Alaris Prime: River Ambush

Description
Howdy! I've returned for another round of reviewing after a short hiatus and being pained to see Mav having to do all the work recently.. Don't worry guys, I haven't forsaken SWBF 2...:)

Alaris Prime: River Ambush is an interesting map by Philomen. I started up SWBF 2, loaded the map, and then beheld the class selection screen. The author has taken some initiative and replaced the Republic side with Phase I troopers (Anyone unfamiliar with this, the Phase I troopers were the ones from Attack of the Clones). I usually only see them in Geonosis maps, but it still was quite interesting to see added. Not only that, but the actual Phase I clone "color coding" was changed. The standard rifleman is normal. However, the rocketeer is now also a plain white trooper. The sharpshooter has the green color scheme, identical to the jet trooper (which is not in this map), and the engineer has the red-trimmed armor like the sharpshooter used to have. There are also two new unlockable units added, one which replaced the Commander unitl; it has yellow trimming. The last unit is the "special" unit, which is a reskinned P1 trooper with camouflage-esque armor. He has a time bomb, some thermal detonators, a sniper rifle, and a normal DC-15A blaster rifle.

The CIS side is nothing too special, but it did not go unchanged. The main infantry unit for the CIS is the standard, skeletal-looking B1 battledroid. The rocketeer also sported a B1 model. The sniper was unchanged (as far as I know), the engineer was untouched, and the Super Battle Droid was made unlockable.

Now, you're probably wondering about gameplay. I must say, I found the map quite fun. The map is set in a sort of river, with some old logs, trees, and ruins spread around. When I selected the Clone sniper unit, I found it difficult at first to actually hit anything, because the CP was buried in a bunch of trees and bushes. Once I got out into open ground, after slogging through a few annoying, mindless AI, I found that the river was perfect for taking pot-shots at distant droids. Be warned though: sniping in the open is lucrative in kills, but it is rather dangerous, too. You're likely to get shot unless you crouch until the water's up to your shoulders.

Running from cover to cover, I discovered that one huge, hollow log in the river was good for hiding in when the going got tough. It was quite handy.

A lot of headshots and a few deaths later, I switched to an engineer found that one of the steep hills could be "climbed" (in other words, walking and rolling up it). From there I went around about a fifth of the map until I could go no further, partly because of there being a boundary that would've killed me if I continued. From there I dropped down and shot up a few droids.

At one end of the map, you can find several Hardcell (Techo Union) transports. They are damageable, and significantly weak enough that a few blasts from my shotgun could actually destroy one. A nice addition that I rarely see in a map, though they seemed to possibly be a little underscaled.

By that point in time, my team's reinforcement ticker was somewhere around 20, and the enemy at 60, so I figured I was going to lose. In a last ditch effort to try to win, I blew away a few droids at a CP near the aforementioned Hardcells and took it. Before long, the reinforcement counter was at 3, and at precisely that moment two clones spawned. I ordered them both to my side and headed back towards the huge log, going across the river.

Nearby there was another clone milling around, so I called him to me as well. Before long, though, I encountered a pack of droids, which killed off two of the clones, resulting in a ticker count of 1. It was simply me and the last clone. Two or three droids rushed us, and me, being a coward like I am, ran in the other direction as fast as I could, but the clone unforunately couldn't keep up and got shot in the back, resulting in my team losing the round.

I'm not sure if it was simply because I was messing around and exploring, or because of unbalance, but it seemed like my team was getting beaten rather badly in the second half of the match. Either way, I quite enjoyed the map itself.

I had a few beefs with this map, however. It seemed a little too open, with the higher up spots, though useful for sniping, being too limited in area by masses of trees on either side. The only other area I found useful was sitting in the river itself, which was much too open. It was also too "long" to be useful for some sniping, because the sniper rifle's range could not cover the whole distance, and many times my shots stopped only mere feet in front of their targets. I think also the textures could be made [i]slightly[/i] less repetitive, because, especially on the hills, it was painfully obvious at the greater distances allowed by the large playable area. This may not really be fixable, and some may not be bothered at all.

One thing that quickly drew my attention, however, was the Super Battle Droid upon death. The author has fixed it so that, when a SBD is destroyed, the chunks will actually look like SBD parts and not a normal B1.

Overall, I liked it. It will definitely stay in my addon folder. Would I recommend it to anyone else? Absolutely!

Download away.

~Penguin Unit