My top map designs list

I love shooters. Mostly older kinds, but in all honesty there will always be that urge to just play any shooter and get some fun out of it. Part of the fun that almost can't be taken away no matter what a shooter wants to do with it's mechanics, is mapping. Maps are key to a shooter more so than just about any other genre. RPGs can be randomly generated for all people care, it's the monsters and loot and other such mechanics relating to them that make up those games. RTS and strategy rely on the exact mechanics and the players ability to use them right, maps can vary on importance but at the end of the day you don't enjoy the games for their maps, you enjoy them for how you can plan or outsmart the opponents. Puzzles rely on a strict set of rules to sell the whole experience. Meanwhile with shooters and platformers, the designs and levels make or break lots of things. Yet this isn't about platformers, so lets stick with the shooters. You need great levels, and man do they always deliver. Even in games that are absolute crap, it can be entertaining to look at the level. Sometimes you just get to really soak up the atmosphere and immersion, other times you enjoy the strategic implications of each map with the use of chokepoints, jumpads, pick-up placements, hiding spots, traps, locations good for your own traps, etc. Shooters are one of those genres you can really put yourself into, and thus the map makes a huge deal of the experience.

So in this list I wanted to bring together a lot of fantastic map ideas I've seen over time. I'll admit since there's a lot, there might be some ties within games that just love making awesome maps. I'll admit right off the bat I'm a sucker for well placed narrow spaces and chokepoint-like areas, it's just in my nature to love the corridor shooter style and no game can be complete without adding some narrow spaces into it's map design. Even monster size open maps like you'd find battlefield and Starhawk had to submit to some small spaces in some manner or another. Now without further intro, here is my humble and flawed but fun to make list of awesome maps.


#5) Blood Gulch (Halo series)

I don't play halo since I'm not an Xbox guy, but I still know this was a fantastic map. Well that and I was addicted to the demo which lets you play multiplayer on blood gulch. This was just brilliance through simplicity. You had two copy and pasted bases, a wide open canyon, a cave, vehicles, and the perfect weapon loadout and it all ripped into a fun blast of a multiplayer. It was also set up just right to naturally discourage camping, as who the hell would camp anywhere except right inside the base. Anywhere else useful to camp would just get you shot too fast. Overall it was just a really fun map, and honestly I should consider grabbing the halo PC demo again because that was a lot of fun to play and I'm sure there's still people gaming on it.

#4) 2Fort, and MountainLab (TeamFortress 2)

2Fort- Ok last "simple CTF" maps, I wont make that a theme. But it's usually where the fun really is, and TF2 masters their own form with 2fort. 2Fort has a great layout of putting CTF points or "intel" in small little underground pieces under big barn-like forts complete with 3 floors, a balcony, a sewer system, and the two bases are only seperated by a bridge. This map is a perfect exercise in all classes completed with great ways to build and counter each of them. Without a doubt this map is popular for a reason. Personally I love taking the sewers, getting underneath all the sniping, bombs, and avoiding those hiding pyros all in one swoop and I usually get away with it as most people still ignore the path even if it is kind of like that open secret area. As a spy it's the perfect planning and stealth route, engineers can build nests in the enemies base undisturbed, and anybody else decent for going in can just raise a surprise attack from within the base. Genius!
MountainLab- It's just a very entertaining Control point map. If it wasn't for how strong the defense can be on the 3rd point, I'd say it's just perfect. It's got alternate routes good for both sides, it's great with all classes, and it's just a very fun and replayable experience. Again there is a problem with the 3rd point being absolutely torture for the attackers, but it's still a great map with a nice look and even has a reskined Halloween haunted mansion version if you wanted something darker.

#3) Office (counter-strike)

Counter strike is a much under appreciated game these days. However one thing that does often show up when it's mentioned is the office map, and what a great map it is. I love the feeling of getting ready to go in for a big shoot out, whether it's in the garage, stairways, out the windows, or through the halls on my way to locating the hostages. I think it's the suspense that sells this map more than anything else, you just never know the enemies plans, you know your death will put you out for the round, and yet you know somebody has to go in to fight and take the hostages... and if you're on the terrorist side the suspense is still there. Where will the CT guys come in? What guns are they packing? Will one pop around the corner and blast you with a shotgun, or are you expecting to loyally gaurd the window and catch a few or get knifed from behind? It's just a very suspenseful map but in a fun way, and even when you're so sure of everything the gameplay within it is fun and well thought out. Also as a little bonus you could just throw the map on this list for how many destructive small bits can be shot up, and the goofy online gaming motivational posters hanging up on the walls.

#2) Nelson Bay and White pass (Bad company 2)

One of the main complaints I had with Battlefield 3 was the lack of snow maps... or the general lack of any good maps. Snow maps made bad company 2 triple in awesomeness for some reason, I don't know why they had a charm the normal maps didn't but I just found each of the snow maps to be so much fun. Most notable...

