I recently had a chat with someone who rather outlandishly claimed Battlefield 3’s Metro map is the greatest multiplayer map of all time, almost causing my head to implode like a ripe watermelon just trying to comprehend it. But it’s an opinion, just like any other, and a marker that perhaps we’re all looking for something a little bit different from our multiplayer experiences.
There’s a common thought that there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about map design. And to some degree there is, but the strength is in building maps geared towards either specific playstyles or, best of all, attempting to creating a map that can appeal to anyone, regardless of how they play. Any of these that can achieve this near-mythical aim are rightly heralded as greats, giving birth to timeless classics like de_dust 2, COD4’s Shipment, Halo’s Blood, Unreal Tournament’s Facing Worlds, Quake 3’s Longest yard, and Battlefield’s Wake Island.
For every great map though, there are heaps that can elicit a weary sigh when they come up the rotation. Back in the day, server browsers also used to be the standard, while many games today opt for generic matchmaking that can force a map whether you like it or not. Siege, I’m looking at you.
So I thought it would be interesting to see what you folks think makes a bad multiplayer map, and which maps you believe are needlessly popular despite their apparent downsides. I think it’s an important discussion because, as great as a game may be, it can live or die by the quality of its maps.
I’ll weigh in first with a couple that really stand out to me. The obvious first choice for me is Battlefield’s Metro, which stands head and shoulders above the rest as the weakest map in the Battlefield series, bar perhaps BF1’s Fort de Vaux. Both are actually fairly similar in how they play, truth be told. Metro is Battlefield 3’s smallest map, in a series which has always been about the grandeur of large-scale warfare. It was DICE trying to emulate Call of Duty in a game which offered nowhere near the same level of precision in its shooting mechanics as Activision’s shooter.
It’s essentially a linear tunnel with an outdoor bit at one end, forcing the two teams to headbutt one another endlessly in tight corridors. Before long it becomes a war of tedium and attrition. Medics rez as fast as they can, grenades are flung endlessly, and every round plays out pretty much the same. If I could incinerate one map from the face of the Earth, this would be it.
The second map I’d have to pick is Rainbow Six Siege’s Bartlett University, although it’s a very close-run thing between it and Tower. The amount of spawn peeking afforded in this map is ridiculous; there are no exterior walls to blow open, just a single front door and one hatch. It’s so obviously favoured towards Defenders that it’s painful, and it’s clearly a map designed for Terrorist Hunt that Ubisoft hastily transformed into a competitive map. Thankfully it’s out of the Ranked rotation, and Ubisoft is at least showing it’s willing to make significant changes to maps going forward. They’re going to have to be significant if they want to salvage Bartlett.
So which maps in multiplayer games do you think are inexplicably popular? What makes a map bad? Let us know your thoughts below!
Login or Register to join the debate
PC Specs
Metro -_- but it going to be boring after a while.
PC Specs
Every single R6:Siege map that has come with new characters. Just horrid!
PC Specs
Coastline? Border?
PC Specs
I kinda like Skyscraper too...
PC Specs
Wut now? The new maps are the ones that are actually good, most of the vanilla maps are bad, even the developers acknowledged that...
PC Specs
It's kinda hard for me to tell as I basically hate all maps for about 6 months and then come around to them. That's not happening with Theme Park or Tower yet though... As for the vanilla maps, I like pretty much all of them, I guess just because of familiarity lol
PC Specs
Yes it's normal to like more maps you know better than the ones you don't, but the vanilla maps are quite flawed, so much that they had to make a map pool for competitive, something usually done only in RTS games due to them having tons of maps, many of which were made for fun and NOT competitiveness.
PC Specs
The only BAD maps in Siege are Favela and Yacht for me.The newer ones are not exceptional but not garbage either.
PC Specs
the worst maps are the ones that attract campers.
PC Specs
de_nuke, de_dust2 (the latest iteration), Suez, that forest map in BF1, Metro,
PC Specs
I absolutely agree with you, except for the Argonne forest which is a great infantry based map, a little too linear, but still a great map.
PC Specs
Suez in Battlefield 1. It has practically no flanking routes. If one team has control of half the flags then the second team is certainly doomed.
