InfiltrationMod

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Infiltration
Developer(s) Sentry Studios
Engine Unreal Engine
Version 2.9
Platform(s) Linux, Mac OS, Windows
Release date 1999 1.0 (pre UT)
2000 2.75 (moved to UT)
2003 2.9 (current ver.)
2006 (Community Edition)
Genre(s) Tactical first-person shooter
Mode(s) Single player, Multi player
Rating(s) ESRB: Not Rated
Media CD-ROM, Digital Download
System requirements Unreal Tournament

Infiltration (INF), a first-person tactical shooter total conversion for Unreal Tournament, was first released in May 1999 by Sentry Studios. The current version, Infiltration 2.9, was released in December of 2003[1] and in 2006 an extensively expanded Community Edition of the game was released with a large amount of player-created content. Infiltration features realistic gameplay in respect to modern warfare, comparable to Operation Flashpoint or Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.

Contents

[edit] Gameplay

[edit] Movement

Infiltration has a number of methods of movement; players can jump, swim, walk, run, or sprint. In addition to the upright position, Infiltration supports crouching and prone positions. These two positions slow movement but reduce the player's profile, making the player a more difficult target. In all three modes, the player can control how fast they move. Movement speed heavily affects weapon accuracy as well as the amount of noise you make.

Infiltration uses a "stamina" system to simulate the effects of exhaustion on the Infiltration soldier. Running and sprinting use up "stamina"; sprinting uses up stamina very quickly. As the player's stamina level drops, their maximum movement rate also drops until reduced to a walk. Remaining still or walking slowly allows the player to recover stamina.

A player's maximum stamina level is limited by their loadout. To balance game play, certain items such as explosives, suppressors, scopes, sniper rifles, and machine guns, are disproportionately heavy.

[edit] Aiming

The most distinguishing feature of Infiltration is its revolutionary aiming system. Guns can either be held at waist level ("hipped") or drawn up to eye level, enabling the player to "aim" using the sights on the gun, whether they be the default iron sights or a scope. Lighter weapons may still be fired from the aiming mode while running/jogging and pistols may be fired from iron sights while sprinting.

Infiltration removes the crosshair in favor of the aforementioned iron sight system. This results in a game where moving at slower, more realistic speeds allows you to aim. Many other games in the tactical FPS genre have, despite removing the crosshair, left the aimpoint in the center of the screen. The Infiltration team developed a "free aim" system to counter this. This system allows the weapon to move somewhat independently of the player's view of the world, allowing the player to move the weapon using only their arms without changing their point of view.

[edit] Armory

Unlike other tactical FPS games such as Counter-Strike, Infiltration does not rely on a credit system to award weapons and armor to players. Instead the game uses a "bulk" system, in which players can assemble equipment loadouts tailored to their role or weapon preferences with an eye only to total weight and encumbrance. To balance gameplay, certain items such as explosives, suppressors, scopes, sniper rifles, and machine guns, are disproportionately bulky.

Infiltration is noted for having numerous attachments for most of the weapons, all of them reflected in the in-game models. The H&K MK 23 for instance is often carried as a competent sidearm; the game features a suppressor and laser aiming module. The M16A2 is a fairly standard assault weapon but attachments such as the M203 grenade launcher and ACOG scope allow a user to branch out and fill other roles.

Some have criticized Infiltration, especially pre-2.9 releases, for not including many popular weapons found in other contemporary tactical shooters. One of the more glaring omissions was the AK-47 assault rifle; a descendant, the AKMSU carbine, is featured, but is a submachine gun rather than an assault rifle. Infiltration 2.9 still only contains one shotgun and was the first full release to include pistol attachments. Infiltration 2.9 was also the first version to provide a machine gun in the form of the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, another long-requested feature.

The first-person view for weapon models from 2.86 and earlier were sometimes criticized for their bland designs and lack of textures; for example, the SG-551's diopter sight was not modeled. The Infiltration team, as well as the Infiltration mod community, took note of this and made an effort to correct these mistakes with new weapons and models.

The Infiltration 2.9 Community Edition comes with many new weapons that address the weapon selection problems, including the M4A1 carbine, AKM assault rifle, and two new shotguns.

