Also fun fact about Isolation: If you wait long enough the Flood infestation spreads further through the grass surrounding the caved area. Guess that adds more points to the map being hostile and unwelcoming

I have a very specific memory of having a "campout" on Halo: Reach with my friends. We used the in-game filters to make the map very dark to simulate night and put one of the filter spheres around some sandbags or rocks to make a campfire. We all built little houses around the fire. It was on the island on the beach section right across the underwater bridge that extends from that cave. I recall telling one of my friends that the map was haunted and that there was a ghost that lived in the Blood Gulch area that took the form of a Mongoose driving itself. Of course, I activated Active Camo and hopped on a Mongoose and drove around the Gulch, claiming to be in the hangar on the other side of the map. To my surprise, he actually bought that he'd seen it, though I oversold it and had to fess up shortly thereafter. Still, that was one of my all-time favorite gaming memories.

Fun fact: the map Guardian reuses assets from a cut campaign level where the player would’ve fought a “guardian” sentinel while flying a Hornet. The idea for the guardian sentinel was recycled into Halo 5’s Guardian Custodes.

0:01 Intro 1:18 Map 1 (Guardian) 6:32 Map 2 (Sandtrap) 11:17 Map 3 (Foundry) 16:43 He Can Haz Recon 17:11 Map 4 (Isolation) 19:22 Map 5 (Epitaph) 22:05 Map 6 (Last Resort) 25:28 Map 7 (Blackout) 29:20 2006 Gaming Creepypasta 32:02 Map 8 (Ghost Town) 34:53 Map 9 (Cold Storage) 36:50 Map 10 (Sandbox) 42:08 Bernard's Hole 43:14 Map 11 (Longshore) 45:36 Surprised Librarian 46:27 Map 12 (Waterfall) 48:53 Map 13 (Icebox) 51:06 Map 14 (Edge) 54:13 Map 15 and Ending Thoughts (Valhalla) 58:06 Outro 58:37 Patrons

So when I was a kid I didn't have Xbox Live. I would spend a lot of time by myself on the multiplayer maps, and after seeing the old "ghosts of Halo" type videos, I remember wondering every so often while I played on Sandtrap if a ghost would show up and start causing chaos in my play session. I already know I'm gonna enjoy this video!

You playing Halo 3 means a lot to me. I remember getting this game for Christmas back in 2007 and 5 year old me thought it looked like a movie. Amazing game.

I always felt like 3 had the most atmospheric maps of the trilogy. Makes me miss the days when the Forerunners still had a sense of awe and mystery about them. Now we know more about them than the Yanme' or the Lekgolo worms.

9:20 Said this on the Discord but that's an actual glitch in Halo 3. On controller, the trigger you press to go fast as a Monitor in Forge Mode (at least, in the default control scheme) is the same for throwing grenades. If you started pressing this just as you turn into a Monitor then that grenade toss will be registered by the game but it'll remain in a limbo state for a while, or until you turn back into a Spartan/Elite. If it goes off its own then typically it'll be thrown out where you were previously standing. If you trigger it yourself by transforming back then the grenade will just get thrown out from your face and then explode. It's definitely a spooky glitch and I had once experienced this on my own before. You can even trigger this with a Spartan Laser and potentially surprise kill your friend. Hell, same goes for the throwable equipment.

This is a nice change of pace. Halo maps are surprisingly spooky sometimes, especially some from Halo 2 & 3.

I remember as a kid, after hearing about the ghost of Lockout (but not actually seeing that video at the time), I decided to do some ghost hunting. I loaded up three players (we only had three controllers) and placed them around various parts of the map- one looking down that corridor with the broken panel, since I figured that was the most likely site for any paranormal activity; one near the grav lift, watching the first one in case anything happened to it, and the third camera with the wider field of view somewhere up high where it could see as much of the map as possible. I think I sat there for like 30 minutes to an hour, just staring at the screen and waiting for something to happen. Nothing did, though.

The game holds up so darn well. The lighting is fantastic as is the overall art style of it all.

