Wednesday 20 May 2009

The lost symbol for COD

Level name : The Lost Symbol

Author : Radoslav 'De_Vice' & Victor 'Spaik' Borissov

Date of release : 26 October 2006

Size : 40 576 ko

Number of maps : 2


Website : none

Download:



Story:

This is a single player mission for Call of Duty. The Lost Symbol is a story based on the game RtCW. The pack contents custom textures,xmodels and good music from RtCW.

Even if this was release as a beta it just has as only minor issue that the objective aren't include for the rest it's fully playable

Review:

After several asking to active people from the community there seems to be no objective string added even if all objective points are correctly put together.

Design look directly ambitious with an intro cutscene that show you the butifull castle wolfenstrein like you never saw it before and so you are at the main gate the enter the nightmare and steal the magnificiant orb. Architecture is really outstanding with perfect squaling and interconnection, totally feetting textures form COD and RTCW and lot more content from RTCW included german speaking and original sound. Attention was put everywhere to create a impressive conversion from one of the first WW2 FPS game. This release divided in two part is really a succession of great looking area from indoor to outdoor with a big amount of inteconnectivity that keep the player immersed in a one whole unit...the design has for me no evident flaws and really provide another expeirence according this great COD game.

Gampelay is also well manage from place to place you will fight against those nasty enemies customed from RTCW, the mix between search activating button and battling is well balanced with good enemies placement and well oirented travelling in a non linear way. You are in castle wolfenstein so the search for glory as something special and is more related to a Graal hunting that to the classic Call of Duty war experience we could perhaps hope to some more COD feature like for example a huge attack that need to be holded with a squad experience or an Mg42 or with the look to RTCW the quest for secret places or the present of it's particular weapon or enemies; those small difference are mostly the personal touch of Borissov brother's thatn a complain to their appoach. Finally the quest for the holy Grall took it's personnal orientation with a good similitude to the RTCW with its traps and nasty surprise...

In conclusion : It has been a while since something different came for COD (I know it's already one year old), with it's particular atmosphere, great looking architecture and well balanced gameplay this beta release is really a must have without any hesitation part of my top 5 favorite maps .



Playtime : 50 Minutes



Rating : A B C D E (94%)

Sunday 17 May 2009

Warzawa 1944 for COD

Level name : Warzawa 1944

Author : Robert Wiaz

Date of release : 09 February 2005

Size : 1 839 ko

Number of maps : 1


Website : here not active anymore

Download:



Story:

None I could understand but it was based on a picture and some events that happens at the end of the war in Warshow. You could easily make a correlation with some resistance intervention that main objective should be to kill all german officers that are in the City of Warsow.

special note: a special thanks to Robert 'grinder' that help me with the translation of the objective string it's not perfect and some message will still spawn in polish (I appologize for that) it's still better playable that in the original version, for those non polish players

Review:

Even if the first idea was quite interesting in making a translation of a short moment of the polish history and the end and regarding that this relaese is the third from Robert, it left more disappointment than enjoyment.

Design, as a first global look, especially through the documentation added seems quite promising, and so is goes on as you first progress, Architecture has a good consistancy but will quite fast tumble through it's obvious repetition by simply copy/pasting of building with some tight stairs and repetitive textures and doors that need to be open for exploration. In addition to this you will also encounter one of the think I dislike the most in modern mapping: invisible walls that block you way but not your eye looking. Scale is perfect and for sure the creation according the original is well done but those highlights looks pretty weak in regards with the whole unit.

For the gameplay it's quite straight forward and certainly too challenging with enemies respawn in those small strairs and hallways, you will certainly have some surprise when, on a corner, a german soldier will rush on you. Those doors that need to be open can cause also some frustration while not opening or in the wrong way...don't rush but sneak and kill all enemies as fast as you can to prevent frustration...In term of objectives everything seems quite obvious and if you look constently to you objective orientation you won't have any problem especially with the last one... that don't need you to get back to the starting place.

In conclusion : The idea was quite original and the first impression was also going in the same direction, but finally through a boring and repetitive gameplay the player, or at least me just finish this one without any good feeling or enjoyment.



Playtime : 30 Minutes



Rating : A B C D E (61%)

Sunday 3 May 2009

Sorry for the lack of update

Perhaps because i'm in the mood a little I have two maps to review still for COD/UO perhpas a third one...several left for COD4 and one for COD2...so I don't know if there will be a lot of new release in the future but the good days, except perhaps for COD5 and after, is behind us I think. That's why I have add a poll just running for a month asking to you readers if you would like to have some Medal Of Honor review here...I certainly could have some interesting ones

BTW I'm really thankfull to those peoples who gave me some featback about potential map to review...thanks to them ;)