town reminds me a lot of Foundry, my favourite map from the Heroic map pack, because of the “stay high or die” gameplay; and it works just as well. What I really like about Ghost Town is that the power weapons in the map (Rocket Launcher, Shotgun and Sniper rifle) don’t work as well as they do on other maps, because players are constantly moving between open and closed environments. The extra skill needed to use these weapons keeps the game much more balanced; and also goes some way to prevent that 10 year old kid “pwning you all” with his incredible rocket spamming talents. Ghost Town works very well for Slayer gametypes, but also for tactical games like Assault and One Flag Capture the Flag; making it even more versatile than Blackout.

Nowhere is truly safe in Ghost Town

Avalanche
Avalanche is another reincarnation map, a copy of Sidewinder from Halo Combat Evolved (the original Halo). It’s probably one of the biggest maps in the game, similar in size to Sandtrap and built for 6-16 players; so as you can expect, there are a lot of ways to get around. The most unique feature of this map is the man cannons; and trust me when I say that they are f**king huge, easily capable of throwing vehicles halfway across the map. This is a brilliant feature, and makes for great bomb drops, flag captures, or even just laser tag. I’ve had a few great experiences, when I’ve driven a Ghost into a man cannon, and found myself splattering some poor sod who was stupid enough to stand in the way.

 It’s like clay pigeon shooting. But with Warthogs. And lasers.

 

As well as the huge man cannons, Avalanche is the first map to include the teleporters as a standard feature. These add a lot to tactical matches, like Assault and Flag games, and are a good way of getting behind enemy lines without too much hassle, and it’s a lot stealthier than riding a Warthog up the man cannon (no points for spotting the sexual innuendo in that sentence). The last way to get around this huge map (apart from walking, but walking is for chumps) is the vehicles; and some of these have been given a makeover to suit the environment. Human vehicles; the Hornet; Warthog; Mongoose and Scorpion, have all been given a snow-camo makeover, which is a very nice touch and exclusive the Avalanche map. Avalanche is perfect for tactical games, and I think it will be excellent in big team Slayer (although the matchmaking doesn’t allow you to play it like this yet). It’s probably my favourite map of the Legendary map pack.

Who needs Ghillie suits when we have Snowhogs?

Forge
With the Heroic map pack, Bungie gave us Foundry; enabling us to take out all the scenery, and build maps to our liking, and it also gave us some new toys to play with, like the soccer ball. The Legendary map pack doesn’t give us another “canvas” map, but it does give us some new scenery; with water tanks, ramps, and sniper towers a few of the new objects. The big addition to Forge mode is the new visual effects available; which allow you to give any of the new maps different graphical effects; for example, you can use the “Juicy” effect to make the colours much more vibrant in your map. This is a superb feature, not only for the game but also for the Halo 3 community. I expect machinima directors everywhere were struggling with cramp in their wanking wrists after their first opportunity to use the new visuals.

 Brute Shots have never looked older. Or browner.

 

You’ve probably guessed that I really like the new maps, and I think Bungie have achieved the same high standards that they reached with the Heroic map pack. The playlist is also vastly improved compared to the original one used for the Heroic map packs, giving a clear choice between Slayer and Objective games, although I feel they should probably throw in a Big Team playlist for Avalanche. The other problem I have with the playlist is Team Duels on Avalanche; it’s a weak link in the Slayer playlist, because the map is far too big for a 4 vs 4 game. Overall though, I am thoroughly satisfied with the Legendary map pack, and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone with Halo 3, or is looking to get back into it. I especially recommend it to any machinina directors, or potential machinima directors, because the visual effects you get in these maps will really give your films diversity.

 

9/10 - The Legendary map pack is easily as good as the Heroic map pack, in terms of level design and gameplay, adding variety and class to an already superb map list. It’s definitely worth the 800 Microsoft points it costs, and I recommend it to any fans of Halo 3.