You know what Halo map gives me the creeps? Tombstone from Halo 2, I explored it by myself once and I had this really strong feeling of being watched for some reason…

I'm speechless. I always used to roam around the maps in custom games or forge mode. Just admiring the details and possible mysteries in each map

I was always scared of the forerunner structures because of how mysterious they were

Yo, singleplayer Halo map exploration from one of my fave KZfaqrs? Now THIS is a dream. I used to spend ages exploring them, mainly in Halo 2, 3 and CE, and they always had such a strange, sometimes creepy vibe, especially Backwash, Cold Storage, Ghost Town and Isolation. Zanzibar/Last Resort, Sidewinder, Sandtrap and Sandbox were my faves though. And i'll admit, i used to stock up on (or start) good weapons, ammo and equipment before properly heading out, as if some kind of enemy or ghost would try to fight me during it.

Did you ever watch Red vs Blue? That show just adds a whole new layer of nostalgia and intrigue and fascination in these maps.

Fun fact: On the map Orbital, there’s a mural dedicated to the inventors of the Shaw-Fujikawa engine that was invented in 2291 allowing humanity to go beyond the stars in Halo lore.

There’s something incredibly warm about Halo 3 graphics. Maybe it’s the bloom or gritty texturing but it just evokes an incredibly warm pleasant feeling to me. It’s not even nostalgia really just the general art direction; it’s very cozy and nice to the eye, like sitting next to a campfire or something. It’s not all the time you get a first person shooter that makes you feel that way, especially around that time. They really hit the sweet spot between vibrant stylised colours and photorealism. Thanks for revisiting these maps. Always a lot of memories.

I am insanely happy that you mentioned the ghost of Lockout. Knowing your content and seeing you boot directly into Guardian, that was the first thing that crossed my mind.

Halo maps for me always gave the sensation of places where I would wake up all confused in a dream. They are a delight to explore and I always got very excited when found prompts to interact with the enviroment. Of the last newer maps from some years ago, I have nice memories of Edge where a dear friend of mine and I were exploring while showing each other how cool our new Elite armors looked.

I remember exploring these maps when I was younger. Even on my own, I always felt like someone was watching me. They’re all so eerie

I think Sandtrap actually did have infrequent explosions in the ambient track, which were supposed to be related to the perimeter defense weapons.

idk if you planned to make a part 2 but I'd really love to hear your thoughts on Avalanche, Orbital and Snowbound. Some of the creepiest maps to me when I was a kid. Also side note: when I would play forge by myself I'd always try to get as far out of bounds as I could or just look out the windows to try and get a peak of the world outside the playable area, it filled my little brain with wonder and wanderlust

Felt like I was strolling down memory lane right there with you. I miss those days, I was like 9-12 and Halo 3 was basically the only game my brother and I had and we never ran out of fun things to do while playing

Waterfall, Edge, and Icebox were from the Russian-exclusive Halo Online that everyone got hacked copies of to play Halo 3 on PC before Halo 3 came out on PC. Icebox is even a remake of Halo 2's Turf.

14:27 You were very close, all you had to do was turn into the forge monitor and you'd be out of the map And with how 343 changed Halo 3's forge controls in the MCC, you can basically clip yourself out of most maps while holding onto an object and pivoting yourself past the barrier, though you're almost guaranteed death in most cases, or otherwise a very quick, and unseen, timer before your demise 43:40 Longshore is a map that used to creep me out, mostly because the Fronk art (the blue cartoon whale you see around the map), specifically the one on the top of each of the bases, would blink over time, so throughout a play session on this map, you would occasionally see it's eyes more and more shut or open And for some reason, the carriers out in the ocean would also creep me out, they just felt especially lifeless, and i knew that the aircraft on deck were just 2D cutouts from the Halo 3 art book, even including the Wombat, a vehicle that didn't make it into Halo 3 until one of the missions in ODST where you just see them flying by overhead 45:41 The maps Waterfall, Edge, and Icebox were all added in the MCC, Waterfall and Edge are from an old Russia only Halo 3 PC port called Halo Online (or 'El Dewrito''), which was a mish-mash of Halo 3 and Halo 4 styled assets and more, so you're in the right to feel like these maps give off Halo 4 vibes, and Icebox is a remake of Halo 2's map Turf that was added some time after Waterfall and Edge

