Halo 2 maps remade for Reach

By Robert Purchese Published 5 August, 2010

Midship and Tower re-imagined.

Bungie has remade Halo 2 maps Ivory Tower and Midship for upcoming game Halo: Reach.

Those levels will become Reflection and Zealot, respectively, according to IGN.

Reflection is said to be a more-or-less accurate remake of Ivory Tower. However, the dynamics of the map are changed by jetpacks and Sprint, and the walls and floors have been splashed with fancier textures.

Zealot, on the other hand, reinterprets Midship. Two bases face each other on either side of a small ring, and fighting takes place over three levels - the top one being outer space. This is reached via a semi-permeable membrane that allows Spartans through but not projectiles. This outer-space area circles the map.

There's a third map mentioned called Spire. This is specifically for Invasion game types and contains a beach for wide-open, vehicle-heavy battles. There's also a spire, obviously, that funnels the action to a hand-to-hand finale at the top.

Those maps are only a fraction of what the Halo: Reach multiplayer will offer. A fuller description was given by Eurogamer's Johnny Minkley after playing the multiplayer Halo: Reach beta. That's likely to be the last time we play the game before its 14th September release. Will it be the biggest game this year?

Invasion gameplay from the Halo: Reach beta.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (28) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Lebowski #1 2 years ago

    I demand to pay 1200 MS points to play these maps.

  • Seansy #2 2 years ago

    Probably in forgeworld waiting for someone to make it! This aspect has really got my interest up, already have plans to re make boarding action.

  • lordofthedunce #3 2 years ago

    Judging by the look of the new Forge there'll be plenty of scope for remakes.

    edit: Yes, what Seansy said!
    Edited by lordofthedunce at 05/08/10 @ 09:53

  • HMAN #4 2 years ago

    Ivory Tower = best Halo 2 map in my eyes. Great news

  • TheNinkyNonk #5 2 years ago

    Ivory Tower was a cracker

  • matrim83 #6 2 years ago

    Zealot isnt really a remake of Midship. The only thing those two have in common is that they are both set on a Covenant cruiser.

  • peteb #7 2 years ago

    Hey why's the video only of Boneyard? :'(

  • geeza2020 #8 2 years ago

    @Lebowski: "Demand"? Shouldn't you be "clamouring" to pay for them? :-)

  • MrE26 #9 2 years ago

    They should remake every map from 1-3, make this final game a celebration of everything Halo.

  • Sunyavadin #10 2 years ago

    Dear Bungie, for christmas I would like....

    Hang Em High
    Boarding Action
    Headlong
    Backwash
    Turf
    Cold Storage
    Burial Mounds
    Chiron
    Sidewinder

    Hell, just release a couple of map packs including remakes of each and every map ever included in the games (Not counting existing remakes)

  • Tyranix #11 2 years ago

    Shouldn't that title read: "Halo 2 remade as Reach." ?

    That was the case for Halo 3 anyway.

  • darleysam #12 2 years ago

    MIIDSHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!!!
    I may buy two copies.

  • hardtech #13 2 years ago

    @Sunyavadin

    Around these parts we call that Activision-itis

  • Yossarian #14 2 years ago

    It's not a Midship remake, it's just reminiscent.

    Heretic for Halo 3 was a Midship remake.

  • darth_paul #15 2 years ago

    wasnt everyone angry at Infinity Ward for remaking maps of COD4 for MW2 (and asking 1200pts), and now your asking Bungie just to re-relase old maps for REACH as DLC?

  • ignatiusjreilly #16 2 years ago

    I like how no one even considers that Bungie could reissue the old maps for free... Kind of a final hurrah?

  • Peew971 #17 2 years ago

    Since it's the last Bungie Halo, I'd like them to remake all the Halo maps ever made :)

  • IMD1_Pk #18 2 years ago

    @darth_paul
    You'd be surprised. The fans love some maps from each Halo game so much that they post threads and polls all over their respective sites clamoring for remakes. Bungie didn't really care and only did 1 literal remake(Heretic) and 2 re-imaginations of old maps(Blackout and Avalanche). They are probably happy they can focus on making new maps from scratch since they added forge world and a robust editor that will allow good remakes. Plenty of people will pay for what they like.

