Hold or Die for COD2

Level name : Hold or Die

Author : The Mod Doctor

Date of release : 6 Mai 2009

Size : 12 992 ko

Number of maps : 1



Website : none


Download:



Author's note:

The first version of this map was origionally designed to enter in the modscon07.2 mapping contest at http://www.modsonline.com/

Review:

after a first release for a mapping contest the author took a littel more time to polish the design and script a little more this release so that even if it provide a quite limited area of gameplay the event and objective to achieve really create an intense but enjoyable to play mission.

Design is quite limited a landfield, some houses and roads to provide the battle experience. Everything is correctly design but simply a little to limited in my thinking especially regrading the amount of objective that will make you visit this one in all direction and place that could be a place of battle.

Gameplay is made in a perfectly squad spirit with some retreat, ambush and rushing experience all what could be encounter in COD2 will come to you at a certain moment, even if its seems to never end and a little to repetitive regarding the map size it was never frustrating nor boring but stil felt a litle short to be a memorable experience.

In conclusion: with a good use of scritping and trigerring event, the author succeed in making from a quite too empty and limited map a quite enjoyable experience, it's not perfect but worth to give it a try



Playtime : 20 minutes



Rating : A B C D E (67%)

Hedgerow siege for COD2

Level name : Hedgerow siege

Author : Soulwax

Date of release : 31 January 2007

Size : 5 243 ko

Number of maps : 1



Website : None

Download link: here 'you may perhaps need to register to download it!

Alternative download:



Other map reviewed from the author :

Angoville

Story:

None regarding to the environment of the map it's shound take place in the north of Belgium or the Netherlands and it's just a mission with as main objective destroying flags

Review:

This was the first release from the author for COD2 it's a basic one but enjoyable to play.

Design is made with a biginner touch, flat map with oriented progression through canalized progression with ton's of bushes all building or structure you will encounter a defenetly missing realism but you easily understand what the author wanted to make all in all it isn't that bad but a little not enough realistic

Gameplay is quite enjoyable even sometimes a little hard due to the fact that the automatic saving are place just before some thaught combats, it's a squad mission so you won't be alone, objective are well organized and it's straight forward, there isn't anything original but it wasn' t a boring mission

In conclusion: this first release according COD2 from soulwax is a typical beginner map but that also show the potential from the mapper design is a little to simple and wont let a memorable feeling but gameplay is enjoyable, if you never play this one before give it a try.


playtime : 30 minutes

Rating : A B C D E (56%)

Angoville for COD2

A special thank for Tim who send me an email for pointing this one out...don't hesitate to contact me if you found or did some interesting stuff

Level name : Angoville

Author : Soulwax

Date of release : 22 November 2007

Size : 13 349 ko

Number of maps : 1



Website : None

Download link: here 'you may perhaps need to register to download it!

Alternative download:



Other map reviewed from the author :

Hedgerow siege

Story:

No real story it's just a mission close to the end of the war after the D-day. You and your squad will need to take back and hold a little town called Angoville in Normandy

Review:
Like the author tells in the readme (that has been integrated in the .iwd folder) this one is it's third release and in my opinion is a good improvement from what he did before.

Design is ok, it's done in what we can consider as a small village quite spread over a huge farming landfield. the terrain isn' not to flat and all visited houses are well squaled and look quite realistic. the way bushes,wall's and all those stuff make you progress in a linear way was also correctly handled...realism was perhaps the little things that botter me a little: artificial obstacle in the field tractor machine in an open field during bombing doesn't really make sense... the trench was also a little out of context but appart from those minor issues I may say it was correctly builded up in a dark cloudy evening.

Gameplay is intense with lot's of ambushes good enemies respawning . Everything is well balanced using good but short handled objectives, the squadron play mission also add a more intense experience especially regarding the field mission where you need to reach a far away objective under heavy fire...
You progression is mostly straight forward but the team experience make it more realistic. the battles are always well handled and make me compare this to preview really good release as Leningrad, StLamaire and Eastyork.


In conclusion: This third release from soulwax was a quite enjoyable and intense one . Even if the way the general design was made could be improve, the way soulwax manage to script this entire mission was a really good surpise and even if it could suffer from minor design issues, the experience is well worth the download.

