Silence is golden, at least that's what my mother told me. But with Unreal Tournament on the shelves and Quake 3 Arena gold and available within the week, you'd expect the columns to be alive with opinions, bitchy comments and brag shots of the new games. You'd expect flame wars and rants and back stabbing over personal preferences and at least the occassional "QuakeWorld still rules!" echoing with hollow irony on the message boards. But no, almost total silence. As though the UK had dropped off the map.

So having noticed the strange silence surrounding both games I thought it wise to spend some time playing them so that when I finally broke habit and ranted on the subject, my comments would be based on well balanced opinions drawn from extensive gaming time rather than the first couple of deathmatches in each game type some reviewers work from. And until Sunday night I'd actually put a lot of my time into the beginnings of a well rounded comparison of the two titles, looking at them from varied interests and angles. But thankfully for you lot, sommit more important came up. J

The chance to play test the ThreeWave CTF maps.

Now stuff like this doesn't happen every day, so the 5am nights were more than worth the opportunity to contribute to what is bound to become the Quake 3 league maps. Having played a good six months of the year odd of Quake 2 CTF leagues in the UK, I armed myself with knowledge learnt from hour upon hour of the window trick on McKinley`s and drawn out stalemates on Outlands, and joined the IRC channel Zoid and Casey and co were using to co-ordinate the play tests.

The first revision we received was described as the basic structural release, and our purpose was to finalize the item placement and help find bugs and exploits before the eventual release to the public. As they were then the maps showed the experience and wisdom learnt from three years of CTF gaming, and it was hard to fault their designs. Ranging from the modular and open Courtyard Conundrum to the twisty turny frantic flag run that is Blood Lust the maps showed variety and maturity, balancing the luscious graphics of the new engine with the functionality and cleanliness of design required to house twelve players and give their collective minds the opportunity to develop deep and challenging tactics. There were however, typically Zoid design flaws that lead to annoyingly familiar Outland style deadlocks that we then set our collective mind to resolve.

The first map, known as BloodLust, is the largest of the three, designed to hold eight player teams. Personally I found the larger games on this map the least enjoyable, but that was mainly due to the weapon placement at the time. The map started off with a much larger distance for the flag carrier to cover and a rail in the centre of the map which led to nasty deadlocks where the game degenerated into a rail dominated free for all in the midfield area, much the same as Outlands.

This central section is the focus for the map, due to the haste and quad spawning here. The action takes place over a gaping chasm with the rail replaced by the lightning gun in the later revisions. Due to small width of the ledge and open field of view this makes the area hard to hold as tooled up players flood from the outer base areas armed with rails and shotguns which are much more effective than the laggy and short range biased lightning gun. This means a constant resupply of ammo and players from the bases are needed to hold the midfield so that when attackers push forward and breach the enemy base the long flag run home is clear. Thankfully after the changes in structure and weapon placement to this central area, the map plays less like Outlands and a lot more like StrongHold Opposition, with action based around good team work to keep the midfield resupplied and ready for each quad spawn rather than having one strong LPB spawn around the same time as the quad and fluke his way clear of the rail only mayhem with a few pot shots and off on a single handed Arnie style offensive.

Leading from the main room is a mirrored one up one down corridor, with those taking the harder to reach upper level via RJ or the jump pad rewarded with the mega health and those taking the easier lower route having to face the possibility of a freshly spawned enemy armed with the rail. This is the furthest into the enemy base a player will spawn, and because of this it regularly changes hands even when the main room is secured as the forward defense tend to move back into the outer base in the room behind as it's easier to hold.

his outer base is a gem, bringing back memories of hard fought matches in defense on The Smelter. The upper level sits in a position so the over hang gives defenders only one clear rail before an attacker has made it from the lower entrance and out of view, free to make the dash to the jump pad leading into the inner base. This means the defense can't just sit tight at the top and has to engage each and every attack in close combat regardless of the entrance they use to enter the chamber. It promotes good team work, and makes for heart stopping action once the main room is secured. This area also holds the spawn point for a mirrored regen power-up, which makes for a wild card in close call situations, being both a life line for the wounded fc if he makes it out of the enemy base alone and on low health, and a last chance hand of god for the lone defender holding an attack off while his team mates tool up to reinforce him.

The inner base is untouched from the original build we received except minor work to stop players falling behind the teleporter in the rl room. Designed to slow an attack and channel it in specific directions from the three entrances to make it defendable, it works like a ciphon slowly removing the attacker's options before they eventually reach the flag platform. There are quick ways of doing everything, RJ`ing the water avoids splash damage from rockets on the walkways on either wall for instance, but each costs health and armour, making it certain that if a attacker does make it clear with the flag they'll be badly wounded and in need of support.

All in all this is very much a team affair, and like all three of the new maps makes it impossible for the lone gunman to make it clear with the flag without support from his fellow players, despite having both the quad and haste on the map. The most epic of the three maps, this is the low cap, high satisfaction win the tactitions out there are looking for.

The second map, Courtyard Conundrum is a completely different affair. Based on a similar idea as the The Hangar Scenario, the map is made up of modular units linked together by wide and open corridors and archways rather than the tight ledges and doorways used in the first map. The whole style of play feels fluid and fast paced, giving you little time to stop for breath, and there are no real "safe" places.

The central area is a complicated one up two down cross road with mirrored jump pads to the top level either side of the main pillar and both a shotgun and a railgun either side of the room. Health and armour are available but the area lacks a good supply of ammo, so due to the lack of power-up this area is more transient than in the other two maps and players tend to spawn here, tool up and head to more important things elsewhere. This is typical of the map in general as most work is done at either end of the map and in the plasma/haste/regen spawn rooms.