10:34 there’s a secret little room right there, you can only access it in forge mode! It’s really cool

I think what old halo nailed so well was this feeling of abandonment or this sense that the technology of the forerunners was so god-like and incomprehensible that the best we could do was just walk amongst its architecture, not fully understanding the inner mechanisms of the machine, nor what the Forerunners were like as a race. Theres a feeling of "why is this place abandoned? What happened to the Forerunners? How long have they been gone? How could they be gone so long, yet the machinery still functions to this day, for possibly thousands, if not, millions of years? The crypticness of the forerunners really was lost in Halo 4 and onward, and its a shame. I kind of wish we still knew nothing too much about them, to keep that sense of mystery, awe, and dread

You should play “Killer Frequency” on the channel. I feel like the stereotypical slasher horror movie imagery and references all throughout the game would be right up your alley. It’s basically like you’re listening to other people experiencing horror movie scenarios through the phone with only a limited amount of influence you can give. The whole game also has this slightly absurd undertone with everything, you could get a lot of commentary out of it, especially with the lack of time limits. I won’t spoil anything else though. It’s about 4-6 hours so maybe a 2 part series

I don't know what you're talking about, the only feeling I have on Halo 1-Reach maps is that feeling of being home. A welcoming home where it smells like fresh brewed coffee and chocolate chip cookies😊

Funny that he posted this while I'm literally playing Halo. But yes, Halo 2 AND 3 has amazing feelings and environments on the empty maps. Personally Ghost Town, Cold Storage, and Guardian are my favorite environments.

As someone who grew up without Xbox Live, this was actually what I did when I wasn't playing campaign. I just explored the empty maps, picking up random guns, destroying everything that was destructible. It might sound boring, but something about it was entertaining for young little me. When I eventually did get XBL, it was certainly weird to finally experience these maps for their intended purpose. Quite the opposite of what most would experience. But I always loved the atmosphere these maps had, and some gave me a strange sense of comfort. My favorites being Ivory Tower, Battle Creek, and Damnation (so I guess maps with running water). I'd highly recommend you do another video on Combat Evolved's maps. To me they have the best atmosphere, as well as that liminal feel.

You should do Halo 2 and CE next, pretty much the original Bungie trilogy has that creepy, uneasy feeling. HiddenXperia gives a great description of how creepy these maps are.

Great video. I've been gaming for 32 years and absolutely associate different games with different periods of my life: my friendships, relationships, work, etc. I also used to get the same eerie feeling walking around in empty Quake deathmatch maps in 1997, so it definitely isn't just a modern concept that we're backporting onto our nostalgic memories.

Could you do one exploring doom maps? Some of the original levels are crazy atmospheric

Guardian was my very first multiplayer map I played on H3. I remember how cool it was to see other real life people walking around and hearing them talk on that awful Xbox 360 earpiece mic. I’ll never forget that memory of my very first multiplayer experience on halo 3.

You are doing what I used to do when a Halo game came out. The sheer loneliness of being lonely in a Halo map is jarring at times, but its design like that for these maps are made for Multiplyer. Thank you for the video.

Always a good afternoon when the “king of mad spooks” uploads a video Also as a kid I would play solo on split screen with my best friend but we’d both be making bases to attack in forge mode. Sometimes I’d even be solo and i to would hear distant noises from footsteps to grenades going off. Although it was most likely my childhood mind playing tricks on me.

Ahhh, Halo 3... the memories man. My intro to the series and still my favorite Halo to this day.

Oh wow this takes me back… You should check out some halo 2 maps. Burial Mounds, Zanzibar, Desolation and Backwash spring to mind.

