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Update: 343 Industries has announced that a Community Playlist will be added to Halo 5 multiplayer next month.
It’s only been about a month since 343 Industries released Forge mode for Halo 5: Guardians, but apparently that’s all it takes for the community to rebuild the entirety of Halo: Combat Evolved’s multiplayer maps within Halo 5‘s existing maps.
One of the most popular features of the series, introduced in Halo 3, Forge allows players to jump into existing maps shipped with the game and build anything they want (within reason, of course) using a variety of in-game assets and objects.
Since Forge came out, we’ve seen an incredible number of player-made maps that combine outside-the-box thinking with great level design and gameplay mechanics – some even rival 343 Industries’ in-house maps that shipped with the base game.
From mini-games based around sumo wrestling in vehicles, to small arenas and large battlegrounds, Forgers are coming out of the woodwork to jump-start the custom-game community. This leads us to a collection of incredibly-realised remakes from Halo: Combat Evolved.
All of the following Halo 5 remakes can be found here. From there, it’s a matter of adding the author on Xbox Live, and navigating to their File Share while in Halo 5.
Battle Creek
Original:
Halo 5 remake – HCE: Battle Creek:
Interior:
https://xboxdvr.com/gamer/AUREL1EN/video/13892418/embed
Exterior:
This classic map is a staple of close-quarters deathmatch game modes, with mayhem in both 4v4 or 5v5. The remake here is realised beautifully, capturing the textures of the original perfectly.
A highlight is the river flowing through the middle, considering how tricky water is to create/emulate in Forge.
Blood Gulch
Original:
Halo 5 remake – HCE Blood Gulch:
Blood Gulch is Halo‘s iconic map, with an iteration appearing in every title since the beginning – of course someone was going to remake it. What we didn’t expect, however, was for someone to remake it so lovingly.
What captures me about the map, almost in a way that a lot of other Halo 5 maps don’t, is the sense of openness and scale – the area is massive, with only natural terrain providing cover from enemy vehicles, of which there will be plenty.
Boarding Action
Original:
Halo 5 remake – Border Wars:
The original version of Boarding Action was a great medium sized map, offering both long-range engagements between the two sides and hectic close-quarter fights between combatants on the same platform.
The remake keeps all the elements that made the original so successful, but changes the space backdrop to something a bit more grounded – the surrounding rocky outcrop and mountain ranges make for a great backdrop, and the water separating the two bases is a great touch.
Chill Out
Original:
Halo 5 remake – Chill Out:
Chill Out saw its first remake in Halo 3, thanks to the designers at Bungie. Since its inception, it’s seen a few faithful re-imagining from both developers and the community alike, but this one takes the cake, in my opinion.
This Halo 5 remake successfully captures the atmosphere that made the original so enticing, adding a layer of fog that settles through the map. In regards to the design itself, it looks just as great as the original, with the eery purple sheen taking us all back to the early days of the Covenant.
Chiron TL-34
Original:
Halo 5 remake – Chiron TL-34:
Known for being one of the more disorientating and confusing maps of the franchise, Chiron TL-34 is essentially just a collection of small rooms and hallways interlinked by numerous teleporters. The map is famous for playing host to Shotgun-only custom games.
The remake takes the original design and sticks by the old adage ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. Every inch of the map is created to perfectly mimic the original, and it does a fantastic job. The layout, textures, and subsequent hectic nature of the map are all incredibly accurate, making it a great remake of a great map.
Damnation
Original:
Halo 5 remake – Affliction 1.0:
Similar in theme to Chill Out, Damnation is a great 1v1-5v5 map that features a nice balance of close to medium range combat.
The remake nails the feel of the original, while providing some improvements that change the game completely (Banshees, anyone?). It also looks great, combining the purple tinge of the original with industrial blocks to mix two aesthetics.
Derelict
Original:
Halo 5 remake – Redelect:
Another map that’s seen plenty of remakes over the years, Derelict is a great close-quarters map, and the remake does it justice by recreating those same sight-lines and subsequently claustrophobic gameplay.
Hang ‘Em High
Original:
Halo 5 remake – Hang Em High:
One of Halo: CE‘s larger maps, Hang ‘Em High is a great map for larger scale battles. The higher levels offer great vantage points, the lower levels have adequate cover – almost making it a maze to navigate – and the power weapons are left nice and exposed.
The remake takes all of those elements that make the original great, especially the importance of verticality, and recreates it perfectly.
Longest
Original:
Halo 5 remake – Longerist:
Longest is a Halo map that is often forgotten among the midst of other great maps, but still holds its own when it comes up in the rotation.
In what’s essentially two parallel hallways, Longest is an interesting map. It gives direct line of sight from one end of the map to the other, but then really only encourages close-quarters engagements because of how much cover it provides to players.
The remake keeps the same layout and aesthetic of the original, but adds a fine layer of mist over the level, as well as some more up-to-date Halo 5 touches.
Prisoner
Original:
Halo 5 remake – Prisonerz:
Very similar to Hang ‘Em High, but in a more enclosed space, Prisoner is a great map. It has 4 levels in a very small room, with each sporting interconnecting balconies and catwalks, and power weapons at the top and bottom.
The remake keeps the same level design of the original, but drastically changes the atmosphere by darkening the map and adding lens flare to the few lights that pepper the level.
It’s a great remake that absolutely deserves your attention.
Rat Race
Original:
Halo 5 remake – Primordial’s Vault:
Rat Race was never a favourite of mine back in the Halo: CE days, but it did hold up fairly well when returning in Halo: Master Chief Collection multiplayer. Essentially a large square of windy hallways with shortcuts in the middle and teleporters on the outside, it encourages players to constantly check over their shoulder, and makes for hectic matches.
The remake takes this concept and compounds it, especially given Halo 5‘s introduction of Spartan Abilities (such as sprinting and the like).
Sidewiner
Original:
Halo 5 remake – Zastruga:
Another staple of the series, Sidewinder is an incredible map, and one that deservedly saw a couple of remakes in subsequent games (such as Halo 3‘s incredible Avalanche).
It takes the concept of Blood Gulch’s box canyon and wraps it around into a ‘U’ shape, with shortcut caves, ‘longcut’ caves, teleporters, boulders, and hilly terrain peppered through out.
The Halo 5 version plays incredibly well – so well, in fact, that it’s easy to mistake it as replaying Halo: CE with updated graphics and movement. It’s a great remake of a great map.
Wizard
Original:
Halo 5 remake – Warden:
Lastly, Wizard is another often-remade map, known (more recently) for featuring prominently in Halo 2: Anniversary).
The Halo 5 remake places the same map into a new environment with new textures, and it looks fantastic. It feels small and tight, but the backdrop keeps the appearance of a larger map than it actually is. The layout itself is also very well recreated.