Community’s Most Wanted: Rescue Mode and Competitive Play

[.TuG.Admin]

That’s right. It’s time.  Let’s talk…COMPETITIVE PLAY!

We’re pretty excited to show off a mode you guys have been asking about – our hostage-rescue mode, titled, appropriately enough, Rescue.

In Rescue, SWAT has three minutes to force entry into the criminals’ barricaded hostage locations and rescue the hostages.  There are no respawns in this mode, so if you’re dead – you’re out of the round.  The mode is played round-after-round for a series of rounds, with the team winning the most times being the overall match winner.

We’ve put in some cool touches to make it deeper – for you to explore and use for your advantage. One of them is improved situational awareness through the use of audio.

Sound plays a critical role in this mode – listening for enemies as they move or reposition can give you that split-second advantage you need that makes the difference between winning the fight – or losing and sitting out!  There are lots of ways to use this – do you want to throw out a decoy to distract the enemy?  Are you trying to trick the enemy by opening doors you don’t plan on going through?  Are you trying to distract the enemy with spurious movement sounds?

Another new factor – we have doors that can be opened and closed – it might sound trivial at first, but they are a huge factor in tactical play.  Whether you’re listening or watching for a door to open to trigger an explosive, unleash a fusillade of fire, or maneuver into a good position, that door is a key factor in play.  You might find some clever tactics where you control the state of the door – open or closed – and when that state is changed, you know someone has passed that way, even if you didn’t hear it.  I destroyed an unwary player the other day using this trick while explaining it to someone watching, it was very rewarding.  I was able to follow him through a series of doors I’d closed earlier – that he had opened – and run up behind him before he knew where I was

We’re also adding some cool touches with interactive objects. We have a number of objects you can interact with– turn on a radio to cover the sound of your footsteps, start a fire to conceal your movements – or blow a hole in the wall for a new entry point.  We’ve got defib pickups, medical stations, ammo lockers, and more distributed in the map for tactical use.

But none of this matters, you say, if the level design ain’t right!  We know!  We have some incredible players on the team, some who have played competitively, and in addition we’ve been talking to members of the competitive community. We’re taking all this feedback to ensure Rescue offers competitive players a tactical challenge, while at the same time keeping it fun and fast-paced. We’re focused on managing the flow, with a number of controllable routes of entry and access, but ensuring that you’re making interesting choices on where to focus your attention and how you’re balancing your risk versus reward.  We’re helping to ensure that if you want a fast contact time, you can find it, yet we’re keeping in mind that careful, quiet maneuvering is a key aspect to this kind of mode.

We really love playing Rescue here at the studio.  We hope you love it too!  Regardless, we always want to hear your feedback.

Thaddeus Sasser, Lead MP Designer

Twitter: @dirtydeathdog

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