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Alliance Capture the Flag is played like Quake 3 CTFf with an offhand grappling hook. The offhand hook allowing players to shoot and grapple simultaneously making it easier to pursue and kill flag carriers. ACTF comes with combat mode, a set of rules defining Combat CTF which plays exactly like Expert CTF for Quake 2. Both modes of play come in one download.
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alliance_beta05a.zip | 28766366 bytes | 02/08/20 | 763 |
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alliance_beta06_upgrade.zip | 302811 bytes | 02/08/20 | 342 |
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Reviewer : Ged Byrne founder and webmaster of Quake3stuff.com
Mod : Alliance
Author : Alliance Games
Website : www.planetquake.com/alliance
First off, I would like to say that the version being reviewed here is still a beta project, although it does not appear that way whilst playing. In actual fact the mod reaps quality and effort on the developers parts. There are textures, sounds, models and maps just waiting for you to download them.
I'll get the downside out straight away...
I loaded up the first CTF map ACTF01 and instantly felt like I was playing Quake 2. The map was very similar to the typical Quake 2 style CTF maps that played pretty slowly. Slow in the fact that there are some quite wide open spaces and you feel like you are running at walking pace. Having said that the build quality of the map is obviously very good despite me not liking the style. Right thats the moans out of the way...
I then added a couple of bots and started trashing away. A smile started widening on my face when I heard radio messages coming back from the bots. Instead of the bots splashing text messages across your screen, they send you a radio messages complete with slight crackle for authenticity - a bit like that game... erm whats it called?.... oh err Unreal TournaSprite. A pretty simple amendment I am sure, but I am a sucker for not having to take my eyes off the action to read something. There are 5 different voices for radio/voice sounds. By default they are assigned to different models. However you may override this by typing "soundtype male" in the console or placing it in your config. The soundtypes are demon, female, male, mech and monster.
I continued to play my way through the rest of the maps admiring some very good architechture. In ACTF02 there are cracks in the floor in the shape a five sided star with the base colour shining up through it. There are also some paintings dotted around the walls of the base that are very nice, but don't quite fit in with the map. The paintings look like they should be either in a pyramid or the carmasutra, but they do add to the map so I won't dwell on them. I continued up to the roof and was stunned to see a bell complete with fully working (or wooly-firking as spoonerism type people like to say) dangly bits (yes I have forgotton what the pendulum bit is called). Trust me on this one, it looks great but really doesn't need to be there slowing game play down. There is also a wacking great statue beneath the bell that looks great.
Next up was ACTF03 a tiny space map, why is this map added? I'll tell you. There are some people out there that do not have particularly goo connections to the net and therefore can't play online with many people because their modem decides to go into a retrain. And there are also the offline people to contend with. These people want to be able to jump straight into a game on their own PC and be able to fight against a couple of bots without dragging the whole system to a 15 fps jerky experience. In fact, I like the map, not really what you would normally expect from a CTF mod, but well designed and I liked the large TV screens.
Then came ACTF04, a map that has some of the most unique aspects I have seen to date. The designer of this map wants testing for drugs (or a time machine back to the seventies). The map is absolutely bursting with colours and curves. The textures are subtle in the fact that there are not many (if any) patterns on them, but have vibrant colours that almost give you a sun tan as you run past them. The designer of this map has got an obvious grip of how to use the editor, but I think needs to stop smoking so many spliffs. (note - that is meant as a joke and I have never met the guy so don't come bitchin at me for calling him a drug user).
ACTF05 finally gets its turn... The map just seems to get bigger, you expect to see familiar polygons around each corner you approach, but no! You see some great outdoor style areas with over hanging rocks through to well designed man made objects that are begging to be rocket jumped onto or over. Then you got into the building and head on down the again endless staircases until you reach the bottom. At the bottom in the bases are pools of fog, like you've not seen before. Fantastically designed (and orginal I think) are the multilayered swirls of fog. You know how in scary films you see clouds all get sucked together and then start swirling faster as the approach the center? Well picture yourself above the swirling clouds looking down at the center and thats what they are like. I fyou don't believe me then check out the screenshot of it on the left.
Well to summaries (if you haven't fallen asleep with my rambling) The mod itself is very well put together and really sells itself with the radio messages. The maps are varied to cater for all tastes and they all seem to play well. My only concern is that its a large mod that is bloated with features that modem users just might not bother to download. If you are a modem user and you would not normally download something of this size, grab yourself a download manager like Getright, set your machine to start downloading at an off peak time and go do that thing you've been putting off for an opportune moment (this is that moment).
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