Halo 3’s third map pack, the Mythic Map Pack, released on April 9, 2009, is set to be the best map pack the series has seen yet. The Heroic Map Pack was very popular because it included Foundry, what was thought at the time to be a Forge-lover’s heaven. You might as well drop to your knees and thank heaven, because Bungie has delivered a map pack that expands on Forge, matchmaking, and custom games alike.

 

According to Halo 3’s achievement list, this map pack is the first of two that make up the full Mythic Pack, the second half of which will likely ship with Halo 3: ODST, much like this iteration of Mythic was included with the Legendary Edition of Halo Wars. Though Halo Wars players may have the upper hand, matchmaking ensures everyone who buys it new gets matched with similar players.

 

The first map I played was Assembly. Essentially, it’s what the map would look like if  Midship and Desolation (both from Halo 2) had some sort of bastard child out of a drunken threesome. However, it plays like Bungie devs poured tons of love into every inch of this big bowl shaped Covenant level. Drawing atmosphere from Midship and a middle area like Warlock, the rest of the map is similar to Desolation. There’s a power-weapon holding area at the bottom, platforms to jump on scattered about, and there’s some underlying area to fight in. It’s horrendous for snipers, but matchmaking deals out a good number of BR gametypes, which work very well. This map is most assuredly destined for stardom at the next MLG events.

 

 

The second map I played was the default version of Sandbox. I haven’t had much time to tool around in Forge on it, but there are three areas: an area suspended on a floating grid in the sky, a main area pre-made with pyramid structures, and an area underlying it all that is nothing but a big empty cube. The default version worked well in CTF, and did a decent job for a BRs game, although snipers would also be suitable here. I also spent a match of SWAT on the Tundra variation of the map, which confines you to the surprisingly large lower area which has been filled with a lot of obstacles, making you pick your shots and make sure to have your team at your back.

 

 

The final map, Orbital, doesn’t get much play on matchmaking. I only got one play on this map, which was pretty exciting but not as conventional as the other maps. The playlist gives you almost exclusively objective gametypes like Neutral Assault, which is what I played. The game forces you to move tactically around the two intertwined hallways, pushing forward and sacrificing your team in order to complete the objective. It’s a pure test of elimination skills as you try to kill the enemy when your scorer moves in for the kill. It’s not a bad map at all, it’s just a bit different and overly tactical.

 

 

All in all, Mythic is definitely a no-brainer for anyone who has ever appreciated Halo’s matchmaking or Forge modes. Even if you can’t stand competitive play, you’ll have hours of fun tooling around with Sandbox and making all sorts of courses on which to play golf with your Spartan-sized balls and seven-iron gravity hammers.