Bastion

By Squally DaBeanz

"Long believed missing or destroyed, this installation bears a striking resemblance to the Reclaimer home world."

Bastion is a symmetrical Forerunner arena set in a snowy alcove. This map came from various ideas and aspects of other designs, all blended together and iterated on to work in unison to create a unique experience. It is a lot taller and more complex than it may appear at first glance, with a large emphasis on controlling the middle structure towering over the rest of the space.

The map is shaped like a W, or a trident, with a rocky chasm surrounding the middle "island." This island is home to a round structure with a giant lift beam emitting from a death pit. There are various way to get into and on top of this structure, and small rocky paths leading down into the chasm around it.

Within the chasm are several pillars jutting up from the water below, acting as jumping points to the surrounding areas. The chasm continues below the chunk of terrain in the center of the map. Here, a light bridge crosses the chasm and connects the to middle structures.

The bases extend away from the larger middle structure and wrap around the central lift building. Each base has an upper balcony that looks at the opposing base and has control sightlines into the chasm below. Inside each base is a main flag room with a dividing "wall" separating the two elevations. There are also multi-leveled spawn rooms, with the lower levels each leading to a long narrow tunnel leading into the bottom of the larger middle structure.

The larger middle structure of the map has various elevations and room inside, all accessible from different areas of the map. The basement houses a Sniper, and connects directly the main lobby above and the tunnels to each base. Above the Sniper is an exposed walkway looking over the basement that leads out to the hills between the bases and the middle structure. There is also a small platform opposite this walkway that connects directly to the front lobby and houses the Overshield. The top level of the structure is accessible only from the exterior near the bases, or by taking the large central lift. The lift route will take players right over the Rockets, which spawn at the end of a long exposed walkway overlooking the rest of the exterior of the map.