In December, 343 Industries announced a compensation package to appease the first wave of players suffering through Halo: The Master Chief Collection's catastrophic launch. Today, a little over five months later, that compensation package went live. Today's patch (one of only two for the game which are actually properly labeled as "content updates") made a remastered version of
Halo 3: ODST available for free to some players affected by 343's unfinished product. It also made Remnant, a remake of Halo 2's Relic, available to all players and integrated the map into matchmaking. Lastly, this patch actually addressed a few of the issues that have been plaguing the custom gaming community since the game's launch. Players can now search for forgers by their gamertag from the in-game roster to access file shares and download maps. Teams will supposedly no longer be shuffled after games, and maps with large object counts will supposedly be subject to fewer crashes in custom games. For full details, check out the
patch notes.
So, what's Remnant like? Well, it's quite similar to the map it's based on. However, a few tweaks have been made. The first thing that will likely catch your attention is the theme; the map is undeniably gorgeous. The map's island setting is wind-worn with structures in a state of disrepair. The crashed Albatross dropship at the attackers' spawn is scarred and rust-covered. The main Forerunner structure is battered, with UNSC scaffolding and equipment supporting it in a unique thematic juxtaposition. The Covenant sniper tower has been replaced with a small UNSC structure in keeping with this theme. The ominous skybox shows imminent weather on the horizon, with rays of sunlight breaking through massive thunderheads. In short, the map looks great.
"Yeah, we knew it would
look good, but does it actually
work?" you ask. Well, sort of. In typical Certain Affinity fashion, it's clear that readability took a backseat to visual flair. The muted color palette and lack of lighting and contrast beneath the main structure will lead to the same sort of target acquisition issues present on other H2A maps; distinguishing players from the surrounding environment will not be as easy as it should be. The long ramps flanking the central structure have been replaced with gravity lifts, providing easier access to the top. The catch is that these lifts are not active during Flag and Assault games, meaning that it will be even more difficult than before for attackers to access the main tower. The new sniper tower is more structural than the Covenant platform on the original map, providing a bit more cover for players perched atop it. The switch in the basement now cheesily spawns in a teleporter from thin air, but this is functionally identical to the flashy teleporter-activating switch on the original. The weapon setup has seen minor tweaks as well, with suppressed SMGs and assault rifles strewn about some of the map's more open expanses. The placement of the rockets and shotgun have been tweaked slightly. A speed boost is placed near the attacker spawn, but its use will not substitute a coordinated push and will not be able to break the defenders' control of the main structure on its own by any means. A scorpion tank is now placed at each base, but these will only be available in modes which specifically enable tanks (you likely won't see them in matchmaking). In short, it'll play like Relic but with more punishing top control in objective games, peskier snipers, and of course the
paper-thin vehicles H2A is known for.
Remnant gives forgers access to the usual list of structure items as well as a handful of new crate and barricade pieces unique to the map. Don't get your hopes up about having a new backdrop for your forge creations, though. As usual, Certain Affinity was extremely liberal with map boundaries and bumping into soft ceilings and soft killzones while flying around in forge is all too common. You cannot fly far enough above or away from the island to have more than a very limited forgeable space to work with. Like with other non-canvas maps, terrain items are
not available here. Also familiar to players of Halo 2: Anniversary, framerate performance on Remnant is questionable. The base map will have difficulty maintaining a steady framerate in objective modes and adding more than a handful of forge items will only worsen the effects of H2A's poor optimization.
In short, Remnant is a beauty to behold but it will not offer new forging freedom or play any better than the other dev maps in H2A's roster. 343 learned from Forge island, which despite being free was only downloaded by a small portion of players making it almost never appear in matchmaking. Luckily, this map is automatically downloaded with the patch meaning that all players in matchmaking will have it. A scarcity of maps was hardly one of MCC's myriad issues at launch, so adding a new map as compensation was an odd choice; Remnant's inclusion won't suddenly make up for the last seven months of a borderline-unplayable game. If BTB matchmaking is your thing, you'll likely be glad to see this map find its way into the usual rotation but beyond that this "compensation" will be largely ineffective. We'll have to see how it plays with vehicle health-adjusted Squad settings at a later date.
What do you think of Remnant and finally getting your hands on the long-awaited compensation package?
Additional screenshots:
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.