So, I finished my first proper Halo: Reach map yesterday, my Headlong remix – I call it Headrush.
It’s not a straight up 1:1 scale port, oh no, it’s more of an inspiration-based creation. It has recognisable elements from Headlong, but also additions and revisions that make it play better with Halo: Reach. This is because of the differences in scale between Halo 2 and Reach, and Armour Abilities like Sprint and Jetpack also meant tweaks to the original formula were necessary. I mean, why give you a Jetpack and then tell you not to go flying on top of buildings? I think I’ve been more than generous with the leeway you have on this map with regards to Jetpacks.
The most iconic part of the map, the red base, is a several story high building which is mostly faithful to the original. Things have been changed slightly, such as there being no breakable glass by the bomb/flag spot, and the wall being more transparent on the floor above that. Those Colosseum Windows are great, they made for amazing walls, and their asymmetric design meant I could position them in a visually distinct fashion and use their nice angles for entry points. With the map being expanded out, I felt that walkways going all the way from red base to the outer buildings would be ridiculous, so I replaced them with incoming man-cannons. That way, it’s easy to get in and attack quickly, and the cover on the landing pads give an attacking team a chance to regroup, but the long run home with the flag is fraught with danger.
Blue base is also pretty faithful, if not to scale. From the back door, to the rooms at various heights off the main chamber, the outer balcony with the teleporter, the inner, octagonal balcony, I really enjoyed making this base. I decided to use teleporters from here to the Sword building in the end – at the beginning I was adamant that I’d use man-cannons instead (an argument for another time), but I couldn’t make the man-cannons go both ways safely. I also ran into some trouble with the columns that block entry to the base. Not those particular ones, but others that should be dotted around the map – they would be fine for keeping Warthogs out, but Mongeese are so bloody slim that if I brought the little blocking things in any closer, it’d be too hard for a Spartan to get through, and the last thing I wanted to do was make the map tricky to navigate. You should be fighting your enemies in multiplayer, not fighting the map.
Headlong was all about where you could and couldn’t drive vehicles, and I’ve tried to recreate that here, with various heights of terrain, some routes that are not vehicle friendly, and some routes which are just outright blocked. The jump is pretty nice. As with Headlong, Warthogs make it 90% of the time. The ramp up to the other side of the bridge is probably my least favourite aspect of the map, but I tried to make it look natural and have a bit of danger to it. I really wanted to use the natural terrain to my advantage in this map – I’ve seen too many variations where you’re just shooting guys in a big metallic box, not interesting to me at all, so I used the cave to recreate the building in Headlong where the Beam Rifle once lived.
I was particularly pleased with the building to the side of red base (the one with the Sword, you know the one). I kept it pretty faithful, but added in some nice spots and some alternate routes to the top (4×4 Corner pieces are cunningly useful), and then the corridor that was behind red base in Headlong is moved slightly to the side in Headrush, and given a man-cannon route into the base instead of a long, boring walkway. Also, I had to move the location of the 7th Column monument, as I didn’t quite have enough budget or space to recreate the little tower it sits on – something that I wasn’t really too bothered about, as it is so close to blue base but slightly out-of-the-way, there was never much action around there in objective games.
The girder suspended in mid air sadly had to go. I didn’t have enough budget at the end for it, and it would’ve had to have been massively long to cover the extended distance between the ramp and the red base balcony. It just wouldn’t have sat right, I don’t think. All in all, it’s been great fun making this map. It got a bit squeaky at the end there, running out of budget before I’d plugged a few gaps and placed all the weapons, but I got there in the end. I wouldn’t be overly bothered if the rumours are true and they put Headlong in the first batch of DLC – making this map has been a great learning experience.
It’s ready to go for most popular gametypes, and I’ve even designed it to be a bit less one-sided with Multi-flag CTF, just to get some more games out of it. I hope you like the Hill/Territory/Oddball/Stockpile/Headhunter locations, I’ve tried to place them to make things interesting, but any feedback is more than welcome.
One last thing – can you spot the golden Mongoose?
