Halodeveloper 343 Industries is adding new maps toHalo 3with the upcoming season inHalo: The Master Chief Collection. Some members of the Halo Insider program have been testing these new maps and haven given players a preview of the new content coming to the fourteen-year-old game.
In 2015, 343 Industries held a closed beta for a free-to-play multiplayer shooter built on theHalo 3engine. The game was calledHalo Online, and the project was scrapped after only a few months. This forgottenHalogame was only officially available in Russia, but 343 is now adding maps fromHalo OnlinetoHalo: The Master Chief Collection.
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TheMaster Chief Collectionhas taken a battle-pass approach to its multiplayer, with new content slowly being added between large content drops with each new season. The new maps are expected to release to the general public as part of season 6, which still does not have a confirmed release date. For now, fans of the franchise can get a sneak-peak thanks to beta testers who are more than happy to share some first looks at the new maps: Waterfall and Edge.
Waterfall’s setting appears to take inspiration from theHalo 2classic map Lockout, with industrial-looking facilities adjacent to a large ice structure. The map appears to be much larger than Lockout, however, with the titular waterfall separating the two main spawn areas. Other features include awesome interior art, a man-cannon that shoots players through the cascading falls, and even a fully-animated Pelican that comes in for a landing in the out-of-bounds scenery.
Edge takes place inside a Forerunner facility, with a nice mixture of corridor shoot-outs in between wide-open areas with power weapons. The sleek metal structures are reminiscent of the manyForerunner areas players traversed inHalo 4, and players can even find a large group of sentinels traveling in the interior. The odd barriers and raised surfaces should provide some interesting fight scenarios in the new season.
When theMaster Chief Collectionlaunched in 2014, it was simultaneously praised for its huge amount of content and derided for itspoor online multiplayer servers. Players would often have to wait more than 10 minutes to play multiplayer if they were lucky to connect a match at all. Seven years and an incredible amount of work and patches later, theMaster Chief Collectionis finally taking its place as the definitive one-stop-shop for all thingsHalo,excludingHalo 5.
Developer 343 Industries has fought an uphill battle and largely succeeded with reviving the MCC. WithHalo Infiniteapproaching and aHaloTV series set to release in 2022, fans everywhere hope 343 can continue this upward trajectory.
Halo: The Master Chief Collectionis available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
