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Frozt is an interesting mod that replaces damage with body temperature (and control point temperature, in the Domination variant that's included). Yup - your goal in the Team Game is to freeze the entire opposing team before they freeze you, and in the Domination Game, you need to make decisions on when to freeze opponents, control points, or when to flip those control points. Now, while this may seem a bit like a one-trick-pony on the surface, I can assure you it's not. This simple idea, along with how it is implemented, changes UT gameplay at a fundamental level, and is a lot of fun to play.
Installation is easy, via the .umod file format (just double-click and go, if you have trouble, visit ModCentral's help page. Once installed, you'll find that the entire mod is easily configurable via the mod menu. You can change things like heating rates, thawing rates, the radar screen (neat and very useful little HUD addition) and much more. One thing I can suggest - double the default thawing rate, as it takes far too long to thaw without help from teammates.
When your teammates are frozen, you can increase their thawing rate by standing near them (the distance is configurable). Same goes for frozen Domination control points - get near enough, and you will help them thaw. Frozen players and control points are encased in a white, translucent shell, as you can see in the screenshots here, and cannot move or shoot until they are thawed (although I've seen some of them running in place even while frozen). Thawing teammates will reduce your body temperature (don't worry, you won't freeze), while raising theirs. Frozen control points may not be changed to your team color until they are thawed. The scoring in Frozt Domination is a little tricky, but we'll go through that below.
Gametypes
Frozt Team Game
Simple rules, simple game, quite fun online. Freeze the entire opposing team before your entire team is frozen. This plays well with all humans, but there's a little issue with bots here. While it's great that the bots have subclassed intelligence to thaw their teammates, it often results in all the bots hanging out together in one place, easily frozen by one or two opposing teammates. Playing online with a bunch of human opponents is much more fun, as the strategy of when to run and when to attack becomes paramount to gameplay.
Once you have been frozen, you will remain there until you thaw, or until a team wins a point, at which time all losing players are unfrozen and respawned elsewhere, and you are simply unfrozen. This process is accompanied by the crisp sound of ice breaking, adding to the fun.
Frozt has a nice radar screen added to the HUD in the lower right-hand corner. It's easily readible, and will show you where everyone is. It does not distinguish between teams, however, which would have been a nice addition to help hunt down the enemy. There's also useful meters that will tell thawing progress and body temperature.
Frozt Domination
The Frozt Domination variant changes UT Domination by allowing you to freeze control points. This makes scoring and gameplay quite different (and complicated), so follow along:
- To achieve points, your team must be in control of a control point. For each point your team controls, your team receives a point every two seconds.
- Frozen control points do not earn points for the controlling team, and cannot be changed until they are unfrozen.
- If you freeze a control point your team controls, your team will lose some points.
- If you freeze a control point that another team controls, your team will gain some bonus points.
- If you freeze a control point that no one controls, no one will lose or gain any points.
- If you thaw a control point that your team controls, your team will gain a small bonus.
- If you thaw a control point that another team controls, that team will lose a small number of points.
- Unfrozen control points that you control can help thaw you, if you are within their radius of influence.
- If your team is frozen and you control at least one control point, one of the control points your team controls will be reverted back to neutral.
- If your team is frozen and your team did not control any control points, your team will lose nothing.
- If your team managed to commit suicide, you will lose all control points under your control, or, if your team did not have any control points, your team will take a larger point deduction.
- If your team managed to freeze the other team and they did not control any control points, but your team does not control all the control points, your team will recieve a point bonus.
- If your team managed to freeze the other team and your team controlled all the control points, your team will recieve a larger point bonus.
I told you it was a little complicated. Still, in actual game play, it all becomes quite second nature in a short period of time. If you're getting behind, freezing the opponents control points is an option, to prevent them from scoring with them while you freeze them. Thawing your own control points is good if you are in control of a match, and will give you a bonus point. Freezing the entire other team while you have all control points is a very, very good idea.
Frozt used to have breath puffs that looked quite cool, but caused some online and translocator problems, and had to be removed, at least temporarily. You will also not be able to use any meshes other than those that come with UT or with the official Bonus Pack.
In all games, armor has a reheat value (configurable), and you'll certainly want to take advantage of it. The Big Keg 'o Health acts to warm you up a bit, for awhile, but you'll eventually return to 100 degrees. The Damage Amp is available and functional, turning you into 'Mr. Freeze' as far as your opponents are concerned. There are no health packs or health vials available to you.
Frozt 126 (the version I'm reviewing here) is relatively free from bugs, and appears to be 100% free from major ones. There are some graphical glitches where the players can run in place occasionally, or a bit of their skin protrudes from the ice encasement, but all things considered, it's quite playable and enjoyable.
You'll love the first time you freeze someone in motion, say, jumping to avoid you, and they stick right there, in place, a perfectly frozen picture of death (bwahahaha). You'll be incredibly anxious when you are frozen along with all but one of your teammates, who can't stop avoiding the enemy long enough to help thaw you. You'll revel in your superior Frozt Domination strategy, as you frustrate your opponents by freezing their control points while your teammates put them on ice one by one, allowing your team to get back into the game by slowing their scoring opportunities.
Summing up, Frozt is a good example of taking a simple idea and exploiting it for maximum immersiveness and fun gameplay. The Frozt website says that they are done with the mod, which is unfortunate, because a Frozt CTF game could be stellar, depending on how the Disobedience Crew would integrate the mod with CTF. The mod plays very well online, but is compromised a bit by the bot AI, which all too often groups the bots (theirs and yours) in a single area, working hard to unfreeze teammates. Frozt comes with a comprehensive readme file that describes it's configurability quite well. All in all, it's easy to recommend Frozt to you, as it's loads of fun!
Frozt Website
Download Frozt
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