We Should Have Some More Urban Maps

Chordyceps · April 2022

I saw a discussion post asking what kinda of themes we'd like to see in a chapter, and from thinking about that, it made me realize that I'd like to see more urban environments in the game, as a lot of the environments in the game are much more on the rural side.

To illustrate my point, I'm going to break down the realms in this game into 3 categories: Rural, Suburban and Urban. Rural maps are maps largely filled with nature, with really only major building. Suburban will be a more balanced mix of manmade structures and nature. A few buldings, but still a decently noticable presence of nature. Urban will then be almost, if not entirely manmade structures. Little to no presence of nature.

Rural Maps: 25

Suburban Maps: 6

Urban Maps: 5

I think there are a decently large variety of yet unused urban settings that would lend themselves really well to horror.

The Sewers: A icky, dank, humid, claustrophobic place could create for some great in game atmosphere. There was actually a video where someone threw together a fan chapter for IT, using the Dery Seweres as the map, and thats what really sold me on the idea that the sewers could work well.

City Streets: Walking out alone at night in the city, with limited lighting from the moon and street lamps can feel really creepy irl, and it would probably translate into video games well. I think the New Haddonfield is partly there already actually, its just that thats a neighborhood and not out in the city.

Prison: Once again, a claustrophobic area, what with the prison cells, but still potential for some open areas. Areas like the dining hall, fenced in outdoor area and gym. I think The Walking Dead has a great example of a decently scary prison. I also think that a prison map could work great for the Grave of Glenvale realm, considering the the Glenvale Penetentiary was a decently important part of The Deathslinger's backstory.

I think these examples show the more urban maps can all add unique and scary atmosphere that we're quite frankly missing right now. That, and it would help to move away from the "large outdoor map with strong central structure" philosophy of map design that I'm quite frankly getting sick of.

JosephN · April 2022

I'd love to see more urban environments, but sadly I think in-door maps are more prone to have a negative impact on performance for significant portion of the player base, specifically console players on last gen systems. I'm worried that this will happen in the near future with the reworked Haddonfield as well. If they can make it work, I'd be all for it though!