• Maybe it's just me. but this map feels like the final base in a Bond movie. OK, the baddies aren't wearing day-glo jumpsuits, and there isn't a pointless monorail anywhere: but you've got the big vault doors and large computer rooms with all the giant screens that seem necessary for any plan involving world domination. So who does all their I.T. consulting, anyway?
  
  
• The level is split into above and below ground sections, linked by two stairwells - which quickly become the choke points in any multiplayer game. The above ground portion also contains 4 warehouses, most filled with boxes (although a vehicle in one would have been an improvement). Underground, the base is made up of corridors, again filled with boxes (are they moving in?) which block sight lines and create some cover. This can lead to some nasty close range firefights. Also downstairs are the aforementioned computer rooms (4 of them - two reached via spiral staircases - which are very nice looking) complete with slightly lego-looking furniture.
  
  
• So how does it play? I'll deal with the terrorist hunt mission first - which can field up to 50 terrorists. Unfortunately, there's no new briefing, so we don't know why team rainbow is raiding a polar research post which appears to be nowhere near a pole...anyway, all the tangos are scientists, which makes a nice change. But don't be fooled by their meek exterior - they're wearing body armour of some sort under their lab coats. Overall, it works well as a tango hunt, with baddies coming at you from all directions it you're not careful. This can also be done as a cooperative mission.
  
  
• As for multiplayer adversarial, there's a nice selection of multiplayer starts, with the author obviously realising that the team starting near the chainlink fence starts at a definite disadvantage, so there are ways to flip this start between the teams - otherwise, there's an above and below ground set of starts, and another with both teams underground. The underground is never used when both teams start above ground, the map is simply too small for that - ditto with the above ground portion of the map when both start below. Snipers will also be disappointed at the lack of any perches on rooftops. Fights tend to concentrate either in the open area next to the chainlink fence (with that team getting slaughtered running for cover usually) or on the stairways down to the underground base. There's also a tendency for teams to set up ambushes and wait for the other team to approach them first: and pick them off as they try and come up or go down the stairways. As there are only two, and they're quite close together above ground, it's not difficult for the upper team to dominate both of the exits - another entrance to the base from one of the warehouses might have been a nice touch to include.
  
  
• But it is an interesting map. The textures (except the vault doors downstairs) are nicely done - and only one bug to watch: the sliding doors on the warehouses, once they've been part opened, become completely intangible, allowing people to shoot or walk through them.
  
  
• Despite my reservations, there's something to be said for saving the world in a tuxedo, so give it a try...

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Operation CrackDown Overall Rating - 7 out of 10

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• Operation CrackDown for Mac
  Operation CrackDown for PC
  
  
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