RAT'S NEST
GamesRadar: Can you describe how this map looks?
Steve Cotton, Multiplayer Environment Artist: Rat's Nest looks like a part of the UNSC "secret base" (from the Crow's Nest campaign mission). The good part. Where Spartans come together and fight to the death apparently.
It also looks like the part of base where Pelicans deliver the toys for the military brats for the holidays. At least that's how I remember it. Structurally, it's a large interior tunnel loop that vehicles control and a network of rooms through the center for infantry.
GamesRadar: Can you describe how Rat's Nest plays?
SC: Vehicles are very important on this map, but not everything. They circle the perimeter with an area in the middle where they can disrupt the infantry battle for control. More importantly, they can circle around the back of each base and can actually drive right in so on defense you must watch your back. Meanwhile, infantry stream through the center and vie for control of what I'll call the front rooms.
Assuming for a second you're playing an objective game, once you have a team's front room, you can better stage your assault on their base, and ideally coordinate it with a vehicle assault in back.
GamesRadar: What size and type of games work best?
SC: 6v6 objective based games are ideal. I could play big team Multi-Flag games on Rat's Nest for hours. In fact, we have, with nearly endless responses of "Rematch!" Good times.
GamesRadar: What vehicles and weapons will dominate?
SC: There are four Warthogs on the map, two at each base, so it's not so much that any one Warthog dominates, it's more that there are usually two or three flaming heaps of Warthog scraps in view at any one time. Meanwhile the guy prowling through the center with the shotgun and bubble shield is writing a novel about all the kills he's getting.
GamesRadar: What Halo, Halo 2 or Halo 3 maps is Rat's Nest most like?
SC: It's really unlike any big map that we've done before.
GamesRadar: How is the map totally unique from anything else in Halo's history?
SC: Well, the Marines didn't crash the Pelican this time. Does that count?
GamesRadar: What will surprise fans the most about Rat's Nest?
SC: The size. It's deceivingly huge, allowing for a lot of vehicle run-and-gun but the interior pathways offer nice close-quarters combat.
Oh and despite what fans may have interpreted from the first screenshot of Rat's Nest, the Pelican actually has nothing to do with the map beyond aesthetics. You can't even get out to the platform it's parked on.
