[ Transcript of review for Catch the Bunny | Posted by Vlosk on 2003-09-06 | Score: 7.3 ]
Catch the Bunny
This is a nifty little gametype that I ran into the other day: essentially making a sort of teamless (or teamed) BombingRun like tag, only with a little white Nali bunny instead of a bombing run ball. The longer you hold the bunny, the more points get, the only condition being you can’t shoot while holding the fluffy little scoring object. However, unless you are holding the bunny, you can’t be killed; so don’t worry about those pesky competitors taking you down while you go out a ‘hunting wabbit.
I was impressed by the polish that went into this little modification; from the rotating bunny icon on the scoreboard, to the proper messages on the HUD, as well as including a BunnyRadar allowing you to find the little bugger. The bunny makes little Nali-bunny sounds, and also has a trail of particles so that you quickly locate it if you aren’t the lucky person to find it first. The bunny has nifty third person model (you seem to hold the poor critter by the neck), free-range model, and the basic first person model.
The last element of polish is a working touch of bot-support; they will run and capture the bunny, and act much like it were a bombing run ball; which is exactly the proper behavior for this sort of thing. My only issue with the bot-support is that they don’t (seem to) drop the bunny to engage you, and a couple of times the bots got confused and simply stood in one place, while holding the poor rabbit by the neck.
However, there are a few things which irked me while trying out this little gametype; the first and foremost being that it allows you to choose from and any all .ut2 files. A BombingRun map will not work for a DM style gametype; nor will any map starting with the string “Auto”. Also, though the bunny has a nifty new skin, I was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t animated. If the bunny acted and moved like a Nali-bunny from its natural environment, I think the mod would be a fair bit slicker. There are a couple small issues mentioned in the readme file, but except for the damage amp making a purple-doom bunny, these didn’t cause any real problems.
All in all this is a fairly polished little gametype, which though nothing large is a good escape from Instagib for a little while. There are a couple of issues, but if you want to play Tag with a slight twist, this is the gametype for you.
I give this gametype a 7.3 out of 10.