[ Transscript of review for Clone Bandits v1.0 | Posted by Bean on 2004-07-01 | Score: 7 ]
First, don\'t let that 7.0 deceive you. This is one FUN mod. That is the most important part isn\'t it? I mean...it is FUN. It\'s fun like Zelda is fun. You know you JUST know the new Zelda game is gonna be fun. You buy it, pop it in, and just watching the intro makes your heart warm. You know what I mean. That deep down fun. These developers understand that, and want to put that in this mod. And I can feel it. I can feel it in this mod.
WTF?
This mod is very...creative. Some say eccentric, but we are talking games, so it\'s creative. You boot up the single map (more on that later) and immediately, you get it. The music is absolutely GREAT. It is some of the best GAME music I have ever heard, nevermind mod music. It is just awesome. It fits the vibe of the mod to a T. I downloaded the songs, even though they were meant for mapping.
Now, the gametype for this mod is outstanding too. It is a mix of CTF and Onslaught, with some Vampire elements thrown in. Basically, the two teams are clones. And the teams are fighting over the clones. They can keep dying as long as they can clone themselves (which explains a lot about respawinging). There is a set quantity of clones in the map, and the two teams battle over them. One of two things can happen to clones: they can be stolen or they can die. If they die, you can\'t get them back, How do they die? Well, that goes to stealing. One way to get more clones is to run to the enemy base, and steal clones from them. They come in cute little jars, which you take with you back to your base. Now, if you drop these jars, and nobody picks them up, they disappear, and removed from the set quantity of clones. The other way to steal clones is to capture clone pumps (like the Onslaught nodes), which, when fully built, will suck clones from the other team. Of course, the teams will also war over these. This is really a great gametype, and the team gets mad points for whipping this up.
EDIT: I totally forgot to mention that you lose a clone when spawning. Duh! It just totally slipped my mind. Apologies!
Fighting Machinery?
Of course, how do you war over these? You spawn with all the weapons except the Shock Rifle and the Bio Rifle. That\'s ok. The real goods lie in those rocking vehicles. First off, is the big ass flamingo tank, the Lounge Tank. High firepower, and a fun ride too. You can launch a tank shell, which has a pretty high recoil, and you can also lay a mine.
The next vehicle is the Barracuda, the car. It has a machine gun, and a nitrous boosts (Nos...whatever it\'s called). But the real power is unlocked when you have a passenger, who can control the other machine gun. Rocking vehicle.
Last, but not the proverbial least, is the Moscowboy. Yes...it is a missle powered bike. This is why we play games. It can zip and zoom, and as a weapon, it...well...turns into a missle. When you do that, you get a tremendous speed boost, and a set time limit to get off before it goes boom. A little nuance is that you can\'t carry clones on the bike...because...I suppose you can\'t hold that jar on there and steer simultaneously. However, the Terminator rode and shot so...ok. That\'ll do.
The turrets now also fire grenades. A nice touch if I do say so myself.
But these vehicles don\'t lack weaknesses. The main one is that they handle a little odd. They are fun, no doubt...but they don\'t feel right. They feel quite loose. Pulling hard turns in the Barracuda often seems to result in spinouts. More glaring is the Moscowboy. You don\'t pilot it like the other vehicles. This one is steered by the mouse, which is extremely frustrating. I suppose it makes more sense in missile mode, but it doesn\'t feel natural. Maybe I need to practice more, but they don\'t have the natural feel that the original UT2K4 vehicles have. Also, the vehicles aren\'t very hardy, and seem to yield pretty easily to weapons. A two man team (or even an uber lone ranger) can take out the Lounge Tank.
All That Glitters Is Not Gold
Ok...let\'s get to it. Bots. Don\'t work so well. Yet. They get in vehicles, but don\'t drive them so well. In fact, they like to run over you. Unfortunately, you can kill teammates with your vehicles. I understand why it would be done, but it is really annoying. I got run over by that Lounge Tank a million times. And then, the bots don\'t realize this. So sometimes I would be escorting a bot who stole a clone jar...and he would run into me...killing himself. Damn.
The map. Is great. But...there is only one map. I couldn\'t find any other maps. It is fun, don\'t get me wrong. There just needs to be more maps. Along those lines...where are all the servers. I saw one server...with one guy. I\'ll try again, and update the review, and I\'m sure it will be great online, but until I can actually play it.
Anyways, in all, this mod is awesome. But like this section header...it reminds me of some fun fake jewelry I just got. It\'s one of those Sprewell spinners, and it\'s damn cool. But it isn\'t quite platinum and ice. Kinda like this mod. It is damn fun and cool. But there yet. But no worries. I am totally confident that this mod will be big. This mod is special, and you should download it. You\'ll love it. What else is there to say!
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