Review: Team Freeze 2003 v0.16

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Jesco

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[ Transcript of review for Team Freeze 2003 v0.16 | Posted by Dade on 2002-12-09 | Score: 7.6 ]
[Dade: For reviewing purposes, Gerard sent me version 0.15, a pre-release of version 0.16. I'll take a look at 0.16 and make a note here if any coments I have made should be revised due to changes from 0.15 to 0.16]

Overall, I was quite pleased with Team Freeze 2003, but the bugs brought the score down. A freeze tag frag fest (say that 3 times fast) is not totally original (based of a Quake mod) but having it for 2k3 makes it so much better. After playing around with TF2k3, I noticed a few pluses, but slightly more minuses. I’m hoping that with later versions, Team Freeze will reach its full potential.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, Team Freeze 2003 brings Freeze Tag to UT2k3. The gameplay revolves around TDM, only instead of fragging the other team, you have to freeze all of them. When the enemy team are all frozen, they “shatter” and your team gets a point (shatter limit is configurable). Individually, points are awarded for freezing an enemy or thawing a teammate. To thaw a teammate, simply stand next to him/her for about 3-5 seconds. In past versions, the bots didn’t quite understand “thawing”, but in version 0.16, they seem to have a better (but not full) grasp of the concept. I have been thawed by bots and I have seen bots thaw each other. Whether thawing by the bots was intended or accidental remains open for speculation, but I think they get it.

Now here’s where I have seen a number of bugs. When you are frozen, you can look around, but you (supposedly) can’t move or fire or be hurt (you can be knocked around by explosions and shield guns). This is what is supposed to happen, but sometimes I have seen the bots walking around while frozen. If you are frozen while firing an automatic weapon, occasionally it won’t stop firing when you are frozen (particularly the minigun alt-fire). In this version, I have noticed that you will sometimes “drift” while frozen. In addition, say you are knocked off the map while frozen. You would fall, leave a small crater, and then respawn…thawed. Actually, the game still recognizes you as frozen, only you can still attack the enemy. Not fair! Needless to say, the frozen code needs work.

New to this version are new frozen textures and a turning-the-screen-blue-while-frozen effect. When someone is frozen, the adopt an overlaid texture resembling ice. And I must say, it looks very...uh...cool. Previously, when frozen, your model’s skin would be replaced by either a red or blue UDamage-esque effect. In adition, when a team is shattered, lots of frozen gibs fly everywhere. In older versions, your screen used to have a red shade to it when frozen. But since that was just weird, your screen now turns blue when frozen (duh!). Though not absolutely critical, the eye candy is one of those few pluses.

From what I have seen, Team Freeze 2003 looks to someday be a great mod. The bugs are still a problem, but with work they (hopefully) will be exterminated. Even in its current state, I think its worth the download. Be sure to keep your eyes open for future versions.