    @ignatiusjreilly
    Honestly Bungie would give out maps for free if they could. We'd probably see fewer high quality maps but we would probably see plenty more maps shipped frequently and for free. The only problem is Microsoft has stupid policies that doesn't allow companies to give free DLC. They don't want to hurt their XBL economy by making some content free because more people would forgoe buying other things if they could get Halo maps for free. They were more lenient before allowing the occasional free item for certain games but now even the smallest things usually require devs to charge the minimum rate of 240 XBL points. On the original Xbox Bungie made each Halo 2 DLC free after a couple weeks to the userbase. And don't get me wrong there a few other Developers who would do this but Microsoft forces most of them to charge for their dlc. Epic Games and Valve would both give away all their maps, patches and post release content for free. It's their generous PC roots that have influenced that good nature. Granted Activision and EA have totally different priorities. They would rather have us paying for all the DLC

  • ignatiusjreilly #19 2 years ago

    @IMD1_Pk

    One developer on here the other day (can't remember who, sorry) said he felt it was more a case that MS would only let them give away DLC if there was other paid DLC in the pipeline. I'm sure that's the case with Reach, they could give away the old maps and sell new ones.

    Besides, you'd think Bungie have a bit more sway with MS than most devs, and that MS might see the benefit of having an awesome "best of" Halo multiplayer game for people to rave about.

  • darth_paul #20 2 years ago

    @IMD1_Pk
    i agree with you. i have no problem with developers remaking old maps... in the end, you decide if you want to purchase them.
    i was just pointing out the amount of criticism Infinity Ward got for remaking old (& popular) maps for MW2. If you're a fan, thats a great news. It was also great news if you only owned MW2, and not MW1

  • RedSparrows #21 2 years ago

    What Yoss said.

    Where the idea that Zealot is a Midship remake has come from, I have no idea - from the looks of the videos it is substantially different.

  • FuzzyDuck #22 2 years ago

    Despite not actually owning a 360, i'm rooting for this game to do well and topple CoD.

  • MerricK #23 2 years ago

    dear bungie,

    I have no xbox. however I would buy 10 right now and sell the missus if you remade all of halo 1's multi player maps.
    There have been no better map other than shop_mp on SOF2.

    Regards

    merrick

  • Climhazzard #24 2 years ago

    Greats maps, shame about the ruined gameplay.

  • irrelevanthuman #25 2 years ago

    Is there going to be an ascension remake?Got a soft spot for that map.Guess I will be able to have a crack at forging it if not.

  • Harmonica #26 2 years ago

    Ivory Tower was one of the best if not the best map (that or Lockout for me), but it was all to do with the geometry and how you could beat people by making crazy athletic type moves and coming at them from surprise angles. I feel that the jetpack will kill a vast amount of what made Ivory Tower work as a great map.

    I can envision some jetpack maps being great maps if they're designed with it in mind, but at the same time, I think that as a game mechanic, either flying and shooting people, or getting shot at from flying people and plinking away at them from the ground, is not particularly fun in terms of multiplayer gaming.
    Edited by Harmonica at 05/08/10 @ 22:05

  • Ace_McCloud #27 2 years ago

    Why do they always rename the remakes? It confuses things.

  • WizenWolfBain #28 2 years ago

    Ivory Tower was always one of my all time favourite maps. It seemed to get overlooked by many... But this news of a remake excites me even more! I would also love to see Burial Mounds (the first proper attacker/defender map) and Colossus....

    Infact. I'd love to see pretty much any Halo 2 map again. They were all good, apart from the last 2 map packs. Bungie sure knew how to make a balanced map :D

    I think it's fair to add that they have pretty much recreated Ascension also. It's 1/5th of "forge world" and should make an appearance in matchmaking hopefully. It's the big rock at sea with the bespoke forge "bits" added to give it the same look and size.
    Edited by WizenWolfBain at 06/08/10 @ 00:34