hmmm, i prefered it. Not just because i'm a UT99 fanboy (which i am of course).
The ut2k4 assault suffers from information overload. The HUD is all over the place and it even extends to the game world by highlighting objectives with brightly coloured and nicely animated circles. And then you've got those "wisps" that constantly run around killing the atmosphere.
All that information IS useful, but i really couldn't care less. Once i've seen the map briefing i already know what the objectives are, no need to go highlighting them for me. To me highlighting objectives is as bad as using brightskins. It just seems so pedantic to me.
The gameplay additions are another matter. Being able to teleport to a more strategic defensive position the moment an objective is completed is quite a good idea. I never really liked it myself, but i can see that it balances the gameplay out a bit more to give each objective the same amount of time in the spotlight.
One thing that i REALLY liked about 2k4 assault and gets a solid :tup: from me is the briefing movies. They were better then having to read a wall of text just to understand what you are supposed to do. These movies didn't just tell you what to do, they
showed you what to do. But then, being the ut99 fanboy that i am.... those walls of text could be quite fun as well
With those issues out of the way, it comes down to core gameplay. I found that assault was more suited to UT99's core gameplay then the bounciness of 2k4's core gameplay.
2K4 saw this and compensated by adding vehicles into the mix and loading everything up with jumppads. It went with the flow. So it became a different kind of assault. This assault is fun, but i prefer ut99's.