Halo: Reach Noble Map Pack Review

[Rebel Rouser]

Halo: Reach, Bungie’s last foray into the world of Halo has finally gotten its first map pack. Released on November 29^th at a price of 800 Microsoft Points, the Noble Map Pack includes three all new maps for your enjoyment.

Anchor 9, Breakpoint, and Tempest include at least one exciting feature, making them all a blast to play on. These new maps are not required for online play, however if you opt to get them they will be randomly mixed into gameplay so long as your all of party have the map pack. As of December 10^th Bungie still has their DLC playlist for the new maps running, allowing you to play numerous game types on each map.

Anchor 9

This map takes place on a UNSC refitting station, it features combat both in a gravity environment and a strip of zero gravity. The smallest of the new maps, Anchor 9 has two side bases, both of which are multi-leveled, these lead into the open main area which offers two levels to play on and plenty of action for those who seek it. There are new assets for the map, these keep the map unique, and they also add to the atmosphere Bungie has created which includes a view of an UNSC ship. This map will offer hours of fun with one of the many game modes playable on it. My personal favourite is Crazy King, running around like a madman throughout the many areas of Anchor 9 to get to one small spot is insanely fun. It’s a wonderfully paced map which should keep you from getting bored. Like Zealot you can go into space. All it takes is a run through one of the bullet proof shield doors, to get to the long strip. Unlike Zealot, there is no area in which you can camp on leaving it doubtful that they will add a soft kill zone. This means those of you who enjoy jumping around like fools in space should be able to do such in matchmaking for as long as they wish.

Breakpoint

By far the largest map of the pack, Breakpoint offers an all new well crafted invasion experience. In invasion the objective is to either defend or take the data core, but what separates Breakpoint from the other invasion maps are the tiny details. In Breakpoint, all of the future areas are blocked off by actual objects such as heavily armoured locked doors or folding bridges. This makes for an invasion map that feels as if it was designed for the purpose of invasion. Of course invasion is far from the only game type Breakpoint is capable of. Situated at an ONI research site by an ancient forerunner ruin this map is only defeated in scale by forge world. However, there is one major difference from forge world. There are many tunnels or alternate routes you can use to get from point A to B. The weapons and vehicles are very intuitively place around the map making it feel very balanced, a wraith spawns on one side of the battlefield and it can be the difference between winning and losing the game.

Tempest

Of all the maps Tempest houses the most potential. Tempest is the first map to offer the full set of forge objects other than Forge World. This means anything that could be built in forge world, could theoretically be rebuilt in Tempest. This symmetrical map takes place on a Halo ring amongst many forerunner buildings. It has two bases facing each other both of which have a Warthog, and Mongoose. The map is strikingly reminiscent of what made many of the Halo 3 great, and bears a resemblance to Valhalla. Like Valhalla you can either take a fairly straight route, or take one of the more covert side routes to reach your destination. This map is likely the most graphically impressive map to be seen in Reach, it features many vibrant colours and an awe inspiring skybox.

Unfortunately none of the Noble Pack maps can be used in Firefight, but don’t let that discourage you from giving the maps a chance. Only Breakpoint is seemingly fit for use as a firefight map.

This map pack shows power behind Bungie’s Halo: Reach support. They put in a great effort to make maps that are both completely independent from Single Player and offer a great deal of enjoyment. Like most map packs, only a select number of individuals will decide to purchase it. However unlike most map packs Bungie has put in great effort, so those of you who don’t generally buy map packs should definitely give it a look. Those of you who are Halo fans, if you haven’t bought it yet you should as soon as possible.

If it were a slightly lower price I would give it a perfect score given the exceptional quality. However because the maps cost 800MS points I have to give it a slightly lower score.

9.5/10

[Nightrise]

I agree with you up until Temepst, that map I feel sucked.

[Start a Riot]

Amazing review, Rebel!! I agree with what you rated them as well. I absolutely love these three maps and think that they are worth every penny spent on them. There's just so many amazing aspects to each one of them, making Tempest, Anchor 9, and Breakpoint a heck of a lot of fun to play on!

[RUL Jakeyy]

Nice review Rebel. I need to start playing Reach again I've only played Anchor 9 once, I need to try out these maps they look awesome.

[Zolner MD]

Excellent job on the review Rebel. I'm looking forward to knocking the dust off my xbox and getting some action on these maps hopefully sometime soon.

[Greenskull]

I agree with you up until Temepst, that map I feel sucked.

Same here. I hate that map

[RUL Spectre]

Anchor 9 is fun , zero gravity makes me a space man

[RUL Horizontal]

I don't think you should reduce the score because of costs. Look at the Halo 3 map packs, they were all 800 msp and contained three maps. I don't see how you couldn't have foreseen that, and at least they don't do what CoD dies and make it 1200 for 4 maps you don't want and 1 you do.

[PredArtagnan]

I like Tempest, but I'm not really a fan of Breakpoint. It's quite confined, and I find that most matches start all the same - people rushing the Banshees... quick banshee fight, with the team on the non-laser side having bigger odds to beat.

I guess the same could be said of any map - that there's always rushes for the power weapons and such. I think I just notice it a lot more due to the nature of the map.
Plus I had like four games of single flag in a row the other day and that's enough to make anyone dislike it heh.

[Mongerty]

I agree with all the positives, but have some disappointments with each as well. (mostly in terms of gametypes)

Breakpoint is really too short for invasion. The area is too small and most invasion matches end pretty quickly.
Anchor 9 is cool except for the gametypes without the shield doors. There is no reason for it and it makes the map feel more like a mod than an official map.
Tempest is my favorite, but there are too many open spaces (like where the crashed ship is) that become killing grounds if your team spawns there.

Also, since Bungie used up the 250 gamerpoints for DLC on these 3 maps, I wonder if that is a sign to not expect any more?