Monday, September 29, 2008

Arctic Stronghold

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ArcticStronghold - by DogzillaV3

Author's Description - An Invasion force has arrived at an arctic stronghold. 6-16 players. By DogzillaV3, Limozeen000, and ConcernedPie. V1.2

Game Variants - Slayer, Team Slayer, Invasion Force*, Storm the beach*

( * = recommended game variant. Underlined = Custom Game Variant.)

Pros
-Original Theme
-Innovative forging techniques
-Interactive enviroment
-Lots of Weapons
-Clean Forging, even though interlocking was not used.

Cons
-Unbalanced gameplay
-Not very versatile
-Too many weapons for assault
-Not enough Weapons for defense
-There is only one entrance to the "drop ship".
-The ground forces are at the mercy of the invading team.
-No tangeable gameplay.

My Opinion I love the theme to this map. Although it is not the first space ship I have seen on avalanche, it is one of the best. There was no interlocking used, but nevertheless all the pieces were placed cleanly. The concept of the map is interesting in theory, but unfortunately it doesn't play very well at all. The author should have spent more time putting in more assymmetrical game variants and adding more defense for the ground based team. But, before I get into the horrible gameplay, I 'd like to discuss the innovative techniques the other used in creating the map, because they are definitely worth mentioning.

First of all, the dropship is fully functional. It is equipped with two hornets attached to the sides and two warthogs that can drive off the ship. One warthog is cleverly held in place by a weapon holder and a grav lift. The warthog will drop when someone destroys the grav lift. There are also two plasma turrets positioned on two narrow decks on its sides adding to the effect of the theme. There is even a captains chair in the cockpit.

The downside, There is only one way into the dropship from the ground and it will most likely get you killed going there as someone will undoubtedly be camping the sniper rifle and plasma turrets on the dropship's bridge. Also, the invading team has such an unlimited variety of weaponry that they will use to dominate their opposition. The defense force will be slaughtered like lambs.

In retrospect, this map has some good ideas, it is merely imperfect. I think the author should spend a little more time balancing the teams and then you have a decent playable map, until then however this level is near unplayable.

Gameplay - 4
Balancing - 2.5
Originality - 8
Neatness - 7

Overall - 5.3
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