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[scitek]

Recently, I decided to purchase and play through the Prince of Persia trilogy from the PS2/Xbox/GC generation, and I hadn't ever heard before just how Metroid-esque Warrior Within is. There's loads of backtracking,and, combined with the very nature of the level design, which is intentionally broken and segmented in order to fuel the free-running gameplay, it becomes very difficult to remember which way you went to reach a certain area. This is the map they give you to help guide you along:

PoP: Warrior Within

That little X moves a couple of inches in a direction after you move through a couple rooms at the least. No room by room navigation, not even the ability to zoom in or out, what you see is what you get.

Now, compare that with Metroid Prime, which came out two years prior. With this map, you could not only choose which section to look at, regardless of whether or not you were even currently in it. You could also zoom in and rotate the map in any section to get a complete 3D view of the layout of the world around you and plan your route ahead of time. In addition, key things like elevators and save rooms were labeled accordingly. Getting lost was not a problem for me here.

Metroid Prime

One recent example I've seen people complain about is Batman: Arkham Origins: Blackgate. I think its issue (correct me if I'm wrong) is that it shows a top-down map and it's a sidescroller, so you have no proper sense of direction whatsoever. What really stings about that one is it's from some of the guys that made Metroid Prime, so it really doesn't make any sense.

Batman: Arkham Origins: Blackgate

I can't help but think how much Warrior Within would have benefited from a useful map. I actually liked the game otherwise - "edginess" aside - but what other games have notoriously bad maps that practically ruin the experience?

 

[TheGoddamn]

I may be speaking exclusively for myself, but I don't recall having trouble getting lost in Warrior Within. The castle and its locations seemed cohesive enough that navigation was fine, even when coupled with time travel. In fact, I actually thought that was what you were praising at first-- the setting design of Warrior Within. Each area was familiar enough that it was recognizable in both the past and the present, and moving around was possible without using the map.

That said, a good map is a boon for the games that truly require it, like the mainline Arkham games.

(I can't speak for either of the other two games you mentioned, even though I own Metroid Prime Collection.)

 

[Fancy Clown]

Silent Hill had great maps. After you would try a door they would mark which ones were locked, which ones couldn't be opened, and which ones were unlocked. They also marked areas of the town you couldn't access because the streets were collapsed, and they of course showed your position on the map.

 

[Fisty]

I always thought MGS3 had great maps, they werent overly detailed but gave enough help to find exits if you needed them. Ground Zeroes is expanded alot, but the map is still easy to figure out and navigate.

Deadly Premonition had a great map, but was awful to access and manipulate. Ended up finding a pdf that looks amazing, I felt like York with a road map driving around Greenvale lol

 

[scitek]

I may be speaking exclusively for myself, but I don't recall having trouble getting lost in Warrior Within. The castle and its locations seemed cohesive enough that navigation was fine, even when coupled with time travel. In fact, I actually thought that was what you were praising at first-- the setting design of Warrior Within. Each area was familiar enough that it was recognizable in both the past and the present, and moving around was possible without using the map.

That said, a good map is a boon for the games that truly require it, like the mainline Arkham games.

(I can't speak for either of the other two games you mentioned, even though I own Metroid Prime Collection.)

Eventually, you become more familiar with the layout, sure, especially seeing as it's a 10-15 hour game, but Warrior Within has objectives like "activate the two towers," and after saving in a corridor and coming back the next day, I had trouble remembering which way I exactly needed to go to get to that specific tower. The map didn't help at all because you have no idea where on it you are unless you know exactly the layout of the palace in relation to that picture.

The other two games are extremely linear by comparison.

 

[DancinSwayze]

 

[Death Metalist]

Best maps (Good game or not doesn't matter)

Far Cry 2

Driver San Fransisco

(The map is way more detailed and such then what it shown in the pic)


Doom

Anyone of the old school Doom games maps.

