Date: 29-12-99 Teams: 2 File: fusion.zip Players: 10 Game: TFC Size: Medium Briefing: Bland...boring...spammy. Just say no.

Fusion

No man's land...

Blah...

A little overkill.

Author: [TF]Sentinel | Reviewer: nimrod.

Objective:

Primary - Capture the enemy flag by stealing it from their base and returning it to the capture point in your base.
Secondary - Destroy the enemy reactor by rewiring the access panel (via Spanner) and detpacking it.

Scoring:

10 points per Cap
10 points for destroying the reactor

Evaluation:

Another obvious first attempt. This map suffers from a multitude of common problems: spam-ability, bland texturing, no theme, and bad connectivity, to name a few.  On the upside, it is still playable. Barely.

Fusion's construction is a little awkward. First the texturing appears very plain, consisting mostly of gray walls and floors.  But during gameplay you'll notice how badly the textures are stretched. Bullet holes, explosion marks, logos, and blood stains are stretched beyond recognition. Then you'll notice the obvious resemblance to The Well.  The center divider, water in the flag room, etc.  Not a good thing.  Not only is it a 2fort, but it's a 2fort that already exists!

Figuring out how to move around isn't all the difficult, not because of signs or any helpful hints, but instead thanks to the simple layout.  The only exception to this is right after respawn, when you come out of one of the face-to-face respawn rooms.  Every time during the playtest, I would turn the wrong direction.  Of course it wasn't hard to turn back around and go the other way, but it was still annoying. The whole level in and of itself is very linear. You move straight through the base, then down to the flag room.  Simple as that.  The long run through the enemy base seemed almost pointless, as most of the time it was encounter-less.  There were complaints of lag outside, near the center divider, but r_speeds seemed ok everywhere else. As the divider has to be traveled through, it would have made sense to spend more time working on that.  The layout inside the bases is very simplistic:  Run through the front door, choose left or right (left for capturing and the reactor, right for the trek to the flagroom), and follow the only possible path.  Then there is the pointless addition of water around the (unnecessarily) large tower where the flag rests.  Why?  And why green? Slows *my* computer down, and seems pointless.

When it comes to strategy on this map, spam shows it's ugly face.  There was never a silent moment during the playtest, with rockets, MIRVs, and EMPs going off all around me.  Engineers were trying to EMP their way in, with Soldier, HWs, and Demos doing their best to fend them off.  I don't remember any light classes, again, due to the spam, I'm sure.  I do remember a few enemy Soldiers finally breaking through the spam-filled courtyard, allowing the access to the whole middle section of the base, which was pretty well empty.  Then they met up with the secondary defense at the flag room long enough for the map to change.  Sentries were also popular in the 'middle' of the base, which consists of narrow hallways.  Snipers were useless as far as I can tell, thanks to the easy access to the Snipers loft.

Verdict:

Wait for something more thought out from this author.  Pass this one up.

Delta Bravo Final Score: 
- 16/50 -