Halo: The Master Chief Collection is an impressively comprehensive game, including the campaigns and multiplayer components of all four past major Halo titles.
You can jump into any of the games online, and the competitive community has come roaring back to life with ESL's Launch Invitational and the announcement of 343's Halo Championship Series. With all of that happening, now's a great time to look at the multiplayer arenas where these battles unfold--here are our top five competitive Halo maps.
Chill Out
Some great matches have taken place on this Halo: Combat Evolved map (pictured above), its small size and cramped corridors providing the perfect setting for tense games. The ever-powerful Halo CE pistol could dominate the arena, which was suited to the popular smaller-scale 2v2 battles. It's hard to beat the tension of Chill Out, which creates suspense by leaving just enough room to be uncertain of the enemy's whereabouts.
Beaver Creek
Originally the Halo CE map Battle Creek, Beaver Creek is a refined version of one of the best symmetrical maps around. Two bases are set up across from one another with a small creek and an arching rock formation across the middle. Solid setup and map control with a good team could dominate the enemy's position, and it's a pretty close quarters affair considering its outdoor setting. Beaver Creek lends itself to some great team performances and close games, and its presence across multiple titles proves it's a legitimate competitive mainstay.
Lockout
The favorite map of many Halo players, Lockout has that perfect balance that simply makes it a lot of fun to play. The Sniper and BR Towers are crucial in controlling the game, and this map promotes a solid and well-executed team setup more than most. The sword and sniper can turn the game on its head, with the combination of asymmetry and power weapons allowing for a variety of outcomes. The one downside to Lockout is its propensity to turn into a standoff in slayer (not a bad thing depending who you ask), but the right objective gametype can be a blast. Lockout featured heavily in the recent Halo 2 Anniversary Launch Invitational.
Midship
A definite classic Halo map, Midship was also remade in Halo 3 as Heretic. The original has provided a lot of great FFA and 4v4 moments in the past (check out 46:30 in this video for a look at how the map plays competitively), and its nearly-symmetrical shape makes it another map where team control and efficiency is crucial. Perhaps more than any other, the danger of getting trapped in your base and spawn killed is ever-present on Midship, and it takes good coordination to prevent that and control the game yourselves.
The Pit
You could certainly argue some older maps (Hang Em High Sanctuary, Warlock) should have a spot in the top five, but Halo 3 deserves to make it in there somewhere. The game saw some of the competitive scene's best years, and The Pit was ever-present in tournaments. It's larger than most of the maps on this list, but that only made games more interesting. There were three main choke points to control or keep an eye on (Sniper/Bridge and he two hallways), made all the more interesting by the inclusion of two snipers, rockets and overshield. Check out the video below of a great match between Final Boss and Carbon to see the sort of entertainment The Pit could provide.