 

[Despera]

Silent Hill had great maps. After you would try a door they would mark which ones were locked, which ones couldn't be opened, and which ones were unlocked. They also marked areas of the town you couldn't access because the streets were collapsed, and they of course showed your position on the map.

I just wish those dead ends were marked as soon as they popped into view. Other than that I agree, it was excellent.

 

[scitek]

Doom

Anyone of the old school Doom games maps.

Doom's maps are still amazing, especially being able to move through them in real-time.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Metroid Prime's was the best I've seen. Absolutely no confusion of what I was looking at, and was easy to manipulate.

I heard Arkham Origins Blackgate's was terrible though. Wonder why some people hated it.

 

[OnionPowder]

I always loved the map system in the Diablo games.

I also thought the map in Skyrim worked out really well. Gave you a good idea of how the area was going to look since it was fully 3D.

 

[scitek]

Metroid Prime's was the best I've seen. Absolutely no confusion of what I was looking at, and was easy to manipulate.

I heard Arkham Origins Blackgate's was terrible though. Wonder why some people hated it.

From GameSpot:

The map is, by far, the most frustrating element of Blackgate, because it fails to provide the kind helpful information you'd expect to find. In a multistory environment with complex webs of air ducts, grapnel points, and hidden rooms, a map that fails to indicate what floor you're on is next to useless. Quite often, you're told to go to a specific room, but even if it appears that you're within the boundary of said room according to the map, you may in fact be floors and a complicated journey away. You may even need to come from an entirely different entrance to the building, but you won't figure any of this out until you spend lots of time analyzing every inch of your environment, chasing trails that lead to dead ends, and eventually stumble upon a hidden path that doubles back to the goal, albeit a floor above where you started. Then, nine times out of 10, when you finally make it to the goal, you have to head to yet another far-away location to briefly interact with an object to restore power to a generator, disable a security device, or something similar.

 

[MulderWasTaken]

I bought Miasmata solely on how you access and update your map. You need to triangulate your position with three landmarks and then it will pinpoint your location on the map.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdIRfJRS1FI

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

The Prime Trilogy did indeed have excellent maps. At first I was a bit intimidated, but quickly got used to panning, rotating, and zooming. They even had a name for every room, tunnel, and passageway.

 

[DaciaJC]

Best maps (Good game or not doesn't matter)

Far Cry 2

Yes, the map system in FC2 was genius.

 

[UrbanRats]

Silent Hill had great maps. After you would try a door they would mark which ones were locked, which ones couldn't be opened, and which ones were unlocked. They also marked areas of the town you couldn't access because the streets were collapsed, and they of course showed your position on the map.

The great thing about Silent Hill maps, was that they looked like they belonged in the world, being all thematically contextual.

 

[MetricChip]

Far Cry 2

I have my issues with Far Cry 2 but I really love that map.

 

[revolverjgw]

Silent Hill had great maps. After you would try a door they would mark which ones were locked, which ones couldn't be opened, and which ones were unlocked. They also marked areas of the town you couldn't access because the streets were collapsed, and they of course showed your position on the map.

I love it when maps alter dynamically like this. Sometimes I feel like I'd like it even more if I had to manually make markings on them.

 

[Kadin]

Doom's maps are still amazing, especially being able to move through them in real-time.

This part is key. I really wish more games allowed this. Sure it's not something you do all the time but if you're in a complicated area and simply need to navigate and find the exit as fast as possible, this was a great option.

 

[coopolon]

I never really thought about maps until I played smt4. That is a good game which was almost ruined for me by a terrible map. Ever since then I have really appreciated good maps a lot more.

I am playing pikmin 2 right now and I just finished pikmin 1. Those games, especially the second, have great maps. I really appreciate how they show where your lost pikmin are.

I always prefer maps that don't rotate though. I find it so much easier to get myself oriented when there is a hard north.

 

[scoobidoo112]

Midnight Club Los Angeles

It zooms in and out seamlessly between gameplay and the map, it changes based on the day/night cycle, is completely 3D and uses very clear icons.

