You don’t have to look too far online to find a subjective list of the best shooter maps ever made. Because regurgitating another one of those lists would be too easy, and apparently I love making life difficult, I’ve gone the other way. What follows is a breakdown of my pick of the 10 most underrated shooter maps of all time. To further complicate (or, perhaps, refine) the selection process, I’ve enforced a rule of only one game per series which, believe you me, makes things a whole lot trickier.
In no particular order, here we go!
Look online and you’ll find a lot of hate for Outskirts which – coupled with the reality that Treyarch had the unenviable task of following up on the mega-success of Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare – makes for the perfect first entry in this list. The more popular maps in World at War had a greater emphasis on close-quarters combat and tight corners. Outskirts, on the other hand, bucked the trend, with long lines of sight and plenty of open space between ruined houses, which made it a sniper’s delight. It also forced run-and-gun SMG players (like me) to shift to longer-range firearms, or trick opponents into intense corner battles. Also, it had tanks.
Tanks for the memories, etc.
Whether playing cooperatively online or versus, Hard Rain was a derided map for survivors, mostly because the odds were firmly stacked against Team Human. From the get-go, there’s an abundance of places for special zombies to hide and attack from. The narrow staircases in the construction site are perfect traps for Chargers, Jockeys and Smokers, and once you get to the top of the site, well, it’s a similar threat all over again. Even the elevator down to the zombie-infested cornfield, which is its own kind of hell, is an easy spot for Spitter and Boomers. And all of that’s before you get to the gas station where the sh*t really hits the fan. It’s a tough fight, but that’s what made victory all the sweeter.
Let's just never speak of the Australian version of this game.
It’s beyond me why this map cops so much hate. Sure, it’s a different kind of Quake map, but that’s what makes it so much fun. There’s basically nowhere to hide, unless you’re hugging corners on the top level of the floating platforms (and there’s no-one at the distant railgun platform), and an overreliance on jump pads is a fast way to end up gibbed. Duels often break down to rockets versus rails – which is the way it ought to be – but even the default machine gun packs a brutal punch if you get the drop on another player, particularly if they only barely survived the last fight. Watching two evenly matched players on this map is a thing of beauty.
Nowhere to hide on Q3DM17.
This Halo 3 map is probably disliked because it doesn’t balance corridor combat with open areas like other Halo 3 battlegrounds. The result: a whole lot of open space that favours vehicles and snipers. Normally, I hate that, but there’s something magical about jump-lobbing a grenade to take out that entrenched sniper, or snaking the Gravity Hammer from atop the main structure and playing chicken with an overzealous Warthog driver looking to turn you into a Spartan pancake. The respawn system can be brutal, but overcome the odds and survive to the opposite side of the map, and Sandtrap can deliver some of the best and most frantic battles on offer in Halo 3 multiplayer.
Halo there sailor, etc.
This is a tough map to love because of how one-sided it becomes once a team claims the high ground. A high-ground team can monitor spawn zones, make use of a Retro Lancer Multi-Turret for deadly supressing fire, and have a bird’s-eye view on most of the weapons. The two weapons that can’t be tracked from up high, though, are the two most important for rooting out a cheap team dug in like an Alabama tick: the Mortar and the Hammer of Dawn. Because of the high-ground advantage, Overpass often concentrates the fighting around the staircases leading to the top. It also plays particularly well in King of the Hill mode.
Clever name.
Infantry-focused maps tend to be controversial choices in the Battlefield series, but I reckon they go a long way to highlighting the surprising high speed (and high lethality if you have decent aim) at which the franchise plays. Take Pearl Market, for instance, which is reminiscent of Battlefield 3’s infantry-only Ziba Tower, except it’s bigger and allows players to use an AMTRAC as a mobile spawn point. The AMTRAC was a game-changer, particularly if your team is getting dominated, but the real shining star was how unsafe you were at all times. With a strong emphasis on verticality, traditional horizontal lines of sight have to be guarded along with rooftop or different-storey dominance in a number of buildings on and around cap points.
A neat change of pace.
Arguably, the two most infamous maps in Team Fortress 2, Hydro and Steel, have something in common: they’re both initially confusing in terms of their respective layouts. Hydro complicates things further by randomising at the beginning of each round between six possible layouts. It’s also the only map that offers the Territorial Control mode, and it returned from exile not so long ago to repopulate official servers. Why it beats out Steel in this list is it makes for one helluva frantic public map, with the usual mix of major chokepoints and side-paths that culminate in a huge open area in the middle, which tends to act as the great equaliser of who wins and who loses.
Wait, which layout is it?
It’s easy to see why Egyptian wasn’t a fan favourite in GoldenEye. It’s a big map. There are long stretches of narrow corridors that make dodging nigh impossible. Hell, it’s hard to spot enemies at range. But learn to use those to your advantage, instead of fighting against them, and there’s a lot of fun to be found here. The wider corridors have sneaky hiding spots, which are perfect for firing-and-advancing techniques that open up into pillar-filled areas and intense games of AK-wielding cat and proxy-tossing mouse. For every narrow hallway, there’s also a hidden route to get around. Best of all, it boasts a sinister Bond theme remix as a backing soundtrack.
A great demonstration that graphics are less important than game design.
Aztec has been in the game since Counter-Strike 1.5, and it’s been as controversial ever since then. Why? Well, if you’re a counter-terrorist with decent aim and some patience, it’s easy to rack up kills. If you’re a terrorist, well, you’re usually boned. For every attacking point towards the bomb sites, there’s multiple choices for CT defenders to guard from. But that’s what made terrorist victory so rewarding, and the requirement to work as a team even more important. When an initial probing incursion falls apart, in one area, it’s possible (read: advisable) to rush back and reinforce the other areas… or camp early on for some easy kills on zealous CTs seeking to flank. If all else fails on Team Terrorist (remember, it’s your job to plant the freakin’ bomb), gren spam over the top of the double doors and team rush for LOLs. You’ll likely lose, but you’ll have the edge if you make it through.
A lopsided contest... but a tense one.
Low-gravity maps are divisive things – likely because of the slower, floaty nature of zero-g combat – but it’s harder to criticise when it’s played out at the pace of Morpheus. Move slowly or float too high in a straight line, and you’re easy frag fodder. Move at speed and strafe-jump between the three towers in Morpheus, though, and you’ll discover who new levels of verticality, and subsequent heights to frag from. Fast-fingered players can save a deadly drop off the map by teleporting back to safety. And if you’re intimidated by the zero-g dominance: well, you can pick off space-loving foes from inside the buildings.
So many fond memories...
Nathan Lawrence is a freelance writer based in Sydney and shooter specialist. Track him down on Twitter.
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