In halo Reach's Forge world while I was flying around in a falcon I always felt like somebody was watching me on the islands below, there was always something moving around at the bottom of my eyesight. 25:11 INCORRECT SPARTANS NEVER DI-

It's a surprising change to see you play Halo. I'd love to see you do a playthough of Halo 2's Sacred Icon mission because it's probably the spookiest mission in all of Halo

Guardian's backdrop was terrifying to me, it's even worse in Halo Online since you can fly all the way out there without boundaries. I also used to be obsessed with getting out of bounds on certain maps, like there was something special hidden out there. I actually recently went back and got past the fence in the building on Last Resort; you can just hold an object in Forge to reach the upper areas and then clip a teleporter past the boundary. You can actually get pretty close to the ground if you stick close to the wall.

on the note @ 5:27 mins, the fact that everyone is carrying around a smartphone with internet access really ruined this type of schoolyard gaming mystery-talk. Like when you discover an odd area in the map, and a classmate claimes to have found a way in there, and there was an easter egg, or something creepy. It really got your imagination going, furthering exploration and appreciation of details in many maps and games of my days. Now they just get the phone out, google search and find evidence, pictures etc. They don't wonder alone in the game, trying to recreate, trying to explore, nor experience any "creepy and comfy" kind of "vibes" themselves anymore. I miss that kind of stuff, and I can imagine you do too @TheLibrarian. Would love to hear your thoughts on that somewhere. Btw love the map explorations, irl urban exploring and the from the fog series. hope you have some ideas for builds, your videos are so relaxing :)

38:08 Very fitting that this is the map that is equated with the sunset days of Halo 3 given its literal sunset skybox variant to what is viewed by some as the most iconic Halo 3 map in Sandtrap. As a lonely kid with social anxiety who spent more time than he cares to admit solo exploring Halo multiplayer maps, this video was a treat. Also if this type of old official multiplayer map exploration video is going to become a regular like GMod, I have to suggest exploring BioShock 2's multiplayer maps as well. Especially since BioShock 2's multiplayer was never as popular, the game itself is already somewhat of a horror experience, and I don't think many people got to experience any of the DLC maps (or at least I could never find games for them.) Also since the remastered version removed multiplayer, many newer players may have never seen any of them at all. In many ways making them feel like truly lost locations.

22:00. My friend, if ONLY you knew. That thing is mendicant Bias. and this is his tomb.

20:14 Goosebumps, wow what an atmosphere. Have you looked up the blinking whale on Longshore? Scared the beejesus out of me as a kid

Whenever I see foundry I get vision of Tucker, Grif, Simmons and Sarge getting theirs asses wooped by Tex, whilst Caboose simultaneously pushed some buttons off screen. Good times... P.S: Hey Librarian. If your reading this I would highly recommend Amnesia:The Bunker for a video.

I got an idea for you. Old mw2 multiplayer maps. Not the new dumb one but the original. The aura of those old multiplayer maps alone was unreal. Turning off hud or music with unlimited time helps a lot too. It'd honestly be like your gmod exploration videos but more authentic and eerie sounds.

This is such a great idea for a video! I have so many great memories playing on old maps from halo 1 - 3.

19:45 an unused forerunner sentinel enemy called "guardians" originally intended to be fought on the map "guardian" back when it was actually part of a campaign map labeled in the files as "080_forest" the unused campaign chapter would have one of its sections re-used and re-purposed as the multi-player map "guardian" and the "guardian" enemy would have its model re-used and re-purposed as the hologram on the multi-player map "epitaph" this hologram and what it represents would later be retroactively stated to be a representation of the forerunner A.I. 08-145 "offensive bias" the hologram of which can be seen again in "halo infinite" although with no actual importance as of yet

Halo 3 was my absolute favorite game. I associate so many good memories with this game, I couldn't list them all. Just the maps alone bring up such a nostalgic feeling in me. Unbelievable. The Xbox 360, Halo 3 era was simply special, and something like that will never come again. The video is great! Your soothing voice makes it really enjoyable to watch. Greetings from Germany!

The tunes on lockout are flood containment tubes, which make it a bit creepier as that means that there may be a flood form stalking you as you play, and you would never know

For me, when I was growing up I played a lot of forge alone and I found it calming with the isolated feeling and the maps ambience (except for isolation of course)

This is by far one of the best videos ive seen in a while cause damn our childhoods really werent that different huh

9:22 I’m glad I am not the only one that heard those grenade sounds too backthen. I would often hear it just forging around Sand trap.