 

[makingmusic476]

The lack of maps made it hard for me to get into Way of the Samurai 3. I could never figure out the layout to the areas, and I felt like I was wasting playthroughs trying to do so.

I didn't have a problem with the Souls series' lack of maps, but I guess the levels were so distinct and you ran through them so many times it was east to memorize them.

Actually, most of the games I've played besides the Zelda series have had shitty maps or none at all.

Edit:

Though in the RTS world, Supreme Commander had the most amazing map and camera system. The ability to scroll all the way out with the map transitioning into a sort of screenwide minimap was awesome. It was hard to go back to more traditional controls after that.

 

[3bdelilah]

Skyrim's outdoor map is awesomely done, though inside dungeons it felt a little lacking. Metroid Prime is a great example, even though I'm not a big fan of a lot of backtracking, the maps are crystal clear.

 

[HueyFreeman]

Midnight Club Los Angeles

It zooms in and out seamlessly between gameplay and the map, it changes based on the day/night cycle, is completely 3D and uses very clear icons.

Immediately thought of this as well. Just a brilliantly implemented real time 3D map system - glad rockstar copied it into their others games.

 

[Cave Johnson]

I can't help but think how much Warrior Within would have benefited from a useful map. I actually liked the game otherwise - "edginess" aside - but what other games have notoriously bad maps that practically ruin the experience?

I always that the game was fairly linear that the map only serves as a guidepost - nothing more. Each time you finish as specific tasks, you sort of naturally progress to where you "think" you haven't explored yet, thus I don't even remember being lost (unless you start looking for the special levels).

If your map is what you're having problems with; I believe a more tighter "level" design would've fixed it. I can see the idea of going back and forth "Metroid" style may confuse players especially after loading back a save after awhile.

 

[Professor Lich]

While I don't remember how helpful they were, probably not a lot, I really liked the style of the Darksiders world maps.

Darksiders

Darksiders 2

 

[legacyzero]

Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night immediately come to mind.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Being able to move in a Doom map through the automap works because you move fast enough in relation to the map scrolling speed. That's why it feels so speedy and responsive, not to mention nifty if you're stuck somewhere.

 

[thoseAREmySHOES]

Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night immediately come to mind.

Yeah, the Metroid and Castlevania series have very simple, but very effective map systems.

 

[JohnGrimm]

Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 nailed it. I wish Ubisoft would have gone back to it for 3 and 4.

 

[RedSwirl]

I played it a while ago but I remember Dead Space 1 as the only game that tried to repeat Metroid Prime's 3D map system. I'm still disappointed they just threw you waypoints for the sequels.

 

[theWB27]

Midnight Club Los Angeles

It zooms in and out seamlessly between gameplay and the map, it changes based on the day/night cycle, is completely 3D and uses very clear icons.

It really was brilliant

 

[SatoAilDarko]

Warrior Within never seemed that metroidvania to me. There wasn't that much actual backtracking and iy was more taking new paths that would one-way take you back to old areas. Still brilliant level design with how it flowed.

 

[Zombine]

 

[The_Hitcher89]

Chaos Theory's map was a blocky, unintuitive and unmanipulatable disgrace

 

[Kadin]

I played it a while ago but I remember Dead Space 1 as the only game that tried to repeat Metroid Prime's 3D map system. I'm still disappointed they just threw you waypoints for the sequels.

That's another great game with a well implemented map system, completely forgot about it. Very uniquely designed and was easy to use. Although I won't lie, I used the instant beam that told you where to go more than I should have.

 

[ekgrey]

REmake on GameCube and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance are two of my favourites. DA had the realtime movement of Doom maps IIRC and RE marked everything (except what key you needed), down to if you had gathered all the items from each room. This led to my OCD self picking up every single herb to store in an item box just to get the map all green, but it was a nice feature.