Playtime : 40 minutes

Rating : A B C D E (74%)

East Yorks 2 COD2

Level name : East Yorkshire Campaign

Author : Steve 'Yorkshire Rifles' Acaster

Date of release : 30 june 2007

Size : 14 210 ko

Number of maps : 1



Website : here

Download link: here

Other map reviewed from the author :

Aachen,Beyond Rostov,East Yorkshire campain


Story:

After D-day and the advance or american and british troops through France, The Major objective was get back village and to trow away german. This time action take place in a small village called Touffreville situated 6 miles away from Caen

Review:
After the release of a lot of major and wonderfull campain for CODUO, Steve said he never will create anything else, so it was an excellent surprise to see a map for COD2 comming out from him. He did this just to learn a little bit more how to handle COD2 tools for it's own and finally decided to complete a short project to give to us.


Design is really great but this isn't a surpise looking to other releases by yorkshire rifle terrain is well generated; placement of traps, houses, roads all interconnected is also quite realistic, this in a distroyed city ambiance with some external elements like plane tanks and other stuffs.
But we could critic the originality, layout is great but doesn't provide anything special, it's quite close to original game features and i would have like to see a river or a train station something simply different.


Gameplay is intense with lot's of ambushes good enemies respawning and lots of suprising experience. Everything is well balance using good handled objectives, thaught combats in a more squadron play mission (without no doubt it would be impossible to finish it without them...)
You progression is oriented as in a maze a make the eye looking always enjoyable. Like previous releases of Steve you have to rush into the battle if you don't want to way for years while enemies are spawning. the save points are well placed and taking back enemies weapons is something needed. Last objective is to take and hold the church, classic but immersive since there is no saving possibility.



In conclusion: I didn't think Steve would ever release something for COD2, hopefully he did.
Even if he didn't put so much energy and history than previous releases, It's a challenging and really enjoyable experience, full of eye candy and trilling suprises, in some word a highly recommanded experience.

Playtime : 1 Hours 10

Rating : A B C D E (90%)

St Lamaire for COD2

Level name : St Lamaire

Author : Ryan 'Ace008' Krysiak

Date of release : 28 May 2007

Size : 27 684 ko

Number of maps : 1



Website : none

Download link: here

Other map reviewed from the author :

Normandy,Reusville

Story:

none described but it could easily be the simple continuation of the two previous releases from Ryan (Reusville and Normandy ) and so another part of History counter offensive after D-day in a small town near Sainte-Marie Du Mont called Lamaire (I didn't find the place browsing through the internet except a town called St Loup Lamairé which is far away, more than 400 km...)

Review:

In this new mission you and your squad will need to securize a small town on a cloudy rainy afternoon. I will First complain about two minor glitches that really impact (sadly) the start of the game first, the loading screen is nearly unreadable and this is, I think, just due to some image convertion; second the mission start with an on screen message telling you it's 25 00 hours... those things should have been easily avoid by a correct beta-testing!

So here we go in a well entering sequence of progression (planes) through a quite destroyed city leading to the main village. First of all, a brief mission will be tell by your officer using some custom voice acting that is sadly messed (but regarding to times I encounter this through maps and mods it seems not that evident to make something really audible or at least understandable).

The environment is well put together with a really neat terrain creation and houses arround with the mess of destroyed things on the road. My attention was just catched by blue stagnent water close after the start that looked a little out of context (screenshot 1). Progression make you move fast without ambush to the objective update. Design continues to be brilliant and nearly perfect through you progression that is quite unlinear (different path leading you to the main street).

The house you will need to visit though objectives are well put together and always provide variety in their architecture and construction (the church has perhaps a too modern touch?).

The fact that the location look quite dark didn't bother me cause it look logic for me that a house in a town during havy bombing on a dark cloudy afternoon looked this way. In the other hand it's quite unrealistic that bombs are only falling on you main travel path and not on surrounded houses (at least one or two should have been hit or destroyed).

You will also encounter several 'colateral cutscenes' like the tank battle whish was interesting but didn't lead to a continuation (for example it would have look logic that you meet with the tank to continue the path and sudenly it would have been hit by a flak or something that would have been the next objective).

The gameplay is well crafted even if at first it seems to be a simple walk through the city, when you reach the first crossing with objective update the real action will start. Objective are well put together and well balance, the good enemies placement makes it difficult to take cover and really force you to rush into the battle. Afetr 'cleaning' the first area the objective that follow is to destroy the Flak (a little bit strange to walk arround at first without any objective on it and after finishing the mortars objective it become the new one..).

Progression is well slow down by some german reinforcement in a real realistic way (not hords of them as they were falling form the sky) and will lead you to another part of the town where you will need to take back all house and also pick up some document the whole beeing accomplished when you need to meet with your officer and will see to rest of the batallion entering the town.

There could also be a complain about save point integrated that make the gameplay tight in some spot this add certainly in play time but don't forget that when you are seriously hit it's time to take cover.

