Eyrie of Crows is my least favorite map.
Eyrie of crows is essentially the pinnacle of the map design I dislike the most in DBD.
It's an absolutely gigantic map. This makes it very difficult for any killer without some sort of mobility option to traverse. Trapper, Myers, Doctor, Huntress, Pig, Plague, Ghostface, Deathslinger, Executioner, Trickster, Nemesis and Cenobite all will struggle on this map just due to its sheer size. That's a solid 46% of the killers in this game that will struggle on this map just because of how big it is. This number could be bigger too if you count killers that technically have mobility options, but they're pretty sub-par for actual map traversal, like Hilbilly and Legion.
And somehow, despite how huge this map is, pallets are in no short supply. You'd think with how much ground there is to cover it would be difficult to get from one pallet to another, but it really only takes about 5 or 6 seconds of running in any given direction to find a new one. And a large chunk of these pallets are ones with long walls on both sides, which makes it difficult for certain killers to get hits/downs at. Killers like Wraith, Hilbilly, Myers, Pig, Legion, Demogorgon and Ghostface. This turns a large chunk of the chases in this map into "just run in circles waiting for the survivor to drop the pallet and then immediately break it".
And then finally, the large central building. Sure its more towards one side, but its the focal point of the map, so my point stands. You know the kinda building I'm talking about. Large in size, plenty of vaults, breakable walls, pallets, maybe a second floor, can be ran around for a long time, with plenty of entrances so you can duck inside at any point. Overall a very strong area to loop in, a place where survivors can run to with relative ease if they need some sort of safe haven. And the fact that totems can spawn up on the second floor of Eyrie of Crows means that if someone blesses one of them, I have to go super out of my way to cleanse it, which isn't always an option if I'm particularly pressed for time.
And of course, Eyrie of Crows isn't the only map to do this. This kinda design is present in Groaning Storehouse, Ironworks of Misery, Wretched Shop, Fractured Cowshed, Thompson House, Rotten Creek, Disturbed Ward, Father Campbell's Chapel, Mother's Dwelling, Temple of Purgation, Every Badham Map, Family Residence, and Ormond. That's just about half of the maps in the game the follow this kind of format, Eyrie of Crows just happens to be the worst offender of all of these things.
Going forwards, I would like to see a lot less of this kinda map design.
Comments
Eyrie isn't a "gigantic map", that's a myth. It's literally in the median of the map sizes: something like 15 maps are larger than it, 14 are smaller than it, and 7 are the same exact size as it.
The map it's most similar to is probably Ormond. It's a mid-size map with a bright outdoors and a large central building that has a second floor looking down on a first floor lobby which also has a couple of safe pallets in the upper floors and a few breakable walls. Odds are if you like or dislike Ormond you probably feel pretty much the same way about Eyrie.
You'd definitely be correct about that last part, I hate Ormond, but I hate Eyrie of crows even more.
The only thing that throws me off in Eyrie compared to Ormond is the stairs and indoor ramparts don't have railings so I have a bad tendency to fall off if I'm not careful. That place definitely is a workplace hazard!
The Map feels big for me. No matter how big it really is.
And it is too bright - also it is not as bad as i thought.
Eyrie is definitely not OSHA approved, thats for sure.
Also I think the reason Eyrie feels big compared to Ormond is because Ormond is a square, while Eyrie is a rectangle. As a result the distance between the far sides of the map is greater in Eyrie than Ormond.