Description
Territories is a game type introduced in Halo 2 and does not appear in Halo: Combat Evolved. It is a battle to control the map by reaching a certain point, taking it over, then you must keep it in your control for a certain amount of time. Most of the time you will need several areas under your control to win. In each map there are four areas to control but this number can be lowered to one.
Halo 3 introduces locked territories, giving 1 point, by default, when fully capturing a territory. After being captured, it remains locked and out of play, causing players to move on to other territories. While mostly used in 1 sided gameplay with one team defending the territories and the other team attacking, it is also used in equal sided gameplay, eliminating the need to defend conquered territories. The 'locking up' feature of Territories in Halo 3 has led to a lot of criticism from players; saying that once an area is gone, it's not possible to retake it.
Race is a game type introduced in Halo: Combat Evolved and was taken out of Halo 2. It is possible that Territories originated from Race. The objective for Race is to be the first to get to the holographic flags which are called laps. There are different ways to play Race you can get the flags in order or in Rally you can get them out of order which is a lot like Territories. Except, in Territories you have to wait by the plot for a few seconds. In Race you just have to touch it and move on.
This is both a FFA and Teamed Gametype.
Players of other games, such as the Battlefield and the Star Wars: Battlefront series may notice a strong resemblance between Territories and the gameplay available in those two games.
Usually, with little territories (like 3), getting control over every territory is very difficult as one opponent can easily claim yours while you are going for other territories.
Halo 3 Variants
- Territories: The standard territory game, one team attacks, the other defends. This can be found on Team Objective and Social Skirmish with 4 rounds; and on Big Team Battle with only 2 rounds.
- Land Grab: 2-sided Territories, both teams try to capture Territories, once captured, they cannot be unlocked.
- Flag Rally: Like Land Grab, but the territories can be unlocked, so this is an attack and defend game.
- Close Quarters: (NOTE: This a player made mode and isn't actually included in the game types. If you want to play it you will have to customize the rules. This is a variant of Mosh Pit.) In Close Quarters All players use Shotguns with unlimited ammo. There are no weapons or grenades on the map and all players start with Plasma Grenades and Fragmentation Grenades. There is a single piece of territory that doesn't move and players must fight each other in close quarters to try and conquer it. With many players all together on a small map this will get extremely chaotic, this is recommended. This will create massive fun for at least 15 minutes. 15 minutes is the recomended time frame but you can increase it if you want you may increase the time limit on the chaos. Whoever has the most points at the end wins. Don't be discouraged if you die a lot, this is supposed to happen. You and your teamates will suffer horrible casulties but so will the other team.
Trivia
- In Halo 2, there are names for territories and in Halo 3 there are numbers for territories.
- Territories is one of the least preferred gametypes.