Between a Rock and a Hard Place - GrandmasterJ
The map is split into a base and across a chasm is a road where aliens come from. Defend what I assume is the rock from the aliens coming from what I assume is a place that lacks softness.
Author: Elvis
Date of release: 2004
Maps in package: 2
Map review of Between a Rock and a Hard Place
(originally posted on SCMapDB)
by GrandmasterJ | March 27, 2023 | 4688 characters
Here we have a defense map across a chasm with a bridge. Players have to defend something or other against waves of enemies, both alien and human, and there are some scientists. There are two versions of the map, normal and large, we played both once through, winning on the large one and failing on the normal one.
The first thing that happens is I spawn upstairs and start poking around, my teammate spawns downstairs where the action happens and starts exploring that direction. Two things that I didn't find out despite looking around and hitting the windows is that there is a shotgun and some ammo up here and the windows are breakable. Once I go downstairs I find an mp5, health charger, two scientists, and an Otis. The spawns are spread out from upstairs to right on the bridge, so respawning can either put us in safety surrounded by weapons, or right out in the open surrounded by enemies.
We kinda mess around a bit until some enemies pop in through doors across the way, every locked door pops enemies out even inside spawn in two places upstairs and one right across from the health charger. We have some cover we can take behind large doors and enemies pretty reliably funnel towards the bridge.
So the deal with this map is that every now and then a scientist pops up, we get a message telling us to protect him, and he sprints right through all the enemies and runs in a line to wherever the next weapon unlocks. Players start with a magnum, which is nice, but the real firepower is the sniper rifle and satchel charges. The upstairs area is a perfect sniping range and there is plenty of sniper ammo. There are also satchels that can be thrown down onto the bridge, more than once my teammate and I turned the contents of the bridge into wet confetti with a well-timed satchel detonation. Protecting the scientists is crucial to the success of our mission.
When we lost the first time we played, which was the small map, it was out of nowhere and we don't really understand what triggered it. Suddenly a bunch of female assassins flooded the arena and we died and we lost. We die a lot in these maps, constantly dying at the same time. The scientists get gibbed a lot because after they finish sprinting to the weapon unlocks they like to run at the enemies and hug them. It is remarkable watching the scientists freak out and run headlong into their doom. The scientist pathing straight to the weapon unlock is a gift I will cherish forever. I think we only lost one scientist before he unlocked his stuff. So if dead scientists doesn't make us lose, enemies flooding our spawn doesn't make us lose, and our constant simultaneous deaths doesn't make us lose, I don't know what does.
We did play both the regular version and the large version. I don't know what the difference is. I thought maybe the second one was marginally bigger but upon closer inspection I guess that's the placebo effect. Maybe large has more enemies, it kind of felt that way. But then again we also didn't get female assassins in the large version. I don't know.
Overall a pretty fun map. I thought the map was executed well, the level layout was really conducive to defensive gameplay and the bridge chokepoint helped us focus fire on the crowd. The upstairs sniping area provided a really good vantage point and it was still plenty dangerous to camp there. Ammo was spread around both up and downstairs so we could split up and defend the bridge from two angles. I really didn't enjoy the enemies that appear periodically in spawn, I felt they were more annoying than anything. Keeping the scientists alive wasn't as bad as it could have been, they run right to the goal so as long as players can pour gunfire into whatever is chasing him they'll be good. I don't really get how the game is lost, I feel like we did equally well both times we played. I don't know what the difference in the maps is either.
Pros:
- Well executed concept
- good level layout
- the scientists run straight towards weapon unlocks which is very helpful
- assuming you can unlock them, the map has a good weapon selection and ammo supply
- the revolver is a very good starting weapon for this map
- after the scientists outlive their usefulness they run out in the meat grinder and delete themselves
Cons:
- unclear lose condition
- not a fan of the enemies appearing in spawn
- players can spawn on the bridge, fully exposed
- what is the difference between the normal and large versions???
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