While fans the world over are chomping at the bit to reconnect with everyone's favorite Spartan, Master Chief, in Halo 4, there's a whole other portion of the game that is equally as exciting: the multiplayer. New developer 343 Industries has said that they are trying to do some new and interesting things with the multiplayer — like trying to justify why a red team would be fighting a blue team for example — but with so many areas that can be improved upon it's hard to know where to start.

To give fans just a little taste of what's in store for them in Halo 4's multiplayer 343 has released some concept art for the tentatively titled map Warhouse. It's a typical Halo multiplayer offering, symmetrical in nature and perfect for matches of Slayer, but it carries with it a pretty unique design.

On the one side, Warhouse appears to be your standard enclosed multiplayer level, but most of that area is actually exposed to the vastness of space. The concept of an extraterrestrial multiplayer map was explored in Halo: Reach, and Warhouse appears to be an evolution of that concept.

343 Industries' main source of inspiration was drawn from man-made surfaces like oil refineries and giant shipyards, and in order to keep some sort of balance they placed in key landmarks to help players keep their bearings. As 343 puts it, if you're a fan of close quarters maps in Halo then Warhouse is going to be the perfect option for you.

Check out some concept art for the map below:

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Obviously there are a few questions of form and function, but from this brief glance the map appears to be fairly unique. There was no doubt that 343 would be able to craft some pretty inventive new maps for the game's multiplayer, and a wide variety of them at that, but it's the entire package that will determine how many hours fans are willing to sink into the experience. Hopefully 343 can give fans a bit more information on that in the coming months.

What do you think of the concept art for Warhouse? Do you prefer larger maps for Big Team Battle or close quarters maps like Warhouse?

Halo 4 is targeting a Holiday 2012 release on the Xbox 360.

Source: Halo Waypoint