De_Dust in CS. There is no way a terrorist could flank the CTs of they are watching the bridge and the tunnel.
PC Specs
absolutely.
PC Specs
I agree that map was trash
PC Specs
Is it just me or does anybody else thinks that Suez was favourable for the Ottomans. I never faced any difficulty on the Ottomans side.
PC Specs
It is a poorly made and poorly balanced map with power positions being too powerful and map control being too hard to retake. It is the only bad map in BF1, though I do NOT own premium due to well being against paid DLC... so IDK about DLC maps.
PC Specs
Maps that either have bad flanking spots and maps that are so great, they become the worst (rust mw2 for example). And ofc those 2/3 maps where people only play on old games.
PC Specs
Honestly i liked Metro on BF3, it was a nice change from all the big slow pace maps (though they are great). though saying its the best map ever made, is a bit much :D
PC Specs
literally every new csgo map.
PC Specs
Why? I love the new inferno much much more than i ever loved old one beacuse it looks more like the on from 1.6. Inferno was always my favourite map and i don't understand when people say that the old one is better
PC Specs
Austria was great.
PC Specs
Metro is just a bunch of immortal kids jumping and shooting around, it gets boring literally after 30 seconds...
PC Specs
the outside part of metro is really good though, metro part of metro is cancer.
PC Specs
I loved BF3 ( and BF4s ) Metro map i had fun in them , i hated dust2 pre update , but i still REALLY REALLY HATE NUKE in CSGO and that open field map in vanilla BF4
PC Specs
on a side note i tend to prefer more closed combat maps than big open fields
PC Specs
I like close combat too, but Metro is the worst map of BF3/BF4, because 95% the match is set whos gonna win in the first 3 minutes, because its a cluster**** on the stairs and no going forth or back.
PC Specs
BF4 Locker was better at not getting one team stuck and being able to push further, BF1 Fort de Vaux also isn't so restrictive in flanking.
PC Specs
close quarters is for noobs with shotguns XD
PC Specs
i have never played with a shotgun in BF series ( but i do play them in CSGO when we are trolling a round xD )
PC Specs
It's perfectly valid to use a shotgun. It would just suck if a map was entirely designed around them.
PC Specs
pfff if anything shotguns are super OP in bf4 after they buffed them a 2-3 years ago and almost as strong as BF1, people including me hate playing against them as they require very little skill and are usually insta-kill weapons... while they should be a niche, hard to use weapon that requires perfect positioning, movement and accuracy and should reward only the people that put in the hours to play with them. Snipers have the same problem, especially in BF1 where they have crazy high muzzle velocity so you almost never have to lead the shot and can one shot to the body... -_-
PC Specs
R6 Theme Park
PC Specs
Well some of the worst maps in competitive games would be... well depends on the game:
in Battlefield games, I would say all vanilla BF4 maps, norshar canals, metro, Suez, can't fault any BF BC2 maps and the older games I have NOT played in a very long time so I do NOT remember.
In CoD that would be 10/16 maps in CoD MW2 the worst being Rust, Highrise and Terminal(Cancer), Firing Range, Nuketown, arkaden, dome, carrier, hijacked, freefall, most bo3 maps were too linear so I'd put them on the list as well, some weren't good as well, but NOT terrible.
Starcraft 2 - Incineration Zone, Nerazim Crypt, Crossfire, Slag pits...
PC Specs
... secret springs and a few others I can't think of now for SC2
R6 Siege - Plane, Favela, Club house, skyscraper, Kanal, kafe dostoyovski, border, other r6 games were not competitive and really multiplayer, so yeah...
CS:GO -> mirage, dust2, cache and Aztecs, dust1, assault, office, train.
Warcraft 3 - borderlands, adrenaline, deadlands, goldrush and a couple others I can NOT think of.
IronSight - dam
.... well there are many other games and I do NOT feel like going over them... -_-
these are from some of the recent competitive games that i played.
PC Specs
I see you are a man of no culture.
de_aztec? dust2? ASSAULT? TRAIN? OFFICE?
and of all cod mw2 maps you said TERMINAL, HIGHRISE?