The names Anti-noob and Underdogg hit me with a rush of nostalgia like nothing has in a long while. What a time to have lived through.

This is amazing. I get this feeling on all the Halo games ngl. Tho CE is by far the creepiest imo

Sandbox was a very popular map with my group of friends. We would constantly play a version of duckhunt in the sky layer, or try to build some parkour map in the basement layer. the only reason we would play on the surface layer was to try and run across the guardians.

i used to explore halo levels too, didnt expect this video though, cant wait to watch it

i have been replaying the first 5 games, cool that you made a video on one of them.

Cool creepy easter egg on Longshore: if you stare at the whale paintings on the walls for long enough they'll slowly blink at you. Also the Ghost of Lockout was 100% real although it wasn't exclusive to Lockout. I think the explanation I remember at the time was that there was a cut feature of Halo 2 where NPC enemies like the Flood or Brutes could randomly spawn on multiplayer maps just to add to the chaos, and the Ghost of Lockout was a remnant of that code becoming reawakened.

Maaan, I can't believe that he went through Cold Storage and didn't mention the giant Monitor in the ceiling that literally watches you the entire time you're on the map lol. You can even see the light from its eye following him along the ground starting at 35:51, and again later at 36:37. Granted it is only in that one specific area and he mentioned he didn't play the map much, it was just funny to me since he mentioned feeling watched on certain maps, and on this map he is actually being watched lol. Love the videos by the way.

I made most of my maps on Sandbox. It came out early 09 so that was the era of Forza 3 and MW2. But there were plenty of people still playing Halo 3. A lot of my custom game memories pre Halo Reach were on Sandbox.

9:30 That's so true, you just unlocked a new memory for me

I did not know i needed this but please do other halo maps aswell, this was so good!

Loved this. Always been a big fan of Halo since I was a kid in 2001. Amazing that my favorite content creator is into Halo! I’ve heard you refer to comfy spots in certain GMod maps as decent places to do a Halo 2 Customs LAN party, but didn’t know you were that into it. Makes me love you even more! :) PS: I can tell and promise you for sure that the Ghost of Lockout is very real. I saw it myself back in the day when my cousin and I did a “ghost” hunt on that map for hours. It seems to be some leftover AI from the cut PvE mode that ended up being the inspiration for Halo 5’s Warzone mode. That’s my headcanon, anyways. Not sure how it would’ve spawned in an offline game.

God I miss Halo 3. The physics of that game were just absolutely wild. I remember dying because someone randomly threw a grenade...which launched a traffic cone into my head. There are so many great moments I had with the replay but it's all gone now

I was a lonely kid and would spend so many hours playing around in forge for Halo 3 and Reach. I always kept a podcast on because I was afraid of a boogeyman secretly joining my empty forge map.

Two things I want to note, MCC halo 3 DOES have the new forge mechanics like physics and grid/snap movement. And the mounted turret glitch wasn't looking up and climbing off, it was looking up and swapping to the forge mode.

Love the videos! My son has been very into Halo. So I am familiar with the game. As always, the Librarian brings these maps to life in his storytelling.

i remember when sandbox first came out and i loaded it up the blank map in forge, i would always get the weirdest feeling when i would go down the hole to the underground section. it's such a far distance down that it almost feels like you're not supposed to go there

Thank you for taking me down these nostalgia trips, Librarian. Sometimes I forget this is how I originally discovered these maps as a kid since I didn’t have Xbox Live back in the day. I remember loving the feeling of exploration on Halo games and Call of Duty games. I’d make my own little stories about the history of these places. That’s what kept my 10 year old mind entertained. Edit: Also, Halo 3 still looks so good for a 2007 game. It’s actually mind blowing. Very strong art style and visual presentation. The last three maps were added for MCC and the Icebox one is actually a remaster of Turf from Halo 2

Gotta love a New Librarian video.

This takes me back to the good, old days of video games as well as all those same feelings associated with exploring these maps alone and with others.

