Tribes2Maps.com - Review of "Avalon" by DrPimento

Review:
Avalon is a map with a lot in store, including the strangest bit of work ever to hit T2, in my opinion. Gameplay and visuals alike abound in this piece of craftmanship.

This map battles teams between 4 different points of control, and the idea here is to grab them quick.

The first (and closest) point is in a temple structure. This is a very good one to have, as it controls two AA turrets on the front. From here, you have a line of sight to the enemy's base, so a good defender could see anyone coming long before they got there. Then, if he flies too high, the turrets shoot him down.. if he sticks near the ground, you should have no problem setting him back.

Second point is "Avalon", and resides in a massive structure of immense proportions. Hallways make this area a nice place to camp, and could be a trick to take back, if the defense knows what they're doing.

Heaven and the Netherworlds are both accessed through teleporters. These have to be the most easy of all areas to turtle out. Get through, claim the objective, and just wait.. soon, someone comes through the teleporter.. one well-placed shot, and they're gone.

The Playability is down somewhat because of this. The defense has such an advantage, if used correctly, and the teleporters are death-traps if you mine both sides. Someone could avoid the first one, but reaching the other side, there's no way to sidestep that second.

Attention to detail is quite high. Trees, buildings, eye-candy, and lighting are all spot-on, and pretty darn close to perfect as far as I can tell. Only one thing clashes, and that's the red fog against the blue sky.. still, that was a completely unavoidable problem. (Tho' I could recommend that a custom skybox be made.. but that's not my place)

Balance is, as mentioned, given away to the defense. It's so easy, in fact, that one could camp the opposition's very spawning base.. they have forcefields, sure, but a few lurking juggernaughts could make any offensive spawners have a very hard time even getting off the ground.

Item Placement is really fun.. check out the inventory stations in your main base for an example. Not to mention the flip-flops seem to just "go" where they're placed. Nothing really stands out as being somewhere that it doesn't belong, and that's a great thing.

The Mechanics of this map are very incredible. Starting in lush Avalon, teleporting to the high and distant Heavens, then decending into the dark, firey Netherworld.. it's all very immersive, and great fun. What's more, no complicated scripts to mess up servers are needed.. just a few simple teleporters. The only thing that kept this score from being at 100 was the lack of waypoints. This not only makes it hard to learn the locations at first, but hinders players from seeing which positions need reinforcing/attacking.

I can highly recommend this map to anyone with even the slightest desire to play the CnH.. Even if you detest capture and hold, I tell you now that you've got to just take a look and teleport a few times around.. just do some sightseeing. You can't possibly be disappointed.

To see the rest of the map details, including the map author's description of the map, and user-submitted comments, go to the map detail page.