These are mirrored on either side of the map and are the basis for the more successful attacks. Easily defendable with only two entrances and with rail and grenade ammo available for weapons picked up en-route these rooms are the second most important areas of the map and a team must have at least one secure to be able to mount meaningful attacks. They are also adjacent to the main base and so are also important to keeping a strong defense. In the early tests it was regular for a fresh spawn to wander into this room as the haste or regeneration appeared, grab the plasma, grab the power-up and hit the enemy base and clean up. Which of the two power-up types appears is random, so this adds a wild card to play, and a wise team will have binds for the spawn type, allocating it to defense or attack accordingly.

The bases are huge affairs, with three massive entrances, two on the ground level and one on the top. The rail, grenade launcher, lighting gun and rocket launcher are all available to the defenders, making this an attacker's nightmare. Unlike BloodLust which gave the attacker less and less options with which to make his attack and thus making him an easier target, Courtyard Conundrum is the complete opposite, throwing everything so open the attacker is exposed to almost every defender throughout his entire time in the enemy base. Two different approaches, same result. No more one man army attacks, this is team work or not. And the three small rooms off from the main base are perfect for hiding the flag carrier in, so each time the enemy attacks to regain their flag they have to chose one of the three to spend their five seconds or so of life searching in an attempt to frag the fc before the defense finishes them off.

One of these, Zoid`s so called "calm pool" is the most likely as it houses the red armour. Check out the ceiling artwork. J

The general openness of the map and the relative availability of weapons makes for constant close combat action. Of the three maps this is my favourite as although the attacker's path to the enemy flag and back is constantly exposed and the encounters with the opposition are relentless, each battle is fought in the open, giving you every chance to avoid rockets, dodge, weave and apply your "madskillz" to out wit an opponent. There aren't any tight corridors where you can't move except toward and away from your opponent and he can't take you out simply by running into you and blindly pulling the trigger. This is a map that forces both good team work and good clean skills and because of the open design it requires little planning to defend bar that which would be considered common sense. To this effect I can see it becoming both a stretching league map and a public server favourite.

So on to the last of the three maps. Finnegan`s Revenge is probably the most complex, combining a central power up surrounded by easy to camp exits with a two up, four down multiple entrance base. It's a challenging map that tests team work and communication to the maximum and poses a nightmare job on defense and flag recovery. There are just so many places an attack can come from and leave by, the only things you can count on in the map is once every sixty seconds the enemy will appear to collect the haste power-up and for a moment at least the attacking player will have to mount the flag platform which is so open every defender is sure of at least one shot. It's just a question of whether enough of them hit or not. J

This central section revolves around the haste spawn, the lightning gun and the four exits which surround it. For differing reasons these are out of line of sight for the most part, and the number of spawns in this area mean players arriving for the haste power-up are fresh without having lost any health. This combined with the plasma gun and shotgun in the adjacent rooms make for constant close combat fighting in this area, and despite the some what long and straight corridor the fc tends to turbo run down, the weapons nearby are the ones that get used the most. It's a nightmare to control, especially with the random spawns so it's never certain who will get the power-up when it appears and the sensible team won't go for the power-up at all and will camp the exits to the center room and take the player who picks it up out when they move to attack the enemy base. Course this is easier said than done when someone comes at you with a plasma/haste combo.

Things get even more confusing when having made it through the pitched tents you find the simple one up one down layout splits again to the horrid two up four down end result. Admittedly two of the four down originate at the same place at the mirrored entrances to the base walkway, but this raised platform is so small a turbo running attacker is likely to pass you before you can apply enough 0wnage to slow him or will splash kick you off the ledge and on to the lower level before snaping direction and disappearing through the doorway into the base proper.

And what a base it is. Rocket launcher cleverly placed next to the killer pit and it's "misunderstood fog," (don't ask J) making it difficult to reach in a hurry, megahealth, red armour and railgun conveniently located in positions out of site of that all important flag platform, every inch of it oozes anxiety and you find that even with a half dozen defenders the attacks are so frequent and hard to predict or forewarn you'll dread every second you don't have the flag in sight.

However, there is that brief moment when the enemy steps onto the flag platform, perfectly sized to allow maximum railage and rox splash and shotty spread, so completely in the open that for one brief moment, every defender in sight gets his free pot shot. But that's it, one shot wonder, even if there are a half dozen of you playing the lottery, one of you has to be holding the winning ticket otherwise the flag carrier is out the door, over the jump pad and clear to strafe run his way home. At this point there are so many options open to them you'll completely lose track until they reappear at the centre cross roads wanting to cross back into friendly territory. This of course is the bit where your reliable and well informed attack move back to block the flag carriers path home. At least that's the idea.

This isn't a public server map. At all. It's complexity turns it into a free for all with random captures performed by flukey flag carriers that happen to get through the mayhem in the center with enough health left to make it past the enemy's attackers that will be desperately trying to get the other flag before your flag carrier completes the run. However in match conditions, this is it. The daddy of CTF. This will take everything you've learnt to lock down and master, and I can happily recommend this to any serious CTF clan or league.

So there you go, the ThreeWave CTF maps. They contain enough variation and such differing challenges to each player in the team, be they attacker, defender, quad wh0re or midfield free for all junkie, this pack is everything the maps in the original release left us asking for. Leagues will thrive, and although we're only limited to three at the moment, there is more than enough in these three maps to keep players going for the first season while the custom mappers work on converting and producing more to compliment them. But being perfectly honest I find it hard to believe anyone will come up with better...

Been a pleasure testing them, been a pleasure reviewing them, just hope you guys are as crazy about them as the testing team were. J

Back to 155 & Rising Articles >>