I’m extremely excited for a new map. I know I’m in the minority when I say this, but I think Emerald Plains and Nighthaven Labs are two of the best maps in Siege.
Plains is gorgeous to look at and extremely easy to learn thanks to its many visually distinct sections. Labs, while not as pretty to look at and very maze-y on the first floor, has a lot of cool opportunities for playing vertically making it stand out from a lot of the maps that are rarely banned in ranked.
Lair seems to have a visual style comparable to Nighthaven Labs which I’m not stoked about, specifically because it doesn’t seem to have unique colors or architectural motifs to distinguish one section from another. That being said, if the floors are mostly destructible I think this map will be a lot of fun. My biggest gripe with the majority of the reworks of the game’s original maps was how so many soft walls were shrunk or replaced with hard walls. Destruction is a core pillar of Siege’s mechanics, and moving away from that element was a huge misstep in my opinion. However, refocusing on destructible floors and ceilings is a step in the right direction I believe. Ram’s introduction into the game, and the growing number of secondary shotguns signifies a great shift in the game towards unpredictability from round to round.
Now… if only we could convince Ubi to add the Old Hereford variant from the heist game mode into the ranked map pool…