Cardiac Falls Cardiac Falls was built for competitive team play through and through. Its multitude of paths and levels make action on Cardiac Falls fast paced and unpredictable. Ultimately objective games end up being the most enjoyable experience on the map. Team slayer proved to be serviceable but just not enough of the play-space was adequately used for the gameplay to truly stand out. The way the map is designed map flow is strongest in the center and outer ring of the map. All paths lead to these areas whether it is the teleporters on the lower level beneath the outer ring or the mancannons sending players into the center pathway. This map flow design greatly aids objective style play and the best example stems from capture the flag. Four-vs-four capture the flag matches encourage movement all throughout the map and encourage each member of the team to have a role. Someone will go out on the balcony as it were for the sniper rifle, someone will go for the shotgun in the center of the map, and someone will go for the sword in the lower section of the map. Battles will ensue for these power weapons and the victors will have the early advantage. Just having these power weapons is not enough on Cardiac Falls. A plethora of corners and cover makes knowing the map essential and more of the map is explored in capture the flag than any other gametype. Team slayer as previously mentioned is enjoyable but just does not utilize enough of the map on a regular basis as the other, objective, gametypes. All the corners, ledges, and little hideaways encourage heavy camping style play. Players will avoid being out in the open when a talented sniper is out picking off players. This means movement will stick to mainly the outer, close quarters, ring. This makes the shotgun and sword very dominant weapons. Expect to be surprised by a player hiding by a teleporter or behind a corner crouching. It puts a damper on an otherwise well thought out map design to have so much camping opportunities. The only free-for-all game that is worth playing is headhunter as the spawn system, while supposedly fixed, is still a little clustered. Players will end up spawning too close to each other often and although that speeds up gameplay, it ends up being a little too frustrating. Perhaps the play space just does not lend itself to free-for-all combat, which is a shame. Cardiac Falls was built predominantly for medium size parties and for team based gametypes. That means distance to power weapons, high-ground advantages, and ease of movement throughout the map needs to be properly balanced so as to not favor one team over the other. Distance between power weapons is equal from both starting spawns. The high ground is in the outer ring which is where players spawn and with all the cover and ample pathways leading away and to the outer ring one team does not hold too much of advantage is they are holding the high ground. Especially because all the power weapons are actually outside of the outer ring. Ease of player movement is a little trickier on this map. Players trying the map out for the first time will need to get over a learning curve to know where they are going. Teleporters lead players to the lower level beneath the outer ring. This area is not as traveled as the other areas and the only weapon of use in this area is a grenade launcher, which when used right could be a power weapon in its own right. There are small pathways leading into ramps from the sniper balcony area that could get players around the larger ramps leading into the starting spawn areas. If used properly, these pathways can be used in objective games to avoid taking extra fire. If used wrong, these pathways are long enough to have players hide in them to camp or be deathtraps if a player starts getting shot at in one. What the player needs to know is simply that the weapons are well balanced but the areas players will conduct combat are not. A lot of areas encourage camping while others long-range battles with the DMR or sniper rifle. The camping causes players to want to avoid certain areas a lot more than others, which negatively affects map movement. Cardiac Falls is a hovering island of a map. Walls and a ceiling encapsulate it over every part of the map but the balcony area housing the sniper rifle. There are gaps revealing Forge World’s waters near the big ramps leading into the middle section of the outer ring. The floating nature of Cardiac Falls means escape is impossible and pointless. If players choose a jetpack as their armor ability there is not much to do with it. If players try to break the map by flying outside its bounds, soft kill barriers begin their timers making it again, pointless. Players with jetpacks can however get on top of the pillars prevalent throughout the map. There is not much to do on these pillars as they are very visible to players from almost any vantage point but they still provide a possibly unintended height advantage. As mentioned in the enjoyment section, the spawn system is still not good enough for free-for-all games. It has improved significantly from an earlier version where players would consecutively spawn in the same room, however players still mostly spawn in the outer ring area which makes games like headhunter or free-for-all slayer frustrating at times. The map has no discernible lag and all the gimmicks of the map work as intended. The mancannons send players up to the middle pathway and prevent players from jumping back down via a one-way shield. Two teleporters in the outer-ring send players beneath the outer-ring. These areas are heavy camp bait but in objective games they do serve their purpose nicely. What must have been a difficult map to conceptualize, what with all its pathways, Cardiac Falls does have an aesthetic theme. Gameplay seems to have been the focus during the design of the map but an eye for aesthetic purpose was applied. Pillars are the key aesthetic highlight of Cardiac Falls. There are four pillars on the map; three by the balcony area, and one near the middle by the shotgun. These pillars have a sender node embedded in them to give them a glowing top effect. Pillar like columns connect the floor to the ceiling in various other locations. This pillar theme keeps the map consistent which is always a positive when trying to identify what makes a map special. Another area the creator wanted player’s attention drawn to was the lower middle area that houses the sword. Two mancannons shoot players up into the middle walkway and two circular stairways with overturned tin cups give some natural appeal to an otherwise synthetic map. One could argue that these rocks even seem a little out of place and they don’t serve much purpose gameplay wise. The only color on this map can be seen in the outer ring where players will spawn. The hallway pieces are colored tunnel pieces and colored lights bathe the rooms in faint colored light. This does help differentiate the rooms but outside of this area and the rocks in the lower level, the map is very grey. There was a lot of attention paid to the consistency of pieces used so it gives Cardiac Falls an overall smooth feeling but some areas still are a little sloppy. Some railings stick out a little too far, possibly impeding movement, and some of the larger ramps cover a little too much ground, making them take up more room than they can appear to fit in. The windows did provide a nice aesthetic while providing a way for players to view their potential enemies and take aim on them. At this point in Reach’s lifetime, originality is a little unfair of a category for a map such as Cardiac Falls. The map does not change the formula of any competitive play space, nor does it employ new or inventive techniques. Cardiac Falls is solidly built and uses well established construction practices to accomplish a satisfying game. It is because Cardiac Falls takes no chances with how it is constructed that it cannot receive much of an originality score. That should not be conceived as a weakness for the map that it does not recreate the wheel, simply that it does strengthen used methods. Rating Multipliers Enjoyment: 7 x 3.0 = 21 out of 30 Balance: 7 x 3.0 = 21 out of 30 Durability: 8 x 1.5 = 12 out of 15 Aesthetic : 5 x 1.5 = 7.5 out of 15 Originality: 2 x 1.0 = 2 out of 10 Final Score Understanding the Review Hub's Ratings Have a question about your review? Review Hub Community Feedback