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Mix and match maiming? Why that's frag-tastic!
By Martin
Kingsley
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Hmmm...
It's as though I've seen this
before on a bigger screen of sorts...
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Since one dreary Winter
day in 1997 when Valve Software's debut title, Half Life, hit the
shelves, gaming has never been the same.
With its revolutionary AI, (for the time) advanced graphics, classy
sci-fi storyline, cool scripted scenes and (possibly a first in
the annals of action game history) a nerdish scientist in the form
of crowbar-wielding Gordon Freeman for a hero.
Even now, six years after the event, comparisons with Half Life
are still regularly drawn when talking about the latest and greatest
pieces of code from the world's leading studios.
And then came…the MODs.
Modifications that ranged from code-tweaks to full blown Total
Conversions, they arrived in force, and even now, when Half Life
2 is just around the corner, they're still coming.
TCs, such as the amazing single player 'They Live' series from
long-time modder Neil Manke (famous for his 'Coconut Monkey' Quake
2 maps, amongst many other distinguished releases) or even The Opera,
which took the best elements of the Hong Kong Blood Opera film-direction-style
and attached them to the Half Life engine with fantastic results,
have redefined the face of Modding as we know it.
And, of course, we have Counterstrike. Ah, yes, Counterstrike,
possibly the most popular MOD ever to be released, so popular, in
fact, as to spawn a whole new product line based on its appeal.
However, there are other MODs out there, ones pioneered by crews
just as talented and ambitious as Team CS.
Today, we'll be looking at one such crew, known as Team TS (The
Specialists). With a total team made up of nearly forty individuals
and with an install weighing in at a hefty 244MB, The Specialists
is something else, let me tell you.
Led by Filippo De Luca and Lorenzo Pasini (better known as Morfeo
and John_Matrix respectively), Team TS (www.specialistsmod.net)
have put together what I would have to say is one of the most complete
and also utterly addictive multiplayer TCs on the face of the earth.
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"Wassup
wit choo?? Gangstas in da house!!"
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First up, let's get the foundations laid down here, OK? Here be
no crowbars, no intergalactic conquerors, no meddling government-sponsored
death squads.
In their place we have full surround sound, all singing, all dancing
dual Beretta firing, kung-fu fighting slow-mo enhanced multiplayer
mayhem.
You pick your character model, a server, your weapons of choice
and then jump into the frenzy, ready to bust a cap on anybody within
six hundred square miles of the map. This sounds simple, but when
you see the firearm list the mind boggles.
Nine different types of pistol, six sub-machine guns, four shotguns,
four rifles, three special purpose weapons (an M60, a Barret M82A1
50cal sniper rifle and a sawed-off double barrel shotgun), and two
types of knife, not to mention a katana, for those must-have sword
fights, and a frag grenade, all for a total of thirty (count 'em)
weapons. Very nice, very nice indeed.
And let's not forget the maps; Ranging from Oriental-flavour training
facilities and half complete construction sites to multi-level car
parks, classy film locales (Dietrich's flat from Face/Off, the infamous
Lobby and Dojo from the Matrix, or even the Matrix Reloaded's Chateau)
and urban sprawls, there's something here for everyone, whether
your taste runs to teamplay or straight out free-for-all bloodbaths.
Speed is a big issue where The Specialists is concerned, as is
movement.
There is a plethora of moves at your disposal, ranging from the
humble sliding dive to the wall flip, back flip, back-flip-with-added-boot-in-opponent's-face,
somersault and 'super jump' (think Morpheus' tiger-leap). Each requires
different key combinations and circumstances to use, but all are
equally useful when utilised correctly. Yet all take a back seat
to the slow-mo.
Yes, you heard me right: the slow-mo.
Using cleverly designed power-ups, you can get your grubby little
mitts on either five seconds of normal Slow Motion, or, if you're
lucky, three seconds of Slow Pause, in which time slows to the point
where each bullet leaves your gun (or guns, if you do like I do
and go for the akimbo) at walking pace, twisty speed trails following
in their wake. This is cool, but coolness itself does not a gameplay
revolution make.
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Not_Neo
takes on Ayjunt Smiff with a shotgun
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Any feature of any game, if jammed down the gamer's throat for
long enough, eventually causes the player to become desensitised
to its impact, making it nothing more or less than a novelty, like
that tune you heard on the radio the other day for that carpet shop
you'll never visit or probably even hear of again.
Novelty's are not good in an industry where gimmicks no longer
sell the way they did six years ago.
Luckily, however, there are two things that stop the slow motion
system from becoming a gimmick, a novelty that quickly fades into
the background, never to be seen or heard from again.
One is the power-up system itself, bestowing only minute quantities
of the frag giving slow-mo on players. Once used up, it can take
minutes for a similar pick-up to appear.
The second thing is the rather fun scoring set-up, where frags
are awarded based upon the stylishness of your kill.
For instance, if you empty your twinned Mini-Uzi's into an opponent's
body from ten feet away, you'll get a single solitary point awarded
to your tally; but, if you are plugging away with said automatic
weapons whilst in the middle of a flying leap across the coffee
table, sparks flying everywhere…why, I do believe that's worth
three frags.
Here's the way it works:
If you manage to combine any two of these categories, for instance
by nailing someone in the head with a throwing knife whilst diving
through the air, that's a total of six frags, and it's 5 frags for
a katana + dive frag. So you can mix'n'match, really.
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The old
"swan dive" takes on a whole new meaning
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How does this impact on the slow motion? Well, you tell me how
else you can get someone with a centimetre-thick blade from a distance
of twenty feet whilst crashing through a pane of safety glass in
mid-air but with the wonder of slow-mo?
In order to get the frags, you've either gotta be really, really
lucky (which is unlikely) or you've gotta be gunning for the Slow
Motion pick-ups, just like everybody else on the server!
It's a serious adrenaline rush to be almost constantly racing against
thirty two other sweaty, heavily caffeinated and, above all, seriously
keen gamers, each one potentially drawing a bead on your skull with
a silenced Colt M16A1 assault rifle…
Yet the thing that makes playing The Specialists so memorable is
not the guns or the maps or the kung fu, or even the slow-mo. It's
the guns AND the maps AND the kung-fu AND the slow-mo, not to mention
those hundred or so little things that stick in your brain like
red-hot needles, like the way you can switch to third-person view,
or the way the alternate fire for some of the pistols lets you hold
them sideways gangsta-style or…
See what I mean? It's that addictive. As I write this, my last
Specialists match gnaws at my very nerve endings, and I now twitch
gently whenever I get too far from my monitor; I have the constant
urge to reach for my combat knife and commando-roll under the conference
table every time someone calls my name.
In closing, I offer you these eight sagely words of advice: Download
it Now! Now, I tell you, NOW!
Ahem.
Anyway, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and find my trenchcoat
and my polarised shades, thank-you-oh-so-very-much (Note: The Specialists
MOD is currently at V2.0).
Game:
The Specialists
System: PC
Players: 1-multi
Online: Yes
Developer: Team
TS
Distributor: Team
TS
Rating: 95%
(Ratings
Key/Explanation)
The Specialists is online for download now.
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