White pass- Best played on squad deathmatch, because that put you in the area that gave this map the most purpose: It's neighborhood. Row upon row of straight up houses looking into each other. Thow in good core mechanics, a closely knit group of players, and house leveling destruction, plus a power-up like tank, AND an additional hill and set of trees if house hoping gets boring and you just have an absolutely amazing combination. When I first played squad deathmatch here my respect for this game nearly doubled, I just love this map. But again it should be done on squad deathmatch, the other modes can make it a bit if-ish.

Nelson Bay- Best on rush mode, but generally just a great map anyways this map was great. You start off running through forests trying to break into houses, move up into more military territory surroundings with hills, bridges, and generally more open terrain yet more closed objective points, and ended the match shortly after. It was just a lot of fun attacking and defending, and the team with the best classes always won. You had to have a balanced use of it all or it simply didn't work. It was also one of the few maps that allowed me to enjoy the sniper a bit more.

#1) Beachhead, Blood Gracht, Bilgarsk boulevard, Junk Yard, and Radec Academy (Mother****kin' Killzone!)

What did you expect, Homefront? I adore Killzone as a shooter series, and there are many reasons behind favoring but one of them I don't talk much about is excellent maps. The only time I ever really find myself complaining about a map is by a basis of comparison, but for the most part the games have had amazing maps at every corner. So to keep some mild order in this blitzkrieg monster tie I've decided to name one from each game, pick a best DLC map, and then the community favorite which is obvious to any Killzone 2 fan as you've seen it take over the server list in 24 hour Deathmatch servers. Also since there's so many, I'm providing a picture for each.

Beachhead-

 KZ1 classic. You got two bases and a long stretching beach with guns, trenches, and a well mashed up amount of both friends and foes. A great map for older gameplay, porting it over to the much more organized and team focused Killzone 2 didn't work out quite as well but it was still a fantastic map.

Blood Gracht-

 Did I mention how I love corridor shooters? This is basically a level design from the Killzone 2 campaign's most in your face emphasis on corridor shooting sewn together and tossed into Multiplayer. Tight spaces, many routes, many places to choke people up, and the map manages to feel huge while being very compact and in reality pretty small. This also got a remake that was rather faithful and looked nice, though I prefer the darker bluer tones of the original in Killzone 2. Also yes I note it shares a similar name with another map on this list, not sure if that was some intentional reference but the two maps are really nothing alike and are practically polar opposites.

Bilgarsk Boulevard-

 I think this was Blood Gracht's cousin that showed up in 3. It's kind of like a combination of that, and white pass because of the big focus the game will have in some buildings when the right objectives ring. It's got tight alley way corners that catch fire fast, balconies armed with machine guns, buildings great for stationing plans in or defending objectives, and lots of wreckage in the main road that makes the general field a blast to fight in. I love holding up behind rubble as a cloaked sniper, or dashing into the crate pit saving someone as a medic and then holding up there wiping out or getting pinned by enemy forced. Amazing map. Oh yeah and it's the only one with the grain filter that was in past killzone titles, I love that effect for some reason and so it's a bit of nostalgic joy.

Radec Academy-

Also pictured as the head of the killzone choice

 Community pick here, and it is a brilliant map in all honesty. It's a small square-like map that focuses on a connected building that surrounds a courtyard. A big balcony sits up on all main sides of the building with door ways filled with rooms weaving in and out all over the place, it truly is a small school turned into a battlefield. Killzone 3 does a lot of changes, but manages to keep the basic shape and love of the map that everyone overused in Killzone 2. Only issue is that it was spawn campable, and in Killzone 2 spawn grenades caused a mess on mission objectives.

Junkyard-

 Damn does Killzone have some great DLC maps. Bullet train giving you running trains to wage war on and jump across, a desert map unleashing hell with a flame thrower pick-up, a smashed ISA ship, a locked up steampunk style factory map with a minigun, a nice frosty revisit to tharsis depot with jetpacks, and who can forget lente's missile base which is an absolute amazing map. But best of all would have to be junkyard. It's the sole reason I kept returning to Guerrilla warfare. Jetpacks meets mechs, and the infantry are treated to an amazing network of tunnels and surfaces. Even though I'm sure at the end of the day the map was one big circle, you had so many paths, shortcuts, halls, open spaces, and all vehicles, and the suspense of everyone else having that choice as well was just brilliant. Plus I just loved the art design so much. The rainy atmosphere, the crushed up junk metal in flooded watery creeks and mountains of scraps, and some of the areas look like someone was outright living there making for an interesting scene to look at. Overall I just adored this map, and it's a damn shame they couldn't make it available to bots over the silly idea that "they can't fly, so it's not fair. -_-


Well that about wraps up my list. Does that make these the best maps? No. Are they really my favorite? Can't actually say that for sure either. Despite what the title and intro seem to say, I can't say with certainty what the best I've played is or my favorites. I tried mostly sticking to more current games here, who knows what i might be leaving out. I know I adored coruscant from Star wars battlefront 2, and bespin in the 1st, and then there's quite a few good ones from timesplitters, and then there are games I haven't even played. Honestly at the end of the day this list was about awesome maps I know I loved more recently, and ones I can go back and jump into on my usual hardware. So I picked some awesome maps off of my head, and justified why there's pretty awesome. I think this makes for a fun list at the end of the day.