God damn
PC Specs
Aztec was good for 1.6 in CS:GO it's too choke-pointy and super CT sided.
Dust 2's B has always been bad and in general is super simplistic.
Train is too T sided due to the many well trains and in 1.6 it was much better.
Office is trash, super T sided due to all the paths.
Terminal I explained below and Highrise I explained above, both maps are terrible.
PC Specs
If all games had CoD4 and CoD Ghost-like maps in the CoD franchise everything would be awesome. Well technically MW2 has the same design philosophy, but the execution is poor on most maps, the design patterns and philosophy is the same and the maps that are actually good are brilliant, like Favela, Invasion, Sub base, Karachi are excellent maps, skidrow and afghan are good as well.
PC Specs
I mean, I think Ghosts has the most forgettable maps of just about any game I've played. Awful spawning as well
PC Specs
You should've mentioned the maps you like to keep the messages shorter. But seriously? Terminal, rust and dome were good maps.
PC Specs
Terminal is unbalanced, the team that controls the top side of the map has a complete advantage and you can keep the control easily as the access points to the higher part of the map are all choke points.
rust is just complete bs, nothing good about it... dome was too frantic, the remake in ghosts was much better. There are obvious power positions that are poorly made and can NOT be overtaken or taken down. Camping is also prevalent. Now I a do enjoy playing on dome, but I can NOT say it's a good map...
PC Specs
Well it's much longer listing 14/16 CoD4 maps, all WaW maps, all but one ghosts map, all but 2 BO1 and Bo2 maps, all Infinite warfare maps and all but point du hoc on CoD WW2 and yes now it seems shorter, but people would NOT really realize which maps I think suck.
PC Specs
So many downvotes, yet 0 arguments to prove me wrong, lovely as always...
PC Specs
I guess that you hate almost all maps in a game, so I guess there's something wrong in your view of the gameplay on those maps. Terminal wasn't that bad with "choke points". You could easily get upstairs, the plane, a bit more difficult, but with the side entrance, you could surprise them
PC Specs
no surprise with the claymores and bouncing betties... and they still have to look in the same direction regardless if you come from the side or back, 0 difference in pre-aiming and btw I'm saying this as an abuser myself, had I not done it, I most likely would have NOT realized it, I don't choke point anymore on it, but still... I've dropped many moabs and nukes(moabs especially) on Terminal thanks to exploiting every bit of it XD
PC Specs
nuketown is small, symmetryc annoying and popular at the same time
...best maps I've ever played on: Paracel Storm, Highrise (mw2), Favela, Rundown, Terminal, Launch (bo1), Citadel (bo3) and Hunted (bo3) ..all these have in common the same
PC Specs
thing which is high variety of options of playstyle
PC Specs
Highrise was a camp, explosive, snipe fest, Terminal is unbalanced as the people on the lower part of the map are in a severe disadvantage and you can lock down the paths as the ways to get from the lower to the upper part of the map are choke points.
BO3 maps are great, but too simple, citadel is one of the few exceptions, but hunted way too linear, tunnel-like, even though it seems open it really isn't.
PC Specs
Agreed. Nuketown was so overrated; I can't figure out why people liked that map. Its tiny size combined with BO1's terrible spawning means that half the time you spawn you're immediately shot in the back or killed by random grenade spam, and the other half you'll have your streak ended by someone spawning behind you.
PC Specs
Terrible map. The best thing to happen to BO1 was the update that made it so you can't vote the same map twice in a row so people could play something other than f***ing Nuketown.
PC Specs
yeah and firing range too, the spawn camping on the map is annoying as hell and the map itself is too simple and linear, with the second floors being useless due to them being made out of thin, wallbangable wood.
PC Specs
Pilsen
PC Specs
In BF: Bad Company 2 All rush mode maps sucked except Valparaiso, Arica Harbor and Nelson Bay
PC Specs
Are you mad? BF BC2 had the best rush of all BF games, the best, epicness, just beautiful.
PC Specs
I still prefer Campgrounds to Longest Yard. I hate Inferno map on CS GO. So many hiding spots, dark corners.
PC Specs
In terms of dark corners the new inferno is much better imo