Battle For Duclair

Description
[b][u]Battle For Duclair[/u][/b] (2p)- OnkelSam

A 1v1 map where the battle is nested between a forest & a city. It reminds me a lot of Angoville, and has been thoroughly tested by the BattleTest community. This is an update from [url="http://companyofheroes.filefront.com/file/Battle_for_Duclair;78239"]Battle Of Duclair.[/url]

[b]Technical[/b]

3 Victory Points

2 Medium Munitions Points
4 High Munitions Points
2 Low Fuel Points
2 High Fuel Points

84 Munitions
42 Fuel

Resources are pretty much perfect here. It's easy enough to use infantry & tanks throughout the game, without either being overly dominant.

There is music, a save/replay pic, loading pic, and menu pic. There are too many texture layers per chunk in this map; there should never be three layers per chunk (At least this map keeps it under six). OOB is well-done and a horizon mesh is included. I did notice that, around the northern hills, you can see the edge of the map if you position the camera correctly (There is a gap between the OOB & the horizon mesh); however, as it requires camera work to see in only one part of the map, it will not detract from the overall score.

[i]Technical[/i]- [b]9/10[/b]

[b]Balance[/b]

Honestly, there's nothing wrong balance-wise in this map. Both sides have a suitable number of ways to leave their base (Despite the Allies being on an "island"), resources are symmetrical... I can't find anything to say that's wrong with this map. I suppose it makes sense; this map was thoroughly tested by the BattleTest community, which [i]is[/i] centered around balancing a game, so I suppose it follows that any custom maps going through there would be perfectly balanced.

[i]Balance[/i]- [b]10/10[/b]

[b]Design/Quality[/b]

The map is very visually appealing, although some areas could use some more splats & splines. I do like how the author uses hilly terrain to good effect, as it makes the map feel that much more realistic & believable. It's varied enough to make the map feel natural, but not to the point where the CoH engine has a fit & garbles walls to make them look whacky. I also noticed that the map doesn't quite have that 'atmospheric' feel that the official Relic maps (And some user maps) have, something that I think would have added a significant amount of quaility to the map. All in all, very good quality, although I wish there were more splats in some spots of the map.

[i]Design/Quality[/i]- [b]8/10[/b]

[b]Fun Factor[/b]

Very fun map. It plays a lot like Angoville, so if you like that map, you'll like this one. It's large enough so the fight can be spread out, but small enough so that you don't feel 'lost' from the fight. I liked how the hilly north made infantry movement a bit easier (Though the road helps vehicles traverse), while the 'flatter' (Is that even a word? :p ) is a bit more ideal for vehicles, like Ango in that respect. I do wish it played a [i]bit[/i] differently from Ango, but then again, that's just my purely subjective opinion.

Obviously, OnkelSam is a great author, although community input from the BattleTest team obviously helped significantly. Even so, this will at least give him something to work with future works, which I hope to see more of! :D

[i]Fun Factory[/i]- [b]8/10[/b]

[b]OVERALL[/b]
9+10+8+8=35/40=

[b]8.75/10[/b]

[i]Reviewed by Finalizer0[/i]