[edit] Special Features

Along with numerous other features that are standard in today's tactical first-person shooters, Infiltration includes projectile penetration modeled in a realistic way and features player weapon collision--a player's weapon will catch upon objects, making it impossible to turn until the weapon is freed. This feature is unique to Infiltration and further differentiates between long assault rifles and compact sub-machine guns. The smaller SMGs and machine pistols are easier to handle in close quarters, compensating for their lesser power and shorter effective ranges.

[edit] Game Modes

Infiltration features deathmatch (gaming) modes, both free-for-all and team-oriented, as well as objective-based Assault maps.

Notable is the large number of custom-made levels, which often recreate a city block, World War II base, or feature some sort of medieval or Gothic theme. Considering the engine used many are visually stunning, but do not necessarily lend themselves well to gameplay. The outdoor maps are often too big for the aging Unreal Tournament engine to render at full performance, though with advancing computer hardware this has become significantly less of an issue.

Infiltration 2.9 includes a new game type called Enhanced Assault, or EAS. Improving upon the idea of the Assault game type in the original Unreal Tournament, EAS separates players into teams of attackers and defenders. The attackers are tasked with completing a set of objectives, while the defenders must stop them. This mode ideally would foster tactical, team-oriented gameplay, but its potential has never been fully realized due to few maps that push EAS's capabilities.

The server settings had extensive customizability, allowing multiple respawns, changing respawn lengths, and even specifying teams and bot weapon configurations.

[edit] Level of Detail

[edit] Graphics

The Infiltration team has put a large amount of effort into precise detail, with some features implemented years before their presence in commercial games. Texture-specific sounds, such as footsteps differing on wood and snow, came relatively early in the development process. Bullet holes are modeled to each weapon instead of a generic bullet hole decal as in other first person shooters. Infiltration includes server options to leave spent bullet casings and the weapons of killed players to remain on the map for up to an indefinite time, lending to the appearance of an active battlefield.

In the first person view, the arms of the player are textured with your team's uniform. In third person view, the hands were carefully positioned to hold the third person weapon model correctly, and when the weapon was raised to the aiming position, the eye would line up correctly with each weapon. The aligning of the first-person view and the third person model in particular was unique among contemporary shooters.

If a person has a sidearm, it will be displayed on the player until wielded. The weapons the player carries will generally be displayed on the model--an SMG slung across the chest or a rifle hanging from the back--when not wielded.

[edit] Sound

The Infiltration team stated that the sounds (gunshots, explosions) were supposed to be as realistic as possible, as opposed to Hollywood films which used a sound studio to dramatize them. Many casual players found them muted and underwhelming compared to other contemporary games.

Infiltration is the first use of the Unreal engine to feature distance-specific sounds, allowing a player to determine his or her distance from the origin of a shot. A player will hear differing sounds as the distance from the source of the shot increases; the Unreal engine as of the original Unreal Tournament played a sound at full volume until a player reached a certain distance from the sound's origin.

[edit] Development History

Prior stable releases of Infiltration included 2.85 and 2.86, which were released in 2000 and 2001, respectively.

The current and largest version is Infiltration 2.9, which was made available for download on December 1, 2003. It was initially to be called 2.87 and then later renamed to 2.9 after Sentry Studios decided that there it would be a larger revision than expected. Version 2.9 was expected to come at any day for a period exceeding a year, leading to the catchphrases "soon" and "when it's done" being the knee-jerk and semi tongue-in-cheek responses whenever a question was posed concerning the exact time of release. Version 2.9 did implement several long-waited (and overdue) features and weapons, but it was often considered too late in the mod's lifetime, as the next generation of games, such as those based upon Unreal Tournament 2003 like America's Army, had already come out.

Some time after the release of Infiltration 2.9, Sentry Studios announced that they were beginning the production of the next iteration of Infiltration as a mod on a next-generation. Though many were in support of using Unreal Tournament 2004 as this would facilitate Macintosh and Linux support, the Source engine was settled upon as the engine of choice for the next project, and work began.

On October 2, 2005, a post was made on the Infiltration main page announcing the cancellation of the new version of Infiltration citing a lack of free time as well as "various other factors present from within the team".

[edit] Community Edition

On October 13, 2006, the Infiltration Community Edition was released. The pack contains Infiltration 2.9 and the best of the community-produced maps, weapons, mutators, and uniform patterns.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sentry Studios
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