In conclusion: There is no doubt that Ryan can handle the editor and that his experience from previous releases certainly help him making such a strong map. I really thing that in the future attention to what can be called negligable details (intro screen, voice acting,...) and perhaps to some more historical base experience with a good 'beta testing', could lead easily to some map comparable with IW map quality of original game. Defenetly another recommended release.

Playtime : 40 minutes



Rating : A B C D E (89%)

Stalingrad for COD2

Level name : Stalingrad

Author : Babycop

Date of release : 5 April 2007

Size : 17 432 ko

Number of maps : 1


Website : here

Download link: here

Other map reviewed from the author :


SP Offensive,Leningrad,Homefront: Cells,Homefront: Downtown

Story and Mission (take from the readme file):

The battle for Stalingrad took place between August 2nd 1942, and February 2nd 1943.
The capture of Stalingrad was important to Hitler for several reasons. It was a major industrial city on the banks of the Volga River and its capture would secure the left flank of the German armies. The fact that the city bore the name of Hitler’s nemesis, Joseph Stalin, would make the city’s capture an ideological and propaganda coup.
However, ravaged by heavy bombardments and brutal battles, soviet snipers successfully used the city's ruins to inflict heavy casualties on the Germans. Vasiliy Grigor´yevich Zaytsev was credited with 242 kills during the battle.
The victory at Stalingrad marked the start of the liberation of the Soviet Union, leading to eventual victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

It is late autumn of 1942. You are a highly-praised soviet sniper. Crawling through the city's underground, creeping through ruins, jumping from one building to another, and engaging in close quarters combat as well as long-range shooting, you must make your way across part of Stalingrad. Around every corner is either friend or foe.
Your objectives are to gather intelligence, eliminate high-ranking officers and enemy snipers, and provide covering fire for your comrades as they pursue their own objectives to recapture lost ground.

Review:

Just less than two months after release of a first soviet campain called Leningrad the 'brothers team' come back with another russian and snow experience drawned in a totally other way, this time it's not a rush with you team but more a hide and progress mission.

Design and architecture tend to be more developped than in Leningrad, trying to create a city ambiance full of trap and ambushes where progression is linked to head shooting, from simple soldiers to main officers (part of the objective to be completed). I insist on the first line were i tell 'tend to be more developped' because talking about the architecture is still the weakest part from babycop (but i would be so pleased to map like them...): the sewer make me more think to a maze where you loose time than to a real russian sewer full of broken path, water and garbage. After the german intense bombing Stalingrad does provide a lot of house with roof and sewer that isn't even destruct in some part which make it not as realistic as Beyond Rostov mission pack for CODUO.

You will also cover one of you team mate that will destoy trains (this train garage is way to boxy and unhopened), to reach finally after a small truck ride (highly enjoyable but not realistic at all like if Stalingrad was build has a maze, looking through the path of the truck, and not like all other town all over europe with normal crossings an unlinear roads)that will reach a main place where you will need to resist to a counter attack before and end surpise that was well imersing the player.
The ambiance is one time more well created not a lot of sounds not so evident to find your way for the first couple of the map (till you kill the first officer) and scripting was for me the highlights of this mission. It is also important to mention that some custom music has been added, like in Leningrad, and well played through the map.


In conclusion: I have really a mixed feeling after playing this release, it was a good follow up of Leningrad that even if it was more basicly build had a magestrous filling of rushing team with perfectly feeting music through the russian fields. In this one attention has been put through objective to a more calm experience (except the counter attack) in a huger architectural effort that tend to be more challenging to the team, trying to recreate a russian city battle. In my opinion Stalingrad didn't left me the same feeling at the end as Leningrad and this even if it was more polished. It cetainly is a great experience but after Leningrad my expectation where higher.


Playtime : 40 minutes




Rating : A B C D E (87%)

test map for COD2

Level name : Test map

Author : Chrizz

Date of release : 1 November 2006

Size : 280 ko

Number of maps : 1



Website : none

Download link: here


Story:

None since it's is just a map to show how create a sp level for COD2

Review:

You might think it is strange to review a demo map that only try to show how to create a single play map or perhaps you think: he certainly will add a smal review just to critic a certainly bad design map without good texturing, design and gameplay and that why i review this one that is certainly short and lack storyline or challenge but in comparaison with other map for COD2 called Kublai Khan's Palace, JailBreak or 5togo (those maps really disapoints me by backing me in the FPS stone age release for DOOM or Duke Nukem where ton's of crap where release) that it's certainly not that difficult to create something correct and enjoyable.

Design is pretty basic but correctly squaled and varied there is even a house or two a trench all put together with good enemy triggering and weapon in the place they should be. It cetainly make me think to a king of Hazard course.