Something I discovered as a kid, it you manage to flip the elephant over, the game will say “Press x to.. wait, how did you do that?”

Dude this is awesome, I saw the source maps video and I thought to myself, I wish there was a halo version to sort of reminisce and see the old details.

Just last week my friend and I explored every map from every Halo each night. It took us a few nights. Of course we ended up making tierlists based on aesthetics and design

I'm so happy you made this video!

I don't know if you knew this, but on the map Isolation, the flood infection grows more and more over the runtime of the game. Floodlike spore boils grow over the grass on the topside by the "butthole" and spread out towards the rest of the map. It wasn't well known at the time because of how short the runtime for the games were.

Also Icebox is a lovely recreation of a Halo 2 map called Turf that was (although I'm not clear on this part) originally a map featured in Halo: Online which never released outside of Russia (if it did at all).

This kinda content is pretty cool honestly! Branching out to interesting new things and I get to have a ton of childish notalgia of halo 3 from when I played it so it's a double win!

Longshore is a fun map if you know what you're doing. Its design is based off the Halo 3 mission "The Storm". It can sometimes be a bit crazy if you're in a tough postion but also have a high survival rate against twin enemy ghosts shooting nonstop at you around the area with the crates. Hoooo that was a crazy situation, the enemy grenades and explosions didn't help either since I somehow survived that scenario lol

The start new round was a quick way instead of save map then leave to rejoin helped on some maps also the turret glitch outside of the map still works you have to look up while on turret then switch to monitor. A lot of the old glitches still are in effect

If you REALLY want a creepy map experience? Lockout, in Halo 2. Why? Because of the infamous bug. It requires another player, but this bug causes a ghost to spawn. There's LOTS of videos about this thing.

I thought I was the only person that ever loaded these maps and thought about this exact stuff. To this day, I load up halo 3 to walk around maps and remember the long lost past action that happened on the same grounds. Also, just recognizing the "empty" parts of maps. Did the same thing in cod4 and couldn't believe you called out bloc. ALL this stuff I think about and I just made a comment to a buddy that for some reason I cannot let any of this go. Was 22 at college at the time of all this releasing, so even older people still went through this insane innovation. I grew up with Mario jumping on asshole turtles.

Him gushing about the good old days of map-making makes me really wish I had my ancient early 00's StarCraft maps saved somewhere, totally different time period.

Halo has always been unique in that its maps often deliberately contain esoteric, mysterious lore made evident through the map descriptions. Almost every one has some sort of environmental storytelling. Source game maps are typically just incidentally spooky, but Halo maps are deliberately tailored by some of the great mappers of their era to be unnerving and mysterious.

A Halo: MCC community game night hosted by Librarian would make a lot of people happy.

That’s funny, I was playing blade and sorcery vr the other day and downloaded a bunch of halo maps, the first one I loaded up was guardian. It’s even more creepy in vr, constantly feel like you’re being followed. I think it’s a biproduct from playing the game and expecting enemies to show up but they never do.

The Red Vs Blue flash backs are real

The fact I went 7 years without ever knowing there was a cavern on sandbox, adds to my discomfort on that map

think i remember the out of map turret glitch requiring you to go straight into the forge sentinel mode after looking up rather than just getting off the turret, also kinda cool, Cold Storage is a remake of a CE map which i myself just found out after playing a bunch of CE multiplayer recently lol

Back when I played Halo 3 I didn't have Xbox live. So I either played the campaign or wandered around the empty maps. Me and my friend used to play splitscreen just messing about, it got pretty spooky at times

My respect for you librarian, has gone up by 90000000000

Yooo, new Librarian upload. Let's gooo🔥🔥

My heart sank when I found out there was a basement to Sandbox. I never knew it existed cause I never had access to Halo 3 DLC

real excited for this one

Librarian exploring halo maps now? This is a welcome surprise

There was also a russian halo 3 online PC crack with full matchmaking and everything that got shut down about a year before MCC came to PC that got a lot of multiplayer use out of all the late DLC maps. So I DO have memories of those super late maps that most never experienced in matchmaking just from that russian crack. Snipers on Longshore. BRs on icebox. Good times.