I did not get a chance to play all the custom maps on Friday, so I wasnt able to provide a good review. Steping up to the plate this time around was Tman from clan {pdx} and |GRB| Sarge from our own Gamers Radio Battalion.
One thing I should point out is Close Combat was pulled from rotation due to an issue with the Axis spawn point. We hope to have it in our next Battlefield 1942 Custom Map Night on Friday, April 30th.
For reviews of 304 House of Hellsing, 304 Fields of the Fallen, Dambusters, China Sea and Tarawa, click Read More… {pdx} Tmans Review
As far as the maps go, since these were all new to me, here is my feedback and rating:
Class “A” Maps: Best of the best
Fields of the Fallen: This is a great map. I especially like the trees on this one. Each flag was unique and offered its own distinct feel. But I keep coming back to the trees. I could do an entire battle in those trees.
Dam Busters: This played really fun. Parachuting off the damn or doing a thelma & Louise (yeah baby!) was really fun. The textures and feel of winter was really done nicely.
House of Helsing: What we thought of as a maze was quickly mastered within 10 minutes. The ability to jump from bldg to bldg, and the interconnecting parapats, catwalks, etc, really made this a 3D experience. My only feedback on this map would be to make the flag perimeters just a wee-bit smaller or eliminate a flag or two. It seemed like I could take one flag and then take 10 steps and begin taking another. I know it isnt quite like that, but it felt like that. Need ammo crate on both sides of river-pipe flag.
Class B Maps:
South China Sea: This had the feel of Wake Island, with a Battle of the Bulge feel, with so many tanks. It was good this only had one plane on each side. That part was good. I kind of wish there would have been more cover. We ended up base-camping this pretty easily. Maybe a Def gun that has coverage out of the bases to provide covering fire so its easier to break out of? That AA at the Axis base was about 3-4 off the ground floating in air. Kind of weird
Class C Maps:
Tarawa: Takes too long to get to the island. The Allied really get pounded by the planes & there is simply too much beach artillary. One flag on the island, while capturable, does not provide for a spawn. I think that might have been a glitch. Overall, this was the weakest of the map pack IMO.
|GRB| Sarges Review
Fields of the Fallen: My only complaint about this map is that the rounds were too short, I cant think of anything that should be tweaked or changed really. The map would be more fun with a full server as it would be much more difficult to take all of the flags so quickly, and a sniper here and there would keep people on their toes. Crank the tickets way up and set a long time limit and that would be awesome. Maybe a candidate for a |GRB|/{pdx} scrimmage? I like the tree stands, but didnt get a chance to use them. I agree with Tman on the trees – makes for some much more realistic landscape than the sparse folliage of most BF maps.
House of Hellsing: I had a great time on this map, despite the fact that I fell off of the catwalks more times than I can count. The multi-leveled warfare is something that you just dont see in BF and as I said last night, it kind of reminded me of the Medal of Honor multiplayer maps with lots of twists and turns and hiding spots. A couple of the flags seemed to take forever to turn, although I am not sure that this wasnt due to the presence of the other team within the radius. I would like to see a couple more breaks in the perimeter fence – at least for infantry. The other difficulty that I had was getting out of the water by the flag on the pipe.
Dam Busters: I had a good time on this map as well (and not just because I got to practice my sniping skills on goose either ). While it is a bit big, there are tons of vehicles and it was just plain fun to base jump from the damn. There are a couple of spots from which it was easy to nade spam, and we had one great battle at the bridge in the village that was a lot of fun. For some reason, I always seemed to be mismatched against the other team on this map. If I had the anti-tank kit, I would run into infantry, if I was a scout i would get into close quarters situations with tanks.
South China Sea: This definately has a “Wake Island” feel to it, although the addition of a bridge through the middle makes things a bit less linear. Lack of med lockers and ammo crates at the spawn closest to the axis main base made defending there a bit hairy at times. The limited number of planes makes this a better map, given how open it is. Once the axis were pinned in to their main base, it became very difficult for them to break out as it was very easy for the allies to bring up lots of armor quickly and keep them pinned. A destroyer or two on this map might give it an extra boost, especially if they only support one side.
Tarawa: Only played this one for a couple of minutes, so I really didnt get a good feel for the map. Other than it is a very long walk from the far eastern spawn point to the next one in.