Gameplay is simple and fast so an experienced played could certaintly starts his chronograph and rush in it for the less time he can (this could have been add to the release by triggering a sort of countdown to succeed the map in less than 5 minutes for example).

Other things to mention is that i didn't encoutered any bug or problems even if it's just too short.

In conclusion: and interesting learn and play release that shows the mapping skill of the author, defenetly looking for something more consistent


Playtime : 10 minutes





Rating : A B C D E (60%)

Leningrad for COD2

Level name : Leningrad

Author : Babycop

Date of release : 9 February 2007

Size : 27 171 ko

Number of maps : 1


Website : here

Download link: here

Other map reviewed from the author :

Stalingrad, SP Offensive, Homefront: Cells, Homefront: Downtown

Story:

Less than two and a half months after Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, the Red Army was outflanked. On September 8, 1941, the Germans had fully encircled Leningrad. The siege began.
The city's almost 3 million civilians refused to surrender and endured rapidly increasing hardships in the encircled city. Despite the fact that the Germans never set foot intoLeningrad, at least 600 000 to 800 000 people died of starvation, an unusually cold winter,and enemy bombardment.
A Soviet counter-offensive started in the morning of January 12, 1943. After fierce battles, the Red Army units overcame the powerful German fortifications.
A year later, in January 1944, a Soviet offensive drove off the besieging Germans from the outskirts of the city. The 900-day siege finally ended.

Review:

This one came out around 14 days ago and can easily be considered as actually the best COD2 release out here. Authors (yes two brothers are work under the same nickname) are experiencing script and coding for sometimes now (2 sp CODUO release) and have now decided to created a quite atmospheric map.

Design is well put together in a quite good layout mixing town and country, In my opinion the mapping is perhaps the only thing which isn't great, it's just good, like the short city part that is massive but perhaps too boxy and not enough varied or more like the country you will walk through that is quite flat with a well oriented progression from place to place but without terrain variation or even a village, a road or something comparable. It's more like a succession of traps put in a variation of places from hangar to trenches and underground bunker. It's not a massive architecture but it's neat and certainly close to the best layout according the theme of this release.

Gameplay is nearly perfect (was a little confuse at start with this kind of blocking invisible trigger) but after the gameplay is really flowing through the country with a good team/squad experience. Experience is really fun. Challenge is perfect with the mission objective and 'saving' on good place to make it take back you breath before you rush into the other zone. You will encounter all kind of combat from simple trench fight to a massive counter attack supported by tanks. All mission objectives are really well build and enhanced by the general atmosphere, highlighted by some custom music.

In conclusion: After two experimental maps from babycop here is finally a strong release from the authors. It' not perfect (just says this to have something even better in the future) but really create an original battle atmosphere in which you rush with great pleasure. It's certainly too short but since it's an intense one you can replay it again an again without any frustration...It's really a great work and just hope there will be more in the future.


Playtime : 25 minutes





Rating : A B C D E (85%)

LeonCOD2 for COD2

Level name : LeonCOD2

Author : Leon Stephan Brinkman

Date of release : 4 October 2006

Size : 1 921 ko

Number of maps : 1

Website : here

Download link: here

Alternative download:



Other map reviewed from the author :

Leoncod2, LeonCOD1
Story: none

Review:

This is another release from one of the actually most prolific mapper. that decided to make a release for COD2 because he made several for COD1 (and so he knows the editor well) and also because there was a lack to COD2 sp releases.

Even if there is no real story it's an easy to handle release, you will need to progress mostly forward without no objective or puzzle to solve, just eliminate enemies to get further till you will get a black screen and end the map with the ending anymation of COD2.

Design is well put together with a good looking to scale, realism in a mix between outdoor and indoor places. Every new place you will visit lead to some ambushes or attack from enemies from all type (witch look a little unrealistic to mixed different german type of model in a 'so' small town). Use of texturing (outdoor and indoor) perfectly fits to a snowy city during WW2 but lack perhaps a little of atmosphere.

Gameplay is correctly balanced beween open area with ambushes and tiny cave or storage room where grenades are highly damagable. I would have prefer to encounter a little more variety in gaemplay through some scripting or updating objectives that could have also create some 'saving' position which are totally absent from start till end (so if you die you restart from the beginning).

In conclusion: This map like all other releases from Leon is really well design in a really short time (5 days). Regarding the time he spend and the way he did this map it's a perfect enjoyable release well worth to play. I still stay a little disapointed to the potential of this map that highlights defenetly through it's design but lack of a general good atmosphere.


Playtime : 20 minutes



Rating : A B C D E (70%)