 

[scitek]

Warrior Within never seemed that metroidvania to me. There wasn't that much actual backtracking and iy was more taking new paths that would one-way take you back to old areas. Still brilliant level design with how it flowed.

I feel it's actually a very underrated game, and I'll probably like it a lot more on subsequent play-throughs now that I know where to go. There were definitely a couple of times where the way back to an area so you could progress was very obscure, though, as there were a number of possible paths you could choose from with only one being correct.

 

[burgervan]

I always appreciated how Turok: Dinosaur Hunter would superimpose the map onto the screen as you play. It made navigating levels really easy.

 

[Murtrod]

Best maps (Good game or not doesn't matter)

Far Cry 2

If it were precise on character location, it would have been stellar. And it was also a bit wonky and dull to look at. Still solid, though.

 

[Foshy]

The map in Arkham Origins Blackgate is fucking terrible. I heard they wanted to fix it for the HD port, did that ever happen?

 

[Diablohead]

The map in Arkham Origins Blackgate is fucking terrible. I heard they wanted to fix it for the HD port, did that ever happen?

Can't compare to the mobile versions as I never played them but the updated map is still rather shit.

That game had more issues then the map system which needed fixing.

 

[Grief.exe]

The Chernarus map from DayZ, and just ARMA in general, is excellent.

You can find a compass or GPS to give you more information, but you have to use contextual information throughout the map to find your exact position. See: Street signs, town names, Railroad names, environmental locations (mountains, power lines, etc).

Batman: Arkham Origins: Blackgate

I can't help but think how much Warrior Within would have benefited from a useful map. I actually liked the game otherwise - "edginess" aside - but what other games have notoriously bad maps that practically ruin the experience?

That isn't very good. Why didn't they stick to the tried and true Metroid/Metroidvania map style?

Metroid: Fusion

I've always found maps in the Pokemon games to be terrible. They give you no context other than your rough location. No information on how to progress through the area at all.

I guess that comes down to the inherent simplicity in Pokemon games, not generally causing issues.

 

[Easy_D]

A 2D side scrolling game using an overhead map? Are you fucking kidding me with that shit?

 

[scitek]

A 2D side scrolling game using an overhead map? Are you fucking kidding me with that shit?

Nope.

I've yet to play through Blackgate, but when I do, I'll probably use these isometric maps Armature made for people going after all the collectibles.
http://www.armature.com/games/bao-blackgate/blackgate-pickup-map/

 

[ekgrey]

Yeah, the map in Blackgate is horrible. I actually tried to play that before the "proper" Arkham games but gave up less than halfway through because I was so fucking lost. Kept having to consult online guides because I absolutely could not make sense of the map. Doesn't help that there is an ENORMOUS amount of backtracking in that game. Sucks, because I ended up loving Asylum and would like to finish everything before Knight but I just don't see myself trying to navigate that labyrinth again.

Edit:

Nope.

I've yet to play through Blackgate, but when I do, I'll probably use these isometric maps Armature made for people going after all the collectibles.
http://www.armature.com/games/bao-blackgate/blackgate-pickup-map/

Oh dang those are great! Thanks for bringing them to my attention. I might actually try to finish it after all.

 

[NewGame]

Super Metroid becoming Metroid Prime was fantastic as far as the mapping system went.

On the flip side the worst map system had to be Dark Cloud.

 

[epmode]

I already love the galaxy map in Elite Dangerous:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFcxygJfERY&t=0m8s

Seriously, it's beautiful.

 

[Zack117]

If Dark Souls had an in-game map, this would probably be my choice.
Otherwise:

From Ni No Kuni.

I also remember Dead Space 1 to have a very good map system. You could pull it out while still being able to walk and have an eye on your environment. Fully 3D models of it made it very easy to navigate and orientate through the game for me.

 

[Foshy]

That game had more issues then the map system which needed fixing.

That's true. Didn't even bother beating it. The map was definitely one of the main offenders though.