UNSC science teams study the final resting place of the Ur-Didact's children, all of which died in the ancient Human-Forerunner war.

This is my first big team battle map "Sanctified" and, as is my goal with every map i make, i want those who play is to feel completely immersed in the halo universe when they play. I feel as if i have accomplished this goal and i am confident that those who play will agree. Between the halo 3 style forerunner structures and the halo CE style teleporters, to the floating halo 4 style monolith and neon colors and finally the Mantle of Responsibility accompanying rows of sarcophagi, i feel that i have evenly blended a healthy amount of halo nostalgia and added a few of my signature aesthetics as well.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, i wanted to pull together as many elements as i could from my favorite classic BTB maps. Sanctified is roughly the length of Valhalla perhaps a bit longer but certainly more narrow. The map is symmetrical with a red base on one side and a blue base on the other. There is a large gate/wall that bisects the map. on the opposite corners of the map you have a lower Temple area where a mantis spawns and behind it is a teleporter that takes you to the opposite corner where the monolith is. This is certainly the power area you will want to control as a binary rifle spawns there and there are 2 man cannons that launch you directly in front of either base.

Being a large linear map with long site lines, the name of the game to stay alive is to use the modest amount of cover throughout the area, grab a vehicle when able (2 mongoose, 2 rockethogs, 1 mantis), and as infantry to travel the subtle yet highly useful routes.

My goal for Sanctified was for it play like something akin to Blood gulch. I have borrowed and improved upon elements seen in newer BTB maps i love like Basin and Deadlock. Particularly the closable windows and blast doors from Deadlock. You will notice each base has a lower bunker with an interactive toggle switch that opens/closes the windows and doors to what is perhaps the easiest route into the bases. The element i tweaked is that once closed the doors will actually open back up by themselves after 120 seconds. This keeps both attackers and defenders on their toes when using this area and makes the opportunity to traverse this space balanced for both teams.

Speaking of balance one thing i tried to implement as far as that goes is the drivable routes for vehicles. which is something you see a lot of in games like titanfall but hardly enough of in halo. Basically there are 3 simple routes, the most obvious is through the middle where the gate is. This is the ONLY route the mantis can use to get from one side of the map to the other. Which can help balance the mantis because you can quarantine it on which ever side of the map you need to. And thats not even mentioning the dynamic elements the gate adds to a game type like CTF. Second route is the hill where the monolith is. The warthogs and mongooses can get through the small gap under the man cannons. Third is the destroyable wall by the temple door which only the mongoose and of course infantry can fit through. So the usable routes for each vehicle are as follows:

Mantis:1
Warthogs:2
Mongoose:3
Infantry: Unrestricted

Sanctified functions with all core game types and i had a blast with it. I will be posting a video with gameplay in a later update. My Gamertag is OverlordRaven91 and id like to thank Imdahunicorn, JA50N 0, and INFINUT for their constructive feedback and patient play tests :)