Last year, we did a feature highlighting some of our favorite multiplayer maps of all time, in which we singled out Halo’s Blood Gulch, Mario 64’s Block Fort and Left 4 Dead’s No Mercy, among others. All of you answered with some great suggestions, and I promised I would return with another edition (and beyond) honoring some of those mentioned.
So, here we are. Remember, these aren’t intended to be definitive lists, but rather, a way for us to reminisce on some great games and some great maps that we enjoyed in our time with them. If you have more suggestions for awesome maps that deserve to be in the Multiplayer Hall of Fame, by all means, post them in the comments and we can continue to induct new members.
Goldeneye: Facility
Da na – na naaaaa! If you spent any amount of time in the past mixed up in some epic Goldeneye multiplayer action with your buddies, you know that telltale sound all too well. While many of the multiplayer maps in Goldeneye really aren’t all that well balanced in terms of flow and player movement, Facility stands alone in many gamers’ minds because of the epic shootouts that happened in the central corridor as well as the bathroom stalls. Who didn’t imagine themselves as an action hero as they dodged in and out of bathroom stalls, unloading automatic shotguns shells at one another? And who didn’t experiment with a few proximity mine traps inside that lethal zone?
Unreal Tournament: Facing Worlds
As one of the games that defined online multiplayer in the PC realm, Unreal Tournament is famous for a handful of maps that set the trends for years to come. Facing Worlds is the map that all other symmetrical Capture the Flag maps wish they could be, and they do everything they can to come close to its designs. With two tall towers facing one another with rocky bridges in between, Facing Worlds dumped players into combat in no time flat, leading to some epic encounters on multiple tiers as they battled their way into the other team’s towers. The excellent setting of the planet hanging in the distance certainly heightened that special feeling.
Super Smash Brothers Melee: Hyrule Temple
Anyone that’s played Super Smash Brothers Melee can describe the glee that pops into hearts and minds when that classic Legend of Zelda music kicked in on Hyrule Temple. Featuring set pieces from the popular games, Hyrule Temple at once invoked nostalgia and the anticipation for a grueling match ahead. One of the most ridiculous parts of this map was the lower zone beneath the buildings, where players could get trapped while duking it out, leading to some crazy high damage bouts. At any second, the right hit could send a foe rocketing out into the stratosphere. Talk about suspense.
Team Fortress 2: 2Fort
If Facing Worlds is the retro standard for Capture the Flag, 2Fort is as close as you can get to the new standard. This map has so many perfect touches: the covered bridge that allows players to advance on each base without sniper fire, the underwater tunnels, the central squares in each base, and the sniper cubbies on the upper levels. Everything is set up to provide some hyper-classed base shooting carnage, and it delivers on nearly every match I’ve played there. And that’s not even mentioning Team Fortress 2’s awesome art style, which really adds something special to the map.
Counter-Strike: De_Dust2
Long A! Long A! With the promise of a revamped Dust 2 in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Valve has poked at the fire of CS fanboys’ hearts around the globe. The thing that made Dust 2 so much fun is that there were any number of strategies that teams could employ to get to the bombsites, and any number of transition strategies that they could change to once the Counter-Terrorist trap was set. This map, in my mind, plays out like a chess match, with teams feinting, re-routing, adapting and pushing to their attack site of choice. There are places for long range skirmishes, close flash-bang riddled encounters and danger zones for awps that become prime places for smoke grenades. Just writing about this makes me want to hop back in and push the double doors.
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And there you have it. Do you have any thoughts on these maps? Stories to share? What needs to be included in future editions of the Multiplayer Map Hall of Fame? Go!
A fantastic list, I hope to see this feature again in the future. 🙂
Hyrule Temple is great. Brawl actually has a few good stages, many very creative. The WarioWare one has a basic stage which disappears every so often and replaces it with a mini-game. Fun as hell. The Wind Waker one is also good but Rainbow Road from Melee is the best. Probably.
BFBC2’s Arica Harbour (Rush) is really good. The second half is fantastic compared to the first, but the first half can have its moments. My friends and I always re-enact Iron Man for the first base (attacking) by piling into a humvee and putting on “Back In Black.” Sometimes it ends in the same way as in Iron Man :/
I’d also venture forth Summit from Black Ops. I love that map.
It was great to see another one of these, it’s really gotten me thinking. You can’t wait a year to do another one of these haha.
Some that I would personally induct into the Hall of Fame:
CS Source: cs_office. My favorite map in my favorite game. The very first map I saw my brother play on back in early 2005. I can’t even begin to describe how many hundreds (probably thousands) of rounds I spent trying to break through the AWP snipers in the side hall, and trying to wipe out all the CT’s rushing from garage. Seriously, this map is what I hold all of multiplayer maps to.
Modern Warfare 2: Skidrow. Not sure whether or not this map has a ton of fans, but it’s got me. Ground War. Domination. Point Bravo. Marathon Pro. Lightweight Pro. Commando Pro. USP with Tactical Knife. Oh, how the kills and lulz racked up…
Call of Duty 2: Brecourt, France. You might know of it’s Modern Warfare 2 remake Wasteland, but the original was far superior. Running through those open fields to the cover of a bunker, constantly turning in search for snipers. For a while, there wasn’t anything like that.
Super Smash Brothers: Sector Z. Essentially the same as SSBM’s Corneria, I chose the Sector Z version simply because I prefer the original Smash Bros. Such an awesome map. The mini duels happening above the cockpit of the ship. The brawls that would happen down at the tail end, while the items stockpiled, forgotten, around the rest of the map until one cowardly bastard broke free from the chaos to loot the entire contents of this Poke Ball and Bob-bomb filled heaven and take the lead. Oh man, did I go crazy for this map when I was a kid.
Mortal Kombat: The Pit. I know it isn’t a “map” in the strictest sense of the word, but fighting games are certainly best when played multiplayer, and Mortal Kombat was no exception. And whenever me and my friends would play MK, the Pit was our preferred arena of Kombat. The cool moon/shadows backround, and of course, The spike filled pit and the stage fatality that went along with it. Just awesome.
Gears of War: Gridlock. Gears of War might have been my all time biggest gaming binge, where I just played a huge amount of video games. But while all my other binges lasted a few days, Gears lasted a summer. And my go to map of choice when it cam to Gears was Gridlock. Sniper rifles, Boomshots, frag nades, the Boltock Shotgun (sorry, Pistol), this map had everything Gears had to offer. Ahh, nostalgia.
And lastly (unless I think of more) Left 4 Dead: Blood Harvest. My other personal fav L4D campaign (the other being No Mercy) Blood Harvest sticks in my mind for one main reason: the finale. Rushing paste the witch into the cornfield, attempting to navigate through that to see that familiar sight of the abandoned farm house still gives me chills. And I’ll never forget my first playthrough when I wandered into the yard only to see a Hunter look at me and then proceed to jump up onto the roof of the house. I panicked, but my friend said it was fine. The same hunter later led to the death of me. Wow.
And that’s it for me, I look forward to seeing what everyone else contributes 😀
Ah Hyrule Temple. Good memories on that one. Kinda tying in to the emergent gameplay article – my friends and I used to do races in a sort of figure-8 pattern around the map. But we made it harder by A) no one could choose Fox and B) we couldn’t directly attack each other but we could grab/throw.
I also really like the Yoshi’s Island, Poke Floats and Spear Pillar stages in Melee and Brawl.
I’ve spent way too many hours on all of these except Smash Bros. Very good memories.