The Well

Description

The Well is another CTF style map, with two identical bases facing each other. A large open area, cut in half by a small battlement separates the bases. Each base has a large room in the back with a large tower. At the very top of the tower rests the flag. To reach this tower room you must either walk through the base, or swim through a pipe from the outside. Again there are hundreds of nuances in this map, but this is the general idea.

What's New?

The TFC version is again a faithful port of the TF1 original, Well6. The new textures give the map a more metallic/techie feel to it (almost like techwell, but the structures are all the same). You still need to use a detpack to open the sewer for water access to the flag room. The attic is basically the same thing, but the backpacks are no longer in small indentations; the whole attic is one level.

The elevator to the roof outside each base is now replaced with a ladder. Also the flat ledge on the roof is above the slope instead of below it. There is a small bug with the elevators in the well roof. You can get stuck in them when you ride them up, but I'm sure they will fix this problem before the public release.

The respawn turrets are present in both respawns! This means that any enemies coming from the well room through the water to try to steal your backpacks will be cut down. This is great since they cannot camp your respawn nor can they regroup there.

Like 2forts however, the whole map seems smaller vertically. I didn't do any very heavy testing on this, but I did notice that as a soldier you could rocket jump from the floor to the attic with ease. In TF1 you could only do this with a reverse rocket jump from the ledges above the floor.

Verdict

Well6 is a fun TF1 map, and TFC's Well is ported over very nicely, and it's different enough to distinguish its game play from any 2fort clones. The smaller feeling outside area works well with the slower moving players, and there is still plenty of space to move around. The overall architecture of the map is the same, while a lot of small eye-candy features have replaced some of the dull parts (like the elevators to the attic).

The whole look of the map is much brighter. Many of the Half-Life maps break the mold of dark and dreary maps, using the full color palette for a bright, almost day-glow world, and the TFC maps stick to this frame of thought. The TF1 Well6 map had a more catacombs/dungeons feel to it, while the new maintains Half-Life's modernized appearance. The water has also been spruced-up, and is now bright green, appearing to emit an eerie glow. All in all I'd say that this is a great map and a worthy successor to the original.